International (MNN) — The majority of Christians in the world now live in the Global South, changing the face of the global mission force.
(Photo courtesy of A Third Of Us)
David Bogosian with the Alliance for the Unreached says, “Missiologists are now talking about what they call polycentric mission.”
Polycentric missions are when missionaries are not just sent from Europe and North America in the “West-to-the-rest” approach, but from everywhere to everywhere.
Despite the incredible progress that has been made in the last century, Bogosian says, “Many of the places today that are unreached are unreached in part because they are resisting the gospel as a form of westernization.”
An example of this is in India, where the BJP persecutes the Christian church because Christianity was associated with the British colonial power.
“Things are beginning to change in an amazing way because of the globalization of the missions movements. The face of the missionary has changed. It’s no longer a white person necessarily showing up someplace, but you have African missionaries, you have Asian missionaries,” Bogosian says.
This globalization of missions can lessen resistance to the gospel.
Today, most of the world’s unreached people groups live in restricted-access countries or places where traditional missionaries cannot go. Because of this, the church is rethinking how it engages in global mission.
“The good news is that God does have people in all of these contexts, the Open Doors produce a map every year of the places that have the highest level of persecution in the world, and if you were to overlay on top of that map the location of all the world’s unreached people groups, you would see that 80% of them live in these persecuted, restricted access contexts,” Bogosian says.
Three billion people in these difficult-to-reach places. But Bogosian says, “Here’s the amazing thing. One third of the world’s evangelical Christians live in those contexts.”
Believers in places like China and India live in close proximity to the unreached.
It is very difficult for people to evangelize in these contexts with radical and surveillance groups that seek to shut down any preaching of the gospel.
“It’s not easy for them to do that, but they are there, and so it’s our job as Christians to pray for them, to encourage them, to help them in the task that God has given them within their own country,” Bogosian says.
(Graphic courtesy of A Third of Us)
In the Western church, it is important to be careful to recognize when helping hurts and how the desire to help can cause more harm than good.
Though blessed with incredible financial resources, Bogosian says Western Christians need to get involved wisely and carefully, listening to the Holy Spirit and connecting with organizations that specialize in things.
“I would encourage anyone who wants to help, if you want to connect with the persecuted church and with those that are working in this restricted context, connect with those organizations that God’s raised up for His purpose,” Bogosian says.
The future of missions will require further collaboration and dialogue with Christians across the Global church.
“We need to learn from one another,” Bogosian says. “What’s happening today is a challenge for everybody. You’re seeing the world in meltdown mode right now. We need to lock arms.”
Bogosian says God is building his kingdom and wants His people to be united. This will require approaching the future with humility as learners.
Bogosian says, “Mission brings us to that place of humility before God and before one another where we realize we can’t do this ourselves. It brings interdependency within the body and dependence upon Christ.”
Please pray that in areas where house church movements are, God will work through these churches and regions, reaching whole countries and even neighboring ones.
Pray that God will unleash that church and that those around the world will reach people for Christ.
(Photo courtesy of Chuttersnap/Unsplash)
