Long Road to Obsolescence - A North American Mission to Brazil
by Frank L. Arnold

A Book Review by Tim Carriker

Long Road to Obsolescence. A North American Mission to Brazil, by
Frank L. Arnold.  Xlibris.com: 2009. A Book Review by Tim Carriker*

[Frank Arnold and his wife Hope served as missionaries of the Presbyterian Church in Brazil for 33 years, mainly in the Northeast and Amazon region of the country.  Frank was the last General Secretary of the Presbyterian Mission in Brazil.]

Long Road to Obsolescence is history at its best. First, because the author orders the entire review around a specific question:  How did the various North American Presbyterian mission organizations work towards obsolescence from their very inception?

Second, he combines two approaches in observation and writing without confusing the two:  that of a personal (insider’s) perspective and the perspectives of others (outsiders’). As a long term Presbyterian missionary in Brazil and field executive during the final years of structural closure, the author writes as an insider and makes key contributions from his personal recollections and participation in the final negotiations of the dismantling of the mission structures. At the same time he is careful to document his findings in (other) primary sources (organizational minutes, church and secular publications, personal correspondence and diaries) and occasional reference to secondary sources (other historical reviews).  Third, a specific time frame is delimited by the question asked, 126 years beginning on August 11, 1859 and ending on December 31, 1985.

Finally and above all, through a case study approach, the author advances one of the most important missiological questions for cross-cultural ministry:  How does one define, practically and organizationally, full maturity (the point and purpose of independence) in the establishment of a cross-cultural ministry?  Because of this specific goal, the book is not an anthology of the work of American Presbyterian missionaries in Brazil.  Many aspects of their work are left out. The focus remains a larger and more enduring challenge.

Long Road to Obsolescence also demystifies a number of caricatures of the foreign Presbyterian mission enterprises in Brazil, common misconceptions often held by both Brazilians and North Americans. For instance, while some Southern expatriates maintained slaves when they immigrated to Brazil (p. 36) shortly after the Civil War, the first converts by Southern Presbyterian missionaries were a black couple (p. 38). Secondly, it is commonly known that one of the key motivations of the schism of 1903 that led to the emergence of the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil was the disagreement and tension between some national and some foreign members of the local presbyteries.

On sticky issues like this it is obviously important to be as transparent and even handed as possible, and I think on this and similar issues the author is to be commended. In the process, however, some interesting historical data can be easily overlooked, such as the request by the Northern Presbyterian mission board to exclude their missionaries from
membership in Brazilian presbyteries as early as 1882 (Southern Presbyterian missionaries did not participate in Brazilian presbyteries from the beginning).

At the end of his quest, the author concludes with a few difficult but necessary questions concerning the process of obsolescence. Could the dissolution of the mission structures have ended earlier? Did the process adopt the best approach: the establishment of parallel and separate organizations rather than the gradual integration of those organizations?  What difference could an earlier dissolution have made in the development of the national church? For each of these questions, the author offers insightful, but modest answers. I think he is essentially right that simple inertia favors the continuation of institutions that are viewed positively by their members.  The sociology of institutions deals with this phenomenon extensively and more technically, but the final evaluation is essentially the same. The theories that the sociology of institutions developed emerged in the early to mid 1960s, and began to have their influence a decade later. These theories hardly could have aided significantly in the self-evaluation by North American missionaries. But they can and should be accounted for today when looking ahead.

Although my own wish list goes beyond the scope of the author’s stated goals, I think it would be helpful to ask a few more questions concerning life beyond obsolescence. Naturally one could simply state that there is no life beyond obsolescence, which is exactly the point of obsolescence. And in terms of foreign mission structures on a national level that is the case. However, both entities have in fact continued to relate to one another in a number of ways beyond the dismantling of the mission structures and I think it would be helpful to point this out and begin to reflect about possible consequences.

For instance, over the last few decades North America Presbyterians and Brazilian Presbyterians have continued to relate structurally to each other, albeit in different manners, to further Christian witness in both geographical locations and beyond. In case of North American Presbyterians those structural relationships have occasionally and usually been on an informal  local church basis undertaking specific, local and short term projects.
Increasingly these new structural relationships have become (North  American) presbytery to (Brazilian) presbytery, and sometimes synod to synod relationships. In the case of Brazilian Presbyterians seeking to further the Christian witness in North America, the structural relationships have remained predominantly, though not exclusively, on the national level. Both the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil and the Presbyterian Church of Brazil are planting churches in the United States in partnership with various North American Presbyterian denominations.

My point is that it just doesn’t make sense anymore to presuppose that the partnership model of mission refers exclusively to relationships between two General Assembly offices, even though that was the assumption from the early 1960s when the World Council of Churches and subsequently, various denominations began to think along those lines. But then that is another story beyond the specific goals of the author, although it is turning out to be at least the immediate consequence of that story.

* Tim Carriker is a PC (USA) mission co-worker seconded to the Independent Presbyterian Church of Brazil, since 2007 on assignment to the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Fortaleza in the Northeast of Brazil.  Tim also works as a missiological consultant doing research and producing materials on mission.  See letters by Tim and Marta Carriker at  www.pcusa.org/mission connections

This book is available at Amazon.com