MISSIONS: THE SELDOM-TOLD STORY 
by Rev. Joseph P. Gouverneur
North Carolina Christian Advocate, May 27, 2003

 

      In his Why Christianity Must Change or Die, Bishop John Spong, once the Episcopalian Bishop of Newark, attacks traditional, Biblical doctrine.  According to Bp. Spong, the historic teachings of Christianity must be altered or deleted for the Church to survive.

     It might be asked: at what church is Bp. John Spong looking?  He is looking at his own church in Newark, but he is ignorant of the growth of Christianity in Nigeria and Nepal.  As Penn State historian Phillip Jenkins argues in The New Christendom, there is an exponential growth of Christianity in what he calls the “Global South” -- South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and large parts of Asia.

     During a recent mission trip to the West African nation of Ghana, I was amazed by what is happening there.  Recently, massive numbers of Africans -- Muslims and others involved in tribal or animistic religions -- have come to faith in Christ.  It is estimated that the equivalent of a new denomination is established somewhere in Africa every week.  Furthermore, it is projected that, by the middle of this century, there will be more Christians in Sub-Saharan Africa than any other part of the world.  In the 1980s so many people in Ghana had become Christian that Guinness, the largest brewery in the world, began producing a non-alcoholic beverage called Malta to sell to the non-drinking Christians.  And there is the somewhat humorous attempt, by Ghanan believers, to integrate their new found faith with the market place -- by naming their businesses with Christian references (e.g., Seek Ye Supermarkets).

     Why do we hear so little of this grand shift in the global balance of Christianity?  Part of the reason lies in responses from some western denominational leaders.  For example, at the 1998 Lambeth Conference in London,  a number of Anglican bishops from the United States and Europe attempted to pass a resolution in support of homosexuality.  Because of the orthodox position of African and Asian bishops, who argue from the authority of Scripture, the resolution was heavily defeated.  Speaking for bishops from the West, Bishop Spong postulated that the African bishops had “moved out of animism into a very superstitious kind of Christianity.”  Bp. Spong and his cultural colleagues displayed that they have little understanding of the issues in play.

     This gets to the heart of the issue: most of the current growth of the Church is occurring in the Global South, and it is evangelical, charismatic, and largely socially conservative.  For decades, many western Christians had looked forward to the day when Christianity would flourish in the South.  Furthermore, they had held the assumption that it would look like large segments of the Church in the West -- that is, it would be liberal, anti-supernatural, and committed to a progressive social agenda.  However, the opposite has occurred.

     As a pastor serving a British Methodist Church in London, I witnessed a strange paradox.  At a British Methodist Annual Conference, it was reported that, if the current rate of decline continues, British Methodism will probably survive only until 2015.  Historic London churches, such as Wesley’s Chapel and Westminster Central Hall, host only small groups of worshipers on Sundays -- including a fair number of American United Methodist pastors on Wesleyan Pilgrimage.  However, in the poorest neighborhood in London, the largest church in Britain, Kingsway International, has a congregation of 7.000 led by Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, a Nigerian who recently converted to Christianity from Islam.

    While not endorsing all of the practices of Christianity in the Global South, we cannot ignore the fact that the Christianity of the Global South is changing the face of Christianity even locally.  My Ghanan friend, Pastor Elvis Acheampong, is establishing congregations in northern Virginia and recently in Greensboro.  His congregations are dynamic, multi-racial, and committed to the communication of the Gospel in a way that is fresh and yet faithful to historic Christianity.

     So often, such evangelicals are criticized, with the label of “paternalistic missions,” for seeking to win non-Christians to Christ.  So it was in 2000, when at a London conference on global missions, every representative made it clear that they had repented from earlier positions linking the Gospel with western culture.  However, the real paternalistic position is found in those like Bp. Spong.

     The basic question is how we are increasing our awareness of the present shift within global Christianity.  And how we western Christians, as churches and as individuals, are obeying the Great Commission.

     Do we, with John Wesley, say, “the world is our parish,” or is it now, “the parish is my world?”

 

Rev. Gouverneur is the pastor of Hawkins-Tabor United Methodist Charge in the Rocky Mount District.  Also, he is completing his Ph.D. at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom.

 

To respond to this article and continue the dialogue, please send your article to: St. Peter’s United Methodist Church/111 Hodges Street/ Morehead City, NC 28557.