We don't get the issues (behind the book) on the table with descriptive clarity until chp 4 in Mark Noll's new book, The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith
, and in my estimation Noll is making a proposal that flies in the face of a plenty of popular thinkers today.What is your general view of the missionary movement of American Christianity? What are the negatives and positives of the American missionary movement? Does the church have the obligation and the vocation to spread the gospel? Is missionary work the best way to do that? What is missionary work -- in your view?
What about missionaries? What about American evangelical missionaries traveling around the world, gospeling and bringing with them their American ways? These are the questions behind Noll's book, and he sets out three basic options for how folks are examining the relationship of American Christianity to the world's cultures:
First, some think the whole thing smacks of manipulation and colonialism (which always evokes the term "exploitation"). In other words, some interpret the whole missionary enterprise as capturing the world for America.
Second, some think of missionary work as influencing cultures and the world but not in a manipulative sense; instead, the emphasis will be on these cultures choosing to participate in the missionary work and the gospel.
Third, others think in less than causation and more in correlation terms. Noll's own thesis -- and this is important for the whole series we are doing about his book -- is that it is shared and common historical experience that led to similarities between American and world Christianities.
Noll uses The Jesus Film as an example of how to examine the appropriate of these terms, or one might say how these three views can explain the film's universal presence and impact. If I were teaching a class, I'd ask the class to converse about how each view would explain the film.
Let's get some numbers in our head, and this one shocked me: in 1800 there were less than 100 foreign missionaries; in 1914 there were over 21,000! The 19th Century is the Century of missionary work. In 1800 Christians were 23.1% of the world; in 1914 that number had become 34.9%. In 1800 there were 28 million non-white Christians; in 1914 there were 149 million! In 1800 67 languages had the Bible; in 1914 676 languages did!
Noll examines the American Christian evangelical experience in three terms: identity, power, and culture -- with good examples of the importance of each.
One of his more significant conclusions -- at least for me -- is that evangelicalism reflects an anti-traditionalism, a lack of institutional authority, and a need to thrive in new environments. Evangelicals tend to follow charismatic leaders instead of the power of tradition.
Evangelicalism has made "power" problematic and this has led to lack of unity and to schisms. It's belief in the Bible does not acknowledge the power of interpretive choice and therefore of a lack of tradition that guides interpretation.
Culturally, evangelicalism has not always recognized its own cultural adaptability and, in fact, its entrapment in culture. But its adaptability permits powerful capacities to incarnate the gospel in a variety of cultures -- and he examines how Koreans have translated the Bible's use of the word "God."
Noll examines the American Christian evangelical experience in three terms: identity, power, and culture -- with good examples of the importance of each.
One of his more significant conclusions -- at least for me -- is that evangelicalism reflects an anti-traditionalism, a lack of institutional authority, and a need to thrive in new environments. Evangelicals tend to follow charismatic leaders instead of the power of tradition.
Evangelicalism has made "power" problematic and this has led to lack of unity and to schisms. It's belief in the Bible does not acknowledge the power of interpretive choice and therefore of a lack of tradition that guides interpretation.
Culturally, evangelicalism has not always recognized its own cultural adaptability and, in fact, its entrapment in culture. But its adaptability permits powerful capacities to incarnate the gospel in a variety of cultures -- and he examines how Koreans have translated the Bible's use of the word "God."
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Jim Marks @ 7,
Can't it be both?
eleanor,
I served as a student summer missionary to Zambia in the summer of 2002. Granted, things have probably changed since then, but I found the SBC missionaries on the ground there to be very independent thinking, most of them having signed the 2000 BF&M only b/c they felt it best to stay and continue their ministry rather than to be removed from it. I say this b/c at the time, and currently, I have many, MANY issues with the SBC, the biggest one the 2000 BF&M, but my respect for those missionaries remaining behind and the work they were doing grew as I saw that they were doing things very differently.
(I was there on a mapping project, collecting GPS data for churches in the bush of Zambia so that the missionaries could focus on areas with NO churches instead of working in areas that already had a christian church).
All that said, I still struggle with the idea of missionaries and it smacking of colonialism. My parents were both SBC missionaries in the 80's who left during the Fundamentalist takeover in the early 90's. So my thoughts are still a tad muddled at the time, and something I'm working through...
I've not been a "career missionary", my experience is limited to two years on the West Bank with the SBC, a long time ago, and more recently a number of week long experiences in several countries, not with the SBC. I saw both culturally sensitive and clueless missionaries. The worst examples of cultural blindness I've personally seen have come from aggressive American parachurch organizations.
Isn't some of this cultural colonialism inevitable? St. Paul traveled Roman roads and applied Jewish religious forms to the new Christian synagogues. 19th century missionaries rode on the same ships carrying soldiers and merchants. Today we teach English as second language or increasingly use business to "travel" to another culture.
I have Indian friends, great Christian leaders of massive movements, who frankly have told me "we don't need your missionaries, we don't need your PhD's, we have both of those here and they're Indians. We do need your resources. Your wealth and experience. We need partnerships, not patronization."
Thanks to Scott (6) and Corinne (9), your comments are very helpful to me. I suppose that, given the 2000 BF&M, perhaps the official prayer partner emails I receive have to play up the most "important" parts of the party line. It could be that these folks are actually more culturally sensitive than they seem.
OTOH, another thing that has surprised me is that this group of missionaries encourages regular short-term missions team visits from SBC congregations they know in the US; 5-6 a year. From what I can tell, what these short-term teams do is lead workshops on the dangers of alcohol, sexual abstinence (w/or without an AIDS emphasis), the proper structure of the family and so on. There is a particular emphasis on changing the nature of the many polygamous families once conversion takes place.
This is all food for thought for me.
Asian Cheng,
Great insights! Thanks for sharing your perspective.
Reading the traditional characters themselves can be easier once you figure out the basic patterns (for the most part), but you still have the grammar differences (especially from things published in Taiwan). The more that can be published in simplified characters and mainland grammar the better for reaching the less educated areas of the mainland.
Eleanor,
I'd rather share this over e-mail instead of at this post, but here ya go:
There are different levels within the IMB structure that define what we are able to do. At the top level is our personal beliefs. You never actually have to "sign" the BF&M, but your beliefs must be "in line" with the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. We are required to write out doctrinal statements concerning our personal beliefs on various topics (Trinity, Ecclesiology, etc.), and then the statements are taken before the trustees. For instance, I disagreed with the BF&M sections on women leadership, and was able to write out my biblical defense of why I disagreed. Then I discussed my position with my representative (the person who takes the issue before the trustees), and the trustees decided that my contrary position did not disqualify me from missionary service with the IMB.
It seems controlling, but in their defense, they have to make sure that SBC missionaries represent everyone from Joe Blow megachurch member to the little old lady giving 65% of her Social Security check to missions. I know of people who have disagreed with other parts of the BF&M and been approved to continue with the board after sharing a biblical defense. There have also been some who went over the line and weren't allowed to continue, but these were usually extreme differences due to beliefs that the vast majority of SBC churches do not hold.
The next level is churches that we plant. We have a set of guidelines from the trustees, but the guidelines are very ambiguous and would be applicable to any Nicene church with the exception of a few Baptist distinctives such as the Baptist view on the Lord's Supper (symbolic) and believer's Baptism.
The next level is partnership with non-SBC church planting projects. We are allowed to fully partner with non-SBC church planters in their projects as long as the churches do not compromise Christian orthodoxy. In fact, I'm required to have non-SBC partners in my area so that we can partner in prayer and strategy for reaching the area.
I hope that helps answer your questions.
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