{"id":5178,"date":"2015-06-01T00:36:45","date_gmt":"2015-06-01T07:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=5178"},"modified":"2015-06-06T03:45:49","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T10:45:49","slug":"the-church-in-uganda-and-africa-is-in-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-church-in-uganda-and-africa-is-in-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"The church in Uganda and Africa is in transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CT\"<\/a>While reading Len Hjalmarson\u2019s article \u201cBroken Futures-Adaptive Challenge and the Church in Transition\u201d I was led to reflect on my travel to Uganda where I\u2019ll be interacting with leaders who are eager to contribute to early childhood education and how the church in Uganda can apply an imaginative and restorative leadership to keep the totality of the gospel of Jesus Christ central in education. Of course many issues come to mind from the sociocultural, political, theological and economic which I would like to explicate some more here, but time would not permit.<\/p>\n

However, what is pertinent to the discussion as it relates to Len\u2019s article is that the life of the church in Uganda and across Africa continues to be in transition. The shifts in Global Christianity in the 21 century are having profound implications globally. Noticeably so because over the last century the \u201cmecca\u201d and forces behind a burgeoning Christian presence have relocated from Europe to the developing world.\u00a0 Jenkins writes, \u201c\u2026 Center of gravity of Christianity in the world has shifted inexorably away from Europe, southward, to Africa and Latin America, and eastward, toward Asia.\u201d[1]<\/a> For many observers and students of Church history and the history of Christianity, a necessary follow up inquiry would be to the effect of, \u201cwhen did Christianity\u2019s Center of gravity become specific to geopolitical spheres, namely global North and global South? Is Jenkins\u2019s analysis of the transitions in global Christianity also implicating God and Christians into the game of thrones and favoritism? Scripture clearly notes that \u201cGod does not show favoritism\u201d[2]<\/a>, so that\u2019s settled. \u00a0History on the other hand, points reveals a time when Europe established its identity with Christendom and the idea of a large church-state at its core, thus the Church of England.<\/p>\n

It was during the expansion of the European empire that a country like Uganda was colonized and declared a British protectorate. Along with such political transitions for the West to the South also came the transition of church culture. A good example is that one of the largest denominations in Uganda is the Church of Uganda established during the colonial time based of the template of the Church of England. Albeit, since the 1960s when Uganda along with many African countries acquired their national independence from their imperial rulers, the church landscape has continuously evolved due to a number of factors. \u00a0I have been a part of the leadership of a number of church plants, massive Christian outreaches and continue to participate in other initiatives in Uganda. As I read Len\u2019s article and reflected on the transitional state of the church in Uganda, I resonated with the quote:<\/p>\n

Culture roils and churns in the collision of the old with the new. At the dawn of the third Christian millennium, continuity battles with discontinuity: the emergent dance with what is passing away. Leaders of spiritual enterprises, like many of the adherents of the faith, have oars in both currents. The Challenges involves getting as many through the rapids as possible, knowing some will never make it. [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

So what exactly does the transition look like for the Church in Uganda? It looks like \u201ccontinuity battles with discontinuity\u201d. Generally, Church for the most part used to model Christendom\u2019 ways, yet today\u2019s globalization has also allowed Ugandan churches and Christians have access to TBN\u2019s televangelists, both short and long terms missionary realities, western evangelical financial sources and theologies. With such factors and more, many pastors find themselves catch up in the business of the Church\u2019s big ABCs. Attendance, Buildings, Cash. But perhaps the transitional nature of churches in Africa might stay unstable for a while, or might the leading evangelical churches in America help to alleviate the situation? It is true that more evangelical forces of transition keep vying for the market share of churches in Africa. Indeed the waves of transition flow like might waters towards churches in Africa. A recent example is Pastor Rick Warren\u2019s ambition for an \u201cAll-Africa Purpose Driven Church Leadership Conference\u201d as part of his global P.E.A.C.E. Plan. Will the church in Africa now swing West towards a \u201cPurpose Driven Church and P.E.A.C.E Plan\u201d from California. That remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Len adds, \u201cWe live in transitional times, and transition is a place of liminality, of instability and contradictions.\u201d<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0Philip, Jenkins. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity<\/em>. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), 1.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Romans 2:11<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Reggie McNeal, A work of Heart<\/em> (Jossey-Bass, 2000) quoted by Len<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While reading Len Hjalmarson\u2019s article \u201cBroken Futures-Adaptive Challenge and the Church in Transition\u201d I was led to reflect on my travel to Uganda where I\u2019ll be interacting with leaders who are eager to contribute to early childhood education and how the church in Uganda can apply an imaginative and restorative leadership to keep the totality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[647,345],"class_list":["post-5178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hjalmarson","tag-wheatley","cohort-lgp4"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5178"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5243,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5178\/revisions\/5243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}