As someone who regularly interacts with missionaries, studies missiology, and leads outreach ministries in my own city, I have witnessed the development of a new type of strategy for both overseas missions and local church work.<\/p>\n
Before discussing this new strategy, let me first address some of the strategies that evangelical Protestants have employed:<\/p>\n
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Whether we speak of William Carey of India, David Livingstone of Africa, Robert Morrison of China, or Adoniram and Ann Judson of Burma, we realize that there was a time that the primary role of the missionary was to bring to gospel of Jesus Christ to societies that had no previous exposure to God\u2019s Word or His offer of salvation. There are, of course, still missionaries today who are working among unreached people groups and doing pioneer work, but this is not the totality of today\u2019s missionary effort.<\/p>\n
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In the 20th<\/sup> century, a new type of overseas Christian worker appeared. Whether influenced by the social gospel movement, or from liberation theology, men and women moved to poor or undeveloped countries to work to improve conditions for the people there.<\/p>\n While pioneer missionaries have been criticized of collaborating with Western colonizers who often were oppressive to local populations, the community developers were the exact opposite. For the pioneer missionaries, the prime goal was the salvation of souls. Much of their time was spent translating scripture into indigenous languages and searching for effective ways to lead people to Christ.<\/p>\n The community developers made the current life condition of the people the prime directive. The emphasis was not only on feeding the hungry, and caring for the sick (something that pioneer missionaries had historically been a part of) but also on the challenging of political and social structures that were unjust. Community developers become involved in workers\u2019 rights disputes, protests of unjust government actions, and the promotion of education.<\/p>\n A common criticism of this type of missionary was that so much effort was placed on the temporal, that they ceased to care for souls. The message of salvation via faith in Jesus was either an accessory or not even mentioned.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n With this dichotomy in mind, I was pleasantly surprised when I read Global Pentecostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement<\/strong> <\/em>by Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori. This work was based on a multitude of interviews and site visits with Pentecostal churches and ministries around the world. Their research led them to write this book that is filled with inspiring examples of what God is doing via His church around the world\u2026with focus on a variety of Pentecostal movements.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nGlobal Pentecostalism<\/h2>\n