On Non-Western Evangelists in the West
And How Not To Evangelise Among Westerners
Welcome to my newsletter, “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined,” where I dream here about mission in a postcolonial world. Every week, I share one thought that has spoken to me in the week, two 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
A few years ago, I led a seminar on cross-cultural evangelism at an African church in the UK. The leaders were concerned that they had nothing to show for the 12 years of hard work, having given out tens of thousand of tracts on the high streets of their city. Their church growth had entirely depended on the migration of their fellow countryfolk. They wondered why they should continue to put money and energy into something that was not growing their church. One woman in the congregation shared a story of when a young white British man stopped to look at the tract she had just given him. Wondering, he turned around to ask her, “How do I respond to this?” She was so overwhelmed by his question that her brain froze (and the anointing escaped). All she could say in response is, “Let God arrest you, and the Holy Spirit will deliver you.” (Even I do not know what she meant). Confused and frustrated, the young man walked away and never looked back. She regrets her lack of preparation till today. Her story, and that of her congregation, reflects a typical experience among migrant Christians in Europe. They have the zeal to evangelise, but they are using methods that worked wherever they came from even though they do not work in Europe. As a result, they are unable to share the gospel with Westerners effectively. While this is understandable — context is everything when it comes to evangelism — I wonder whether it is a perfect demonstration of a missed cross-cultural opportunity for all of us. Many foreign Christians come with the zeal to evangelise but have little understanding of Europe’s cultural context. European church leaders have little understanding of evangelism but know their contexts pretty well — of course, they have cultural blindspots that prevent them from seeing the whole picture. Could these two groups work together? As one of my elders used to say, “mission is always a joint effort between sensitive outsiders and wise insiders.” I still believe that the re-evangelisation of Europe will depend, to some extent, on the work of the many foreign Christians working and serving in her cities today. How can we partner around evangelism?
2. Resources I am Enjoying
Although set in the United States, this instructive conversation for Christian missionary work in the West has Tim Keller sharing profound thoughts about the possibilities of re-evangelising post-Christian America, among many other missional reflections. He is, here, speaking with Carey Nieuwhof of the Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast. Tim observes that while the face of the American church is increasingly becoming multi-ethnic partly due to non-Western Christian missionary efforts, especially since the last decades of the 20th century, both Western and non-Western Christians are still struggling to “share the Gospel in a way that makes sense” to the post-Christendom America (and by implication, the entire West). He proceeds to highlight key issues for consideration to remedy the situation, drawing from his years of experience as a church planter, preacher, observer and author. This conversation is well worth listening to. Tim may be gone, but his words continue to shape us.
3. Quotes I am Pondering
We have incredible energy and we people of colour work tirelessly in order to save the Church of England, for the sake of the nation and beyond, to restore its vision and mission for today’s world. — Azariah D. A. France-Williams
African diaspora congregations must reimagine their mission methods if they are to have any ground-breaking work in the UK and move beyond the cyclic exchange of members amidst themselves. — Paul Ayokunle
Considering prosperity gospel as more than just a script ... discloses other motifs behind people’s generosity in church. [Many Tanzanian Christians] find prosperity gospel appealing because they understand it as a biblical message that motivates them to donate to the church and take care of their spiritual leaders. This is their way of expressing gratitude to God. Hence, giving is a people’s way of showing their sense of responsibility, hospitality, and respect to their spiritual leaders. — Leita Ngoy
I pray that you have a missionally faithful week.
Thanks a million for drawing our attention to this most important but forgotten lesson to embrace towards mission effectiveness. The fact that we're interested in doing evangelism in western lands also called for our ability to prepare for their conceptualization through adaptive measures to help balance the purpose of mission fulfilment.
NB; sharing trucks alone might not be enough and can not win the best strategy for evangelizing Westerners as demonstrated in the story by the woman who couldn't distinguish her stand between sharing trucks and her ability to communicate what influence the message in her gospel tracts has on those she distributes them to and how they can immediately respond for repentance in Christ Jesus.
Thanks Harvey for your important comments. 'Reverse mission' amongst the deeply secularised white English needs thorough contextualisation (thus Tim Keller's video) and mutually respectful and loving inter-ethnic partnership to become effective.