Methodists on the cultural sidelines?
Right now in Cape Town, South Africa, the 3rd Congress on World Evangelism is going on with Christians from around the world meeting together to discuss, encourage, worship and strategize together. (Notably absent, of course, are over 100 delegates from China, whose government denied them travel and confiscated their passports. This is critical in light of China arguably having the largest number of Christians of any nation in the world. As one conference attendee quipped: “Having Lausanne without the Chinese is like having the World Cup without Brazil!”)
Much of the discussion in Cape Town is focused on the day-to-day realities of global Christianity, such as persecution. Pastors and leaders from countries in North Africa and Southeast Asia have discussed the levels of persecution which are a regular feature of Church life in their communities. This, as much as anything else, is what Lausanne was created for–to shift the focus off of Western Euro-American Christian culture and shed light on what the majority of Christians (who are no longer European or North American) experience and how the Church as a whole can address the needs of brothers and sisters who don’t have the publicity or free press necessary to bring their situation to the attention of the wider world.
For Methodist blogger Shane Raynor, the discussion at Cape Town has served as an occasion to reflect on the cultural role of American Methodists and how far removed we are from the realities of global Christians. In a post entitled “Methodists Should Get Off the Sidelines“, Raynor writes:
To many American Christians, our idea of religious persecution is when we take a few shots from Bill Maher on Friday nights. (Maher says prayer is “communicating telepathically with your imaginary friend.”)
[continue to JM’s full Examiner article]
Categories: Blog, Church History, Ministry, Political/Social issues, Theological issues