With new developments in globalization and the shift of Christianity's center of gravity to the global South, it should not surprise us that new forms of cross-cultural interaction among Christians will arise. Janel Kragt Bakker gives us a fascinating picture of just such a new development in Sister Churches: American Congregations and Their Partners Abroad. Rejecting an isolationist stance while wishing to avoid structures of paternalism or domination, some North American congregations in recent years have begun to form long-term sister church relationships with congregations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Self-consciously attempting to forge a new model of mission that avoids the perceived problems created by older models, sister churches emphasize relationships, mutuality and partnerships.

Bringing to light a movement that has received little scholarly attention to date, Bakker's study uses sociological methodology to uncover the dynamics of a movement that is largely uncharted. She presents an ethnographic study of twelve congregations in the Washington D.C. area who have formed partnerships with congregations outside of the global North. These American churches represent a sample of three each from Roman Catholic, evangelical Anglican, mainline protestant and black Baptist traditions. In her qualitative analysis, Bakker unpacks the American side of the sister church relationships, though she notes several times that a full understanding of this movement would also need to find a way to study the African, Asian and Latino side of the partnership.

Even though the dynamics of globalization make sister church relationships possible, recent trends infuse these partnerships with characteristics particular to American religion in the twenty-first century. Bakker shows that one of the most significant involves the dynamics of post-denominationalism. Sister church partnerships most often grow out of grass-roots initiatives on the local levels, often through individual cross-cultural contacts that formed as a result of migration or international travel. Often bypassing denominational programs, sister churches make the congregation the fundamental unit of mission. Most of the advocates see great benefits in this arrangement. Exhibiting recent American cultural dissatisfaction with large institutions, sister church participants see practical spirituality and the involvement of ordinary people (rather than specially called missionaries or trained development personnel) as critical. Indeed, Bakker highlights a number of positive outcomes from this arrangement of getting ordinary members of the congregation involved: participants report their faith was strengthened and exhibit a deeper understanding of global Christianity and cross-cultural issues. Interestingly, the liberal/conservative divide found among many American churches seem to wither away in these cross-cultural relationships, as theological or ideological differences matter prove to be less of a barrier to sister church partnerships.

Despite their self-avowed efforts to avoid problems of paternalism and dependency posed by older models of mission, sister church partnerships still face complicated issues, as Bakker illustrates. Ironically, even thought they often see virtue in their attempts to emphasize interpersonal relationships and bypass denominational structures, sister churches usually find they need these networks and structures to carry out their tasks. Initiatives built upon interpersonal relationships can also mean that personality conflicts or the departure of key individuals can weaken the viability of the programs. In their attempts to avoid the problems that they see in older models, sister churches can define themselves by what they are against rather than the constructive purposes they are working toward, thereby risking long-term viability. And despite the laudable efforts to avoid paternalism, the reality still stands that there is usually a vast disparity in resources and power between American congregations and their sister churches in Africa, Latin America and Asia. This is a thorny problem and it is not yet clear whether northern congregations and southern congregations view those disparities in similar ways. Good intentions to form equal partnerships cannot so easily erase such structural disparities.

The last point should provoke some self-reflection for those of us interested in the scholarship of Christianity. The knotty problems posed by disparities in power and wealth not only shape congregational partnerships, but subtly and powerfully affect our academic work on Christianity as well. For instance, it is not surprising that the North American side of the sister church movement is the first to receive scholarly attention. As a result, we do not know quite what the congregations on the global South side of this movement think. Do they think the partnerships are important, do they have other goals in mind, do they see the relationship in the same way as Americans, and do they see issues in the sister church partnership that American congregations do not see? We do not know. This is not intended as a criticism of Bakker's work as much as it is to note a structural disparity in the global structure of academic work. Those of us scholars who are North American or European enjoy the lion's share of academic resources, thereby giving us opportunities to pursue questions that we see as important. Bakker is quite aware that her study is limited by her study of the American side of the arrangement. She indicates that further research is needed on the global South side. Let us hope that she, or scholars from the global South, are able to forge ahead with that sort of investigation.

Most importantly, though, Bakker has given us a book that opens our eyes to intriguing new developments in global Christianity. Her work is an excellent and well-grounded exploration into a movement that deserves closer attention. It is quite possible that, as Bakker notes, sister churches offer great potential for new platforms of mission in the twenty-first century, platforms that will effectively deal with difficult problems of paternalism and injustice that have beset other efforts. But we will not really know if this is true without hearing more from the global South.