The modern missions movement has seen profound shifts in theology, philosophy, and strategy, most notably described in seminal works such as Bosch’s Transforming Mission and Wright’s The Mission of God. An additional shift in missions literature has occurred in a departure from patriarchal paradigms in missions toward an accentuation of cultural humility and mutuality in missions. Mutuality in missions emphasizes the importance of interdependent and relational partnerships between global evangelical entities, particularly in the way American evangelical leaders partner with evangelical leaders representing the global south. Recent works like Freeing Congregational Mission and Ethiopian born Mekdes Haddis’ A Just Mission have engendered both acclaim and critique in their attempts to argue for mutuality in missions.
In this paper, I will explore the missiological literature that has emphasized the language of mutuality and partnership in evangelical missions over the past 100 years with the goal of identifying when the language began to change and what factors contributed to the change. In order to accomplish this goal, I will first analyze the relevant literature in order to demonstrate the adaptation of “partnership” language. I will place special focus on the current conversations surrounding mutuality in evangelical missions. Second, I will propose several catalysts that contributed to the changes that occurred through history. Finally, in light of the current situation and the sometimes incomplete task of arriving at “mutuality in missions,” I will propose a framework for moving forward, with an emphasis on how Short-Term Missions can be leveraged to foster more equitable partnerships in Global Evangelicalism. While much has been written about these partnerships, this research hopes to contribute to the ongoing scholarly dialogue by tracing the evolution of partnership language in missiological literature.