{"id":16273,"date":"2018-02-01T19:45:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-02T03:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16273"},"modified":"2018-02-01T20:19:27","modified_gmt":"2018-02-02T04:19:27","slug":"a-global-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-global-family\/","title":{"rendered":"A Global Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

This summer I will be leading a mission trip to East Asia.\u00a0 This team will consist of about 50 persons, mostly adults, but some children and teens will join their parents.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We just purchased our airplane tickets for the trip today.\u00a0 Since there is a direct flight from DFW, our team will board a plane on one side of the world and step off of it sixteen hours later\u2026on the opposite side of the globe.\u00a0 This was unthinkable a century ago.\u00a0 In the 1800\u2019s missionaries said goodbye to friends and families, packed their belongings in a casket, and embarked on a journey to Asia that took several months.\u00a0 For many, the only time that they returned home was when their body was in that casket.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This will be one of the largest international teams that I will have led.\u00a0 And, as you can guess, the number of resources (time, training, and money) that will be put into this trip will be significant.\u00a0 It is inevitable that someone whom I will talk with (or someone who is reading this blog) will ask the question \u201cIsn\u2019t this a waste of money?\u00a0 There are so many people here in the United States who need Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Praying with local evangelical leaders in Serbia<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I reflected on these things as I read Global Evangelicalism: Theology, History, and Culture in Regional Perspective.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 This rich work, edited by Donald M. Lewis and Richard V. Pierard, is a collection of essays by Christian scholars that chronicle the history of evangelicals, highlighting the spread of evangelicalism around the world.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The book begins by helping the reader understand exactly what \u201cevangelicalism\u201d is.\u00a0 According to the book, evangelicals:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026affirm that ultimate meaning is found in the person of Jesus Christ.\u201d (18)<\/p>\n

place a very high importance on the Bible, both the Old and New Testaments (18)<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026think of themselves as joined with other believers through history back to the time of Christ.\u201d (18-19).<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026practice water baptism\u2026and celebrate the Lord\u2019s Supper.\u201d (19)<\/p>\n

focus on the \u201c\u2026\u2019good news\u2019 of salvation brought to sinners through Jesus Christ.\u201d (19)<\/p>\n

believe in \u201c\u2026the need to witness the good news of Jesus, to \u2018go into all the world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This was a helpful, positive explanation of the term.\u00a0 Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation today about what an \u201cevangelical\u201d is.\u00a0 For example, most Southern Baptist Church leaders probably think that they have little in common with Presbyterians.\u00a0 Yet, last week a Presbyterian minister came to our church to train our very first team of \u201cAlpha\u201d leaders.\u00a0 During that training, this man passionately shared his testimony about how Jesus saved him via the Alpha Course as a college student.\u00a0 He teared up when telling our group about someone in his Alpha group who recently came to Christ.\u00a0 We ended by raising our hands toward the community and praying for the lost.\u00a0 This man was clearly an \u201cevangelical\u201d brother whom I connected with.\u00a0 Yet, our history denominational separation might have kept us from working together.\u00a0 If it weren\u2019t for Alpha, we would have never met.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I read the book, I was thrilled at its emphasis on what God was doing on every continent.\u00a0 \u00a0Separate chapters were written to highlight evangelicalism in Africa, Latin America, Asia, Oceana, Europe, and North America.\u00a0 I loved hearing about how some of the early twentieth century revivals had spread to Africa.\u00a0 As someone who lives in a city that is becoming a majority Latino community, it was inspiring to read that evangelical Christianity was spreading rapidly across Central and South America.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Easter 2017 at Twin Palm Baptist Church, Lusaka, Zambia<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Of course, the area of the world that I most enjoyed reading about is Asia.\u00a0 I have read many books about the church in Asia and have made many trips to several Asian countries. \u00a0To be honest, the last three books that I have read for the Portland Seminary Doctor of Ministry in Leadership and Global Perspectives program have all focused exclusively on the West.\u00a0 They left me thinking \u201cbut I know that there is an exciting history of the church outside of Europe and America.\u201d\u00a0 For example, there is a Christian denomination in India who traces their linage back to the Apostle Thomas.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The history of Christianity in Asia is by no means a trouble-free one.\u00a0 For example, during the late 19th<\/sup> and early 20th<\/sup> centuries in China, the Taiping rebellion and the Boxer Rebellion (both connected to the spread of Christianity) resulted in the death of millions of Chinese (as well as the martyrdom of many missionary families). \u00a0The \u201cthree self-movement,\u201d as outlined on page 43, began as an evangelical church planting strategy.\u00a0 It has now been shaped by the Chinese Communist Party into a method to subjugate the church to the government\u2019s will.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The way that evangelicals value the whole life of the person is highlighted in the section on Asia which discusses evangelical missionaries\u2019 legacy of opposition to widow burning, child marriage, foot binding, and the denial of education to girls.\u00a0 In modern times, evangelicals are taking a stand against human trafficking, forced abortions, religious persecution, organ harvesting of prisoners, and child labor in Asia.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the end, Global Evangelicalism <\/em><\/strong>shines a much-needed spotlight on the God who wants to have a personal relationship with both the Wall Street banker and the Zulu child.\u00a0 This book gives us a glimpse of a \u201cchurch\u201d that is without borders.\u00a0 A growing family made up of people from Latino, Asian, European, Middle Eastern, Polynesian, Native American, and African heritage.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

BEIJING, CHINA – OCTOBER 12: A Chinese Christian woman sings during a prayer service at an underground independent Protestant Church on October 12, 2014 in Beijing, China. China, an officially atheist country, places a number of restrictions on Christians and allows legal practice of the faith only at state-approved churches. The policy has driven an increasing number of Christians and Christian converts ‘underground’ to secret congregations in private homes and other venues. While the size of the religious community is difficult to measure, studies estimate there more than 65 million Christians inside China with studies supporting the possibility it could become the most Christian nation in the world within a decade. (Photo by Kevin Frayer\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Donald Lewis and Richard Pierard, Global Evangelicalism: Theology, History & Culture in Regional Perspective, (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 257.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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