METODOLOGÍA APLICADA PARA OBTENCIÓN DE DATOS

All organizations underline, in a more or less clear way, that diakonia has an independent value that goes beyond evangelizing and that these services shall be provided without influencing the values or faiths of others.

In their basic document on mission, NMS emphasizes that “even though diaconal actions contain a dimension of God’s kingdom (…) we perform good deeds because they are important and because it is right to do so. All diaconal work, all aid projects and all tasks related to development are important in their own right” (NMS 2004:16). In their

strategic plan it is underlined that diakonia and aid are to be given “regardless of race and religious beliefs” (NMS 2012:2 – my translation). In 1996 NMS developed their own document on diakonia (NMS 1996) where they present their understanding of the concept and how it is, in their eyes, an integrated part of mission. The paper appears somewhat out-dated, not only because of the layout, but because it is the LWF’s13 document on diakonia that is referred to in NMS’ development strategy. This document clearly underlines that diakonia “cannot be an instrument which serves the needs of the one helping, not can it become an instrument for evangelizing people” (LWF 2009:84). NMA states that their “diakonial work is a part of the holistic evangelizing mission, not a supplement to promulgation” or a ‘planned bridgehead’ for the Gospel (NMA:2007:7 – my translation).“Diakonia has an intrinsic value. It is right, good, and biblical to love your neighbour, do good, fight for justice, regardless of people come to faith or not” (ibid). At the same time NMA stress that they “wish” and “pray” that people will get to know Jesus and the Christian faith through their work (ibid.). “This is however not a conditionality for the value of the diakonial work” (ibid.).

                                                                                                                13  _{Lutheran  World  Federation}  

Similar to the Norwegian Church’s definition, NCA defines diakonia as ”Christian faith turned into action, and is expressed through neighbourly love, including communities, protecting the creation, and the struggle for justice” (NCA 2011:7). It is made clear that “help is given without conditions and without intentions to influence people’s religious affiliation” (ibid).

The same definition is applied by Y Global (Y Global 2011:3), but the meaning of the concept is not elaborated upon in the way NMS, NMA and to some extent NCA do. The focus on inter-religious cooperation (Y Global 2011:6,7,8) and the fact that evangelizing is not stated as a part of their mission would imply Y Global does not attempt to

influence the religious affiliation of others through their diakonial work, although it is not specifically mentioned.

In the same way as Y Global, NLM does not offer a broad understanding of diakonia. NLM views the diakonial work as “an integrated part of the mission mandate” (NLM 2009:3 – my translation). “Diakonial work is neighbourly love in praxis” (NLM 2009:10 – my translation) described as; “ the Christian congregations care for fellow human beings, both within and outside the congregation” (NLM 2006:1 – my translation). The phrase “outside the congregation” would seemingly point to people of other faiths. It is also underlined in the mission strategy that development work (seen as diakonia) is “directed towards all people, regardless of faith and ethnicity” (NLM 2009:10 – my translation). Although it is mentioned in the development strategy that development cooperation is a part of NLM’s diakonial work (NLM 2007), the mission strategy separates the concepts by characterising it as “diakonia and development aid” (NLM 2009:10), as if they were two different working areas. This makes NLM’s understanding of the concept somewhat unclear.

There are marked differences between the organizations in how they present themselves as faith-based actors. Findings suggest that this is a result of the different contexts that the organizations place their development work within. Three of the organizations; NMS, NMA and NLM present themselves as mission organizations. Diakonia is the term the

mission organizations mostly use when describing their development efforts. All the mission organizations seem to understand diakonia as a part of the larger concept of

mission. Still, there are marked differences between these three, especially when it comes

to the concept of diakonia and the degree of emphasis on evangelization.

NMA is the organization that seems to have the strongest focus on diakonia, defining themselves as a diakonial mission organization and giving a central role to the concept of diakonia in their basic documents. Both NMA and NMS have developed their own concept papers on diakonia although the NMS document is somewhat out-dated.

Findings suggest that NLM does not have the same focus on diakonia as NMA and NMS. The concept is mentioned, but not discussed. Even though it is stated that development aid is seen as a part of NLM’s diakonial work, the concept of diakonia is not mentioned in the development strategy. The focus on evangelization is strong.

Although the mission organizations, to different degrees, have a focus on evangelization this does not imply that evangelization is the focus of their development projects. Still, I believe the degree of focus the organizations give to evangelization compared to the focus on diakonia can help us better understand the identity of the different FBO’s and the context in which they place their development efforts.

When it comes to NCA and Y Global, both organizations present themselves as diakonial organizations, but the concept is not further discussed and does not seem to be used actively within the organizations. Still, in their basic documents NCA is more outspoken about their faith-base than Y Global. It seems that NCA wants to communicate both their faith-base and at the same time emphasise their role as a professional development actor. This leads to the impression that the faith-base serves as a foundation and a motivation for the development work, more than something that influences the work in a substantial way. This latter point is also valid for Y Global. These organizations are owned by organizations and institutions that are, by character, evangelizing. This might help us understand the lack of attention given to diakonia. I will elaborate on this in chapter 7.