Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

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.

This week, it is a bit different. I share half a thought and a long quote just to commemorate Christmas before going away for a few weeks. Thus, this will be the last newsletter for the year. I am taking a short break over Christmas and New Year to attend to other assignments, prepare for 2024, and get some rest. I am grateful to all of you who took your precious time to read the newsletter. Thank you to all who responded in one way or another. We will be back in business in mid-January.

Wishing you all the best this Christmas from a very cold Minnesota.

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1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off

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My reading around Christmas this week took me to the book of Philippians. In the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians, Paul exhorts us; “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, assuming human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” The incarnation is central to mission not only because it symbolises God’s self-emptying to go on the ultimate mission trip (where God actually dies to redeem humanity), but also because it models for us what that mission may look like—a humble choice to take a place at the margins of society with those enslaved by the ruling empires so that the marginalised can belong with the rest of the people. The Philippians understood Paul’s use of “slave” to mean the persons with no rights who toil and sweat in the sun, breaking their backs, so that the person who owns them can belong in the ecclesia. The brown migrant boy in the manger will become a slave to bring hope to all humanity, especially those among us who have fewer rights, so that we can belong with his brothers and sisters in his body. As we celebrate his birth this Christmas, may we follow him to the margins of society where he will bring good news to the poor, set the captives free, restore sight to the blind and heal the broken-hearted. May we attend to the vulnerable and the migrants among us? This is central to his mission on earth.

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1. Quote I am Pondering

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• It is truly counter-cultural when the missional community stresses its vocation to be a fellowship of witnessing Christians who gather to be “discipled,” to be equipped and formed for their sending, their apostolate in and with the world. This kingdom focus is a difficult shift for many late Christendom congregations; the resistance to change is strong, and the patterns of self-centred church and piety are deeply ingrained. It is not an exaggeration to speak of the need for the “conversion of the church” to its missional, kingdom vocation. Such a re-orientation or conversion of the church virtually always challenges the dominant individualism of Western modernity, as discussed above. “When evangelisation is divided from the incarnational witness of God's people in community, the danger is very great that the gospel will be reduced to the minimum of personal salvation and private faith.” — David Bosch

I pray that you will be faithful to the mission God has for you this week.