#91. Will the Black Leaders in Mission Please Stand Up?
Thinking Mission in a Black History Month 2
Welcome to “Global Witness, Globally Reimagined.” You get a glimpse here of the kind of work that I do both at Church Mission Society and Missio Africanus where I help students of all levels (from unaccredited courses to PhD) explore the theological (and missiological) implications of the rise of World Christianity. In the newsletter, I focus on the subject of global witness in the twenty-first-century context. Every Thursday, I share a thought that has spoken to me in the week, one or two resources that I trust will be helpful to you, and three exciting quotes about mission to give you something to think about as you go through your day. I pray one of these will energise you.
1. Thought I Can’t Shake Off
I am getting towards the end of writing up the argument for my forthcoming book, Decolonising Mission. I feel like I am finishing writing another doctoral dissertation. It has been the most stretching and rewarding experience in a long time.
I followed the research where it wanted me to go, and for months, I found myself in places in this missiological discourse that I could never have known existed. Sometimes, I was more hopeful than others, but through it all, I have never doubted Jesus’ call for all his followers to make disciples for him among the nations. I wrestled a lot with our methodology, but more than that, I was unsettled by the thought system — the theology — behind it. Over the past year or so, I have wondered what Jesus meant when he sent his disciples — fellow Galilean peasants — as apostles to make more disciples for him among the nations (knowing that they were a colonised people, with the knee of Rome weighing heavily on their necks, and having no real possibility of ever becoming a mighty people). In this regard, many people emerging to serve God in mission in the twenty-first century will be similar to the first apostles.
I have come out of the research and writing process with a great deal of treasure. Writing this book has, without a doubt, changed me.
One of the critical shifts this book has caused me to wrestle with is the lack of diversity in how we think and talk about mission. Of course, it is a known fact that there is very little diversity in personnel in mission agencies here in the UK (as well as in Europe and North America). I would actually say the numbers are negligible. (Most Western mission agencies do not know how to work with non-Westerners — the “coloniser and colonised” dynamics are still very much at play).
Nevertheless, when it comes to how we are thinking and talking about mission — the books we are reading, the podcasts we are listening to, the seminars and conferences we are attending — you would be extremely lucky to engage non-Western faces, even more so hear non-Western thought that is authentically shaped by theological and cultural resources from Africa, Asia, Latin America and other parts of the world. This lack of diversity inside our echo chambers causes us to miss out on what God really wants us to do (in a world where 70 per cent of Christians are black and brown).
I will leave you today with a 1910 critique of Western mission from a Malawian/Mozambican church leader called Charles Domingo. (I am sure you will get the sense of what he is saying, I decided not to polish his English).
There is too much failure among all Europeans in Nyassaland. The Three Combined Bodies: Missionaries, Government and Companies or Gainers of money do form the same rule to look upon a Native with mockery eyes. It sometimes startle us to see that the Three Combined Bodies are from Europe, and along with them there is a title “CHRISTNDOM.” And to compare or make a comparison between the MASTER of the title and His Servants, it pushes any African away from believing the Master of the title. If we had power enough to communicate ourselves to Europe, we would advise them not to call themselves “CHRISTNDOM” but “Europeandom.” . . . Therefore the life of The Three Combined Bodies is altogether too cheaty, too thefty, too mockery. Instead of “Give,” they say “Take away from.” — Quoted in John McCracken, Politics and Christianity in Malawi: The Impact of the Livingstonia Mission in the Northern Province, Kachere Monographs (Zomba: Kachere Series, 2008), 216.
2. Resources I am Enjoying
Podcast: Gina Zurlo: A Conversation on Researching World Christianity
Gina Zurlo is one of those people with whom I can easily have numerous conversations on a wide variety of topics concerning world Christianity, theology, global Christian statistics, women and gender in world Christianity, mission and migration) and many more. This chance to sit down with her (on Zoom) is one of my highlights in 2024. We discussed how she got into what she does at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, some of her recent books, including From Nairobi to the World: David B. Barrett and the Re-imagining of World Christianity, Global Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and Women in World Christianity: Building and Sustaining a Global Movement. We finished it all off with a reflection on the theological and missiological implications of the shift in the location of Christian heartlands to the south. I am persuaded you will find this conversation helpful.
3. Quotes I am Pondering
To be welcoming is imperative for mission … It demonstrates Christ’s love for his world, and provides opportunities for the church to be Christ-like and countercultural instead of ‘going with the flow.’ — Mark Sturge, Look What the Lord Has Done: An Exploration of Black Christian Faith in Britain (Bletchley, United Kingdom: Scripture Union, 2005), 152.
In the midst of [current global] population shifts, people on the move can be potential beneficiaries of grace as objects of missions. Likewise, people in dispersion can serve as channels of grace as they come to realize their roles as partners of missions. — Chandler H. Im and Tereso C. Casiño, "Introduction," in Global Diasporas and Mission, ed. Chandler H. Im and Amos Yong, Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series (Oxford, UK: Regnum Books International, 2014), 16.
[In some sense] Christian Mission is joining God in proclaiming and performing God’s rule on earth … Thus, participants in the missio Dei respond to what God is already doing on earth. — Kapya Kaoma, "From Missio Dei to Missio Creatoris Dei: Toward an African Missional Christology of Jesus as the Ecological Ancestor," 161. https://www.academia.edu/30577480/Missio_Dei_Missio_Creatoris_Dei_Toward_an_African_Missional_Christology_of_Jesus_as_the_Ecological_Ancestor.
I pray that you will be faithful to the work God has for you this week.
I look forward to your book coming out!