Kirsteen Kim on Mission, Race, and Colourblindness
A Timely Contribution
Welcome to “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined,” where we dream about mission in a postcolonial world. Every Thursday, I share one thought that has spoken to me in the week, some resources I trust will be helpful to you, and three exciting quotes about mission. I pray one of these will energise you in the coming week.
1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off
I have been moved this week by Prof Kirsteen Kim’s article, Time to Talk about Race: Colorblindness and Missiology, published by OMF International in the UK as part of their Mission Round Table Journal (18.1) which focuses on “Race, Ethnicity, Bible, and Mission.” OMF International’s willingness to engage a challenging subject like this is quite telling. I pray that many other organisations will begin to think about it. The importance of ethnic diversity in mission cannot be overstated. But I want to appreciate Prof Kirsteen even more for the courageous handling of the topic. She is both vulnerable and critical. Towards the end of the article, she proposes eight lessons for missiology for overcoming colourblindness, talking about race, and opposing racism. Here they are in an abridged version:
Name racism as a problem and condemn it. Raise consciousness of racism as an issue that blights the lives of millions of people and take action to challenge it. Check discussions of culture, religion, and power for disguised racialisation and racism.
Decenter the West and whiteness using resources from the Majority World. The growing field of “world Christianity” is a deliberate attempt to do this.
Acknowledge and teach the history of supremacism, racism, and colonialism in the West and its ongoing practice and impact.
Be prepared to accept criticism of white missions. Defence of colonial mission by a white person will only be heard by people of colour as a justification for white racism. If there are good things to be said about colonial missions, let those who received the gospel that way say so. Only they can do so with credibility.
Participate in the rethinking of missions and mission in the West that has been going on since the mid-twentieth century. In this endeavor, highlighting white supremacy as an underlying premise of empire may be more effective in helping other white people to understand the problem than discussions about the complicity of missions with empire more generally.
Apply race theory for analysis of mission practices and issues. One example of race theory is “critical race theory,” which is closely related to postcolonial studies and black thought. It has exposed how endemic and insidious are ideas about race by drawing attention to the systemic nature of racism, to white privilege and entitlement, to implicit biases, microaggressions, and other manifestations of it.
Give people who have been on the receiving end of missions a safe space to share their experiences. Appoint and adequately support people of colour to posts based in the West or as leaders of formerly white-led organisations. Reach out for collaboration to scholars of colour who raise issues of race and who are dealing with topics related to evangelism and mission, whether or not they are comfortable with those terms.
Restructure missions and reframe missiology to recognise that “the God of mission does not regard race as a prerequisite for engagement.” In this worldwide and multidirectional mission, the West is also a mission field and an integral component of the dynamics of world Christian mission. Furthermore, world mission cannot be limited to those who come from countries wealthy enough to be able to send missionaries. As Jehu Hanciles has written, “every Christian migrant is a potential missionary,” although white churches have struggled to see and receive their gifts.
2. Resources I am Enjoying
Video: Tobi Etti: Mission Opportunities You Probably Don't Know About
Tobi Etti represents a category of young Africans — millennials and Gen-Z — involved in God’s mission in the world. In this episode of Young People in Missions (YPIM), Tobi is hosted by Temitope Akinrotimi to share of his missionary convictions and activities. Tobi is apt to note that God’s mission is composite. It has many dimensions and, therefore, different spaces for everyone. So, while he had been on mission trips with the missionary organisation Mission Enablers Africa multiple times before, he is now more convinced that mission to our next-door neighbours, whom we already perceive as reached people group, especially in large cities, must also be taken seriously. To this end, Tobi inspires young professionals like himself who may not be able to go on mission trips to rural communities to pray and pull finances together for that purpose, while also discipling those around them to become followers of Christ.
3. Quotes I am Pondering
If the church is an instrument of God in God’s mission, partnership in mission means male and female in partnership and not masculine hegemony with token women in leadership. — James Tengatenga
… mission today must join in the urgent task of building life-affirming economies that benefit all across gender, race, class/casteism, age, ability, or sexual orientation. — Athena Peralta
Holistic mission acknowledges the connectedness of the entire Creation. It means any sin committed among humans will consequently affect the land and other creatures, and vice versa. — Lubunga W’Ehusha
I pray that you will be faithful to the mission God has for you this week.