When the Mission Field is at Your Door

When someone thinks of a missionary, they often picture a Westerner selling everything they have and moving to a foreign land. This description is far too common in Western Christians’ minds when they think of global missionary activity. However, the shift in mission activity is changing, and probably for the better.

We now live in a globalized society. Unchristian Ideas are spreading quickly through social media, global news, and the agendas of foreign governments. Amid the chaos, massive shifts in migration are underway. Africans are moving to the West in droves, Asian nations are investing in developing countries, providing opportunities for infrastructure and, thus, shifting massive numbers of employees around the world, and missionaries are coming to the United States and Europe from countries that our missionaries evangelized and established churches more than a century ago. It is an interesting time to be in conversation with missionary movements, to be sure.

Moreover, the migration debate is surging. I have concluded that if something becomes politicized, it immediately becomes polarized. Martha Frederliks, the Professor of World Christianity at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, gives insight into the divide of migration across the world in a very pertinent article in the Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies. Frederliks (2022) says, “because migration-related issues feature high on political and theological agendas, because the ‘migration debate’ is politically charged, and because some societal and political stakeholders capitalize on terminological fuzziness, academic terminological rigor is essential (p. 671). While I do not have the space to flesh out the nuances of immigration policies in my country or anywhere else, it is sufficient to say that our neighbors are where they are and they will probably not be going anywhere anytime soon.  

According to Acts 17:26, Paul said to the Athenians, “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands (NIV, 1984, Acts 17:26).” This would mean that God has committed his trust for us our neighbors from foreign lands. Indeed, it would seem that God has appointed them to our doorstep to receive the gospel. As Frederliks points out, “’diaspora missiology’ is described as "a providential and strategic way to minister to 'the nations' by the diaspora and through the diaspora,’ exemplifying mission ‘from anywhere to anyone,’ and is said to offer an alternative to the "Euro-centric focus of Western approach to missiology (2022, p.679).” The diaspora, or those people who have been dispersed from their homeland, have now come to our doorstep so that we can invite them into our home – a place of peace and joy in the Lord amidst the chaos.

            The Western Church, whether in Europe or North America, has an amazing opportunity to reach the diaspora of individuals who have never had the chance to hear the gospel. What a privilege! More than that, a significant movement in missions is brewing as a result of recent migratory shifts over the last few decades, called reverse missions. Reverse missions are a fascinating term. It both affirms the history of the West and affirms our need for Gospel ministry. The United States, in particular, is known to be the most generous body of believers in the World. More U.S. missionaries have been sent to foreign nations than any other country in history. However, now it is the American church that desperately needs revival. Indeed, this is such the case for most of the West. Reverse missionaries, such as Christians from Sub-Saharan Africa and from the Iranian and Chinese underground church movements, are now coming to the West to revive faith in American and European cultures. For example, reverse missionaries from Kenya are bearing fruit in England as we speak. "As part of this re-narrativizing, they have (re)framed their migration as a mission to bring London back into God's kingdom, rather than an act born of economic necessity (Fredericks, 2022, p. 679).”

            It would seem that migration has played a key role in missional outreach over the last few decades, especially. I am reminded that God has used the dispersion of people from their homeland to bring about Christian fruit before. The early church experienced what is now called “The Final Great Dispersion” to move the Jewish Christians out of their homeland. This would have a reach that would spread Christianity worldwide. Before the time of Christ, there was another dispersion in which Babylon took the Jewish people captive, and thus, spread Judaism into Persia. We must remember that our God is the One who works “ together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (NKJV, 1982, Rm. 8:28).”

Sources

Frederliks, M. (2022). Mission and migration – mapping methodological, historical, and theological perspectives. The Oxford handbook of mission studies. Oxford University Press.

New International Version Bible. (2011). Zondervan.

New King James Bible. (1982). Thomas Nelson.