Missionary Movements in the Majority World

Uchenna D. Anyanwu, Cristian Castro & David Ro

Introduction

The Church has grown immensely in the non-Western majority world of Latin America, Asia and Africa, regions that were once considered mission fields and have now sent out new missionary forces. In this report, Cristian Castro tells us the descriptive history of the four stages of the Latin American missionary movement and the establishment of COMIBAM International which has sent over 30,000 missionaries to different parts of the world. David Ro gives an overview of the missionary movement in Asia, particularly in Korea, China and India, although he also mentions other countries. Uchenna Anyanwu writes about missionary work in Africa, both through migration to the West as well as reaching unreached peoples within the continent itself.

Missionary movements in Latin America

In 1916 in Panama, at the world missions congress convened by foreign missionary organizations, Latin America was declared a missionary field and, consequently, the countries that make up the country were assigned to different international missions. According to the data that is known, 235 delegates from 50 missionary societies that were working on the continent met. Only 27 of these delegates were Latin Americans. The official language of the congress was English; therefore, the voice of the Latin American church was very weak or almost non-existent. This is an important fact because it shows that, at that historical moment, the small Latin church was not considered just another participant in the world mission.

On the other hand, foreign missionaries did not see Latin Americans as a missionary force. As Pablo Carrillo said in his book Footprints in the Desert: “The missionary community in Latin America, which was made up largely of foreigners, did not realize that the people they were reaching with the gospel would one day be a missionary force inside and outside their countries.”1

An Inescapable Call: Evangelization in Depth

In 1921, the organization LAM, Latin America Mission, was founded and had a great impact on the small Latin American church of the time thanks to evangelistic and social action projects. At the same time, LAM contributed greatly to the awakening of the missionary vision on the continent.

In the spring of 1964, Dr. Kenneth Strachan of LAM gave a series of talks on missions at Fuller Theological Seminary that he called “The Inescapable Call: The Missionary Work of the Church in Light of the Urgent Needs and Opportunities of Today’s World.” In his lectures, Dr. Strachan shared a summary of his experience and the theological foundation of evangelism in the In-Depth Movement, which was born in LAM under his leadership.

The basic principles of In-Depth Evangelism were almost universally applied. They established what today, decades later, is commonly accepted by churches around the world, especially in Latin America. In those days there were few known missionary efforts in the region. One was the Congress on Christian Work in 1925 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Another was the Hispanic-American Evangelical Congress in Havana, Cuba in 1929. Although they were as small as a grain of sand on the seashore, these two congresses effectively contributed to the missionary vision in Latin America.

The influence of Lausanne in Latin America

The most important event in the history of evangelical mission is the First Lausanne Congress in 1974. Thanks to the Latin Americans who were present, as well as the subsequent literature and consultations organized by the Lausanne Movement, the congress influenced the entire continent. To be more precise, the pioneers of evangelical missiology such as Samuel Escobar and René Padilla, among others, contributed greatly to the Lausanne Congress in forming a missionary worldview based on a clear understanding of the gospel. The emphasis on the theology of the kingdom of God and the consequences of the presence of the Church in society changed the direction of missiology in the world and global missionary action. We praise God for this Latin American cooperation with the world evangelical community.

The Birth of the First Missionary Movements

In 1976, on the initiative of several national leaders and foreign missionary workers working in Brazil, the first national missionary association on the continent was organized, the Association of Brazilian Transcultural Missions (AMBT, in Portuguese), in which nine missionary agencies representing various denominations joined together. Jonathan dos Santos was its first president. Years later, another Latin American country accepted the challenge of becoming a missionary force. In 1982, in the small town of Villa Giardino in Córdoba, Argentina, the World Mission Network (WMM) was born under the leadership of pastors and missionaries to mobilize the Argentine church to all nations.

The Birth of COMIBAM: From Field to Missionary Force

It is worth mentioning that at that time the leadership of AMTB and RMM represented a prophetic voice for the Church, as they were responding to the need to assume responsibility for God's mission across an entire continent. Consequently, the Latin American Evangelical Fellowship (CONELA) convened a meeting of leaders in 1984 in Mexico to organize an international congress with the aim of promoting the development of the missionary vision in the region. The first Ibero-American missionary congress was held in 1987 in São Paulo, Brazil, and brought together more than three thousand representatives from all Latin American nations, from Spain and Portugal, as well as observers from other countries. At that meeting, the global missionary task was discussed and the commitment was made to form a missionary movement from Ibero-America. It was then that Luis Bush proclaimed with conviction: "In 1916, Latin America was declared a mission field. Today, in 1987, Latin America declares itself a missionary force."2

From that first congress, COMIBAM International3 began and developed its relations with other national, regional and global networks with which they formed work groups, called for consultations, published books in Spanish and Portuguese and launched the publication of the magazine Ellos y Nosotros. In the 1988 edition of Operation World, Patrick Johnstone indicated that there were 1,314 Latin American missionaries. In 1995, this number rose to 4,482, of which 1,364 exercised their ministry outside their country and 2,126 participated in cross-cultural work.

God acted in the church of the entire region, strengthening the national missionary movements that existed and giving rise to those that had not yet been formed. While it is true that some countries have been sending missionaries and creating networks of missionary collaboration since the beginning of the 20th century, the strong revival to promote cross-cultural missionary work was triggered by the 1987 congress.

National Missionary Cooperation (CMN) in Latin America

Over the years, the movement began to take shape. A board of directors was formed, an executive director was elected, and a small office was established. There is no doubt, however, that what had the greatest influence was the birth of national missionary movements, which we know today as National Missionary Cooperation (CMN), in the different Latin American countries. They became branches of the national church, a space for organizations, ministries, and missionaries to share their experiences and resources and coordinate their national missionary efforts abroad. To date, twenty-five National Missionary Cooperations from eight collaborative regions4 have participated in COMIBAM: the Iberian Peninsula, North America, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Andes, the Southern Cone and Brazil. Currently, the cooperations total more than a thousand participating and collaborating missionary organizations.

COMIBAM in motion

In conclusion, we can say that, during all these years, COMIBAM International has been a space for the national missionary movements of the region to meet with the church to think of strategies and forge relationships that have the potential to improve collaboration with the global missionary community. According to a very conservative estimate, between 10 and 15% of the churches participate actively or directly in global mission. Currently, according to our records, 15 million US dollars are invested monthly to send more than 30,000 missionaries to more than 200 countries, of which approximately 17,000 are from Brazil and 1,200 from Argentina. This indicates that the remaining 11,800 come from the other 23 member countries of COMIBAM. In a consultation on unreached peoples that took place in Panama, the Ibero-American missionary movement committed to accompany the church in the task of praying and bringing the gospel to at least 1,850 ethnic groups that have not been reached. We can say that today, by the sovereign grace of God, COMIBAM International

South Korea

During the country's period of rapid industrialization and urbanization, Korean society was characterized by tremendous instability. These rapid changes resulted in a breakdown of the traditional family structure, labor conflicts, a gap between the rich and the poor, and a deterioration of social norms. Within this context of social instability, Christianity played an important role in addressing these issues by offering spiritual and moral guidance. Some strengths of the Korean church have been, first, early morning prayer meetings; second, dynamic Sunday worship; third, tithing and stewardship; fourth, theological education; fifth, social engagement; and, sixth, an emphasis on mission. South Korea's missionary movement was the result of evangelistic crusades, student movements, and unprecedented church growth between the 1970s and 1980s. It is estimated that 32% of the population is Christian, and Protestants (about 9.2 million people) account for 18% of the total. In 2020, before COVID-19, 22,259 South Korean missionaries were serving overseas.

A large portion of Korean missionaries are cross-culturally ordained pastors. Most are supported by churches and mission agencies that focus on evangelism, discipleship, church planting, and leadership training. Many Korean missionaries are involved with church planting in hostile remote areas, and some work with holistic ministries for the poor. Despite this, the Korean church and mission have recently stagnated due to secularization, a general disinterest in religion among young people, and possibly the impact of megachurch scandals. As a result, the Korean missionary population is gradually aging.

China

Two circumstances laid the groundwork for the missionary movement in China: the impressive growth of house churches in rural communities in the 1980s and the growth of the church among urban intellectuals after 1989. There are an estimated 90 million Christians in China, which would represent 6 to 7 percent of the country's population. Approximately 60 million are estimated to belong to house churches and 30 million are members of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). In China, Christianity began to grow because it addressed the social problems that occurred during urbanization. The average salary in major Chinese cities, similar today to that of Seoul, South Korea, is a financial source for sending missionaries. In the mid-2000s, unregistered house churches began to rent offices and grew into larger, more open congregations. They began to raise offerings to pay pastors’ salaries and support ministers, including missionaries. However, strict religious policy in 2018 led to increased persecution, which, coupled with COVID-19 in 2020, led to churches once again meeting in houses.

The Chinese missionary movement, China Mission, formerly called China Mission 2030, has emerged from unregistered house churches that have sprung up in cities. The official church of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement is prohibited by law from conducting evangelistic activities outside the walls of the local church building. However, some members still practice indirect evangelism by addressing social issues in their communities. House church leaders have organized several large annual China Mission conferences abroad and have set a goal of “sending 20,000 missionaries by 2030.” China Mission worked online during COVID-19 through prayer and missionary mobilization. More than 200,000 people have taken Kairos, an online course on missionary mobilization. Another movement, Back to Jerusalem, has sent hundreds of missionaries to the West, mainly from the rural provinces of Henan and Anhui. The Wenzhou church has also been involved in missions through its large overseas business ventures.

China Mission’s “core strength” is a sacrificial missionary spirit originating in a context of persecution. Suffering has prepared the church to send missionaries to hostile, unreached regions. In addition, persecution has given rise to innovative solutions to serve in closed societies hostile to Christians. Chinese pastors, coming from a large country with geopolitical power and economic strength in which a large part of the population is Christian, have a great sense of missionary responsibility for the world. However, amid increasing persecution due to the current political climate, a mass missionary movement is unlikely to emerge. Although it is difficult to verify, an estimated 2,000 mainland Chinese house church missionaries are serving cross-culturally overseas.

India

Much of the growth of the church in mid-nineteenth-century India is due to evangelism that focused on the poorest members of society. The working class is receptive to the gospel, particularly in rural areas and among immigrants living in urban slums as pariahs, the "untouchable" outcasts of the Hindu caste system. Over the past fifty years, church development has generally been concentrated in southern India. The Indian missionary movement began with the goal of reaching the traditionally Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim majorities of northern India. Indian missionaries are working "cross-culturally" in church planting among the 2,138 unreached ethnic groups (UNGs). 99% of these missionaries work cross-culturally among ethnic groups within the country. Missionary growth “has led to a shift in the understanding of the title ‘missionary,’ a term traditionally used for those who come from outside and are often associated with ‘whites.’”6 Christianity in India is estimated at 4–5%, or more than 50 million people. The Indian Missionary Association (IMA) has previously stated that there are about 60,000 home-grown workers working with some 300 indigenous mission agencies in the country.

India’s main strength is the availability of a large number of volunteers. Missionaries are often bi-vocational, that is, they combine ministry with work or support from the diaspora or abroad. Christianity in India has been viewed hostilely as a foreign religion, and the church is increasingly experiencing persecution. Conversion laws have been used to accuse Christians of using illegal means to proselytize. The decline of democratic freedoms in the church intensified after Prime Minister Modi's victory in 2014. The recent rise of nationalism has seen the removal of foreign influence with an increase in aggression towards local churches. Although this new, more restrictive environment has seen missionary activities curtailed for a time, a new indigenous church movement is emerging among the high-caste Hindu communities of northern India.

Other Asian countries

Other Asian countries are also taking part in missions. The number of Filipino missionaries abroad involved in cross-cultural work is around 2,000. A Filipino church in Manila with 200,000 members has sent out more than 150 missionaries, many of them to plant cross-cultural churches throughout Asia. In addition, there are thousands of Filipinos who are crossing cultural barriers with the gospel by working overseas as domestic helpers, child care workers, construction workers, engineers, architects, nurses, information technology specialists, cooks, sailors, and other professions. Churches in Indonesia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Singapore are also experiencing significant growth, with an estimated 9 to 20 percent of the population being Christian. In Indonesia, about 1,000 indigenous workers are serving in cross-cultural church planting among the country’s 130 unreached ethnic groups. Malaysia has a similar number of cross-cultural workers in many of its 157 ethnic groups, in addition to several hundred cross-cultural missionaries who have been sent overseas. Hong Kong has commissioned 670 professional missionaries in 2023, Taiwan 600 in 2017, and Singapore at least 428 in 2019.

Growth in Asia

A new and dynamic Asian missionary movement can be seen. Leaders of the Evangelical Alliance of Asia, the Theological Association of Asia, the Chinese Coordination Center for World Evangelization (CCCOWE), the Day Movement and the Lausanne Movement met in 2022 to discuss the future of the Asian church and its mission, primarily within its own context. In July 2023, more than 1,800 students and young people from 37 countries in Asia met at the Arise Asia meeting under the theme of global mission “going where the gospel does not exist.” Several hundred young people with an average age of 25 committed themselves to work in cross-cultural mission. The Arise Asia movement is gaining momentum among millennials and generation Z. The church in Asia is at a turning point in history, as it is moving from a continent that receives missionaries to a continent that sends them.

Missionary Movements in Africa

In Scripture, we have stories of redemption that are in turn replete with narratives of migration. From Abraham's call to the infant Jesus in Egypt, we read how God used the movement of peoples to weave the tapestry of his redemption. In the last century and a half, we have seen a movement of Europeans around the world exploring, colonizing, trading, and carrying out Christian missionary activities.7 These global migration trends began to reverse from the mid-twentieth century onwards. The phenomenon of south-north migration has sparked extensive scholarly discussions as well as accounts of missionary movements within Africa and from there to the rest of the world. Thus, the phenomenon has led to the displacement of Africans, not only within the same continent but to other latitudes, which has evidently given rise to possible missionary movements from Africa to the rest of the world.

To date, in terms of the potential for missionary movements involving African immigrants, more and more African immigrant congregations are springing up in various cities in Europe, North America and Oceania, where many of them are welcomed. That is, African Christian immigrants are planting churches in the cities of their host countries in the Global North. The Nigerian church of the Anglican Communion, for example, now has two dioceses in the United States and Canada. The number of Nigerian Anglican priests and other African Anglicans, some of whom studied in American seminaries and have doctorates and master's degrees, is increasing. Typically, the churches they plant begin with a few families and, as they grow in number, acquire places of worship belonging to American Protestant denominations that, although mainline, are declining.8 Some members of the clergy have taken up pastoral positions in some of these mainline Protestant churches. This trend is not unique to Nigerian Anglicans.9

The missionary spirit is also stirring in North Africa, where followers of Jesus from Egypt, from both Presbyterian and Protestant denominations, are forming missionary sending structures. What is fascinating about this is that they share a vision of taking the gospel to the rest of the Arab world. The Evangelical Theological Seminary in Cairo, for example, has added missionary training to its curriculum. A missionary movement from Egypt to the rest of the Arab world is expected to rise in the next quarter century.

So what potential role will African churches and missionaries serving outside their continent play in missions in the next twenty-five to fifty years, particularly within their geographic immigrant context?

Historical Movements in Africa

Since the mid-1970s, indigenous missionary organizations, both denominational and nondenominational, have been establishing themselves.

The second consultation of the Movement for African National Initiatives (MANI) was held in Abuja, Nigeria from September 5-9, 2011. Part of the consultation statement reads: “We believe that God has prepared and equipped the African church to take the gospel to all parts of our continent and the world.”10 How can African immigrant followers of Jesus be faithful to that commitment to speak about their faith in the lands where they now live?

Calvary Ministries (CAPRO), an organization that was born in northern Nigeria in 1975, is a well-known example of nondenominational indigenous African missionary organizations that send cross-cultural workers.11 The Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS) is another example: it is a denominational missionary organization belonging to the Evangelical Church Winning to All (ECWA). There are some organizations coming out of Egypt to the Arab world that we cannot name for security reasons. The movements that are emerging from Africa to the rest of the world face challenges, but they also have opportunities.

Missionary Opportunities for the African Church

Along with the great changes that are taking place both on the African continent and in the world, the African church has crucial missionary opportunities. Listed below are just a few of the available and emerging opportunities:

Global Denominational Leadership: African Christians can take advantage of the opportunity to become members and pastors of mainstream American and European churches whose numbers are declining. Some African pastors who completed their studies at respected evangelical seminaries in the United States are already serving as pastors of some of the major, all-white American congregations. In addition, the African Christian diaspora population could become a missionary force regardless of the fact that their host countries are trending toward churches comprised mostly of African immigrants.

Global Scholars: African Christians who are training in theological institutions in the global north could become a missionary teaching force within the Western world. Some already have doctorates and are publishing peer-reviewed scholarly materials in reputable international journals. These scholarly writings could impact theological training in the next twenty-five to fifty years: they could gain prominence and become required reading in the seminary curricula of North American and European theological institutes.

Spiritual emphasis: Most African Christians from evangelical and Pentecostal backgrounds emphasize prayer and spiritual power. Andrew F. Walls stated that when he arrived in West Africa, it occurred to him that while he was “pontificating on […] different bits of second-century Christian literature, he was actually living as if in a second-century church. Around him, a community was developing its life, worship, and learning according to its second-century Christian loyalty.”12 Among African evangelical and Pentecostal Christians, there is an evident fervor for prayer and an awareness of the impact of spiritual powers on the lives of individuals and societies. Thus, if Africans are working with non-Africans in global mission, the former could spiritually boost the latter in their prayer life.

Vitality of Youth and Women: Yaw Perbi and Sam Ngugi present in their book some potential and persistent problems.13 The authors mention that in the midst of these problems, youth and women display a vibrant faith. While many Christians of younger generations in Europe and North America are becoming “irreligious” (i.e., they have no religious affiliation), young African Christians, on the contrary, live their faith in an energetic and passionate way. And even more so women, whose influence in missions has continued to grow over the past twenty-five years. It is to be expected that their power and influence will continue to contribute significantly to global cross-cultural mission in the next quarter century. However, the contribution and mark that women leave in the spheres of Christian ministry and missions are often not given the importance they deserve. Missionary leaders, Christian education and churches need to identify and harness the power of Christian women in the various ministries of the body of Christ, particularly in missions.

Challenges facing African missionary movements
Having said all this, one of the challenges that African missionary movements must try to face is the cultural barriers that are an obstacle for non-Africans to be attracted to their message and mission.

Cross-cultural outreach: African diaspora churches need to be intentional about proclaiming the gospel to non-Africans. In a paper presented at a MANI conference, Dr. Emmanuel Bediako observed that “African diaspora churches are 99% African or African-descended and are reaching out predominantly to African immigrants.14 In view of the missionary potential among the African migrant population in the West, a close look at trends shows a lack of missionary engagement that transcends the homogeneous boundaries of African immigrant Christian demographics. Put another way, most African followers of Jesus who engage in Christian ministry in their host countries do so within the homogeneous spheres of their cultural environment and lack cross-cultural engagement with unreached peoples of non-African origin. This is a challenge that must be addressed.

Cross-cultural contextualization: African diaspora churches must adapt their way of doing church to the cultural norms, values, and communication styles of their host countries. One example is the concept of time for Africans, as in some cases they have two- to three-hour services on Sundays followed by an additional hour of “communion after communion.” A Caucasian American invited to such a service is unlikely to stay more than an hour and a half, and even less likely to return. Many other cultural nuances must also be re-evaluated and contextualization principles applied to avoid repelling non-Africans who might show interest in the message and worship of African diaspora Christians.

Cultural discrimination: Other challenges include visa and immigration restrictions, financial ability, racial discrimination, and prejudice. African Christians who engage in world missions in contexts where they experience racial discrimination and judgment must, in addition to having a good self-esteem in Christ and a self-concept based on the Word of God, develop resilience and the ability to navigate the challenging social dynamics in which they find themselves.

In short, the shift of the center of gravity of Christianity to Africa in recent decades gives the African church enormous potential to be a global missionary movement for the next 25 years, as long as it is done in collaboration with the world church. It is necessary to explore this potential, take existing opportunities and make the most of them, and critically and constructively overcome the challenges so that nations may rejoice and sing for joy.

Conclusion

In the new era of world missions, a new missionary force has emerged from Latin America, Asia and Africa. The new dynamic of global missions is polycentric: it reaches the majority world from different centers that have their own unique strategies, methods, and challenges according to their cultural, socioeconomic, and political contexts. This is just the beginning of a new missionary era that is deeply connected to a global missionary community. The call of the Great Commission falls upon all believers in the world equally. All must take the gospel message to the unreached peoples in the ends of the earth. All must go where the gospel does not exist.