New wine in old wineskins: A critical appraisal of diaspora missiology

In the past decade, there has been an explosion of research that uses insights from migration studies as a way of understanding various shifts in global Christianity. As a result, missiology has both benefited from and increasingly gravitated toward migration studies for assessing specific global processes. Diaspora missiology, framed as a discipline, movement, and strategy, has emerged as a contemporary missiological reflection on globalization and migration. While some aspects of diaspora missiology contribute helpful insights to the future of missiology, ongoing missiological reflection that uses diaspora as its key framework raises questions that invite critique. In this article, we describe the emergence of diaspora missiology and the various ways it is currently being used in the broader discourse as represented by major proponents Enoch Wan, Sadiri Joy Tira, and J. D. Payne. We then raise four points, critically and constructively unpacking key questions under the following headings: (1) assessing the need for a distinct discipline as an alternative to “traditional missiology”; (2) objectifying migrants: counting and (dis)counting the world’s Christians; (3) the “unnoticed” missionary potential of Christian migrants; and (4) immigrant congregations and transnational ties: multidirectional mission.