Stereotypes Straining Because of Integration

This from one of John Stott's study assistants....

Two global conferences I attended in the last couple years exemplify this division. In July 2004 I attended the “Global Institute of Theology” in Accra, Ghana, sponsored by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. While the Institute had the appearance of being directed by non-Western leadership, the content and teaching of the Institute was driven almost entirely by one ideological concern: trade, development and globalization. Even as a concern to discuss evangelism, personal conversion, or spiritual warfare was expressed by participants, these concerns were sidelined by the overwhelming focus on issues of trade and development.

At the Younger Leaders Gathering, there was again the impression of non-Western participation in the planning and leading of the event. But this time, rather than being driven by a concern for trade and development issues, there was an almost exclusive focus on world evangelization and personal conversion. While the conferences were vastly different in their agendas, they both suffered from being far too influenced by the Western ideological division that has so profoundly shaped the Western missiological project over the last 100 years.

But the most remarkable thing of all was that at each of the conferences I encountered non-Western Christians who could have easily been a part of either. Again and again these non-Western Christians defied my ability to categorize them. Were they evangelical or liberal in their priorities? I discovered that they were both and neither. They had a deep concern for many of the things that American evangelicals care about: biblical faithfulness, evangelism and conversion, sexual and moral standards and purity, the centrality of Jesus, spiritual warfare and the activity of the Holy Spirit. Yet they also had concerns about things which are not often discussed at a typical American evangelical conference: fair trade, the environment and conservation, rights for women, a deep aversion towards war, even resistance to global capitalism. Was this a case of confused priorities? To the contrary, it appears that as Christianity flourishes in environments beyond the historical baggage of Western Christianity, our non-Western brothers and sisters are re-discovering a more balanced form of “evangelical” Christianity that we have neglected.

From http://theotherjournal.com/article.php?id=207
posted by Bill (h/t Cary)