Missiology: An International Review

COVID-19 is affecting Christian mission in many different ways. Doubtless it is inspiring some people to initiate new mission efforts, while in other contexts it is causing thriving mission to change radically or cease altogether. In this forum article, three missiologists write essays about how mission was affected during the influenza pandemic of 1918–1919, the event most frequently compared to COVID-19 for its similarly worldwide scope. James Krabill’s essay describes how the earlier influenza pandemic led to renewed spiritual vigor in Nigeria and the establishment of several new denominations in West Africa, which remain influential today. Robert Danielson’s essay examines how a ministry to sailors in the early 20th century, known as the Floating Christian Endeavor, was negatively impacted by the influenza pandemic. This article concludes with Benjamin Hartley’s story of how the life of John R Mott, perhaps the most famous world Christian statesman in 1918, was also affected by the influenza’s scourge. These historical essays provide both inspiration and consolation for contemporary mission initiatives as missiologists and other Christian leaders seek to respond to the crises of their own day.

Roughly two years after Metacom’s War, John Eliot published a Lord’s Supper preparativo titled, The Harmony of the Gospels, in the Holy History of the Humiliation and Sufferings of Jesus Christ from his Incarnation to his Death and Burial (1678). The book’s 130 pages provide a copious survey of various sufferings undergone by Jesus which Eliot parsed out of his reading of Scripture. Eliot posed several parallels between the experiences of Jesus, on one hand, and those of genuine Christians on the other. One of these parallels is the experience of poverty and what Eliot repeatedly called an “obscure low condition” that obtains from poverty. Considering Eliot’s long experience in cross-cultural ministry in a tenuous colonial context, this is one of the most striking features of the book. I believe it resonates with the Native Christian experience more than the white colonial Christian experience. Time and again Eliot makes an authorial movement from Gospel narrative and biblical commentary to contemporary application for Christian readers. I suggest that Eliot intended to voice comfort at times in The Harmony specifically to Native Christians by assuring them their experience of marginalization and suffering did not negate their status as a part of God’s people. What Eliot wrote about the low condition of being “a worm” reflects convictions likely forged in the fires of cross-cultural ministry in colonial context. Eliot’s multifaceted and expectant vision for the praying towns was a casualty of Metcom’s War. He seems to have changed his interpretation of 1 Corinthians 1:26–29. The theological motif of Zechariah’s temple rebuilding mission was replaced by the suffering Messiah’s rejection as the prominent biblical type informing Eliot’s expectations for the development of Native Christianity. In this carefully nuanced pastoral theology of poverty is also a prophetic critique of injustice toward the poor and marginalized.

Milk and milk tea occupy a special place in Mongolian hearts. Historical writings of Roman Catholic missionaries confirm the sacredness of milk and its abundant use for Mongolians. Milk offerings, sprinkled into the air, are offered to Tenger (Sky/ Sky God), Buddha, ancestors or nature spirits, and are an everyday part of traditional Mongolian worship, nearly always in the morning. This ceremony traditionally is performed alone by women, mothers praying in a supplication of blessing and protection for their families. Yet in recent times a few men have been doing this ancient ritual. Are possible Mongolian Christian responses to reject this traditional custom as being syncretistic, or to see it as being a potential form of Christian expression of devotion to God? May there be analogies from milk offerings to better engage in discipleship or worship? If this ancient practice is not addressed, there is the risk, especially for women, of this ritual being driven underground, of split-level living among Christians.

Christian mission initiatives towards Muslim peoples which originate from the West are often perceived as an expression of a colonialist mindset expressed through religion. This article proposes to listen attentively to that critique, first through the writings of Edward Said (Orientalism) and Ussama Makdisi (Artillery of Heaven). Contemporary political and military developments in the Muslim world are also observed as factors in the colonialist narrative. These include the Iraq War, the issue of Israel–Palestine and the current flight of historic Christians from the Middle East. Each of these tragic developments implicates Western Christianity, reinforcing Eastern proclivities to the accusation of colonialist mission. Though the accusation of colonialism is unlikely to disappear, Western mission efforts can take measures to soften its blow. By renouncing political affiliations and working collaboratively and holistically, Western Christians can continue to pursue mission objectives in the Muslim world.

This article attempts to provide insight into the challenging and changing religious context for cross-cultural ministry in France in the 21st century. Many of these challenges exist due to the religious history of France, the marginalization of religion, and the unwelcome presence of foreign missionaries in secular France. French laïcité presents a specificity in origin, definition, and evolution which arises from a unique historical context leading to the Law of Separation of Churches and state in 1905. The law abrogated the 1801 Napoleonic Concordat with the Vatican, disestablished the Roman Catholic Church, ended centuries of religious turmoil, declared state neutrality in religious matters, and continues as a subject of debate and dissension 100 years later with the emergence of Islam as the second largest religion in France. Cross-cultural workers enter a ministry context where religion has been progressively removed from public space.

This is an account of the Youth Specialist’s Gathering which took place in Cardiff, South Wales in the latter months of 2019. It explores the combined thinking of a team of experts drawn from various strands of Christian youth work across Wales who together reflected upon how the church connects with young people today. As part of the process they looked at communication, issues/pressures on young people, and ecclesiology, but the main purpose of the gathering was to address a primary question: Given unlimited resources what would you do to better enable young people to encounter Jesus across Wales? The hoped-for outcome was to give direction to the church in Wales in its desire to help facilitate more young people encountering God across the country. The gathering looked at how we communicate, the specific issues young people are facing—sexting and self-harm were particulalrly identifed. The conclusion was intriguing in that overwhelmingly the key elements were relationship and connection.

John Eliot was the 17th-century settler Puritan clergyman who sought to engage his Wampanoag neighbors with the Christian gospel, eventually learning their language, winning converts, establishing schools, translating the Bible and other Christian literature, even establishing villages of converted native Americans, before everything was wiped out in the violence of the King Philip War. John Eliot is all but forgotten outside the narrow debates of early American colonial history, though he was one of the first Protestants to attempt to engage his indigenous neighbors with the gospel. John Veniaminov was a Russian Orthodox priest from Siberia who felt called to bring Christianity to the indigenous Aleut and Tinglit peoples of island and mainland Alaska. He learned their languages, established schools, gathered worshiping communities, and translated the liturgies and Christian literature into their languages. Even in the face of later American persecution and marginalization, Orthodoxy in the indigenous communities of Alaska remains a vital and under-acknowledged Christian presence. Later made a bishop (Innocent) and then elected the Metropolitan of Moscow, Fr. John (now St. Innocent) is lionized in the Russian Church but almost unknown outside its scope, even in Orthodox circles. This article examines the ministries of these men, separated by time and traditions, and yet working in similar conditions among the indigenous peoples of North America, to learn something of both their missionary motivation and their methodology.