We, as the North-Western Church, must tread carefully as we awaken to the present, past, and future realities of the Eastern and Southern Churches. This post is a collection of some helpful ideas to that end. In many ways have many things which these other Churches lack. Chief among these are education, history, wealth, and political influence. This is not to say that we are exclusive holders of the Christian tradition or the exclusive keepers of the true truth which is truly true… as we have done in the past and do to ourselves so very often. The question before us is how to speak and listen without overpowering the Christian Other. We need to invest, tell our stories, plant and support seminaries, rethink missions, and place political pressure on our governments the whole while seeking the cause of Christ and listening to the Spirit while submitting to the Father.
Terminology and imagined hegemony
Just as there is no monolithic North-Western Church, there is likewise no monolithic Eastern, African, South American, Southern, South Eastern, Asian Church. This is the case for two very important reasons, internal diversity, and external unity. Each movement, denomination, congregation is unique to itself and lumping them together is dangerous and inaccurate.
It is dangerous insofar as it serves to maintain old and create new stereotypes.
It is inaccurate because the Cherubim and Seraphim movement has little to do with Musama Disco Christo Church though they are both in West Africa and neither of them have much to do with or connection to the congregations in the various disparate countries in South America or Asia.
We are better equipped to use such terms as Northern Church, Southern Church, African Church and the like as geographic containers rather than activators of essential features. However, despite this, Jenkins builds an undeniable case that the center of Christianity has and will continue to shift South and East. We in the West in the Church and the Academy are barely aware of this situation.
Investment, not Profit
In both Christian and Secular circles, dumping is the most common way we seek to help those in need. However, dumping aid upon people only serves to enslave them to our aid, replacing their dependence upon hunger with a dependence upon us while we pat ourselves on the back.[1] What we need instead is a de-emphasis upon aid and an emphasis upon investment in their congregations and societal structures. This can happen on several levels, individuals through micro-finance organizations such as Kiva or Opportunity International, at the congregation or denominational level, and finally on the governmental level as wield our political clout.
While we are doing this, let us remember the Biblical distaste for usury and let our investments be motivated by Kingdom building, not the great and powerful god ROI.[2] Let us be satisfied with 90% of the world’s wealth.
Gathering around the Campfire
Jenkins did a great job detailing the ancient roots of Christianity in Africa and Asia, which often hundreds of years older than our own faith trajectories. [3] As many of my fellow students said, we would be wise to listen to their stories and their wisdom.
They are correct, though we often sacrifice our stories at the altar of the unknown god paying our colonial debts.
However, we Western Christians have a long tradition full of stories, conflicts, mistakes, and triumphs as well. We can and should offer up this collection of stories to the rest of the body of Christ, not as authoritative, but as wisdom. We have faced many of the problems our sisters have faced. We were once persecuted; we were once poor.
We once drank from the cup of political power and are stained in blood by that sin.[4]
Our wisdom can be offered, though it cannot come without us listening to their stories. Once we think we own the wisdom, we have truly lost it. We can listen to their Now; they to our Not Yet.
The most difficult area here is the formulation of doctrine. Orthodoxy in middle America will look different than Orthodoxy in South Korea both of which will look different than Orthodoxy in the Congo. We have to remember that the Spirit speaking though the Bible is our prime authority and even then the revealed truths contained therein were formulated inside a specific geographic, temporal, cultural, linguistic location.
Teaching People to Fish
To help foster the growth and development of Christians in other areas of the world as loving siblings we need to found and support seminaries across the globe. And not just the seminaries themselves, we need to support students themselves.
In these seminaries scholars should be encouraged to write their traditions to give them a voice which can be exported to other areas of the globe.
While we are at it, it would be profitable to create some sort of interchange program wherein global seminaries send scholars to seminaries in other parts of the world. This would aid in a truly global conversation.
Curbing Missionary Redundancy
Central to recognizing the agency of Other Christians is the acknowledgement of and noncompetition with Other Christian missionary endeavors. Jenkins notes that this is one of the prime sources of inter-Christian conflict and we would do well to avoid it.[5] Unless there be a true heart of darkness that the gospel has not infected, we should focus our missionary efforts here at home where we are the most effective (where religion is dying)or partner with existing churches in the area.
Abusing Political Power for the Good of the Kingdom
If we truly see ourselves as one organ in the global-historical Body of Christ then let our allegiance be to it and it alone. May we seek the good of Christians rather than the good of the State. We can encourage our governments to restrict policies which exploit other nations and move to block others, such as China, from doing the same. Additionally, we can use our political clout to relive persecutions. We have the power; we should use it for the good of others instead of ourselves.
Conclusion
Our western post-colonial guilt and historical ignorance has blinded the Bride. We need to open our eyes adjust to the light, and seek the good of our global brothers and sisters. This will take careful thought, cooperation, grace, and wealth. It will not be easy but will require sacrifice. However, such is the way of Kingdom building.
Works Cited:
Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Revised and Updated. Oxford University Press, USA, 2007.
Knutsen, Torbjørn L. The rise and fall of world orders. Manchester University Press, 1999.
Mwaura, Ndirangu. Kenya Today: Breaking the yoke of Colonialism in Africa. Algora Publishing, 2005.
[1] Ndirangu Mwaura, Kenya Today: Breaking the yoke of Colonialism in Africa (Algora Publishing, 2005), 81.
[2] Return on Investment.
[3] Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, Revised and Updated. (Oxford University Press, USA, 2007), 16-21.
[4] Torbjørn L. Knutsen, The rise and fall of world orders (Manchester University Press, 1999), 51.
[5] Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 155.
