EMQ » Jul – Aug 2025 » Volume 61 Issue 3
Summary: This article explores how missionaries working in patronage societies, might be informed by 1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1 in taking on the role of a broker as a way of viewing their evangelism. The missionary broker avoids the potential compromises in the roles of patron and client and takes a temporary role as a relationship broker. Using patronage to understand honor, social currency, and brokerage David unpacks Paul’s writing, offering practical insights for missionaries in Chad and similar relational cultures.
By David Kimiti
When I arrived in Chad as a young missionary, I was warned by some colleagues to avoid taking on the role of a patron. The warning was well-placed, for many missionaries it is very easy to fall into this role accidentally. Quickly, I was indeed able to observe missionaries who had fully embraced the role of patron, albeit unconsciously. They poured out material blessings to the local community as part of responding to their physical needs and seeking to show the love of Christ. Thus, they gained great influence and honor within the communities where they worked. In many poorer contexts such as rural Chad, it is relatively easy to acquire this role of patron accidentally. While it is not necessarily bad, it endangers our gospel witness by drawing attention to ourselves rather than God. It allocates disproportionate power and influence to a missionary.
In the following years, I was surprised to also find that several missionaries I came to know had effectively become clients to powerful men. They sang the praises of these men who opened doors for their work, sometimes calling them men of peace. The resources that these missionaries brought from their countries of origin or via the organizations that they worked for were made available to these patrons. Instead of these missionaries wielding the power of a patron, they became clients of these men. They were influenced unknowingly by their local patrons and sought to maintain the honor of these powerful men.
Both roles, as a patron and as a client, came with costs and compromise. There is a third role, a broker, that is common in patronage societies. This may offer a more biblical alternative role for missionaries to share the gospel while participating in a contextually appropriate way. It is important to note that using a non-patronage approach potentially comes with its own biblical compromise. Patronage societies are not inferior to non-patronage societies.
Dale and Davis in their recent EMQ articlei provide a helpful summary of patronage-client relations:
Patronage relationships take place between two people of unequal status: a patron and a client. They both bring something to the relationship, enabling an exchange. The patron offers access to resources such as material goods, protection, influence, or employment that provide economic, political or spiritual benefit. The client responds with public gratitude, loyalty (even when it is costly, if the patron is out of favor), and sometimes service, gifts, and visits. Thus, patronage is mutually beneficial but not symmetrical: patron and client have different roles that they are expected to fulfil.
Dale and Davis go on to introduce the role of a broker who provides a bridging role, a person who provides a valuable time-limited service to two parties that are disconnected for whatever reason. Most Chadians live patronage daily without naming it. They adopt patron, client, or broker roles depending on who they are relating to. Dale and David warn of the dangers of not participating in the patronage system. Missionaries working in a patronage society will be judged morally according to how they adopt or refuse to adopt established roles of patron, client, and broker.
Patronage is a two-way street. Patrons, with power and resources, support clients who repay the patron with loyalty and honor. Clients often gain honor by association with their patrons. Brokers grease the wheels, linking the two for mutual gain. In Chad, this isn’t just economics, it’s social capital. Relationships, trust, and reputation often outweigh cash. A village chief, for example, is honored in his role by the community. He distributes land to newcomers (the role of patron) while negotiating with outsiders for his people (the role of broker). He honors and defers to a more senior sultan or, perhaps, is paid by local government (where he plays the role of client to a greater patron). Honor flows to generous patrons. Shame dogs the stingy or ungrateful. Most of the respected chiefs I met in Chad were incredibly generous with their limited financial resources.
I believe that the Apostle Paul, operating in a patronage society and guided by the Spirit in his writings, embraced all three roles at different appropriate occasions. Here, I focus on his advocacy for Christians to take on the role of a broker in their efforts to bring people to Christ. In 1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1 Paul suggests a biblical approach to evangelism for missionaries and other Christians that is effective in patronage societies. Paul’s words about freedom, conscience, and imitating Christ offer a valuable approach in a society where community trumps individual autonomy.
There are two types of brokers: middlemen who keep parties separate, and catalysts who spark direct ties.ii In faith, catalysts directly introduce people to God, causing them to reap spiritual and social, not just material, rewards. Jesus is the ultimate catalyst, mediating between humanity and the Father (John 14:6; Hebrews 9:15). Paul follows suit, introducing the Corinthians to Christ. He thus brokers the gospel, connecting the Corinthians with Christ and urging them to imitate him (11:1). For Chadians, this mirrors their world. Chiefs, religious leaders, even family elders connect people to power, whether earthly or divine.
Corinthians 10:23–11:1 illustrates three principles of brokerage applied to Christian faith. First, the broker is a temporary intermediary who directs all honor and glory to God. Every choice the broker makes must lift up God’s name, not self or rival patrons. The Chadian context is made up of multiple overlapping spiritual layers. Christians, Muslims, and those of traditional beliefs live side by side, each with patrons (God, ancestors and powerful living men and women) and brokers (pastors, imams, healers). Loyalty is important but it’s also fluid. Clients switch patrons if the benefits dry up. Unlike Corinth’s idol temples, there aren’t many physical shrines, yet spiritual forces loom large. Paul’s warnings about rival gods (1 Corinthians 10:20) still resonate. This could be reframed as giving honor to the ultimate Patron rather than shifting allegiance to pursue different benefits.
Second, relationships outweigh rules. This means, the good of the other drives decisions. Paul writes, “All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful.” (10:23, ESV) He nudges believers toward community good over personal rights. A patronage paraphrase might read: “My Patron frees me to act, but not everything honors Him. Seek your neighbor’s standing, not your own” (v. 23–24). This fits a culture where actions echo through relationships. On market meat, Paul says eat freely: “the earth is the Lord’s” (v. 25–26, citing Psalm 24:1). God is the supreme Patron over all. But if someone notes it’s offered to idols (v. 28), skip it, not for your conscience, but to clarify your loyalty before others. In Chad, where meals signal allegiance to the community and to God (e.g., the Muslim feast at end of Ramadan), a Christian may join such a feast unless doing so communicates they have shifted their allegiance from their patron, Christ.
Third, as brokers, believers link God and people, catalyzing faith without personal gain. Paul wraps up: “Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” (v. 31) “not seeking my own (Paul’s) advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved” (v. 33). Paul’s call to not seek personal gain but seek the glory of God is a fundamental shift from most relationships in Chad. Seeking God’s honor without personal gain is a mindset shift driven by the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer.
Reading this passage from the Chadian context, we note several important applications. Chad’s heartbeat is communal, similar to the Bantu concept of ubuntu: “I am because we are.” Paul’s call to build up others (10:23–24) syncs with this. For Chadians, conscience isn’t just personal guilt, it’s relational radar. The Chadian Arabic Bible translates conscience (συνείδησιν) into terms we could back-translate into English as doubt or concern for others (10:28), shifting focus from self to community. Paul’s ethic, love over liberty, suits a culture where disrupting harmony brings shame.
Picture a Christian at a Muslim neighbor’s funeral in Chad. When a Muslim dies, the entire community gathers to offer their condolences. It is a deeply communal and spiritual event which includes eating food together and performing Qur’anic recitations and Islamic prayer. Chadian Christians can join freely in the parts that are not explicitly worship, recitation, or prayer, in which cases they abstain, not from legalism, but to guard God’s honor and others’ salvation (v. 33). Scholars like Thiselton underline this others-first ethic, contrasting with Western individualism.iii In Chad, private freedom gives way to communal witness. Paul’s dining advice (10:27) fits: to eat with unbelievers unless it ties you to another patron (v. 28). Gratitude (v. 30) echoes patronage’s give-and-take. By thanking God, even at an unbeliever’s table, the true Giver, our ultimate patron, is honored. If missionaries host a meal, blessing it in Jesus’ name, they subtly broker faith in their patron to their guests. In the case of the funeral of the Muslim neighbor, Christians can broker faith by participating in the communal mourning at the same time as not participating in the Qur’anic recitations and Islamic prayers.
Unlike Chad’s brokers chasing social clout through association with powerful patrons, conversely, Paul seeks God’s glory. A missionary in such a context might emulate this, sharing Christ at a village gathering, not for prestige but salvation. It’s self-denial with a purpose; God is praised when others come to faith in him.
Missionaries in Chad who do not come from patronage cultures often miss patronage’s depth. Seeing God as Patron and themselves as brokers can shift their understanding. Paul didn’t smash Corinth’s social system, he redirected it to God. Many Chadians already broker faith naturally, inviting friends and kin to God via trust networks. Missionaries should join, not lead, this flow.
Take a practical case: Training new believers to be brokers, not dependents, avoids turning these new believers into missionaries’ or their donors’ clients. Such a patron-client relationship would skew their loyalty and dilute the gospel witness. It would potentially reduce the ability of the new believer to introduce others to Christ. A missionary who is operating as a broker, will introduce people to Christ while refusing any of the honor and status due to a patron who brings blessings to people. A new believer must honor God first before family, traditions, and even the person who brought them to faith. Thus, they broker faith to those around them.
On a side note, stable villages tend to resist change. In contrast, transitional ones, perhaps disrupted by war or migration, crave brokers. In Chad’s shifting sands, missionaries can thrive as faith catalysts, rather than as patrons of needy people or clients of powerful men. God’s power, not the broker’s, frees people. It also aligns with African hopes for direct divine access. As a good broker, no missionary should establish a permanent role as an intermediary. Their role is temporary until new believers imitate them to, in turn, become brokers between God and others who do not know him. Many places in this world are facing social and cultural transition which creates openness to being introduced to Christ.
This patronage approach to evangelism promotes a humble mindset for missionaries where they take on the role of temporary relationship broker. This directs glory and honor to God, away from the missionary or powerful men. Reading 1 Corinthians 10:23–11:1 with a patronage lens unveils Paul’s push for God’s honor, others’ good, and brokering without seeking personal gain. For missionaries, it helps us to see how we can work within patronage, not against it, as catalysts for God’s kingdom. In a world of unequal relationships, Paul’s call to live for God’s honor and others’ salvation remains a mission heartbeat. Good brokers of the Christian faith introduce people to Jesus, bring honor to God, the ultimate patron, work for others’ good, and seek no gain for themselves.
Recommended Resources
Honor Shame: Resources for Global Ministry https://honorshame.com/
Jayson Georges’ Ministering in Patronage Cultures: Biblical Models and Missionary Implications (IVP Academic, 1029)
David Kimiti (a pseudonym) serves in an international mission organization, previously in Chad doing outreach and now in Francophone Europe in mobilization. He grew up in West Africa and has degrees from the University of Leeds (BA Arabic & French) and London School of Theology (MA in Biblical Interpretation) and a diploma from All Nations Christian College (PGDip in Intercultural Leadership).
[1] Katherine Stovel, Benjamin Golub & Eva Milgrom, “Stabilizing brokerage,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (December 2011): 108, supplement 4, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51954075_Stabilizing_Brokerage.
[1] Anthony Thiselton, First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Paternoster Press, 2000), 788.
EMQ, Volume 61, Issue 3. Copyright © 2025 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
