By Hans Ngala
Before I start this article, let me just issue a few disclaimers. First, this article is not by any means a depiction of the overall reality in Africa. Our continent is too vast to make sweeping generalizations about it, nor is it a monolith. Rather, it will be based on Cameroonian realities and again, even in Cameroon, the realities are not uniform as there are two sub-cultures in Cameroon due to the legacy of colonial divides. Hence, my examples will be drawn largely from the Anglophone parts of Cameroon with occasional references to our Nigerian neighbors. That said, let’s get into issue at hand: contemporary Western missionary work in West Africa.
Growing up in the small town of Kumbo in northwestern Cameroon in the late 1990s and early 2000s, “missionary” was a term I subconsciously used, almost like a synonym for “white person”. Of course, in Kumbo, all the missionaries we knew were white and served with Helimission, flying in critically ill or injured patients to Banso Baptist Hospital or they served as doctors at Banso Baptist Hospital itself.
We assumed that these missionaries were “rich” because they lived in the fanciest parts of town, usually next to the hospital where they served. While by Western standards, Western missionaries are not necessarily “rich”, they still live relatively better off than the African communities in which they minister. Very often they live in a mission compound with a garden, stable internet, service vans or cars, clean drinking water and toilets, stand-by generator and security guards – facilities which most of the locals cannot afford. Sometimes, some of these Western missionaries visit the communities where they serve just for a few weeks at a time, paying thousands of dollars in airfare, hotel costs (at the city of entry) before driving or flying (at the cost of several hundred dollars more) to the villages or small towns where they will be based for a few months or weeks.
Don’t get me wrong, I am not condemning the gestures of these people, most of whom genuinely want to serve and help the people. Most of these Western brethren genuinely have a good heart and are doing what they think is best, but a closer examination of some facts around these trips may help us on both sides (Westerners and Africans), to reassess the effectiveness of these trips.
Not to politicize anything but just in January this year after his second presidency, U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he was cutting off all aid around the world – including critical life-saving medication for HIV/AIDS and malaria – and his decision was widely applauded by many Christians in the U.S. Most of them support missions work in Africa in some way or have themselves served on short-term missions trips. While I am all for Africa’s independence and self-sustenance, I believe that throwing out the baby with the bathwater was not the prudent approach. Trump’s argument for shutting down USAID was that there was fraud and inefficiency in the George Bush-created organization. I believe the U.S. government has the resources and capability to weed out fraud and inefficiencies while maintaining crucial aspects of life-saving aid. Nevertheless, using a sledgehammer to kill a housefly will only be catastrophic especially for the most vulnerable and poorest people.
That brings us back to the question of short-term missions trips. If large organizations that are trained to work in emergency situations of natural disaster, famine or conflict (most of which affect different part of Africa at varying levels) have had their funding cut off, how efficient are teams of a few dozen short-term missionaries going to be in local communities?
I believe that missions work can only be most effective when it is being done by either local Christians or Western missionaries who come to serve on a long-term basis, embedding themselves in the lives of local communities instead of living insulated Western lives in these communities. A missionary doctor who comes and serves for four to five years at a local hospital (under the Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) program, is more effective than a doctor who spends a similar amount of money only to come and write prescriptions for six weeks and goes back to his country.
The PAACS program is being run by several CBC hospitals in Cameroon and across other Christian hospitals in East, Central and Southern Africa to empower local surgeons to better serve their communities from a Christian perspective and many Western missionary partners are already supporting this program.
There are several missions agencies in Africa, doing very noble work like in the aviation sector, helping to fly local pastors to conferences or doctors for medical out-station clinics in remote or hard-to-reach locations. Helimission used to be one of those in Cameroon. Now there are other mission-run aviation organizations with missionary pilots doing very amazing work but most of the pilots only come to serve for a few weeks. Again, this leads to questions of sustainability. Many lives have been saved thanks to the availability of a mission helicopter or airplane being available to reach patients or injured people within minutes but when the pilots are Western missionaries who only serve for a few weeks or months and then leave, what becomes of the needs of locals in their absence?
Once again, this raises the crucial question of sustainability. Is it not more effective for African Christian organizations to train African pilots to fill this gap and serve among their own people? Most African countries are already majority-Christian nations – with Operation World, the Christian organization that compiles data on Christianity worldwide – putting the percentage of Christians in most African countries at 70 or 80 percent. This means that African countries and churches do not need more Bibles from foreign missionaries. They need empowerment. The Cameroon Baptist Convention (CBC) is one national church that has been quite effective in its missionary outreach nationally and even sending its own missionaries to near-by countries like Gabon and Nigeria. The stewardship of the CBC is impressive as can be seen by the volume of churches being planted across the country. The CBC is divided into mission fields or simply Fields. The Adamawa, Far North and North – shortened to ADNOFAN Field of the CBC is the predominantly Muslim-dominated Sahel north of the country. The Cameroon Baptist Convention in the last two decades has expanded tremendously in this part of the country, planting churches, schools and hospitals which meet the needs of the local population. This has been more effective than if they had adopted a Western approach of simply coming with Bibles to these Muslim peoples. A typical Western approach would have been to tell the Muslims that they were going to hell for not believing in Christ, condemned Islam and would have more likely been met with hostility that would make them unwilling to even listen to the Gospel altogether! But through local Cameroonian missionaries who understand their Muslim countrymen better, live side by side with them, there is a bond and a level-headedness that a Western missionary who has never interacted with a Muslim before, may not have.
Again, the Cameroon Baptist Convention even in the midst of the ongoing conflict in the Anglophone part of Cameroon (where most of its churches are based), has been expanding infrastructurally as well. The number of church buildings across cities like Bamenda and Buea is quite impressive. Local congregations are not waiting for aid from American or European partners but are using their financial resources wisely to build these structures. The headquarters of the Cameroon Baptist Convention has seen the construction of new administrative offices, a hospital block with state-of-the-art equipment funded by local churches and institutions to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Other CBC churches are adopting sustainable approaches to church financing by investing in real estate that can be rented out to local businesses and then the churches use the proceeds from these rents – in addition to church offerings and tithes – to finance even more projects. These initiatives go to prove that allowing local churches to be at the fore of initiatives is the best method to building financially- viable African churches. The churches understand the needs of their local communities better than Western missionaries who often (perhaps inadvertently) assume that they know what is best for local churches.
It is clear from the Cameroonian model that African churches are not poor. They have the resources and with the right leadership, some of these churches like the Cameroon Baptist Convention, are transforming their local communities and lifting millions out of poverty by creating jobs, paying for pastors’ salaries, eradicating diseases and thereby curbing the number of their Christians and citizens embarking on risky journeys to Western countries.
The concept that African churches are poor and can only survive on Western aid is therefore, not true. This is proven by the rise of megachurches in Africa which started to become a phenomenon especially in Nigeria from the late 1980s to the present. We see independent, nondenominational churches with thousands or millions of congregants which are able to build universities and buy private jets for their owners. While most of these megachurches are run like private businesses with the wealth hardly trickling down to the congregants who give the money in the first place, what it shows is that African Christians can and are giving. The issue now is how the leadership of various churches use the money their Christians give to them. Western missionaries can simply come in to partner with these churches, listen to the needs of their leaders and follow as these churches lead – wisely. A church’s record should speak for itself. It is pointless for local African Christians and Western missionary partners to keep giving to any church if the leaders simply enrich themselves. However, churches which are doing biblical discipleship, planting more churches and meeting the physical needs of local communities should be strengthened and supported.
The Apostle Paul reminds us in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that “each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” True giving—whether financial, in time, or in service—should be thoughtful, intentional, and rooted in love. In the same way, missions work should not merely be about showing up for a few weeks, taking photos, and leaving. It must be prayerfully considered, sacrificial, and aimed at long-term fruit, especially by building local capacities – something that often takes years and requires commitment.
Short-term trips can inspire, encourage, and even meet immediate needs. But if we truly believe the words of Galatians 6:9: “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up”, then perseverance, consistency, and relationship-building should define our approach to missions. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:19–20 calls us to “make disciples of all nations… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” This is a long-term commitment, not a seasonal excursion.
Western missionaries have a vital role to play in Africa, but perhaps the most impactful path is not to replace local initiatives, but to strengthen them. By investing in leadership training, sustainable projects, and mutual discipleship, Western partners can leave a legacy that outlasts their physical presence. This may mean fewer plane tickets, fewer camping trips and more direct support for the efforts of local churches and Christian institutions already serving on the ground.
Missions should move away from dependency-creating models toward partnership that honors the gifts God has placed in His global church. When African and Western believers serve side by side—each contributing resources, wisdom, and cultural insight—the body of Christ grows stronger. In this way, missions become not just an event, but a shared life of service that glorifies Christ and transforms communities for generations to come.
