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printMission Fields on the Move
The massive global migration we see today presents unparalleled opportunities for ministry.
igration is a major feature of the 21st century. A 2005 United Nations report claims that there are nearly 191 million international migrants worldwide. The International Organization for Migration estimates the number of foreign migrants at around 200 million. Another 100 million are on the move within their own borders.
Migration is enormously complex. Its causes and its effects range from simple economic betterment to the horrors of war, ethnic conflict, and genocide. Whatever the causes, it is an undeniable opportunity for evangelization that the church dare not ignore, says veteran missiologist J. Samuel Escobar in this installment of the Global Conversation.
In our 50 years as missionaries, my wife and I have become familiar with immigration laws and offices in the countries where we have served: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, the United States, and now Spain. Our most recent experience of standing in line for hours, filling out forms and asking God for patience to cope with bureaucratic slowness, was in Valencia in 2007. Standing in such lines, you hear amazing stories of the joys, tragedies, dramatic expectations, and disappointments of migrant people.
Spain is geographically situated between Europe and Africa, and tied to the Americas by three centuries as an imperial power. As such, it attracts migrants from Latin America, Africa, and Eastern Europe. The country's Catholic church and its tiny minority of Protestant churches have faced the challenge of this massive wave. It is a missionary challenge that forces churches to go to the roots of their faith.
In the middle of the night on May 4, 2002, in the town of Arganda just outside Madrid, a group of skinheads painted swastikas and racist phrases on the walls of a Romanian evangelical church. Then they set it on fire. Similarly, Joaquín Yebra, pastor of a Baptist church in Vallecas, a suburb of Madrid, has had services interrupted by young men whom he describes not as skinheads but as hooligans who have drunk too much. Twice a week his church provides food and medicine for 600 people, mostly immigrants from Morocco and Latin America. Some neighbors have protested the long lines that form for three hours, though most of them are understanding and sympathetic.
At the 2004 Forum for World Evangelization, hosted by the Lausanne Committee in Pattaya, Thailand, the "Globalization and the Gospel" working group heard stories of how churches in Canada and Japan responded to the challenges posed by migration and how they were transformed in the process. "We cannot underestimate the sheer power global migration has on the interdependence of our daily lives and collective fates, creating our larger common horizon of experience," the group's report concluded.
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Margaret
I think that is really is amazing to look at how God did use “outsiders” to change lives and nations in the Bible. Ruth is one of my favorite stories in the Bible and it is amazing to see how God uses her in the story of Israel. By bringing in a cultural outsider, as Mr. Greenfield discusses, we receive a fresh look on how we are running our churches and how we do outreach ministry. Bringing in someone from another culture may be uncomfortable, but I think that many times God uses our discomfort to teach us huge lessons; lessons that many times we remember more strongly because of the discomfort that was there.
alackson bako iliya
By the grace of the Lord, I want to be a part of mission work either through prayer or in going.
Chivimbiso Ngowe, Zimbabwe
Escobar has brought in an amazing dimension that may have been missed by a lot of Christians especially those whose countries are receiving immigrants. I have always seen it as a fulfillment of scripture that all of us as Christians should reach the ends of the world as witnesses of Christ. And this happens whether by a mission sending us or us going as economic immigrants. But, the difference lies with the heart to take the gospel. That scripture on the Jerusalem persecution that led to massive and miraculous ministry in Samaria and other cities is a good example. Keep it up Mr Escobar.
louie lancia, italy
For once I would impeach the idea that is espoused by most political Christians to validate the mixture of Church and State, it is not enough to speak about things like John the Baptist who spoke against King Herod about his internal affairs because Isarel was a nation where the laws of the land were the 613 laws known as the Mosaic Covennant, The truth is that God put a separation between the priesthood and the kingship is clear in the fact we know that Jesus became the High priest of our profession and although we know he is the King of King and the Lord of Glory not all things are subject unto him as yet but indeed Christ will fulfill the Kingship...amen
Doranna Cooper, USA
Southern California is one of the greatest mission fields in the USA. There have been so many ethnic groups here that you don't need to try to go to a closed country because there are plenty of their people here. It is just trying to get churches off their duff and reach out and evangelize. In turn those converts can go back to their ethnic country without barriers and carry the gospel of Jesus Christ. Another is reaching out to foriegn students and inviting them into our homes to show the love of Christ. Thru prayer God can lead you to He wants you to befriend.
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