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PARTNERSHIP IS CENTRAL TO MISSIONS
 Partnership
is key to doing missions, says Dr. M. Cecilia Broadous, a 1987 graduate
of ABSW who is working with the Baptist Convention of South Africa
to empower women in ministry.
One of the challenges of missions today, Broadous notes, is for
Christians to move beyond a “romanticized” notion that
missions is “out there“ and that missionaries are dispatched
far away to “help“ those who cannot do for themselves.
Missions is everywhere, Broadous says, citing Acts 1:8. And the
task of the missionary is to work alongside fellow Christians.
“When we come, we are coming by invitation to partner —
not to impose but to partner,” she says.
Broadous has long had an interest in Africa. Following graduation
from ABSW, she spent two and a half years in the former Zaire (now
the Democratic Republic of Congo) as a volunteer with the Board
of International Ministries of American Baptist Churches USA.
Broadous grew up as a pastor’s kid surrounded by activist
sisters. An interest in politics, specifically the work of Steven
Biko, initially drew Broadous to South Africa.
While minister of world mission support for the American Baptist
Churches of Los Angeles, Broadous traveled to South Africa in 1994
as an observer at the election of former President Nelson Mandela.
Broadous was invited to return to South Africa in 1998 and arrived
the following year to lecture and to guide a women’s empowerment
program.
She is teaching courses in systematic theology and Christian spirituality
at the Baptist Convention College. She is also working with pastors’
wives and other women called to ministry, leading retreats and seminars
that empower women to employ their gifts by demonstrating how God
used women in the Bible, Broadous says.
The women’s program has also led to the development of a crisis
center for women and children who have suffered abuse. The center
is slated to open this spring.
Broadous’ presence in South Africa is the fulfillment of a
long-time wish. “There was a desire to come to South Africa
for many, many years,” she says.
She is there now, doing the work of missions – at the invitation
of a partner.
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