Christianity headed south

Elisabeth Elliot’s 1957 classic, Through Gates of Splendor, was billed by the publisher as “the boldest and most dramatic missionary exploit of modern times . . . a collision of darkness and light.”

The book tells of “the martyrdom of five American missionaries in the Ecuadorian jungle.” Elliot’s husband was among the five men involved in “Operation Auca,” named for the remote tribe they were trying to reach. After making initial contact with some Aucas, the missionaries were ambushed by the tribe on a jungle beach, “defeated,” as the dust cover says, by “primal fear and hatred.”

I was in high school when I read the book, and found it inspiring.

But the global narrative of Christianity has shifted dramatically since then. The story is no longer about noble white Christians boldly penetrating dark pagan lands abroad. Now, churches in the Global South flourish while those in North America and Europe settle uneasily into a post-Christian era in which traditional religion is increasingly crowded out.

The choice of a Latin American pope is indicative of this shift, as is the choice of a Colombian as general secretary of Mennonite World Conference (MWC), a selection that was made two years ago when César García took over from American Larry Miller. Subsequently, MWC moved its headquarters from Strasbourg, France, to Bogotá, Colombia. (There’s no talk of the somewhat less nimble Catholic Church leaving Rome for, let’s say, Brazil, which has more than twice as many Catholics as Italy.)

Today, only a third of Mennonites live in North America and Europe. The same is true of Catholics. According to information put out by the World Council of Churches, a century ago 80 percent of Christians in the world lived in the Global North. Today, less than 40 percent do.

The centre of Christianity has shifted southward, whether or not the North has noticed. Today, Holland—the home of Menno Simons’ birthplace—has fewer Mennonites than Angola, Vietnam, Guatemala or 15 other southern countries.

But García cautions against idealization of southern churches. Numbers alone do not tell the whole story. Not all growth has been healthy, he says via Skype from Bogotá. While it is impossible to generalize across all southern churches—and southern churches are as diverse as northern ones—he says a self-centred, prosperity-oriented gospel is too common.

García singles out Benny Hinn—the controversial California-based televangelist, miracle worker and prosperity pedlar—as an influential force in southern churches, including some Mennonite congregations. Best-selling American writer and pastor Rick Warren is also popular. Less popular, says García, are Anabaptist theologians like John Howard Yoder, John Driver and Mark Baker. García wishes that interest in the latter would be more common, although, of course, a good number of southern Mennonite churches do have solid Anabaptist foundations.

In terms of how churches in the North and South relate, García says the days of understanding missions primarily as a North-to-South endeavour are “finished.” Patronizing attitudes must be left behind, he says, adding that the key now is “interdependency.”

“Churches in the North need the churches in the South,” he says. Generally speaking, the North can learn from the South about how to be a church that emphasizes community and “organic growth, instead of institutionalized structures.”

The South can learn about “strong roots,” “good foundations,” and how to deal with contentious issues in healthy ways, García says.

As for missions, García says the model for which he has most hope is one in which ministry is carried out by multicultural teams and is done in a holistic fashion that includes church planting, education, social development and an emphasis on pacifism.

Among several examples he cites is a partnership that sees Mennonite Church U.S.A.’s Mission Network and the Colombian Mennonite Church work together in Ecuador.

For those of us in the Global North, the challenge is perhaps to humbly wrap our hearts around the southward shift—a gradual process that is at varying stages in different groups—thanking God for the spiritual fervour in the Global South, and seeking opportunities for reciprocal North-South partnerships.