Faith Without Borders (Part 2 of 2)

(Second of two parts; click here to read part 1)

"I find that what God is doing today is moving people outside their cultural comfort zones to peoples and language groups different from their own, and that is happening from everywhere to everywhere," says Edwina Thomas, national director for the U.S. branch of SOMA, Sharing of Ministries Abroad, an Anglican mission facilitating group.

"From everywhere" includes missionaries from the Third World coming to the West. According to David Barrett, there are about 16,000 non-Americans working in the United States as missionaries.

Thomas, who helped organize Stephen Kasamba's ministry trip from Uganda last fall, says numerous American churches were blessed as a result. "It was an incredible success because our people are so very thirsty and hungry to see people who are unashamedly, unabashedly speaking out for Jesus," she says. "We in America need the fire and the passion for the gospel that some of our brothers and sisters in the Third World have."

According to many analysts, such shifting paradigms will force Western agencies to examine their roles in missions and evangelism. "We need to realize that the great actors of mission in the past were people sent from nations in Europe and North America," says Samuel Escobar, professor of missions at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, "but in the next century, the great actors of missions will not be them. They will be the partners of them."

Escobar and others say new global partnerships need to go beyond the old models. "We have to ask the question 'In what way can Western Christians add value to a world where most of the evangelicals are living in former mission fields?' " says MARC's Myers. He believes God expects Christians to share resources.

Possible resources the West may have to offer include technological expertise, information and research about various unevangelized people groups, and material resources. Stuart McAllister, director of the European Evangelical Alliance, says Western churches can also contribute "the experience [of] mistakes and lessons learned from two millennia of church and mission."

The greatest financial resources are still concentrated in the West, although many Third World churches are increasingly financing their own mission efforts. Even where Western money still plays a role, Escobar cautions that finances can no longer be allowed to drive missions. "Traditionally, we've thought that those who pay the player call the tune," he says, adding that the great challenge for Western churches will be learning how to enter creatively into truly equal partnerships with the Third World.

NEW ACCOMMODATIONS: Some organizations have been making changes to accommodate the new demographic realities. In 1986, WEF moved its international headquarters to Singapore "to provide the image that WEF in reality is a global movement," according to Vencer.

But for some Western Christians, the changing trends have led to an identity crisis. "When you've seen yourself as the locus of mission, the energy of mission, the leader … it's very hard to say, 'Well, now somebody else is sharing this with us, and we need to find a supporting role,' " Myers says. "We are really afraid of letting go of that sense that we are at the center."

Many international church leaders believe the global evangelical movement will be enriched for recognizing the gifts that non-Westerners bring.

"With the emergence of the Third World, the pool of leadership to run Christian organizations around the world has expanded," Vencer says.

However, McAllister says the international evangelical bodies "need to go further and faster in identifying and involving" more non-Western leaders. "Although we are on our way, I cannot help but feel that most organizations and structures still wear a predominantly Western face," he says.

Regional evangelical leaders say there is much Western churches can learn from their experiences. "We have a vibrancy of faith and worship in churches here in Asia," says Ho, noting that with so many other religious options available, "people here cannot take the belief in the uniqueness of Christ sloppily." In addition, he says believers around the world can learn from the "cost that many in Asia are paying for their commitment to Jesus Christ."

Caio Fabio, president of the Brazilian Evangelical Association, says that while U.S. Christians may be worried about being "politically correct," many Latin American Christians "are always very bold in making their confession."

GROWING PAINS: For all the positives, the dynamic spread of evangelicalism east and south has not been without growing pains.

Fabio says that "for years and years" he dreamed of seeing such phenomenal growth of evangelical Christianity in Brazil. "Then we realized there was this tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and so many people were coming to Christ and listening and hungry for the Word and the truth," he says. "It was very pleasing to see, but it very quickly became a nightmare."

Brazil's evangelical association has experienced severe tensions with other Protestant movements, such as the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, which has millions of followers. One leader of that movement created a national scandal when he smashed a statue of Brazil's patron saint on national television (CT, Dec. 11, 1995, p. 64).

Fabio, who has been highly critical of the Universal Church, says they follow a theology of power and prosperity.

"Growth brings seduction and the potential for political manipulation," he says. "Some of the growing is with sincerity and honesty; but others are more interested in taking. Power, money, prestige. They're taking."

Edwina Thomas also raises concerns about the character of Christians some of the growth is producing. Last year, SOMA participated in a reconciliation project with churches in Rwanda where, prior to the 1994 genocide, 80 percent of the population were affiliated with either a Catholic or a Protestant church, and about 20 percent were evangelicals. Ethnic bloodletting resulted in horrifying numbers of deaths. How could such a tragedy have occurred in a predominantly Christian nation?

"There are no easy answers, but one of the conclusions we've come to is that many of the Christians there were evangelized but not well-discipled," Thomas says.

She describes how at one reconciliation meeting, a Nigerian Anglican bishop preached a strong sermon asserting that what took place in Rwanda must be condemned as sin. "After he made that public statement, I went to him and said, 'Thank you for saying that.' His response to me was, 'Perhaps now you in the West will stop idolizing us in Africa,'" Thomas recalls.

"We need to see that there is a real fire and passion for Christ in many of the [Third World] churches … but they too are fighting with their own problems, and those problems can be deep and difficult," she says.

In Asia, where numerous churches still have severe Bible shortages and lack access to good theological materials, "the training and equipping of leaders who in turn will be able to train others for the work of ministry is one of our greatest challenges," acknowledges Ho.

With the twenty-first century approaching, the global evangelical movement itself faces key challenges as evangelicals everywhere increasingly face common problems.

Vencer sees the growth of secularism as one such obstacle that is faced by both East and West. "Even if we evangelize the 10/40 window, we will still not evangelize the world, because the one demographic shift that we need to face is the rise of secularism in our societies today," Vencer says. "With development and progress, the seduction of culture will put a lot of people in the secularist camp, and they will be very difficult to reach for the gospel."

McAllister agrees. "Many of our churches have been neutralized by the effects of modernity," he says. "At the theological as well as the ethical level, the gospel has been shrunk to be an individualized, internalized, and privatized message."

Ethnic and religious conflicts are increasingly replacing the political conflicts that divided the world during the Cold War era. Some scholars have argued that these conflicts are a backlash to technological advances and a globalizing economy, which are perceived as threats to local identities. "We as Christians are going to have to face up to the increasing polarizations that are taking place," Operation World's Johnstone says.

In some conflicts, Christians themselves are responsible for polarization, even within the body of Christ. Vencer says, "If we are not careful, the impact of globalization can result in a kind of isolation of the church, with each one doing what is right in his own eyes. This division will retard recruitment for the church and for missions."

SIGNS OF HOPE: But there are indications that the future of global evangelicalism is encouraging.

Many analysts say one hopeful sign is the growing international awareness of the role women can play. "Nowadays, there are women leaders as well as men leaders," says David Barrett.

In many parts of the Third World, leadership roles for women are still largely within traditional roles. "We're not going to be jumping on the bandwagon of the feminists, which is one of the greatest fears," says Eva Sanderson, a founder of the Pan African Christian Women's Alliance.

But Sanderson, who is on the WEF International Council, says she hopes there is a growing awareness that "when God chooses to put a woman into a leadership position, we need to honor that."

The expansion of technology, particularly of the Internet, is making numerous positive contributions to the global evangelical movement. Increased communication is breaking down barriers and bringing church leaders around the world closer. For example, on any given day, Dwight Gibson and his Carol Stream, Illinois, office of WEF are likely to be in touch by electronic mail, fax, or telephone with evangelicals in the Philippines, Singapore, China, England, Finland, and Germany.

Such information exchanges have radically transformed evangelization efforts. Massive amounts of anthropological, linguistic, and social background research about unreached people groups are easily available by computer, and with improved communication, missionaries can better coordinate information and efforts. Technology has also facilitated the translation of Scriptures and other theological training materials.

"For the first time, we've got a fairly clear picture of the boundaries of the task that remains before us [for world evangelization]," says Johnstone. "The fact that we have the information enables us to plan for the finishing of the job that Jesus gave us to do."

In addition to missions, evangelicals also have been developing coordinated international strategies on other fronts, such as global prayer and intercession movements and responding to religious persecution.

Last September, WEF's Religious Liberty Commission sponsored an International Day of Prayer for persecuted Christians, and evangelicals from more than 100 nations participated. Through the use of e-mail (religious-liberty@ xc.org), the Religious Liberty Commission forwards information about specific incidents of persecution and suggests international responses.

Numerous international projects have been established to pray for world evangelization. In addition, global prayer strategies are launched on behalf of particular emergencies. In March, as civil fighting in Albania reached a crisis, church leaders and missionaries caught inside the country sent urgent appeals for prayer that were forwarded around the globe in minutes.

"We are able to become the church worldwide responding as a church to issues around the world," Vencer says.

For evangelicals, the greatest hope for the future is the faith itself. "We preach a gospel that transforms. That is a reality in Africa, in Asia, in Latin America, and in the United States also," says Samuel Escobar.

And because of that reality, Escobar says he is heartened by Revelation 7:9 where John describes a great multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language praising God together in one voice. "Today, at the close of this century, we are closer than ever to that vision."

Despite the great challenges both inside and outside the church, Vencer remains optimistic: "I say to our people, Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is there. Welcome to the future, the Lord is there."

Additional reporting by Ted Olsen, Richard Nyberg, and Timothy C. Morgan.

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