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We Are Not the Hero: A Missionary’s Guide to Sharing Christ, Not a Culture of Dependency
While globalization gives North American Christians unprecedented opportunities to influence the world, we need to take care not to slip into a type of postmodern colonialism in which we make ourselves the experts or the "hero come to save the day". Jesus commanded us to make disciples of all nations, not to spread Western cultural Christianity or solve the world with American dollars.
In We Are Not the Hero, the author invites you on a learning journey—through Cambodia and other parts of the world—to discover ways to contribute to self-sustaining and reproducing church movements that are organic to the culture.
If you are a student, missionary, church planter, missions-oriented church, or Great Commission-minded disciple, you will find this book both inspirational and valuable to your experience.
In We Are Not the Hero, the author invites you on a learning journey—through Cambodia and other parts of the world—to discover ways to contribute to self-sustaining and reproducing church movements that are organic to the culture.
If you are a student, missionary, church planter, missions-oriented church, or Great Commission-minded disciple, you will find this book both inspirational and valuable to your experience.
- GenresChristianity
Audible Audio
First published January 1, 2012
42 people are currently reading
202 people want to read
About the author
Jean Johnson
9 books1 followerJean Johnson served as a missionary with the Assemblies of God for sixteen years in Cambodia. Presently, she is an international teacher, trainer, and coach with World Mission Associates in Lancaster, PA. Jean holds a BA in cross-cultural communications from North Central University, Minneapolis, MN, where she worked as a missionary-in-residence, developing curriculum and teaching classes on church planting, global perspectives, missiology, and language acquisition.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 7, 2020
Jean Johnson paints a picture of lots of failure in North American methods of Christian evangelism, discipleship, and church planting in other cultures.
The book's theme is as the sub-title is "A Missionary's Guide for Sharing Christ, Not a Culture of Dependency. The book is an experienced and bible-based story of many problems and lots of solutions regarding the transporting a Western-culture-based Christianity to other cultures.
She says much to dissuade the reader from adopting a "God loves you and we have a wonderful plan for your life that is North American and may cause an ecclesiastical welfare mindset." Three themes in the book are Biblical multiplication, indigeneity, and sustainability.
Lots of warnings here about missionaries being in the forefront, even in the beginning stages of ministry that devalue and diminish indigenous peoples from learning and implementing Bible based Gospel Christianity in their own culture.
Many of the mistakes have to do with foreign money setting up structures that are unsustainable in the indigenous culture. Things like paying big salaries to workers and building buildings which may or may not be appropriate on the locals' standard of living scale. Such outside 'help' may hurt the ongoing work, decreasing a sense of indigenous ownership. In fact there is much evidence to the point that it decreases locals' initiative and increases the expectation that they themselves cannot do the work of the ministry.
The apostle Paul's example would demonstrate otherwise. Setting up a biblical culture within the framework of the specific cultures is what Paul did. Yet the churches were not dependent in an on-going way.
The work is well noted at the end of the book for further examination. Johnson covers lots of ground in numerous chapters. It gives me more pause to re-consider how I have been guided in my thinking toward cross-cultural missions.
Much of the information is not new but put together the way Johnson has put it together is challenging and encouraging to me.
Because WE are not the hero, then God most certainly has to be the hero. Avoiding non-biblical structures and ways of doing ministry thoughtfully and without creating ecclesiastical dependency displays the glory of God.
The definition of the 'indigenous church' sets the layout early in the book:
"An indigenous church is a community of believers under the lordship of Jesus Christ who culturally reflect the soul of the society around them and who have the desire and ability to sustain and multiply themselves in every facet of life and ministry."
Questions raised in the reading of the book:
- female leadership in training male pastors - is that a biblical model?
- not much said about defining the Gospel and it being the power of salvation. Much of the failures and problems of not respecting cultural differences, church growth, dependency and discipleship could be avoided with a clear understanding of the Gospel and its implications in culture.
The book's theme is as the sub-title is "A Missionary's Guide for Sharing Christ, Not a Culture of Dependency. The book is an experienced and bible-based story of many problems and lots of solutions regarding the transporting a Western-culture-based Christianity to other cultures.
She says much to dissuade the reader from adopting a "God loves you and we have a wonderful plan for your life that is North American and may cause an ecclesiastical welfare mindset." Three themes in the book are Biblical multiplication, indigeneity, and sustainability.
Lots of warnings here about missionaries being in the forefront, even in the beginning stages of ministry that devalue and diminish indigenous peoples from learning and implementing Bible based Gospel Christianity in their own culture.
Many of the mistakes have to do with foreign money setting up structures that are unsustainable in the indigenous culture. Things like paying big salaries to workers and building buildings which may or may not be appropriate on the locals' standard of living scale. Such outside 'help' may hurt the ongoing work, decreasing a sense of indigenous ownership. In fact there is much evidence to the point that it decreases locals' initiative and increases the expectation that they themselves cannot do the work of the ministry.
The apostle Paul's example would demonstrate otherwise. Setting up a biblical culture within the framework of the specific cultures is what Paul did. Yet the churches were not dependent in an on-going way.
The work is well noted at the end of the book for further examination. Johnson covers lots of ground in numerous chapters. It gives me more pause to re-consider how I have been guided in my thinking toward cross-cultural missions.
Much of the information is not new but put together the way Johnson has put it together is challenging and encouraging to me.
Because WE are not the hero, then God most certainly has to be the hero. Avoiding non-biblical structures and ways of doing ministry thoughtfully and without creating ecclesiastical dependency displays the glory of God.
The definition of the 'indigenous church' sets the layout early in the book:
"An indigenous church is a community of believers under the lordship of Jesus Christ who culturally reflect the soul of the society around them and who have the desire and ability to sustain and multiply themselves in every facet of life and ministry."
Questions raised in the reading of the book:
- female leadership in training male pastors - is that a biblical model?
- not much said about defining the Gospel and it being the power of salvation. Much of the failures and problems of not respecting cultural differences, church growth, dependency and discipleship could be avoided with a clear understanding of the Gospel and its implications in culture.
Read
November 2, 2025Many missionaries would see a paradox in the notion that one measure of a missionary’s long-term effectiveness on the field is the moment when the people he has served are able to say, “Thank you so much, but we can handle it from here.” However, in We Are Not the Hero: A Missionary’s Guide for Sharing Christ, Not a Culture of Dependency, the author engages the missionary to value strength in interdependence rather than the instability of dependency upon foreign missionaries. The book stresses the missionary’s need to plan for “multiplication, indigeneity, and sustainability.” (p.13)
Johnson shares numerous lessons that she learned from her time as a missionary in Cambodia as she continuously revisits her forementioned three-fold focus. The first section of her book argues her position (“call”). For example, she fleshes out the meaning of the term “indigenous,” and explains that it is her desire “to ensure that my feet are indeed beautiful by not trampling over other people’s cultures with a mindset that America has arrived on the scene.” (p.34)
The second section showcases examples that enhance her argument (“reflection”), and the final portion of the book provides methodology (“action”). Rather than attempting to convince the reader that she has always mastered these areas of “multiplication, indigeneity, and sustainability,” Jean shares many lessons learned from personal mistakes (something to which any career missionary can immediately relate).
Although at times I differed from the author in areas of contextualization, the book retains its value in orienting the reader away from the idea that the missionary’s culture (or finances) is the remedy to the world’s problems. Christ is the answer, and Scripture provides for all people groups and cultures the principial blueprint for the expansion and maturity of the body of Christ.
Johnson shares numerous lessons that she learned from her time as a missionary in Cambodia as she continuously revisits her forementioned three-fold focus. The first section of her book argues her position (“call”). For example, she fleshes out the meaning of the term “indigenous,” and explains that it is her desire “to ensure that my feet are indeed beautiful by not trampling over other people’s cultures with a mindset that America has arrived on the scene.” (p.34)
The second section showcases examples that enhance her argument (“reflection”), and the final portion of the book provides methodology (“action”). Rather than attempting to convince the reader that she has always mastered these areas of “multiplication, indigeneity, and sustainability,” Jean shares many lessons learned from personal mistakes (something to which any career missionary can immediately relate).
Although at times I differed from the author in areas of contextualization, the book retains its value in orienting the reader away from the idea that the missionary’s culture (or finances) is the remedy to the world’s problems. Christ is the answer, and Scripture provides for all people groups and cultures the principial blueprint for the expansion and maturity of the body of Christ.
May 18, 2018
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." --Santaya
Growing up in and around the western missions movement I am comfortable and familiar with words like contextual missions, insider movements, indigenous leadership development, colonialism, paternalism, patriarchy to name a few. These realities, positive and negative, are ones that the church (especially the western church historically) have had to grapple with in the biblical desire to fulfill Jesus' command to make disciples of every people group. As fallible humans, it seems that these are lessons that need to be remembered and updated to each new setting.
Jean Johnson's book, We are not the Hero, did that for me and is an excellent resource for people considering sharing Jesus cross-culturally in a way that is effective and puts the people and God at the center, not the so-called missionary. While the ethic of her book was not new to me, as again there are not new ideas, her application of them to her context and to ours was informative and instructive.
To nit pick, the book was a little long and she loops around back to concepts again and again, which is helpful but also makes the book longer. The book ends with application chapters, so there is no real conclusion, but that is very minor
I highly recommend this book.
Growing up in and around the western missions movement I am comfortable and familiar with words like contextual missions, insider movements, indigenous leadership development, colonialism, paternalism, patriarchy to name a few. These realities, positive and negative, are ones that the church (especially the western church historically) have had to grapple with in the biblical desire to fulfill Jesus' command to make disciples of every people group. As fallible humans, it seems that these are lessons that need to be remembered and updated to each new setting.
Jean Johnson's book, We are not the Hero, did that for me and is an excellent resource for people considering sharing Jesus cross-culturally in a way that is effective and puts the people and God at the center, not the so-called missionary. While the ethic of her book was not new to me, as again there are not new ideas, her application of them to her context and to ours was informative and instructive.
To nit pick, the book was a little long and she loops around back to concepts again and again, which is helpful but also makes the book longer. The book ends with application chapters, so there is no real conclusion, but that is very minor
I highly recommend this book.
April 20, 2023
If given an option between this and other modern missiology books I would not read this one again. I did not find it to be anymore cutting edge than other missions book and I did find it unnecessarily long.
If you haven't read other missiology books, this one is a good place to start. It breaks down a lot of unhealthy patterns and missions and gives you a starting point at how to do better.
If you haven't read other missiology books, this one is a good place to start. It breaks down a lot of unhealthy patterns and missions and gives you a starting point at how to do better.
May 2, 2024
This book is sooo good and so hard to read. She has story after story of how good intentions from missionaries & foreign churches ended up hurting the local indigenous church in the long run. But if you are willing to keep reading and open to learning, she gives many great practical methods for seeing lasting impacts and genuine relationships with God.
May 12, 2025
3.5 stars
helpful book but I'm not sure I agree with her on everything
helpful book but I'm not sure I agree with her on everything
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December 21, 2015Very good read about starting indigenous churches. Pretty straight forward and might even be considered a bit tough by some, but lots of really good insights with a hoped outcome of strong churches started, strengthened, and reproducing, in different cultural contexts by the indigenous people.
March 10, 2015
Amazing book of practical advice and guidance for getting out of the way of Gods work in missions
December 23, 2015
I know a lot of people that would hate it... but it is sooo true what she writes!
February 28, 2023
A very powerful read.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews