Redefining scope for evangelistic missions
It is now imperative that we the Church, take certain factors into consideration as we seek a more efficient contextualization of our scope for the mandate to be witnesses “… in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth“. When we address “going into all the world” it’s no longer just about distances or geography. The idea of community is changing, so is the face of our world and so is the phenomenon by which the gospel mission is advancing. Cultural influences, world economy, immigration, other social factors and of course technology, is making and bridging gaps remarkably, and redefining our appraisal of demography and geography.
Virtual Communities created by social media
Unlike 2000 years ago, it is now very possible for me to have easier access to someone who is continents away than I have to someone else in the same state as I am.
For instance, I have made quite a number of friends on the internet, through my website or theirs, through facebook, web forums, yahoo chat rooms etc. Most of this people, I have never or may never physically meet, but we have opportunity for convenient interaction daily, through the various social media, especially if we have some common interest like work, business, fashion, sports or whatever.
One of the implications of this is that, I may have a better chance at befriending and eventually witnessing to an individual overseas who, though in a religiously or socially isolated position, I have the privilege to be connected with through the web, than a professional missionary on the field in his country. I may not be bound by whatever restrictions, be it religious, legal or social, that may make it difficult for another Christian physically closer to him, to witness to him. Yet, this is only a mild scratch at the possibilities.
This concept is not about finding an alternative to going to where the unsaved are physically to reach them, but about taking optimum advantage of all the opportunities available for reaching them. Especially the ones who are more easily located or approachable via this media. It is also about making the gospel easier to be found by those who are already searching, by being present in every location, virtual or otherwise, where they would definitely be searching.
Cultural Influences infused by media
Discerning cultural distances
Most people who grew up in the more developed cities of developing or underdeveloped countries, in maybe Africa or Asia, with exposure to satelite TV and the Internet, actually have more in common with their peers in the western world or other develpoed communities in Europe than their own relatives who grew up and live in the villages, due to media influence. This will affect the way they communicate and their life style – the way they dress, the kind of music they enjoy etc. If you aim at this parallel set of locals as a single target, you would most definitely miss one of them or both.
So now you find cultural distances between people who are in geographic and ethnic proximity, as well as, cultural proximity between people who are at different ends of the globe geographically.
Application of media tools
We must take advantage of ways to reach the part of the world that has already been brought culturally close to us via media influence – using the same media and culture that they are already comfortable with, whilst not neglecting those we need to actually, physically and perhaps culturally go out of our way to meet.
In the later case, a lot of ministries are bridging the gap with translation work on materials for Christian evangelism, including bibles, multilingual multimedia projects for audio, video and of course internet. Today anybody can get ministry material in almost all languages of the world and use as a tool to reach someone or a group who probably don’t speak their primary language.
International migration
Migrant missionaries
Christian missionaries are migrants obviously, but more importantly, every Christian migrant is a potential missionary.
As at the 1980s, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia had become net exporters of millions of people to Western countries, initially as labor migrants, subsequently as asylum seekers, but increasingly and predominantly as economic migrants. Not surprisingly, The demography of active (as opposed to formal) missionary force today, coincidentally turns out to be primarily immigrants from the more vitally Christianized developing countries of Africa (e.g Nigeria), Asia (e.g China) and South America. These migrant population are characterized by spiritual vitality and a stronger commitment to evangelism.
This reverse trend, as against what prevailed centuries ago, when missionaries came from the west to the southern continents, is worthy of note. Hopefully we may rely on this current migration phenomenon to savage the alarming decline of Christianity in Western Society.
Migrant targets
However, unlike the US, where the majority of new immigrants are Christian, the majority of post-1960s immigrants in Europe are Muslim. Islam represents Europe’s fastest growing religion and its second largest faith. This represents another instance of the world coming to us.
Without restraining from our traditional missionary efforts at reaching the predominantly Islamic nations, are we equally realizing that the Islamic community growing in Europe, now in free societies where there will be none of the religious and legal restrictions against proselytizing, encountered in their homeland, is an increasing harvest waiting for discerning laborers? The way I see it, there are better chances for non-christian immigrant student or worker overseas in a more Christianized society, to be reached with the gospel than when he is back home in a predominantly non-christian community. Therefore, we equally need to make a major target of un-envangelized immigrants as a strategy.
Ethnic churches
Ethnic churches or International churches having a make up of a predominant foreign ethnic group may actually be serving this purpose of reaching un-envangelized immigrants well.
According to Jehu J. Hanciles, director of the Global Research Institute at Fuller Theological Seminary, about ethnic churches: Although some of them may be ingloriously labelled as veritable ethnic enclaves given to self-maintenance and insulated from the wider society by indigenous language usage in their worship and fellowship. Yet, even if all they did was evangelize other immigrants—many of whom were not Christians before they migrated, they will still be making a significant contribution to the growth of Christianity in their community.
These congregations also represent the face of Christianity to a disadvantaged and marginalized migrant population, where effective missionary function depends upon sustained daily interaction with others who belong to the same neighborhood and deal with similar daily challenges.
Undeniably, racial divisions, cultural rejection, and social demarcations represent significant missionary challenges; however, the missionary-mindedness of immigrant Christians and congregations is well attested. There is also strong evidence to suggest that their outreach capacity increases over time with critical adaptation to the cultural environment; which in turn indicates that the next generation may hold the key to greater missionary effectiveness in the host communities at large.
Social welfare
There is a recurring observation that places most unreached by the gospel is usually also characterized by intense poverty, sickness, political instability, war and all forms of suffering in general. Intense suffering usually makes people more open to the gospel. Besides their needs also provide opportunity to minister to them materially and to show love. Social welfare missions is becoming a huge and popular phenomenon, as it is providing an effective open door in war torn areas of the middle east for instance. Other instances are in Africa, the Americas and Asia, were social relief in terms of disaster relief, health care, provision of food and clothing is enabling missionaries to more quickly penetrate otherwise difficult fields, where dense secularism, Islam, Hinduism or other idolatrous religions are paramount.
Invisible Missions and Missionaries
Another missionary force is also at work today, although it does not appear in the records of missionary activity or the databanks of specialists. It is the transcultural witnessing for Christ that takes place as people move around as migrants or refugees, just as in New Testament days…. Samuel Escobar
Meaningful assessment of the emerging non-Western, as well as, non-traditional missionary movement calls for new forms of analysis. We need to radically revise our understanding of missions and who a missionary is in the contemporary, globalized world.
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