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ASM Series
Authors wishing their manuscripts to be considered for the ASM Series must first submit a proposal containing a one page description of the topic, a table of contents, and a letter explaining the relevance and importance of the study to the ASM Series Committee Chair, Robert Hunt (ASMweb.org/emailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" rel="noopener">[email protected]). These will be evaluated by the Chair and at least two members of the committee.
Manuscript proposals will be evaluated on the basis of their academic merits, reach of their potential readership, uniqueness of subject matter, and possibilities for adaptation as a textbook in missiology courses among other things. A complete list of the evaluation rubrics can be obtained from the ASM Series Committee Chair.
If the topic and scope of the manuscript is deemed of interest and appropriate to the series, the Chair will forward the review comments and information to Orbis, which will make a final decision on publication and will correspond directly with the author concerning the complete manuscript and editing.
Correspondence regarding submitting manuscripts for review should be addressed to ASMweb.org/emailto:[email protected]" target="_blank" rel="noopener">[email protected]. If email is not possible, then paper proposals may be mailed to: Robert Hunt, P.O. Box 750133, Dallas, TX 75275-0133. The other members of the ASM Series Editorial Committee are Robert Gallagher, Kristopher W. Seaman, Brian Froehle, Peter Vethanyagamony, and Lisa Beth White.
IN PRINT AT ORBIS (in chronological order from earliest to most recent):
No Other Name? Christianity and Other World Religions, Paul F. Knitter
The Church and Cultures: New Perspectives in Missiological Anthropology, Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD
Missions and Money: Affluence as a Western Missionary Problem . . . Revisited (Second Edition), Jonathan J. Bonk
Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, David J. Bosch
Mission Legacies: Biographical Studies of Leaders of the Modern Missionary Movement, edited by Gerald H. Anderson, Robert T. Coote, Norman A. Horner, and James M. Phillips
Classic Texts in Mission and World Christianity, edited by Norman E. Thomas
Christian Mission: A Case Study Approach, Alan Neely
The Missionary Movement in American Catholic History, Angelyn Dries, OSF
Mission in the New Testament: An Evangelical Approach, edited by William J. Larkin Jr. and Joel W. Williams
Changing Frontiers of Mission, Wilbert R. Shenk
Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today, Stephen B. Bevans, SVD, and Roger P. Schroeder, SVD
Gospel Bearers, Gender Barriers: Missionary Women in the Twentieth Century, edited by Dana L. Robert
Church: Community for the Kingdom, John Fuellenbach, SVD
Mission in Acts: Ancient Narratives in Contemporary Context, edited by Robert L. Gallagher and Paul Hertig
A History of Christianity in Asia: Volume I, Beginnings to 1500, Samuel Hugh Moffett
A History of Christianity in Asia: Volume II, 1500-1900, Samuel Hugh Moffett
A Reader's Guide to Transforming Mission, Stan Nussbaum
Israel and the Nations: A Mission Theology of the Old Testament, James Chukwuma Okoye, CSSp
Women in Mission: From the New Testament to Today, Susan E. Smith
Reconstructing Christianity in China: K. H. Ting and the Chinese Church, Philip L. Wickeri
Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture (second edition), Lamin Sanneh
Landmark Essays in Mission and World Christianity, edited by Robert L. Gallagher and Paul Hertig
Miracles, Missions, & American Pentecostalism, Gary B. McGee
The Gospel among the Nations: A Documentary History of Inculturation, Robert A. Hunt
Mission and Culture: The Louis J. Luzbetak Lectures, edited by Stephen B. Bevans
Comprehending Mission: The Questions, Methods, Themes, Problems, and Prospects of Missiology, Stanley H. Skreslet
Christian Mission among the Peoples of Asia, Jonathan Y. Tan
Sent Forth: African Missionary Work in the West, Harvey C. Kwiyani
Mangoes or Bananas: The Quest for an Authentic Asian Christian Theology, Hwa Yung
Contemporary Mission Theology: Engaging the Nations: Essays in Honor of Charles E. Van Engen, edited by Robert L. Gallagher and Paul Hertig
African Christian Leadership: Realities, Opportunities, and Impact, edited by Robert Priest and Kirimi Barine
Women Leaders in the Student Christian Movement: 1880-1920, Thomas Russell
Traditional Ritual as Christian Worship: Dangerous Syncretism or Necessary Hybridity? R. Daniel Shaw and William R. Burrows
PUBLISHED BY WIPF & STOCK
From the Rising of the Sun: Christians and Society in Contemporary Japan, James M. Phillips
Confucius, the Buddha, and Christ: A History of the Gospel in China, Ralph R. Covell
An African Tree of Life, Thomas G. Christensen
Understanding Spiritual Power: A Forgotten Dimension of Cross-Cultural Mission and Ministry, Marguerite G. Kraft
Missiological Education for the 21st Century: The Book, the Circle, and the Sandals, edited by J. Dudley Woodberry, Charles Van Engen, and Edgar J. Elliston
Dictionary of Mission: Theology, History, Perspectives, edited by Karl Müller, SVD, Theo Sundermeier, Stephen B. Bevans, SVD, and Richard H. Bliese
Missions and Unity: Lessons from History, 1792-2010, Norman E. Thomas
OTHER
*World Mission in the Wesleyan Spirit, Darrell L. Whiteman and Gerald H. Anderson (published by Province House, Franklin, TN)
ASM Monographs
The American Society of Missiology publishes a series for distinguished dissertations and other similar scholarly monographs in missiology and in related fields of missiological interest. In its initial years the series was co-published with the University Press of America, and from 2006 onward it is being co-published with Pickwick Publications, an imprint of Wipf & Stock Publishers.
The ASM Scholarly Monograph Series makes more widely available quality scholarly work relating to the area of world mission. The Series welcomes submissions of doctoral dissertations completed in the last three years at universities and theological institutions in North America and around the world. Other similar scholarly monographs are also welcome. The manuscripts must be in English and not exceeding 350-400 pages.
Authors wishing their dissertations or monographs to be considered for the Series must first submit an abstract, table of contents, and a letter explaining the relevance and importance of the study to the ASM Scholarly Monograph Series Editorial Committee Chair, James R. Krabill. If the topic is deemed of interest and appropriate, the Chair will request a full electronic copy of the dissertation.
At two times during the year (May and December), the Committee determines which of the manuscripts received will be read by the Committee and considered for publication. Members of the Series Committee--who may request assistance from expert counsel on specialized topics--serve as readers who judge the dissertations. The reading process can take up to three months, at which time authors will be informed whether or not their manuscript has been accepted for publication.
For further information regarding the Series, contact the Editorial Committee Chair, James R. Krabill ([email protected]).
ASM SCHOLARLY MONOGRAPHS SERIES (Wipf & Stock, 2007-2022):
EARLIER PUBLICATIONS OF THE ASM SCHOLARLY MONOGRAPH SERIES [formerly ASM Dissertation Series]:
ASM Board Documents 2012
ASM Board Documents 2012
ASMweb.org/assets/Booklet.pdf">Board of Publications Booklet
ASMweb.org/assets/BoP Booklet Supplement.pdf">Board of Publications Booklet Supplement
ASM Board Documents 2013
ASM Board Documents 2013
ASMweb.org/assets/2013BoPMeetingPacket.pdf">ASM Board of Publications Meeting Packet 2013
ASM's social media platforms
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ASM Student Fellowship
Who We Are
The American Society of Missiology Student Fellowship (ASMSF) is a group of graduate students within ASM who gather at the annual conference and throughout the year (often through email and social media) to support, challenge, collaborate, and celebrate with each other as we navigate the waters of graduate work in the field of missiology.
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ASM announcements
2024 Book Award for Excellence in Missiology
The American Society of Missiology honors
Al Tizon
As the 13th recipient of the annual Book Award for Excellence in Missiology
His book
The Rich, the Poor, and the Mission of the Church
Published by Orbis Books in 2023 is recognized for its significant contribution, and is noted for how it will affect how mission studies are examined, understood, and interpreted.
Presented June 15, 2024, Notre Dame, Indiana
2024 Lifetime Achievement Award
The American Society of Missiology presents this award to
Darrell L. Whiteman
For his commitment as a missiological anthropologist to incarnational identification as a model for cross-cultural ministry, and for a lifetime of teaching, writing, and training people as they cross cultures with the Gospel, and join God’s mission throughout the world.
Presented June 15, 2024, Notre Dame, Indiana
by Benjamin L. Hartley, ThD, President and Darren Duerksen, PhD, Secretary
Lifetime Achievement Award
The Lifetime Achievement Award is given annually to a member of the American Society of Missiology who has made a significant contribution to mission through their service to the ASM, mission practice, and missiological scholarship. The selection is made by the American Society of Missiology Board of Directors.
Keywords: stranger, refugee, immigration, diversity, mission
stranger, refugee, immigration, diversity, mission
In this blog I wish to discuss the refugee crisis and suggest how we, as followers of Jesus, might develop a missional response.
ASMweb.org/assets/blackorwhite.jpg.jpg" alt="Black or White" width="279" height="209" />The front pages of the New York Times over the past year, and even the cover story of the March 2016 Christianity Today, remind us that we are facing the worst humanitarian crisis since WW II. 60 million people are affected, and if we added them up they would represent the 23rd largest country in the world. It’s unbelievable, but it’s reality.
Amidst the clamor, noise, nonsense, and fear about refugees, migrants, and other strangers in our midst, I have been thinking a lot about how Jesus would respond to and treat the Strangers in our nation, in our community, and in our personal lives. Would he build a wall to keep them out? Would he send police into neighborhoods where Muslims predominantly live? Of course not. So why do we even think we should? Unfortunately the Church is not immune to this way of thinking. In the March 2016 issue of Christianity Today it was reported that many evangelicals supported the ban on refugees, and according to the Pew Research Center only 1/3 of white evangelical Protestants said they favored the United States accepting more refugees, and that was prior to the Paris attack. Afterward, LifeWay Research found that 48% of self-identified evangelical pastors agreed that there was a “sense of fear” within their congregations about refugees coming to the United States. Do those congregations understand how Jesus would relate to refugees, to the strangers in their community?
What does it mean to be a refugee, to leave what is familiar and enter into permanent strangeness? Refugees experience the loss of all things—food, shelter, significance, predictability, the basics of life are gone. Their language, celebrations, traditions, even the familiar smells of home disappear, but the loss of identity is one of the greatest losses for refugees. How would Jesus relate to refugees who have lost so much?
ASMweb.org/assets/banksy_wall.jpg" alt="Open the wall" width="310" height="235" />I believe, as followers of Jesus, we must have a complete change of our worldview in order to welcome strangers instead of ignoring and fearing them. Paul writes in Romans 12:2 “Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind [worldview]. Then you will be able to know the will of God—what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.” As followers of Jesus we cannot allow ourselves to get sucked into all the fear, hatred, misunderstanding and even bigotry against the strangers and refugees who are living amongst us. We need a missional mindset, not a protective and fearful one.
I want to recommend several characteristics of a missional mindset needed to respond to refugees in a Christ-like way. Every perspective frames how we see and understand the world and its problems. Too often we are unaware that we even have a particular perspective, and so we sally forth into the world to do good, oblivious that there may be other ways of seeing and understanding refugees and strangers. This is when helping can too often hurt the very people we seek to assist.
First, we listen MORE and talk LESS. We have to listen with our ears and our heart in order to understand and empathize with the plight of refugees. Every refugee has a story which they want to share, but we are often too busy or too afraid to seek out and listen to their story.
Second, we cultivate a healthy appreciation for diversity. We celebrate diversity, we are not threatened by it. The picture of the fulfilled Kingdom of God as revealed in Rev. 7:9 is a Kingdom of enormous diversity because all people groups, languages, and cultures will be represented around the throne of God. The absence of diversity is not unity, it is uniformity. In fact, you can’t have unity without diversity, and the Kingdom of God is a kingdom of diversity unified in its worship of God.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, a missional perspective on refugees takes an incarnational approach to identifying with them in the same way that God became Jesus the Jew and identified with his Jewish religion and culture in the midst of the oppressive Roman occupation of Palestine. An incarnational attitude, like the one Jesus had as portrayed in Philippians 2:1-8, is the most important characteristic of a missiological approach to ministry with refugees. When we have the attitude that Jesus had toward the stranger, it empowers us to identify and empathize with them. We begin to see the trauma of their world through their eyes, we weep with them over their loss, and we laugh and celebrate with them when they have hope for a better future. Like Jesus, we attempt to see and understand the world from their worldview and do not condemn nor fear them as refugees in our midst. You see, the strangers among us may very well be angels unaware.
ASMweb.org/assets/blog/ThaiTemple.jpg" alt="Thai Temple" width="300" height="225" />
Buddhism is everywhere in Thailand. Temples permeate every city and village. Shrines for appeasing the spirits adorn house yards as well as malls, businesses, and hospitals. The loudspeaker in my neighborhood announces daily the latest temple events and merit-making opportunities. Small Buddhas rest on the dashboards of cars and grace the necks of their drivers. Indeed, Buddhism in Thailand is not merely a personal religious preference or system of values, it is a way of life; a matter of identity. As they say, "To be Thai is to be Buddhist."
With Thai identity so thoroughly intertwined with Buddhism, religious conversion in Thailand evokes nothing less than a clash of worlds. For one, Christianity is considered a foreign religion. Just as everyone "knows" that Thai people are Buddhist, so everyone "knows" that Westerners are Christian. Not only that, but conversion immerses the self in an alternate community, the church, wherein converts find meaning and belonging among "brothers and sisters" of a new, spiritual family. The more time the convert spends with this new family, however, the more his or her biological family feels threatened by this new religion. What all this entails is that when a Thai becomes a Christian, a crisis of social identity ensues. Their newfound faith, while highly valued as their sacred home, is, at the same time, perceived by others as a subversive act of "dis-belonging." The result of all this is marginalization, or the lived experience of being a stranger in one's own familiar land.
Ever since I moved to Thailand in 2008, I've been amazed by how Thai Christians navigate their "strangerness." As a marginalized minority group, Thai believers have discovered creative and, at times, surprising ways for living successfully in a Buddhist society without compromising their faith. In fact, not only are many Christians managing their displacement well, but they are also bolstering their religious identities and boldly testifying to the presence of God's kingdom in the process. How is that possible?
I find this question to be of utmost importance for Christians today, not only in Thailand, but around the world. Throughout most of Asia, Christians have long existed as a minority people. They know what it is like to be misunderstood, estranged, and, at times, persecuted for living against the grain of their home society and culture. In response, they have learned how to maintain their religious exclusivism while, at the same time, holding on to their ethnic, national, and kinship identities. For them, strangerness is a way of life; the everyday background for how they relate to others, understand oneself, and live as a testimony of Jesus Christ.
ASMweb.org/assets/blog/ThaiDancing.jpg" alt="Thai Dancing" width="300" height="200" />What is it like to live as a stranger in a familiar land? What can the Western Church, which is finding itself more and more marginalized within post-Christian societies, learn from Thai believers who have for so long negotiated their Christian minority identities? How might marginalized Christians manage their existing social identities without compromising their faith commitments?
These questions form the basis for my recent book, Strangers in a Familiar Land: A Phenomenological Study on Marginal Christian Identity. The book presents an insider's perspective on what it is like to live as a minority Christian in a predominately non-Christian society. Through in-depth interviews with Thai believers, I set out to interpret their experiences of marginalization through the lens of phenomenology. In the book, readers are taken on a journey into the everyday world of Thai Christians. They will follow the participants through the joys of religious transformation, the excitement of entering an egalitarian community of saints, the difficulties involved in being displaced from one's family, friends, and society, and the struggles of negotiating religious identity on the one hand, and kinship and cultural identities on the other. The end result is a detailed description of the phenomenon of marginalization that not only reveals the lived experience of Thai believers, but also brings understanding to the lived experience of many believers around the world who are managing daily their minority Christian identities.
In the book, we discover that Christian identity is more than an ideal. It is not something we simply theologize about, teach, or seek to uncover within one's "true self." Instead, Christian identity is lived "out there," in the real world, by everyday Christians who live their embodied existence among those who hold a plurality of competing beliefs, lifestyles, and values. For Thai Christians, being Christian in a Buddhist world is a process. It involves successes and failures, joys and disappointments. However, it is inherently communal as well. The believer is never alone. The Thai church, while small, is a close-knit family that molds the social identities of its members so as to enable them to withstand the pressures of marginalization. We all have much to learn from these precious saints, and I hope my book is able to adequately reveal their stories and experiences so that all Christians, whether from the West or East, may together "attain to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13) as strangers in familiar lands.
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Keywords: reconciliation, aboriginal, LGBTQ, mission, native Americans, Residential Schools, LGBTQ
reconciliation, aboriginal, LGBTQ, mission, native Americans, Residential Schools, LGBTQ
The Nitty Gritty Mission of Reconciliation
It has become a standard missiological practice to frame the Missio Dei around the four alienations described in Genesis 3. Our blueprint for mission encompasses the reconciliation of people to God, to themselves, to one another, and to creation. Each of these represents an enormous challenge that looks different, depending on where you find yourself.
I have been pondering the second of these in light of my Canadian urban context.
As the story goASMweb.org/assets/AdamandEve.jpg.jpg" alt="Adam and Eve" width="184" height="157" />es, Adam and Eve's disobedience resulted in a blanket of shame, signified by their hiding and make-shift attempts to cover their nakedness. Suddenly they were no longer at ease with their physical bodies and their psyches were marred with guilt and shame.
The pursuit of improved image, beauty, status, possessions, and an unhealthy clinging to others for affirmation are manifestations of this curse. Media projects the ideal physique, the preferred image, and what success should look like. Reality TV shows glamorize radical makeovers and clinics market cosmetic surgeries to rearrange face or figure, reinforcing the drive to remedy this self-estrangement and satiate the longing for wholeness.
Besides being a plague among Canadian youth, generally, two specific groups are negatively affected in even more acute ways. One of these populations is a visible minority that has experienced centuries of racial and cultural discriminationASMweb.org/assets/AboriginalCanadians.jpg" alt="Aboriginal Canadians" width="276" height="172" />. These are the aboriginal peoples of Canada. For decades, residential schools were an instrument of cultural genocide, a concerted effort by church and state to stamp out cultural identity. Children were removed from their families at young ages, forbidden to speak their languages, and were educated toward becoming productive white citizens. Instead of being agents of reconciliation, the church became a force of alienation, encouraging aboriginal children to despise their "indianness" and aspire to take on the identity of the Caucasian majority. An aboriginal member in my congregation recalls the deep childhood shame she felt over her dark skin and her avoidance of direct sunlight in the summer time, lest she take on even darker shades of pigment than her white classmates.
Only in recent years, within the framework of Canada's truth and reconciliation commission, has the church begun to address this deep-seated alienation that continues to manifest itself in Canada's many social problems. There are still large segments of the Canadian church that fail to see this dimension of reconciliation as integral to their mission.
Another minority group that acutely experiences alienation toward self is the gay/lesbian/transgendered community. Despite progress in laws protecting human rights and a significant shift in the attitudes of the Canadian population as a whole, much of the Canadian church continues to be a greater force for alienation than reconciliation. Teen suicide rates are high in Canada, but LGBT teens and young adults are four times more likely to commit suicide than their straight peers. Twenty percent of homeless youth are LGBT, many of them evicted by their church-going families. This brokenness, too, forms part of God's agenda of reconciliation.
Unfortunately, most churches have been a complete failure in this arena. The primary words LGBTs in Canada hear from the church areASMweb.org/assets/sexualminority.png" alt="sexual minority symbol" width="200" height="155" /> words of condemnation. My denomination (Canadian Baptists of Western Canada) has an official position of "Welcoming, but not Affirming" toward LGBT people. Although the "not affirming" label is intended to communicate that we do not affirm gay marriage, the common reaction of sexual minorities is that these churches are not affirming any identity apart from traditional heterosexuality. Regardless of where churches may land on the matter of same sex relationships, there is convincing evidence that sexual orientation and gender dysphoria are not chosen behaviours, but determined by some still unknown factors. Too often we emit messages of disapproval to people who identify as LGBT, offering them either the option of trying to change who they are or to live as though they were heterosexual (sometimes with painful relational consequences). We continue to impose the same kinds of failed options that we did upon our aboriginal populations: change or assimilate. I am not interested in staking a position in favour or against gay marriage or same sex relations. This is a divisive issue on which the church needs to learn to peacefully agree to disagree. But, we are all compelled by Christ's love to offer acceptance, home, and spiritual community that can help heal the wound of alienation to self that these brothers and sisters live with.
We need to take up the mission of reconciliation by helping both our aboriginal and LGBT brothers and sisters come to a place where they can stop hating the way they were made and affirm with the psalmist, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well" (139:14). This is the nitty-gritty work of mission.
I've been asked to share with you about my choice of this year's ASM topic, Interfaith Friendship as Incarnational Mission Practice. Although I've been teaching mission history and practice for over 20 years now at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, my interest in interfaith relationships is a more recent development. It stems from witnessing a growing number of Muslim families moving into Dubuque when IBM opened an office here about eight years ago. I realized I knew so little about this second largest and fastest growing world religion, and my students were asking me questions. So, as any good professor can tell you, I decided to teach a class on Islam so I could learn something about it! I've told that story in a University of Dubuque publication of the Wendt Character Initiative, Character and...Courageous Compassion (Vol. 2/2016) or http://digitalud.dbq.edu/ojs/character. This is how it began. . .
"I was to teach a seminary class on Christianity and Islam and knew so little of the latter. A friend had introduced me to the local imam, Dr. Adib Kassas, a Syrian psychiatrist in town so I gave him a call. Could my friend and I have coffee with him some afternoon this week to talk about lecturing in my class? He laughed. "I'd be glad to, but it will have to be after dark," he said. "It's the last week of Ramadan." I was embarrassed. I had made the first of many religious faux-paus: I had not even realized that this was, indeed, the height of one of the most revered Muslim holy days, and one of the Five Pillars of Islam. Fortunately, Adib took my ignorance in stride and simply invited me and my friends to dinner with the Muslim community of Dubuque on Saturday, for Eid al-Fitr, the festival celebrating the end of the month-long fast of Ramadan.
"Thus, on that Saturday, September 11, 2010, nine years to the day after the Twin Towers fell, when a fanatic Baptist preacher was burning Qur'ans in Florida, and to the consternation of my family members who knew only of TV images of rampaging Muslim fanatics, I headed out to a Muslim home in rural Illinois. Welcomed by our host, a retired Syrian engineer and his family, my friends and I feasted on dates, nuts, palak gosht and many other succulent if unidentifiable dishes, in conversation with Muslims from around the world located in the Tri-state area. So began an incredible journey of discovery and shared companionship across religious and cultural boundaries, a journey that spawned a new community of Christian, Muslim and Jewish families engaged in dialogue, hospitality and friendship: the Children of Abraham" (pp. 63, 64).
In the years since that initial encounter with local Muslims and Jews (there has been a synagogue in Dubuque since the 1920s that now houses a Reform congregation), I have not only learned far more than ever expected about both of these faiths, but made such significant friendships within both communities that I cannot imagine my life would be complete without them. My own faith has deepened as I have seen God's grace extended to me through unanticipated avenues: a seven year Qur'an study with the Imam and friends, multiple opportunities to engage with members of all three faiths in monthly conversations and local service projects over these years, and simply spending untold hours celebrating birthdays, holidays and life together in each other's homes.
This has had such an impact on me that it has taken my teaching in a whole new direction. I now challenge - invite - students to begin to build bridges of friendship and engage their own congregations in interfaith relationships in their own communities. I have begun to see the fruit of such efforts as students cross religious boundaries and share their interfaith encounters. Their joy, their questions, their faith deepens. As they live out their faith among others who see God differently, they become more rooted in Christ. The opportunity to be voices of peace and brokers of "another way" with those of other faiths in a climate of hatred and distrust, bear testimony to the Psalmist's claim: "How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!" (Ps. 133:1)
Interfaith friendships not only contribute to "peace on earth," but better fit us for the kingdom of God! Practicing and accepting hospitality opens us to "the other" and the work of God in every human heart. It is also God's love, brought home to us in Jesus Christ and by whose grace and mercy we draw strength to love and serve one another, which leads us to fruitful and faithful relationships. I look forward to being together this summer at ASM to explore further the role of interfaith friendships in God's purposes!
Keywords: ASM, American Society of Missiology, Overseas Ministries Study Center, Media
ASM, American Society of Missiology, Overseas Ministries Study Center, Media
I have an attitude about this film. That's because I can't view Scorsese's faithful and haunting cinematic rendering of Endo's 1966 novel apart from my twenty years in Japan as a mission co-worker.1 Because of my long experience of working with Japanese Christians, I do not read Silence or any of Endo's works as theology, which may put me at odds with many who teach the book or show the movie in courses in North America.
It is worth recalling that Endo wrote for an audience where only 1-2% of the people are Christian. Further, we should be careful not to ascribe to him some evangelical motive. In fact, Endo faced searing criticisms from many of his fellow Japanese Catholics, especially for the famous fumie scene, which has so riveted the attention of Western readers. I see Silence as literary art, which was the author's intent and also how it is viewed by most Japanese readers.
As for Scorsese's interpretation, I felt uncomfortable only once early on in the film by the depiction of the Inquisitor Inoue, who comes off at first as a grinning and patently evil bureaucrat. But later on, when he personally interrogates Rodrigues, Inoue shows a more pragmatic side that somehow makes him more human. He taunts the young priest, "The price for your glory is their suffering." Adding, "You are not a good priest because you are not concerned about the Kirishitans... Korobu! Apostatize!" While never sympathetic, he is seen as a military man following orders.
While the story's background is a particularly agonizing chapter of mission history with natural interest to members of the ASM, the novel and film draw attention to universal human themes of faithfulness, betrayal, doubt, forgiveness, love, suffering, beauty, and hope. While Endo did careful historical research for Silence, he depicts Japan's early encounter with Christianity through the lens of his own life, which by all accounts was a rocky journey through pre and post-WWII Japan, a time of study in France, various illnesses, and an ambiguous relationship with the Christian faith into which his mother or aunt had baptized him. And it seems Scorsese brought his own existential struggles to the film, which is why it took him so many years to complete. In the story's sensitive portrayal of the motivations, experiences, struggles, and evolving identities of the characters-foreign priests, converts, and local authorities-I can also recognize myself and many others I met in Japan, as well as certain enduring features of Japanese cultural, social, and political life.
Silence beautifully weaves together contextual, personal, and universal concerns. But I think it is the story's universal themes that have enabled it to achieve the status of a classic. For example, in the Jesuit priests, we can see a range of possible responses to the encounter with a new culture or a stranger, from 1) remaining faithful to one's tradition and self no matter the cost (Garupe), to 2) being forced by circumstances (or love?) to adapt (Rodrigues), to 3) rejecting one's tradition and self in order to survive (Ferreira). Among the Japanese converts, Jiisama and Mokichi embody rare loyalty and courage in the face of horrific oppression, while Kichijiro is perhaps the more familiar, hapless character who muddles through life but never gives up, falling down and bouncing back up time after time like a Daruma doll.2 It is even possible that Endo may have meant these depictions as types, as Silence was written before deconstruction came to dominate literary theory. Yet, ever more the novelist than the preacher or teacher, Endo never takes the cheap moralistic or didactic shot, refusing to idealize any particular type.
If there is a theological gem to be gleaned from the wreckage of this tragedy, it is the nuanced, virtually silent suggestion that God does not abandon any of these characters, in spite of the relative depth of their deficiencies. So, after all, there may be good news to be heard in the sometimes-deafening silence.
1 For the last 13 of those 20 years, I was a professor teaching practical theology, in Japanese, at Tokyo Union Theological Seminary (TUTS), founded by Uemura Masahisa, a first-generation Protestant leader. I want to acknowledge that TUTS helped support my sabbatical for my doctoral coursework.
2 A Daruma doll is commonplace in Japan. It is constructed in such a way that it is weighted at the bottom so that it always returns to an upright position when pushed over. It is a symbol for perseverance and resilience.
Those in touch with the debates in the last century over the nature of the Christian mission know that the language of "whole" has indeed been used at various times to recover the truly comprehensive scope of mission. I have a growing sense of the need for a new kind of whole.
We find ourselves living amid massive global changes, and contrary to the notion that holistic mission was forever settled and defined by the raging debates of the last hundred years concerning the relationship between evangelism and social concern, it is a dynamic reality that needs fresh formulations according to an ever-changing world. Indeed, a church that seeks to share good news amid increasingly volatile times faces new missional challenges.
In our diversifying, globalizing, and increasingly fracturing world, I have found it vitally important to consider the ministry of reconciliation as central to a contemporary understanding and practice of mission. I join others who have been urging the church to see reconciliation as the necessary paradigm of mission in the age of unprecedented global fragmentation. Since the turn of the twenty-first century, reconciliation has received renewed attention among missiologists and missionaries. After describing the sociopolitical, economic, and cultural consequences of colonialism, as well as the ubiquitous, disorienting effects of globalization, Robert Schreiter, a leading voice in reconciliation studies, writes, "It is out of this miASMa of violence and division that the theme of reconciliation began to surface as a compelling response to all that was happening in terms of mission." To show that reconciliation is emerging as a paradigm of mission for the twenty-first century, he cites the British and Irish Association of Mission Studies (2002), the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches (2005), the International Association of Mission Studies (2008), and the Lausanne Movement (2010), all of which took up the theme in their respective annual meetings.1
I applaud this development and desire to reinforce the efforts of those who have seen the crucial importance of reconciliation as a way to think and do mission in today's world. Historically, amid the infamous fundamentalist-modernist split in North American Protestantism, holistic mission has referred to efforts on the part of a group of courageous evangelicals who dared to challenge a myopic evangelism-only missiology.2 Their efforts sought to reintegrate social justice into the evangelical missionary agenda, to make whole again the mission of the church, especially but not exclusively among evangelicals around the world.
It is to build on the evangelism and social justice affirmation by understanding the ministry of reconciliation as the new whole in (w)holistic mission. In the age of intensified conflict on virtually every level, it can no longer be just about putting word and deed back together again (though it will take ongoing effort on the part of the church to keep them together); holistic mission also needs to be about joining God in putting the world back together again. It needs to be about participating with God in the healing of the nations.
From a biblical perspective, reconciliation flows out of God's big vision to transform-that is, mend, heal, restore, renew, re-create, and make whole-the whole world and everyone in it. Colossians 1:19-20 beautifully sums up God's agenda: "For in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross" (NRSV).
God's vision of reconciliation only makes sense in light of the biblical story of creation and fall, when in the beginning God created shalom-that is, a social order wherein perfect harmony existed between the Creator, creature, and ecosystem-but also when that shalom was shattered by sin (Gen. 1-3). Theologically, then, reconciliation means God's initiative to restore wholeness to a shattered creation. The ministry of reconciliation to which God has called the church (2 Cor. 5:18-20), therefore, participates in God's big vision to reconcile all things in Christ. Practically or missiologically, Brenda Salter McNeil defines "reconciliation" as "an ongoing spiritual process involving forgiveness, repentance and justice that restores broken relationships and systems to reflect God's original intention for all creation to flourish."3
We participate in God's vision of reconciliation as ambassadors. Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice explain what that means: "An ambassador is a representative who bears someone else's message in their absence. Ambassadors live in foreign countries, which they never really call home. Living within a country other than their own, their practices, loyalties, national interests and even their accent appear strange to the citizens of those countries where they are posted. So it is with Christ's ambassadors of reconciliation inside the world's brokenness."4 Practically, as Christ's ambassadors, our ministry of reconciliation includes the hard work of overcoming distrust, misunderstanding, bitterness, and even hatred between deeply conflicted parties in the power of the gospel. Reconciliation as God's way of redeeming creation and the church's way of representing Jesus Christ, bringing a message of peace to a broken world, is clearly missiological at the core.
As we shall see, reconciliation has social, ecclesial, cultural, ethnic, and political implications, but any biblical treatment of this ministry sees the reuniting of humanity to God as the basis of all other levels of reconciliation. This vertical reconciliation between God and humanity in the death and resurrection of Christ leads (or should lead) to horizontal reconciliation between warring factions within the human family. As the Cape Town Commitment plainly states, "Reconciliation to God is inseparable from reconciliation to one another."5
I am convinced that in today's fractured and fracturing world if the church does not operationalize this understanding of reconciliation, then it cannot claim to be engaged in holistic mission. The whole church, which desires to bear witness to the whole gospel throughout the whole world, therefore needs to be gripped anew by the vision of reconciliation in Christ. It needs to discover the compelling image of being God's reconciled and reconciling people, modeling for a fractured world the power of God to mend, heal, and make whole even the most intense of enmities. For what does it mean to be the whole church engaged in God's whole mission if it does not include the goal of reconciliation between men and women, rich and poor, and black, white, and brown in a broken world?
1 Robert Schreiter, "The Emergence of Reconciliation as a Paradigm of Mission," in Mission as Ministry of Reconciliation, ed. Robert Schreiter and Knud Jorgensen (Oxford: Regnum, 2013), 11-12. See also his definition of reconciliation in "Reconciliation," in Dictionary of Mission, ed. Karl Müller, Theo Sundermeier, Stephen B. Bevans, and Richard H. Bliese (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1998), 381.
2 For an overview of this split as background for the development of holistic mission among evangelicals, see my chapter "Precursors and Tensions in Holistic Mission: An Historical Overview," in Holistic Mission: God's Plan for God's People, ed. Brian Woolnough and Wonsuk Ma (Oxford: Regnum, 2010), 61-75.
3 Brenda Salter McNeil, Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2015), 22.
4 Emmanuel Katongole and Chris Rice, Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace, and Healing (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2008), 51-52.
5 Lausanne Movement, "The Cape Town Commitment: A Confession of Faith and a Call to Action," January 25, 2011, https://www.lausanne.org/content/ctc/ctcommitment.
Keywords: ASM, American Society of Missiology, podcast, postcast series, Overseas Ministries Study Center, Andrew Walls, Ian Douglas, Jay Moon, Mary Mikhael, Ruth Padilla
ASM, American Society of Missiology, podcast, postcast series, Overseas Ministries Study Center, Andrew Walls, Ian Douglas, Jay Moon, Mary Mikhael, Ruth Padilla
American Society of Missiology is proud to collaborate with the Overseas Ministries Study Center of New Haven, Connecticut, in making available in our inaugural podcast series these fine lectures by leading scholars on a variety of missiological topics. Suggestions for future podcast series may be emailed to ASMweb.org/emailto:ASM[email protected]" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ASM[email protected]. We are very grateful to Dr. Michael L. Sweeney for producing this podcast in collaboration with the ASM's Board of Publications. We hope it is just the first podcast series of many to come!
Click the play button below each title:
1. Andrew Walls_First African Diaspora and Its Mission to Africa
2. Andrew Walls_The Christian Chapter in the History of African Religion
3. Ian Douglas_The Church as Missionary Society
4. Jay Moon_Orality and Scripture Use
5. Mary Mikhael_Arab Spring and Christians of the Middle East
6. Ruth Padilla Deborst_Faith and Life
Insights into Global Christianity from the World Christian Database
Did you know that Christianity became a majority-global-South faith in 1981?
Did you know that, in 2018, Africa surpassed Latin America as the continent with the most Christians (631 million)?
Did you know that, despite roughly 400 years of Christian stability in the Middle East, the region has dropped from 12.7% Christian in 1900 to 4.0% Christian in 2015?
This is the kind of information you can get from the World Christian Database, published by Brill and edited by Dr. Todd M. Johnson and Dr. Gina A. Zurlo of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, MA, USA). The Center has been tracking trends like this for over 50 years, from our humble beginnings in Nairobi, Kenya to our current home at Gordon-Conwell.
Perhaps you've seen the World Christian Database before... and the promptly ran in the opposite direction. Run no further! The WCD has been completed upgraded and represents an enhanced user experience both functionally and visually.
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Overall, the WCD is, simply, much easier to use than it was before. The system to design searches is much more straightforward and user-friendly: you can search for a variable, add it to your query, rearrange variables, and change properties of a query all on one page. No more toggling between pages or guessing where variables are going to show up! The ease of query design allows users to customize their dataset to exactly what they need, without having to contact a researcher (though we're still always happily available to help!).
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Queries, records, and bookmarks can also be saved in custom-made folders and workspaces to allow collaboration between users. Users can attach notes to queries and thus use the WCD as a functional workspace for research projects. You can also simply save frequently-used queries so you don't have to re-create them each time you log in. Users can still export datasets to Excel, but now the datasets it produces are formatted much better and are far easier to use.
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The "look" and "feel" of the updated WCD is completely different with new colors, fonts, logos, and photos. It's brighter, cleaner, and more contemporary.
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The navigation is also significantly improved. The Launchpad tool gives users immediate access to the different homepages so there is less clicking to access the data. There is a history button (just like a web browser) that tells you where you've been so you can get back there quickly.
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The WCD team can customize what appears on every homepage, so we can switch out links according to user feedback.
Overall, the data in the WCD is now organized in a more logical way that makes sense to the user. Users will be able to find what they're looking for more quickly, without having to wander around. Though wandering around is always permitted! You might discover something about world Christianity you never knew.
To find out more, contact Dr. Gina Zurlo, co-editor of the World Christian Database at [email protected]. Also check out the free resources available for download at the Center's website: www.globalchristianity.org. We can also be reached by phone: 978-468-2750.
"Men hate each other because they fear each other;
they fear each other because they do not know each other;
they do not know each other because they do not communicate;
they do not communicate because they are separate."
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
ASMweb.org/assets/blog/images/MLKJr.jpg" alt="Martin Luther King Jr." width="300" height="105" />This quote by Martin Luther King Jr. is at the top of my syllabus for the course on Intercultural Communication that I teach at Taylor Seminary. King was speaking about the problem of racism in America in the 1960s, but his observations apply to a myriad of contexts in our world today. Because we often find ourselves separated from people who are different and we do not share life with them on any kind of meaningful level, or engage in real heart-to-heart communication, we live in a culture susceptible to fear that sometimes even degenerates into hatred. People who have the harshest attitudes toward illegal immigrants, sexual minorities, the homeless, or followers of other religions, are seldom able to name anyone in their circle of friends who belongs to such categories. Stereotypes and misattributions are the fodder of fear and keep us from moving out of our comfortable ghettos into other people's domains.
I have taught a course on Understanding Islam numerous times here at Taylor. Two of the experiential assignments are to take a class trip to observe a prayer service at a mosque and for each student to spend at least one hour interviewing a Muslim about their practice and faith. That personal conversation, usually over a cup of coffee, is often the most transformational part of the course. We, in our divided world, need to spend time sharing life and conversation in order to dispel fear and hatred.
I remember the first time I had a conversation with a Sikh man. Sikhs had always intimidated me with their full beards, turbans and pajama-type clothing. So when the elderly Punjabi asked me a question at the bus stop I froze momentarily. Perhaps I feared he would bring out the little ceremonial dagger I heard they carry if I answered him inappropriately or that his poor command of English would make the conversation awkward. A few minutes into conversation and my pitiful stereotypes were destroyed. He had served in Her Majesty's Royal Air Force, spoke lovely British-Indian accented English, and had lived a fascinating life. Communication transformed fear and unknowing into warmth and potential friendship.
While the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada was concluding its hearings, an indigenous member of our church was invited to share her story on a Sunday morning. For fifteen minutes she relayed what it was like for her as a five year old to be taken away from her mother, placed in a residential school where the agenda was to make her think and act like a white girl, and then to be shuttled to several foster homes as a teen. Suddenly, the historical atrocities wore a human face and, when she was finished, the congregation stood and erupted into spontaneous applause that went on for a very long time. It was a time of healing and new understanding.
As we consider welcoming Syrian refugees or immigrants from other countries with cultures that are quite different from ours, there are a number of practical ways we can break down barriers and move from fear to understanding.
1. Be suspicious of your assumptions. Despite the poverty of their current situation, many refugees come with skills and education and at one time enjoyed a comfortable life in their homeland. Women who wear a hijab are not necessarily being oppressed by their husbands or made to feel like second rate citizens. They may be doing so out of respect and love for God.
2. Share hospitality by offering baked goods, gift cards but even better, by inviting them into your home to share a meal. Assure them beforehand that you will not be serving pork products or alcohol if they are Muslims.
3. Introduce them to common, everyday activities of North American life. Invite them to a high school basketball game, to visit a greenhouse, or just go for a walk. If they are new to winter sports, taking them skating or cross-country skiing can be a delightful time to laugh and play together.
4. Share practical tips on how to navigate life in their new land. My next door neighbours are from the Philippines and, during their first winter I saw them outside trying to chop thick ice on their sidewalk with a hammer and a plastic shovel. Much to their delight, I introduced them to my long handled ice chopper. It was a simple act, but it opened the door to conversation and sharing.
5. Be sensitive about inviting them to church. Newcomers may be eager to explore their new country and how Canadians or Americans worship, but beware of giving them a negative impression of Christianity before they have come to fully understand the culture. Remember that Muslims do not even use music in worship, so if your church worship is led by a rock-and-roll band and people pray to God in casual ways that would be highly disrespectful in other contexts, you might want to invite them to worship with you in a more traditional Christian service.
When Karen and I were missionaries in Nigeria, a Somali couple moved into a town a few kilometers away from our village. Abdi was working for an agricultural agency and came to meet us, confiding that his wife, Asha, was struggling with loneliness and looking for companionship. Abdi and Asha soon became dear friends. We shared meals, picnics, outings and many heart-to-heart conversations. They were practising Muslims, yet Abdi had done postgraduate studies in Wyoming and Asha had studied fashion design in Italy. We discovered that we had many things in common, despite our differences in faith and culture. Much to our surprise, we found greater joy in our visits with them than we did with some of our fellow missionaries. The oft-repeated saying is true, "There are no strangers, only friends you have not yet met" (W. B. Yeats).
My research focuses on the contribution of music and the performing arts to sustainable peacebuilding, especially among Muslims and Christians.1 Research consultations and participant observations took place in Morocco, Lebanon and Indonesia (2008-2012) where we pursued answers to the role of music and the arts in bridging divides, especially among religious peoples. Festivals and music events were the focus of our study. The eight-day Festival of World Sacred Musics in Fes, Morocco, impacted me profoundly. I had no idea how much peoples in the Middle East and North Africa valued their cultural musics. The possibilities for bringing peoples from around the world to watch, listen, and experience such groups as the Whirling Dervishes of Damascus on the same stage as a group of Byzantine Monks overwhelmed me. Even more impressive were the opportunities to sit together in the audience with peoples of diverse faith backgrounds as we entered into spaces of musical splendor. We were rubbing shoulders on the global stage.
Such scenarios led to me to the work of John Paul Lederach who argues that:
The artistic five minutes, I have found rather consistently, when it is given space and acknowledged as something far beyond entertainment, accomplishes what most of politics has been unable to attain: It helps us return to our humanity, a transcendent journey that, like the moral imagination, can build a sense that we are, after all, a human community.2
Ah, yes! The arts can and do indeed contribute to peacebuilding among religious peoples. However, I struggled with the possibilities of staging such large, one-time global events. Significant as they are, ultimately there is a need for sustainable peacebuilding, where the arts foster continuing dialogue among and between people of diverse nationalities, ethnicities, and worlds faiths. Drawing again from Lederach, I concurred with his admonition that "Peacebuilding requires a vision of relationship. Stated bluntly, if there is no capacity to imagine the canvas of mutual relationships and situate oneself as part of that historic and ever-evolving web, peacebuilding collapses." This triggered my concern for communicating the Gospel. The need and cry for relationship is necessary not only in peacebuilding but also in witnessing to the love of God and his compassion for all peoples.3
So, my questions turned to the role of music and the performing arts in building relationships among and between peoples of diverse faiths. Surprisingly, I discovered music events bringing together Muslims and Christians taking place in Southern California, right where I live. From a benefit concert for Syrian refugees at a local Presbyterian church to performing with a Middle Eastern ensemble in Pasadena, and researching the Middle Eastern Ensemble at the University of California at Santa Barbara, I discovered peoples coming together around music as a means of building relationships.
Enter the concept of musicking: to make music together is a verb, an action that involves everyone, not just the musicians.4 Music events and performances are not limited to the sounds produced. Rather, they also initiate and foster the building of relationships that can be reenacted over a sustainable period of time.
In the midst of musicking, not only do we find commonness, but we also find ourselves relating with our neighbors-testifying to God's glory. Dialoguing and entering into moments of sharing life together through music making witnesses to the hope that is within us.
1 See Roberta R. King and Sooi Ling Tan, Eds. (un)Common Sounds: Songs of Peace and Reconciliation among Muslims and Christians (Eugene, OR: Cascade Publishers, 2014.
2 John Paul Lederach, The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Building Peace (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 153.
3ASM%20Blog%2011%202018.docx#_ftnref3"> Lederach, The Moral Imagination, 35.
4 Christopher Small, Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Music Culture). (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1998), 9.
This blog post first appeared at dr.altizon.com
The 2019 annual meeting of the American Society of Missiology (ASM) recently concluded. Over 240 professors, executives, and practitioners of mission met to explore the theme, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Faithful," essentially asking ourselves the question, "How should the fact of the gap between the rich and the poor impact the way we live and practice mission around the world?"
I had the honor of serving ASM as its president this past year. By that honor, I had the privilege of organizing the meeting, which included choosing the theme, securing speakers, and generally bossing highly efficient people around. Huge thanks to the ASM board-especially conference coordinator Alison Fitchett-as well as my associates of the International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation (INFEMIT)-especially operations director Tori Greaves-who all made the meeting run quite smoothly.
Issues surrounding wealth and poverty have always been central in my mission thinking. The God whom we encounter in the Scriptures, yes, loves all, but the lost, vulnerable, have-nots, marginalized, and oppressed get God's special attention. How should that fact-God's special concern for the poor-define both our personal lifestyles and the church's mission around the world?
(Photo: Dr. Debra Mumford speaking on prosperity gospel)
Our speakers "brung it!" as we say on the street. Renowned theologian Ronald J. Sider started us off Friday night (June 14) by sharing his own personal journey through six editions of Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. On Saturday morning (June 15), Father Benigno Beltran, a Catholic priest-scholar who served the people of Smokey Mountain in Manila for 30 years, brilliantly made the connection between serving the poor and serving the earth. That evening, I confronted classism and proposed ways to overcome it personally and corporately. And then on Sunday morning (June 16), Debra Mumford, a homiletics professor at Louisville Theological Seminary who has done extensive research on the prosperity gospel, gave an informative lecture-sermon on the logic, but ultimately the dangers of prosperity thinking.
I also invited storytellers, that is, people who reminded us that ministry among the poor needs concrete expressions. Maria Surat Schommer described the local ministry of the Catholic Worker. Viv Grigg shared about an innovative master's program in urban missiology for, with, and among the poor. And Ruth Padilla DeBorst described the vision and life of Casa Adobe, an intentional Christian community in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Sandra Maria Van Opstal, author of The Next Worship, and Hallel, a duo made up of Aracely Hernandez Bock and Adri Arango from the Jesus People USA community in Chicago, led us in song. This LatinX, all-girl band had us swaying and clapping to songs in several languages, reminding us that worship entails our whole bodies as we serve the God of all nations.
We gave out several awards. Colin Yuckman received the Graduate Student Paper Award; Brian Stanley earned the Book of the Year award; and J. Samuel Escobar received the Lifetime Achievement Award. I was especially gratified that Dr. Escobar, past president of ASM, received this award during my presidency. He has been a mentor and friend to me and to countless others throughout his remarkable career, which spans over five decades.
(Photo: Dr. J. Samuel Escobar receives the Lifetime Achievement Award with Ruth Padilla DeBorst and Al Tizon)
This summary barely communicates my extreme gratitude for allowing me the privilege of contributing to the life of the American Society of Missiology. My ultimate hope, of course, is that the issues with which we wrestled at the conference will translate into lifestyle changes, paradigm shifts, and powerful mission partnerships between the rich and the poor as God's people strive in the Spirit do on earth as it is in heaven.
Keywords: Bartomole de las Casas, Indigenous spirituality, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Residential Schools, mission
Bartomole de las Casas, Indigenous spirituality, Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Residential Schools, mission
If one finds some gold nuggets in a pile of manure, does it make the pile less stinky? No, but it does prove that the pile is not composed of 100% pure manure and it would certainly encourage the finder to sift through the pile with greater interest. Perhaps the analogy is a bit crass, but the history of Christian mission to Canada's Indigenous peoples has come to be largely viewed with disgust, particularly in light of the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. To look for and highlight positive examples of humble, culture-affirming, advocates for the shalom of Indigenous peoples is to tread on sensitive ground when the scars of colonialism are so deep and the wounds still so fresh.
In 2015, Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission concluded a six year process of listening to the stories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. More than 6000 witnesses shared their personal experiences at listening sessions set up all across the country. Their stories primarily recounted experiences of abuse and ethnocide through more than 100 years of Residential Schools, which operated in a cooperative effort between churches and the government of Canada. Indigenous children were often forcefully removed from their homes and relocated to these schools where they were given European names, haircuts, and clothing, forbidden to speak their languages, and immersed in a western and overtly Christian education system. The plan was to turn them into productive, assimilated citizens who would bring an end to "the Indian problem." Many suffered physical, psychological, sexual abuse and neglect. The trauma suffered by these children and their successive generations left a legacy of addiction and substance abuse, poverty, broken families, and much higher suicide and incarceration rates than the rest of the Canadian population. It is unquestionably a dark and regrettable period of Canadian history.
When Senator Lynn Beyak suggested that "positive aspects of residential schools have not been acknowledged" there was a massive outcry across the nation that led to her suspension from the Senate. Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett replied that "the entire purpose of the residential schools was wrong." Indeed, while there may have been examples of good, compassionate teachers in these schools the overall legacy has been decidedly damaging.
It would be in no one's interest to try to sanitize the history of a missionary strategy that so blatantly violated the ethos of mission in the way of JesASMweb.org/assets/blog/MixedBlessings.jpg" alt="Mixed Blessings" width="140" height="210" />us. At the same time, one need not affirm that the entire purpose of Christian mission to Indigenous peoples was evil. Mission was often a partner to colonial interests and many missionaries shared the biases and ethnocentric attitudes of their cultural peers. Yet, there are stories of men and women who rose above their natural prejudices and embraced the radical way of Jesus by offering an incarnational witness that made the Gospel compelling. A compendium of essays, recently published by the University of British Columbia, is entitled "Mixed Blessings: Indigenous Encounters with Christianity in Canada." Rather than paint a binary picture of white colonizer/abuser versus Indigenous victim, the scholars explore the nuanced dynamics of Indigenous agency and how Christianity had and continues to have, real meaning for many Indigenous people. The contributors argue that Indigenous peoples embraced Christianity for political as well as spiritual reasons, with many finding an affinity between their traditional spirituality and the spirituality demonstrated by missionaries. This is obvious every July when nearly 40,000 mostly Indigenous people flock to the pilgrimage site of Lac St. Anne, in Alberta, (a shrine founded by Oblate missionaries) for five days of special mass, prayers, blessings and family gatherings. Despite their flaws and cultural captivity, some missionaries offered a compelling and sacrificial witness of laying down their lives out of love for Indigenous peoples. These stories must be told and celebrated, for they round out and provide a fuller picture of our mostly troublesome past.
There are probably limits to this analogy, but I would propose that looking for heroic figures that defied the status quo during the Holocaust and risked their lives for the cause of justice and compassion, does not in any way diminish the horror or stench of that unspeakable period of history. Even while the French Reformed Church chose to remain silent and unopposed to the German occupation of France, we admire the likes of André and Magda Trocmé who mobilized the entire village of Le Chambon sur Lignon to spare more than 3,000 Jews from death. And while the majority of German churches endorsed Hitler's rise to power, Martin Niemöller became the leading voice of resistance for the Confessing Church. Yet, even these "golden nuggets" were flawed agents who struggled to discern the true essence of the Gospel while in the vice-grip of their powerful cultural milieu. During most of his ministry Niemöller maintained a strong commitment to nationalism and militarism. Only after the war did he come to a more refined understanding of the nature of mission in the way of Jesus.
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Missionaries, like all humans, are inescapably shaped by their fallen cultures of origin. Their motives and methods are often a mixture of noble and evil. Bartolomé de las Casas, often lauded for his fifty years of advocacy for Indigenous rights, once owned Indigenous slaves himself and even supported the African slave trade to replace the forced labor imposed on Indigenous peoples in the West Indies. Only later in life did he come to see all forms of slavery as inconsistent with his Christian faith. Despite his inconsistencies, we uphold him today as an example of conscience and prophetic witness during an era characterized largely by collusion between mission and colonial power.
Finding golden nuggets in the manure pile brings hope into the historical narrative, reminding us that humans are capable of transformation and of breaking out of their cultural prison. It reignites confidence that glimpses of the missio Dei can be sighted in the flawed and sometimes smelly efforts of human agents.
ASMweb.org/assets/blog/Go_Forth.jpg" alt="Go Forth" width="250" height="407" />In late 2015, Robert Ellsberg of Orbis Books contacted me to ask if I would be willing to edit a volume of Pope Francis's statements on mission. I immediately said "yes." I, of course, had followed Francis in the news since his election in 2013 and been captivated by his simplicity, his humility, his manner of engaging people, and his unprecedented critique of church leaders in Evangelii Gaudium. But I had not yet acquired a deep knowledge of his views. So, I very much welcomed the opportunity to work on the project.
When we spoke, Ellsberg remarked that there were many in the U.S. Catholic church, including bishops, who seemed to be completely missing the missionary direction and agenda Francis was setting for the church. What was needed was a book that would show these things clearly and simply, drawing primarily on the pope's own words. Everything I would need was in English translation on the Vatican website.
So, I got to work. Over the next year I downloaded and read more than three thousand pages of Francis's speeches, audiences, and other statements. The depth and breadth of his missiological reflections were remarkable. There were teachings on every aspect of social mission, on proclamation and inculturation, on ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, on spiritual obstacles to mission, on bad missionary practice, and on the intellectual virtues at work in effective missionary engagement. All of this was suffused with theological insight and united to a profound call for the whole church to "go forth" out of its all too frequent non-missionary state.
As one familiar with prior Catholic magisterial teaching on mission, the novelties in particular stood out to me. Never before had a pope pointed out so directly the church's missionary faults and failings. Never in modern times had so sweeping a call for the church's missionary transformation been issued. And never had I seen the necessity and the beauty of mission presented in such compelling terms. To cite two papal biographers, I found Austen Ivereigh's description of Francis as "the Great Reformer" quite apt, and with Paul Vallely I saw that Francis was indeed engaged in a "struggle for the soul of Catholicism"-a struggle to make it more mission-oriented and more faithful to Jesus. The more I read, the more I saw the truth of Ellsberg's remark and the more Francis's words to the church seeped into my soul, challenging me.
Organizing the book took time, more than I originally anticipated. Reading Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis's 2013 apostolic exhortation, helped me identify many of the major themes the book would explore. But I soon discovered other themes, equally central to the pope's understanding of mission, that were hardly elaborated at all in Evangelii Gaudium. Several of these-including discernment, closeness, dialogue, accompaniment, corruption, prayer, and hope-I found were not developed at great length in any of his statements. Faithfully presenting these aspects of his thought would require a serious effort of compilation.
And that turned out to be one of the distinguishing features of the volume as it came to completion in the summer of 2018. Most edited collections of Pope Francis's teachings compile several dozen of his texts. Go Forth: Toward a Community of Missionary Disciples would ultimately compile over six hundred texts, all in order to convey the full force and sweep of the pope's message of missionary reform.
To every baptized believer and to every church community, Francis addresses these words: A wounded world awaits us. Our Lord awaits us. Will we follow him on the paths of mission? Will we be a church that shines?
"Christ is my ‘ishta'[God], he has never left me, I will never leave him, but I would not have joined the Christian community.
I would have lived with my people and my community and been a witness to them."
Yisu Das Tiwari (1911-1997), a follower of Christ from a Brahmin family of North India, made the preceding striking statement to his son, Ravi Tiwari. I find senior Tiwari's admission effortlessly intersecting with the narrative of thousands of Hindu devotees of Christ in India today. Why did Tiwari regret joining the Christian community? What could be the causes behind such rumination?
These are the questions that prompted me to investigate the pertinent issue of religious believing in Jesus Christ vis-à-vis social belonging of the believers. The relationship of believing in Christ and belonging to the institutional church or Christian community is as old as the Christian faith in India and the issue reemerges today in the form of a missiological dilemma: Many caste-Hindus claim to believe in Christ but remain outside the institutional church and some decide to remain unbaptized.
In my ethnographic case study in India, Believing Without Belonging? Religious Beliefs and Social Belonging of Hindu Devotees of Christ (2020), I argue that this response to the gospel needs to be viewed from the theoretical perspective of World Christianity in general and Christianity's enduring encounter with Hinduism and Indian culture in particular.
I am thrilled this study is finally seeing the light of day published under the ASM Monograph Series (48). Dr. Darrel Whiteman, in his endorsement of the book, writes, "In this carefully researched and well documented study, John brilliantly tackles the issues of baptism, identity, and ecclesiology and boldly concludes that these Hindu devotees of Christ are neither anonymous Christians nor secret Christians, but rather represent an authentic expression of World Christianities."
Christian mission not only transforms the cultures it reaches, but the new inculturation of Christianity also is transformed and particularized in that process. People do not merely become adherents of Christ, but that faith becomes localized in its theology, ecclesiology, and missiology. History is replete with such models of the gospel's transformative nature through contextual hermeneutics of the Bible. My book recognizes and promotes what Lamin Sanneh terms the "translatability"1 of faith, which represents the intrinsic characteristic of the gospel it preaches because the gospel will "invigorate and transform"2 the cultures and the peoples that accept it. Through the inclusion of people's history, culture, oral traditions, and their devotional piety in each context as valid sources of contextual hermeneutics, World Christianity as a theoretical perspective has widened the scope of sources for doing theology and practice of missions. These sources have not only been accepted as valid as the written scriptural texts for doing theology today, but they have also molded the nature of our faith and its mission, especially in the Majority World.
This process of the transformation of faith is no different in India where the gospel's interaction with various cultures and caste groups has produced distinct types of Christianities. For instance, the Syrian Orthodox Christianity of Kerala (South India) and the formation of a distinct community, because of Christians' migration from Syria and subsequent mingling with the local converts, are unequalled anywhere else in India. In northern India, during the colonial period, the ensuing Christianity was typically a replica of prevalent European Christianity. But then, the acceptance of the gospel by various aboriginal and Dalit cultures shaped distinctly indigenous forms of Christianity, with some Western structures intact. Furthermore, the dynamic interaction of the gospel with the Hindu tradition also culminated in the emergence of alternate forms of Christianity, quite dissimilar from its existing expressions in North India. One type of this emergent expression of indigenous Christianity among caste Hindus appears to exhibit the trait of believing in Jesus Christ but belonging differently to the church.
In this distinct form, some caste Hindus shift their religious allegiance to Jesus Christ but do not become formal members of an institutional church. Instead, they continue living in their communities of birth. Such a response to the gospel aptly fits as a case in point in World Christianity that "seeks to foster the study and practice of both local and trans-local ways of knowing and doing."3
The study highlights the emergent Hindu response to the gospel as a contemporary case in the transformation of Christian faith by the recipients in a multifaith context. The legitimacy, authenticity, and missiological significance of the movement of Hindu devotees of Christ are attested as an indigenous expression of World Christianity. They are negotiating a distinctive way of belonging to Christ and the church. Their beliefs and living out of their faith illustrate what it signifies to be a Hindu and yet profess the lordship of Jesus Christ today. This atypical belonging to Christ and the church challenges the notion that insists on identifying oneself as a "Christian" and joining the existing Christian community as the normative ways of being a follower of Christ.
1 Sanneh, Lamin, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture, 2nd rev. ed. (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2009), 11, 211-37.
2 Sanneh, Lamin, Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 56.
3 Dale Irvin, "World Christianity: An Introduction," Journal of World Christianity (Online) 1 (2008), 1-26.
"Retirement...counting the days!" How often have you heard those words from people who are looking forward to leaving their work place and enjoying more leisure to travel and play and spend more time with family and friends? But what if your vocation has been so fulfilling and rewarding over many years that the thought of retiring brings more anxiety than anticipation, more dread than delight?
I've had a long and varied vocation as a missiological anthropologist, stretching over nearly five decades. With laser-like focus my passion has been attempting to understand, and perhaps share with others, the relationship between the gospel and culture. "Connecting God's Eternal Word with a Changing World" has been one of the dominant themes of my life. My "career" has not always been smooth sailing, but God has sustained me through the low points and difficult times.
As early as my days in high school, I sensed God inviting me to join God's mission in the world and so I began to pursue becoming a medical missionary. I took all the courses in college I needed to enter medical school, but near the end of my collegiate life I "stumbled" into anthropology. I had never heard of this academic field of study but when I discovered it I realized that here was a discipline that fit me as a person, like hand-in-glove, and I took as many courses as I could.
It was during two years right out of college as a young missionary volunteer in Central Africa that I asked God to guide me in making a vocational decision. Should I become a medical doctor or an anthropologist? Both would take about 10 more years of study and preparation. My missionary colleagues were not happy when I announced to them one day that I was going to return to the United States and enter graduate school to study anthropology instead of going to medical school. They told me I would probably lose my faith if I studied anthropology, and that even if my faith survived the secular onslaught there was nothing in the field of anthropology that would be of value to mission work. So with that kind of "encouragement" off I went, and indeed it was challenging to my Christian faith and very lonely at times because I had little encouragement from anyone, but I felt certain that this was God's call on my life.
With nine years of cross-cultural ministry, mostly in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, as professor of anthropology and later dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary for 21 years, and then as resident missiologist and vice-president for training at The Mission Society (now TMS-Global) for nine years, I have now entered "retirement." From 1985 to the present I've been an active and enthusiastic member of the American Society of Missiology, serving for many years as editor of Missiology, president in 2006-2007, and now publisher. I lovingly refer to the ASM as "my tribe," for over the years I have built some deep and endearing friendships.
Sociologists tell us that the crisis of retirement is not so much a financial crisis as much as it is an identity crisis. I have found this to be true in my situation. I've observed that when Americans meet other Americans anywhere in the world they immediately ask two questions of each other: "What do you do?" and "Where are you from?" Why would those two questions surface immediately? In many other cultures the first question would be "To whom are you related?" not "What do you do?"
The answer to "What do you do?" places one in a social location with a defined status and accompanying role, which we then quickly rank as being more or less important than ourselves. Anthropological studies of social organization and structure focus on the two major building blocks of status (a position in society) and rôle (the accompanying behavior). Shakespeare wrote, "All the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances and one man [sic]in his time plays many parts." The part the person plays, to follow Shakespeare's analogy, is the status. And of course we all occupy several different statuses in a society. A given status, a position in the society, is what provides a person with a social identity, a place in social interaction. But what happens when our personal identity becomes too closely aligned with our social identity? We're in for an emotional roller coaster with highs and lows in our career. We measure our self-worth on what we do, on what we accomplish, more than on who we be. "Doing" takes precedent over "Being."
And this is where I have found myself as I have entered retirement, and it hasn't been easy. In fact, there are days when it is really difficult and challenging and I wonder, "What am I going to do with my life?" But then when I reflect on who I am in Christ, I'm reminded that my true, lasting, and eternal identity is that I am a child of the kingdom of God, created in the image of God, loved and treasured for who I am, not for what I do or for what I have done. This shifting of my personal identity away from my social identity takes intentionality. It requires that I become more centered and grounded in Christ, to slow down, be more reflective and not just active. It means working more on a "To Be" list, instead of trying to manage a busy "To Do" list. I resonate with the words of Dag Hammarskjold from his diary Markings (1964:93) "If only I may grow: firmer, simpler-quieter, warmer."
Ironically, I am writing this blog from somewhere in Asia where for security reasons my location must not be disclosed for I have been training a large group of national pastors and missionaries on how insights from missiological anthropology can help them in their cross-cultural ministry to better connect the gospel to the deepest parts of their worldview and culture. As I share from many years of experience and perhaps some wisdom, I plan to keep going, teaching and training around the world for as long as God gives me abundant passion, good health, and a sound mind. But I can now rest assured that my identity in this phase of semi-retirement is in who I am in Christ, not in what I do as a missiological anthropologist.
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(adapted from January 2020 IBMR Editorial)
Leaning into the convergence of past and future has been a perennial source of reform and renewal for the church's mission, theology, and institutional life. This enduring tension at the heart of Christian faith is captured well by the New Testament word kairos, which means both an opportune moment and a time of crisis.
The present kairos for OMSC invites us to embrace a known past and an unknown future, calling on the wisdom embodied by our institutional legacy while welcoming God's new and ever-hopeful future as we prepare for the move to Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) in July, 2020 and the celebration of our centenary in 2022. I have been thinking that this moment calls for a clear sense of identity and a discerning and playful sense of joyful expectation.
Of course, we won't know the full implications of this kairos until after we have settled into our new home at PTS, but here are three of the procedural, programmatic, and pedagogical innovations on the horizon:
1. Application process. In place of our former practice of rolling admissions, we launched a new online application that opened on October 1 and closed on December 31, 2019 (for more information and link to online application, go to https://www.omsc.org/information-for-prospective-residents). Applicants for the 2020-21 academic year will be notified of our decision on Friday, February 14, 2020. This revised application process will allow time for us to tailor the content of seminars for the coming academic year to better suit the needs and interests of our incoming program participants.
2. Research and writing project. In light of Princeton's rich research environment and the expanded opportunities for interaction with faculty, seminarians, and others, all OMSC program participants will be required to pursue a practical or academic research and writing project in English that is relevant to their academic interests and ministry contexts. The new application for residency will include a proposal for this project. Given this new requirement, each yearlong program participant will also be asked to lead two morning seminars, one in the fall and one in the spring semester. In these seminars, they will present their work in progress and engage in dialogue with OMSC professional staff and other program participants, PTS faculty and students, and members of the broader community. Some of the best work each year may be selected for the IBMR or other OMSC publications.
3. Pedagogical strategy and outcomes. Concerning the shape of the Study Program, we do not plan to eliminate the excellent OMSC tradition of seminars facilitated by invited scholars and teachers, but we will resituate those seminars within a participant-centered pedagogical strategy that leads to the production of concrete outputs, such as books, articles, essays, op-eds, interviews, artwork, poetry, music, and so forth, which we will share with individuals, churches, and foundations who support our mission. Since each program participant will be pursuing a research and writing project on a particular topic, we plan to invite scholars from topic-relevant fields who will offer either a seminar with three morning sessions or two ninety-minute lectures for the whole group and others. We will also ask these invited scholars to give individual time to helping guide our participants' research and writing projects. While pursuing their own projects, program participants will commit in advance to attending all the OMSC-sponsored seminars and lectures. At PTS we will have the technological facility to offer some OMSC-sponsored seminars, lectures, and interviews as webinars and/or podcasts, thereby expanding our global impact.
We know that such an ambitious plan will require careful planning, execution, and management, but I believe we have a responsibility to strengthen our impact by sharing the concrete fruits of a season at OMSC with those in churches here in the United States and elsewhere who are committed to engaging in God's mission.
Postscript for ASM Colleagues: OMSC's Study Program was originally launched in 1967 as a continuing education opportunity for North American missionaries. Since taking on this responsibility in 2016, we have not hosted a single North American missionary in our program. Instead, we have had the privilege of welcoming African, Asian, and Latin American church leaders, scholars, and missionaries. Given this dramatic shift, we are being challenged to redesign our Study Program to serve the needs of these leaders and, through the two-way pedagogy gestured at above, to listen to what the Spirit may be saying through them. I want to thank the members of the ASM for your continued support, advice, and prayers as we move into God's ever-hopeful future.
With thanks and blessings,
Rev. Thomas John Hastings, PhD
OMSC Executive Director
IBMR Editor
On January 20, 2021, history was made in the United States as Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice-President, the first woman, and woman of color, to hold this high office. Vice-President Harris has been clear that she did not achieve this position on her own; her grandmother, mother, aunt, sister, and niece are part of her story. So are her husband and her stepson and stepdaughter. As is, of course, President Biden who selected her as his running mate. As she takes up her new responsibilities, they are there for her, encouraging and supporting and believing in her as they've always done.
Christian women also need other women and men to encourage and support us as we take up our responsibilities. And although women may only now be moving into top leadership in US politics, the Christian church has a different history. Women have been central to the mission of the church from the start. Women disciples followed Jesus and supported him financially. Women built and led monastic communities. Women raised and educated their children in the faith. Women left home to preach and evangelize and teach and heal as missionaries. Yet today, their stories are not widely known or told. We wrote this book so that today's Christian women and men could know those stories, and know about the vast array of women who have preceded us and who serve as encouragement and role models for us.
Our experience suggests that women are starved for these kinds of stories. So much history has been written purely from men's perspective that women may think they don't really matter. When Leanne started giving presentations about women throughout Christian history, the most common question was "Where's the book?" Women wanted to read these stories for themselves. Women who read drafts of the book as we were writing it called it balm for the soul and food for starving people. One was even angry that she'd been deceived because she never knew how much women have contributed to the global church.
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We had a lot of fun writing it, too. We learned about women we'd never heard of before. We learned to view some women in a whole new way, different from howmen had represented them to us. Aimee Semple McPherson is a good example. Leanne remembers hearing her characterized in seminary as "flighty," "hysterical," and a "floozy," while Anneke recalls hearing her characterized as sexually immoral. Part of the characterization seems to have developed because Aimee was married three times. Digging into her story, we learned that her first husband died while they were on the mission field. Her second divorced her because she wouldn't abandon her call to ministry. At that point she decided never to marry again. But her third husband swept her off her feet and persuaded her to elope and get married. Two days later he was sued by another woman for breach of promise, and he lost! A little later he too divorced Aimee for the same reason as husband number two. Yet despite all these personal tragedies, Aimee developed an incredible ministry that reached thousands of people in Los Angeles. She developed dramatic sermons, embraced racial equality in her church, and fed more people during the Depression than the City of Los Angeles did. She even pioneered Christian radio.
Aimee also encountered powerful men who tried to hinder her ministry. H.L. Mencken, a well-known journalist of her day, was not at all a fan of the church. Yet he wrote favorably about Aimee. He said that local clergy were jealous of her because she had so many converts, and that political leaders were mad because she supported Prohibition. Both sets of men tried to discredit her, but God just continued blessing her ministry.
Reading the story of how Aimee persevered and how God blessed her work might really encourage women and men today who've encountered personal or ministry obstacles. People who've experienced failed marriages may find her story redemptive. Women who've encountered obstacles in ministry may find her story sounds all too familiar. But that means we're not alone. She's an example of how women throughout history have turned constraints into assets-a theme we show repeatedly throughout the book. For example, Aimee turned her marriage experience into a way to talk about the church as the bride of Christ, a relationship far better than any human marriage. Her illustrated sermons allowed her to capitalize on her own natural dramatic flair. These sermons were appealing to the people of Los Angeles who were used to having Hollywood on their doorstep. And her church grew and became a denomination with more than 86,000 churches today.
It helps women to know that we're not alone. Other women have modeled the way, walked the path, maintained the faith, and can now be mentors and examples for us. They can surround and encourage us as we read their stories, just like Vice-President Harris's family members surround and encourage her in her new role. But that can't happen if we don't know the stories. So read our book! Think about assigning it in your class. Consider using it in a small group at church. And tell us what you think! ([email protected], [email protected]). May the Lord use you for his glory even as he used the women in this book.
Dzubinski, L. M., & Stasson, A. H. (2021). Women in the mission of the church: Their opportunities and obstacles throughout Christian history. Baker Academic.
http://bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/women-in-the-mission-of-the-church/393020
In 2008 my family and I moved to Darhan, the second largest city in Mongolia, to serve in theological education and leadership development. The emergence of the Mongolian church following seventy years of socialism is nothing short of astounding. Now, more than thirty years after the re-opening to the world following the revolution of early 1990, relatively little scholarship has focused on the Mongolian church.
After several years of teaching, I began to see that I did not know the leaders I interacted with and sought to serve as well as I wanted to. This realization was crystalized for me one day during a training I asked those gathered, a group of thirty or so men and women, to line up in order of when they became followers of Jesus. Looking around the room I noticed two things. The first was that the majority of those present were women. I also noticed that the first man, who identified as a follower of Jesus, was a bit over halfway down the line. What I did not know was why this was the case or what this story held. I was fascinated to hear each of their stories and to try to understand the various journeys that their lives had taken to this point.
I have been greatly impacted by the work of Paulo Freire and the process of empowerment that comes through enabling people to share their stories. This encounter motivated me to research the stories and experiences of church leaders like this in the training. As I refined my research question, I realized that I wanted to allow the voice of Mongolian church leaders to be heard and expressed, giving an insider, emic, perspective. Another reality was that I needed to limit my research population. I chose to focus on the experience of male, evangelical Mongolian church leaders, the central question of my dissertation. Much of the literature looking at the contemporary evangelical church in Mongolia provides either the perspective of an expat international worker or that of an outsider or etic perspective.
Gathering research was simultaneously one of my greatest joys and challenges. I really enjoyed the opportunity to sit down with these Mongolian church leaders and listen to what they had to say. Their stories have inspired, haunted, and often reduced me to tears. It was an experience that I did not want to stop. Their words are the basis for my upcoming book as part of the ASM Monograph Series, Shepherds of the Steppes: The Experience of Male, Evangelical, Mongolian Church Leaders, an Ethnographic Approach (Anticipated publication in 2023) by Wipf & Stock.
Photo: Church leaders, newly graduated
My research focuses on four general areas of experience: conversion, discipleship, Mongolian culture, and theological education and leadership development. Under conversion I explore mechanisms of conversion or how leaders came to be a follower of Jesus as well as factors or orientations that led to their conversion. I also interact with different theories and models of conversion as well as experiences that confirmed their conversion, responses by family and their social groups, and experience with baptism.
The chapter on discipleship examines three different approaches to discipleship that male evangelical Mongolian church leaders experienced as well as what their preferred experiences are. The leader’s experiences are also evaluated through the lens of models of discipleship and discipleship in the broader Asian context.
When male evangelical Mongolian church leaders become followers of Jesus, how do they decide in what ways they interact with Mongolian culture and its customs? The chapter on Mongolian culture describes, in their own words, how the church leaders approach traditions common to the Mongolian context. Of particular interest will be the section in which the leaders describe the translation of the term for God in the Mongolian language and their personal use of the term. Further aspects explore the models of Alan Tippett, Charles Kraft, and Paul Hiebert on the concept of cultural negotiation.
The last section addresses theological education and leadership development (TELD). Participants share their experiences about the value as well as concerns with TELD. Based on the descriptions of the participants, I share what a valuable program for TELD looks like in the Mongolian context.
The process of this research has changed me. It has given me a deeper insight and appreciation for the church leaders around me and a better understanding of their perspective. My desire is that though this book it is their voice that will be clearly heard.
* First photo: Darhan, Mongolia
In less than six months we will gather for our ASM annual meeting to consider "interfaith friendship as incarnational mission practice." The past two Sundays three serendipitous events occurred which resonate for me with our ASM theme and make me anticipate our gathering even more! To be clear, the stories I relate here are not about interfaith friendships, but they are about friendship in the midst of difference and thus illustrate the generative nature of the theme ASM President Dr. Bonnie Sue Lewis has chosen.
First, this past Sunday I preached at two congregations near my home. This is not particularly unusual in itself. It is something I do every month or two. I preached on Mark 1:14-20; a few months ago I had written a short commentary on this text for the ASMweb.org/missionalpreacher">ASM "missional preacher" website. But the day before I was to preach, I saw something new in the text that I hadn't even mentioned in that commentary. In Mark's account of Jesus calling disciples by the Sea of Galilee, Jesus calls for three actions on the part of his disciples / eventual friends: Repent, believe, and follow. I closed my message by lingering with my congregations on the priority Jesus placed on repentance. Repentance is how our believing and following begins. Perhaps that is especially the case in our interfaith friendships. But surely not only there.
With my congregations I also spoke about another event that had occurred the previous week. I had visited a Coptic Orthodox Church in Portland, Oregon (the only Coptic church in Oregon) with my class of undergraduate students studying the history of African Christianity. In their ancient liturgy we heard the simple prayer, "Lord have mercy," well over a dozen times. I was reminded of the multiple layers of that simple prayer that simultaneously reminds us of our need to repent and the abundant grace and mercy that is poured out for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. While worshiping with these Coptic Christians I was also reminded of how little I pray for Christian sisters and brothers facing persecution in Egypt and elsewhere. Lord have mercy, indeed!
My third serendipitous event occurred the evening after I had preached on the Gospel of Mark. I went with a new friend to an evening service at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in a nearby town. I am still somewhat new to the American West, so I decided several months ago that I needed to better understand the Mormon tradition in my new home. As I climbed into my friend's car that rainy evening, I asked again what this service was going to be about. He said that he thought it was going to be "A kind of revival service." He is always generous to find words within my own Protestant and Methodist tradition that make sense. At the end of the service which was indeed "A kind of revival service," one of the priests from the regional ministry area or "stake" came up to me and asked, with tears in his eyes, if he could give me a hug. We had met just once before, but we had a meaningful conversation. As we embraced he said, "Thank you for being so kind to us." I recall that I mumbled something along the lines of "But, of course, we're supposed to love one another." He had previously told me of some hurtful encounters he had with evangelical Christians many years ago in our area. I don't yet know the history or current reality of Latter Day Saints - evangelical relations in my new home, but I know I need to learn. I also don't know what repentance would look like in this case, but if I am to follow Jesus more closely in my new home I need to open my heart in prayer about this. My friend's tears and words of gratitude, it seems to me, can serve as a kind of icon for my prayers in the months to come.
"Repent, believe, follow." "Lord have mercy." "Thank you for being so kind to us." May these phrases resonate for you too in the days to come as we all look forward to our ASM meeting on "interfaith friendships" at St. Mary's College in South Bend, Indiana. I'm looking forward to seeing you there!
To be clear, I don't see my relationships with LDS friends as an interfaith friendship. The evangelical - LDS dialogue that has taken place for the past 20 years seems to mostly use the language of "heterodox Christian sect" as a descriptor of the Mormon tradition that LDS Christians themselves are comfortable with. For now, so am I.