Introducing … The Global South
What Every Christian Needs to Know About the Global Church of Todayby Paul Borthwick
Philip Jenkins’ book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford, 2002) points to great transitions in how we think about the Global Church of Jesus Christ. Global realities radically redefine how and where we fit in God’s “Big Picture”. Our Christian mission in the world (what God sends us to do and be) will not change, but “missions” (how we communicate the Christian message in the world) will.
We partner with God in His mission, and we participate with our global brothers and sisters, so we need to have a realistic look at the world into which we go. Keep these things in mind as you think about where you, your fellowship, or your church fits in the Global Christian picture.
The Southern Church is growing.
Jenkins refers to the churches in most of Africa, Asia, and Latin America simply as “the church of the South.” Whether we call them “non-Western,” “Two-Thirds World,” or “Majority World” churches, these are the countries and locales that were receiving Western missionaries 100 or more years ago. The seed of the Gospel was planted; now it’s bearing fruit. By some estimates, more than 70% of devoted followers of Jesus Christ are in this Southern Church.
This growing church challenges to us is to get informed, to find out where the church is growing, and then to investigate ways to join with these churches through prayer, spreading the knowledge amongst our peers, and encouraging bridge-building to these churches. Maybe the best goal of short-term missions from the West should be to expose our people to the Book-of-Acts-like expansion of the Church in Southern locales!
The Southern Church is going.
Today, missionaries who cross cultures to proclaim the Gospel go from every nation to every nation. North African Christians proclaim Jesus as university students in Havana. Cuban students go to Colombia, and Colombian Christians go to serve in North Africa. Koreans, Nigerians, Brazilians, Indians and others now have mission agencies with thousands of missionaries being sent. The “Back to Jerusalem” movement – coming out of the House Church Movement in China – is praying and planning to send 100,000 new missionaries to the Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim worlds.
These people will go where Western missionaries cannot, and they will come to us. Where most of us live and serve will increasingly be the recipient of new missionaries – even as our churches continue to send missionaries.
This going church causes us to celebrate, but it also exhorts us to humility. The Western church does not uniquely hold the keys to global mission; Jesus does… and He is giving these keys to all of His children.
The Southern Church is coming.
The Church of the South is sending missionaries, but they are also migrating across cultural and national boundaries – and bringing new expressions of Christian faith with them. The pastors of some of the largest churches in New York, London, or Kiev are Nigerians. The Church in France gets revived by immigrant Christians from the Caribbean and Africa. First generation Americans from Brazil may be the fuse that ignites revival in my home city of Boston.
The coming church challenges us get involved with the people of other cultures at our doorstep. The growth and energy of the Church of the South presents the Western church with the question, “How can we develop friendships and partnerships with Christians from the South so that God uses their example to help re-invigorate the Church in our post-modern society?”
The Southern Church is hurting.
The vast majority of those who call themselves Christians are poor. To summarize the “Big Picture” of our Christian family, think non-white, non-Western, non-wealthy. Jenkins writes, “If we want to visualize a ‘typical’ contemporary Christian, we should think of a woman living in a village in Nigeria or in a Brazilian favela” [slum] (Jenkins, p. 2).
People in the Southern Church are more likely to be in areas of religious turmoil (thus, persecuted in various forms), more likely to be economically destitute (thus, oppressed in various forms), and more likely to live in the face of physical suffering (thus, needing humanitarian care in various forms).
The hurting church from the South exhorts us to holistic ministry, increased compassion, lifestyle evaluation, and radical generosity. The Bible teaches that if we have the world’s good, see our brother or sister in need, and refuse to respond, then we don’t understand God’s love (I John 3:17-18).
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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