the new face of global christianity

The métissage post seems to have generated quite a bit of interest (over 500 hits the first day!), although I’m not entirely sure I understand why. My guess is the photographs of our colorful church drew you here more than anything I wrote. The church, where there is "neither jew nor greek, slave nor free, male nor female," is beautiful. Métissage: it is in blending colors that we make art.

My sensitivity to migration networks, to the importance of the younger churches of the South, and to racial/cultural blending in Western urban contexts was intuitionally formed through our work here in the eastern suburbs of Paris. I am coming at the question from a local perspective but am increasingly convinced of the global significance of my observations. It would seem the majority of you would agree. This encourages me.

I do think the emerging "post-modern" church and the emerging non-western missionary movement have something to learn from each other. I believe we are drawn to the word "emerging” because we are all trying to wrap our minds around fundamental changes and their impact on basic assumptions. We just don't see clearly yet. A learning posture, humility and the ability to listen to others who are very different from ourselves are the qualities we need in order to move forward.

The adolescent tone of the "emergent" conversation does tend to irritate me. Maybe I’m just showing my age, but I do hope we can stop pouting about how hard it is to carry on our little revolution. Stop whining, white-boy, and go learn another language (html doesn't count!) and another culture. Hear my tone of voice, dude, I really am asking nicely. ;-) Btw, it was a self-directed provocation, the thing about taking off the Oakleys. I need to put mine back on in order to read, which I’d like to do with you now.

Let me point you to an article I found in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (Vol. 27, No. 4 Oct 2003), a great piece written by Jehu Hanciles, prof. of mission history and globalization at Fuller Seminary. Here's an excerpt to wet your appetite:

Migration: Instrument of Christian Expansion

Christianity is a migratory religion, and migration movements have been a functional element in its expansion. The six ages or phases of Christian history identified by Walls were shaped to one extent or another by migratory movements. From the outset, the spread of the Gospel was linked to migrant networks; most significantly, the inception of the Gentile mission is marked by the actions of unnamed migrant refugees in Antioch (Acts 11:19-20). In the centuries that immediately followed, the Christian faith spread mainly through kingship and commercial networks, migrant movements (some stimulated by persecution), and other informal means.

The thousand years from A.D. 500 to 1500, which saw the entrenchment of Christianity as the faith of western Europe, were marked, writes Kenneth Scott Latourette, “by vast movements of peoples,” notably in the Eurasian landmass. The end of that period witnessed the beginning of the momentous expansion of Europeans from the heartlands of Christianity to other parts of the world. From 1815 to 1914, the great century of Western missionary enterprise, up to 60 million Europeans left for the Americas, Oceania, and East and South Africa. It is hardly and accident of history that the greatest Christian missionary expansion of all time coincided with possibly the most remarkable of all migrations in human history, culminating in an epochal transformation of global Christianity.

Missionary initiatives from the old heartlands of Europe and North America are arguably diminishing in significance. A major reversal (and diffusion) of missionary enterprise is underway, one significantly tied to the fact that the direction of global migratory flow is now primarily south to north and east to west, where it was once primarily north to south. Before 1925, 85 percent of all international migrants originated from Europe; since 1960 Europe has contributed an increasingly small fraction of emigrants to world emigration flows as emigrants from Africa, Asia, and Latin America have increased dramatically. Once again, the possibilities for Christian expansion and migratory movement are forcibly and intimately intertwined.

But how will these post-Western Christianities affect a post-Christian West? If, as Walls contends, the Christian faith has depended on cross-cultural diffusion for its survival, then we could say that the future of Christianity is intricately bound up with the emerging non-Western missionary movement. The southward shift in global Christianity’s center of gravity poses intriguing and, as yet, little-analyzed questions regarding the scope and dynamics of global Christian witness or mission enterprise. One consideration will be central. To the extent that it is predominantly non-Western, the new face of global Christianity is one of relative poverty and powerlessness, as for the first time in over a millennium, the global church displays the most explosive growth and increasing missionary vitality precisely in those areas that are most marginalized and impoverished. The change is bound to have an impact on basic assumptions.

Comments

[jonny]

you got so many visits because of the snowballing links i guess... i'll look forwrad to that article - i don't think that journal has made it to my desk at cms yet. cheers

[Sivin Kit]

wow ... you're becoming one of my favourites the past week.