The New Shape of World Christianity: Part 3 of 5

If Noll’s explanation for the new shape of world Christianity is correct, at least two important opportunities can be identified and, hopefully, seized. First, the development of local leaders with a passion for the gospel of Jesus Christ is the motor for global and local evangelistic missions. Parachute evangelists, though they might have their place, (generally) cannot do for the gospel what local leaders can.

“When the Christian faith takes real root, it takes real root in particular places and works in and through the cultural values of those places to restore fellowship with God, undergird functioning churches, and do the work of Christ in the world. Agents from outside that culture may play important roles in assisting, or hindering, Christian maturation, but Christianity has to be local or it can barely be called Christianity” (197).

Local leaders are the prongs by which a culture takes hold of the gospel and makes it its own. When this happens, organic and authentic gospel transmission takes place.

Second, the translation of the Bible into local languages is also an important strategy for new cultures to lay hold of the gospel. The past century has seen unprecedented translation efforts (since 1900 at least part of the Bible has been translated into 1600 new languages) (24). These translation efforts have empowered many spiritually as they hear the word of God spoken in their own language. This was particularly true in the evangelization of Korea, where the translation of the Bible into Korean sparked “spiritual renewal and… social and cultural transformation” (157). In other places, the dissemination of The Jesus Film, which has been translated into over one thousand languages that has been viewed “by a total count exceeding the number of people in the world” (25), was an act of translation that has been met with great success. Continued translation efforts are a vehicle by which our Great Missionary God, who took up residence among sinners with his message of salvation, can speak words of deliverance to grace-thirsty people around the world.