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This qualitative study explores intercultural social dynamics among international Christian workers who are part of multicultural teams engaged in Christian ministries in a North African country. It seeks to understand these workers’ lived realities at intersections of multiple cultural flows. Ethnographic methods were used to collect and analyze data, and forty-nine international Christian workers were interviewed. The findings of this study indicate that intercultural Christian workers go through complex intercultural social processes interwoven in the fabric of their everyday life. These processes are mediated by their social experiences in the local North African context and their multicultural teams, resulting in significant changes in their personal dispositions and social behaviors. Based on these findings, a working concept of diasporic habitus is developed, and the practice of double discourses of culture is further examined. This research suggests that some existing missiological concepts need to be revisited and recommends further interdisciplinary conversations involving cultural anthropology and sub-fields in psychology about the changes that happen to people in intercultural missions. It also calls for a reflexive approach to missiological research that incorporates awareness of one’s situatedness and the lasting impact of historical entanglements on contemporary intercultural relations.
Cross-cultural partnerships in today’s global environment are both challenging and necessary. Misunderstanding and miscommunication often lead to conflict between culturally diverse groups. Christians must understand and evaluate their own culture, the culture of others, and the text of Scripture itself, while remaining faithful to Scripture and relevant to culture. Unmediated tensions combined with relational isolation lead to a myriad of problems. This study proposes cross-cultural missional partnership as a relationship that mediates these tensions, thereby encouraging mutual, faithful engagement in the mission of God. Cross-cultural tensions may never disappear, but within a healthy partnership, partners can assist one another in understanding and responding faithfully to Scripture. Partners help one another more faithfully interpret and apply Scripture, leading to obedience to God’s will and engagement in God’s mission within unique and diverse contexts.
Linking . . . Blending . . . Intermixing with Divine Purpose People are on the move. As individuals and people groups are constantly migrating, the unreached have become part of our communities. This reality provides local Christ-followers with the challenge and opportunity of navigating both the global diaspora and mixed ethnicities. A Hybrid World is the product of a global consultation of church and mission leaders who discussed the implications of hybridity in the mission of God. The contributors draw from their collective experiences and perspectives, explore emerging concepts and initiatives, and ground them in authoritative Scripture for application to the challenges that hybridity presents to global missions. This book honestly wrestles with the challenges of ethnic hybridity and ultimately encourages the global church to celebrate the opportunities that our sovereign and loving God provides for the world’s scattered people to be gathered to himself.
Noel Perkin, a banker-turned-missionary, led Assemblies of God World Missions (AGWM) for more than thirty years (1927-59). His life exemplifies the missionary zeal historians have noted within the early Pentecostal movement. Perkin's experience of the Holy Spirit and his experiences as a missionary in Argentina led him to create systems intended to empower others to fulfill Christ's commission to make disciples of all nations. Perkin's empowering leadership played a significant part in AGWM's remarkable growth into a leading Pentecostal mission-sending agency which currently sends over 2,000 missionaries to 140 countries. As one of the principal architects of AGWM's missiology and operation, Perkin transformed a two-person office relying on envelope boxes for its accounting system into a well-structured, strategic mission agency and laid a foundation for AGWM's continued growth. Empowering Spirit, Empowering Structures uses the foundation of a biographical study to examine the concept of empowerment through Perkin's life and the impact that Perkin and his missiology had and continues to have upon AGWM.
Paul's discipleship agenda was defined by his native Jewish apocalyptic worldview. The novelties of his thought--namely, the death of Israel's Messiah, the unique gift of God's Spirit, and the intentional mission to the gentiles--seem to be framed within the common Jewish eschatological parameters of the day of the Lord, the judgment, the resurrection of the dead, and the messianic kingdom. Moreover, for Paul this eschatology was the primary driver of discipleship--comforting in the midst of tribulation, anchoring the gifts of the Spirit, and informing divine mission. Paul thus discipled the gentiles into the hope of Israel.
The purpose of this study was to describe how the North Korean refugee understanding of evil can shape missionary practice in the Korean Peninsula. The central research question guiding this study was, How do North Korean Christian refugees describe evil based on their lived experiences? Twelve North Korean Christian refugees were interviewed. The findings indicated that North Korean Christian refugees understand evil as the oppression of the vulnerable, primarily due to human activities, and as exemplified through governmental actions, human trafficking, and sexual violence. This study also discussed how North Korean refugees understand evil in light of theology, specifically teleology and theodicy, and explores how their understanding resonates with historic Christian beliefs in Korea. Analysis of the interviews provided practical implications for Christian ministry and theodicy as well as the sensitization of practitioners who work with North Korean refugees, specifically, to encourage practitioners to subvert the oppressive narratives that North Koreans are responsible for the evil that befalls them, and to be aware that refugees may have been traumatized by their own compatriots.
Lesslie Newbigin’s concept of the congregation as hermeneutic of the gospel has been used for over thirty years to discuss the overlap of mission and ecclesiology. This book provides the contextual background to the congregation as hermeneutic of the gospel, then discusses the important components of this concept and how they connect with Newbigin’s lifetime of writings on the nature and identity of the church. Within this discussion, there are three key elements to Newbigin’s ecclesiology as it pertains to the congregation as hermeneutic of the gospel: the relationship between the Holy Spirit and the local congregation, the kingdom of God and the local congregation, and the local congregation within itself. These three components can be found throughout Newbigin’s discussions about the nature of the church ranging from the 1940s until the 1990s. Pulling all these components together and showing how they shed light on Newbigin’s intended meaning by calling the local congregation the hermeneutic of the gospel for their society provides a new interpretation of this concept that will both strengthen and challenge contemporary uses of this concept within the church today.
Congregations are increasingly developing partnerships as a way of engaging directly in global missions. One of the most common ways they do this is forming relationships with congregations in other parts of the world. This book looks at the reasons that churches seek out missions partners, how the partnership phenomenon developed, and what beliefs, concepts, structures, and practices inform the healthiest mission partnerships. With insights drawn from a survey of churches from across the country and around the world, this book provides data-driven insights to guide the practice of international congregational partnerships.
The persecution of Christians is on the increase worldwide. In Nigeria, persecution has had an immense impact on the religious, economic, and social life of Nigerians, especially in northern Nigeria. Many Christians are concerned about how to properly respond to such oppression. This book meticulously examines contemporary responses to persecution alongside biblical and historical experience using the theoretical framework of Fight, Flight, and Fortitude. The writer is convinced that if Christians respond to persecution properly the gospel witness will be strengthened and bridges for peaceful interrelationship will be built in communities experiencing religious and cultural diversity.
Asians make up the largest and most dispersed peoples of the world, and Christians make up a sizable proportion of this demographic. Asian Christians are more likely to emigrate, and many have continued to embrace Christian faith at their diasporic places of settlement. They are quick to establish distinctively Asian churches all over the world and infuse diversity, revival, and missionary consciousness into their adopted communities. They preserve the ties and cultures of their ancestral homelands while assimilating and adapting into the new setting. They have become a recognizable force in the transformation and advancement of Christianity itself at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The dozen essays in this volume are written by leading scholars of Asian backgrounds situated in various diasporic locations. The authors trace the contours of their dispersion and highlight diverse missiological themes, including the scattering (diaspora) and the gathering (ekklesia) of Asian Christians around the world. This volume traces the origins and destinations of major Asian migration and diaspora communities from a variety of perspectives and geographical locations. It is pan-Asian in scope and multidisciplinary in nature. It also provides the latest data and infographics on Asian diasporas worldwide.