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Does this shift have something to do with the rise of the church-growth movement in Southern California in the 1970s?

Actually, missions historian Dana Robert has shown that by the 1880s and '90s, maybe early 20th century, a business model began to prevail in American mission societies that feeds into what you just said about the mid-20th century.

American missionary efforts today are mostly the work of evangelical denominations and interdenominational agencies. How does that shape missions strategy today?

One of the things I'm most encouraged by in modern American missions history is how sophisticated the evangelism-minded groups have become. Sophisticated cultural analysis is now proceeding alongside a strong evangelism missions mandate. The 19th-century missionary pioneers in the U.S. were quite sophisticated in understanding culture and cross-cultural communications, compared to their own day and age. At the height of the imperial era, by contrast, say 1880—1950, there was a serious decline in cultural awareness and sensitivity in all the groups. But since World War II, there's been a strong awareness among everybody, including the strongly evangelistic groups, of the need for language training and cultural understanding, as well as for gospel urgency.

Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Previous Christianity Today articles by Mark Noll or about global Christianity include:

Early Returns Are Mixed | Global evangelicals don't necessarily vote like American evangelicals. (July 1, 2008)

Turning the World Upside Down | The coming of global Christianity. (March 1, 2002)

It's a Small Church After All | Globalization is changing how Christians do ministry. (November 6, 1998)

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July 2009, Vol. 53, No. 7