Can the West then be converted? So, back to Newbigin’s question, “Can the West be converted?” My answer is that it is possible that we will see the West embrace Christianity again—though it maybe later rather than sooner, and if it happens, it will not be a straight forward endeavour. The confidence that many have…
Tag: diaspora
Can the West really be converted?: A Non-Western Reflection on the Newbigin Question (Part 1 of 2)
In 1987, Lesslie Newbigin published an essay in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research in which he reflected on a question that was raised by General Simatupang at a conference in Bangkok in the 1970s. The discourse at the conference had turned to the need to rethink evangelism in the West, and Newbigin notes that…
Mission-Shaped Church in a Multicultural World
 Well, my contribution to the Grove Booklet Series entitled “Mission-Shaped Church in a Multicultural World” is out now. It joins many other resources that are available on the market exploring how we as sons and daughters of God can live together in the kingdom. Often, we tend to hang out with people that are…
African Church Planting in Europe: State of the Conversation
For four times in the past two years, I have taught a term-long Church Planting module at two colleges in England. The students taking this module have been exclusively African—from many countries, denominations, networks, and movements across the continent. The question that shapes the module—and the conversations thereof—has always been “how can African Christians plant…
A Wandering Syrian Was My Father: The Scandal of an Immigrant God (Part 2)
And thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous …. Deuteronomy 26:5 KJV This little confessional statement of faith that appears at Deuteronomy 26:5-10,…
Hope for the Second Generation
Last week, I attended a week-long Youth Conference of the Church of Pentecost – UK at Nottingham University. (The Church of Pentecost is a Ghana-originated Pentecostal church that has spread to over 90 countries and has 125 churches and 14000 members in Britain). The entire period of six days was a delightful mixture of youth…
Diaspora Theology and the Scandal of an Immigrant God.
I had a chance to teach a brilliant bunch of missional pioneers last week, and the subject was “Migration and Mission.” The lesson drew from the usual resources in the migration-mission-theology conversation. Using my own book as a resource, in which I have dedicated a few pages to a theology of migration and another to the…