The Hummingbird Trust: Cross-cultural cross-pollination
(Registered charity. no. 1210491)
The Hummingbird Trust seeks to equip Christians in cross-cultural Christian ministry, with an emphasis on decolonising mission, contextual Christian expression, and fostering genuine, humble, relational cross-cultural cross-pollination within the Church.
Our Key Ministries
The Unreached Network facilitates the good practice conversation in cross-cultural mission across the global Newfrontiers family of churches.
The Unreached Network offers training, consultancy and resources, and facilitates spaces for the exchange of ideas, networking, connection and prayer.
Andy McCullough is a popular speaker and author in the areas of contextual theology, world Christianity and mission.
Our Values
Humility
“Have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind.” I Peter 3:8
We seek to walk in humility. Servant-heartedness in life, meekness in relationships, and cross-cultural humility are the hallmarks of Christ’s people. We oppose Eurocentric, paternalistic and colonial attitudes, and to this end seek to contribute to the decolonising of mission.
The Margins
“They asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” Galatians 2:10
“As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40
We believe that God has a particular concern for those in the margins of the world. We are committed to expressions of liberation, justice, mercy. We will give the best to those who have the least.
Local Expression
“Appointed elders for them in every church” Acts 14:23
Authority is centred in the local church and embodied in local people who carry God-given stewardship/responsibility for the indigenous work, consummate with recognised gifting expressed in team.
This means that we have a respect towards culture, contextual expressions of church and theology, and high regard for local heritage and history. External input functions on the basis of invitation, relationship and mutual honouring (2 Cor 1:24).
Local Language
“How is it that we hear, each in his own local dialect?” Acts 2:8
We place a high value on language. This is demonstrated not just at local church level but in any gathering and team. Effort will be made to invest in translation, to celebrate multilingualism, to be inclusive in all contexts. Language is important for accessibility. We are determined not to be dominated by one language or culture.
Polycentric
“In Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.” Acts 11:26
The Christian movement has always had multiple centres. We want to be more pomegranate than peach. A peach has one hard stone in the centre, whilst a pomegranate has multiple seeds scattered throughout, each carrying the same DNA and with the potential for multiplication.
Multiple centres demand trust, communication, and mutual respect. Decision-making should never be too distant from those effected by the decisions taken.
Family
“You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the family of God.” Ephesians 2:19
We place a very high value on genuine relationships, developed over time, and thus on investing time and resources into hospitality, friendships, families. We are determined to demonstrate “one new man in Christ” in genuine cross-cultural love, forgiveness and the ministry of reconciliation.
We understand that family is especially important for those who have lost their families when coming to faith, that different cultures place different expectations upon family and that as far as possible we will seek to express the family of Christ to one another in meaningfully deep ways, including transparency, generosity, vulnerability and honesty.
Synergy
“because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” Philippians 1:5
As far as possible, we serve in teams (people from diverse backgrounds with diverse gifts), with shared accountability, genuine relationship, including men and women.
Accountability is essential, so that “we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways… we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (II Corinthians 4:3).
Partnership/ cooperation demand generosity of spirit and open-handedness. We are persuaded that we can do more together than apart.