The New Shape of World Christianity: Part 5 of 5

One additional challenge that Noll addresses is challenges to the missionary enterprise. The question is posed: are missionaries agents of colonization? (98-99). Do the efforts of American (or more broadly, Western) missionaries result in the deconstruction of local societies while replacing them with American ideology? Are American missionaries deconstructing local identities in order to replicate the American experience of Christianity? As mentioned above, Noll argues that similar social and historical conditions have produced churches with similar voluntaristic, conversionistic DNA. It would be incredibly arrogant to suggest that Western missionaries are the reason for Christianity’s explosion in non-Western countries, as if the Nigerians or the Filipinos are passive agents that cannot think, act, or believe for themselves (106). No, as Noll argues throughout The New Shape of World Christianity, the gospel must take root in local cultures, languages, and in the hearts of local believers, in order for revival and spiritual transformation to happen.

“There is first contact with the gospel (often from missionaries), and there are very often early efforts at evangelization and at humanitarian aid (usually from missionaries). But the actual movement from Christian beachhead to functioning Christian community is almost always the work of local Christians. Korean revivalists; African prophets, catechists and Bible women; Indian preachers and bishops; Latin American priests, Pentecostal preachers and cell group leaders; South Sea Islander chiefs and teachers; imprisoned Chinese apostles—these are the human agents that over the last century and a half have transformed Christianity from a Western to a genuinely world religion” (196).

Missionaries play an important role in instigating the process, but ultimately the success of their mission requires the gospel to be owned, expressed, and loved in new neighborhoods, places of employment, languages, and cultures.

“…missionary service remains of critical importance, but not because missionaries are intended to exercise God-like authority in shaping responses to gospel proclamation. Rather, they remain critical to the world Christian picture because they are the ones called to begin a process that succeeds fully—that succeeds in accord with properly Christian understandings of the God-given diversity of cultures—only when missionaries get out of the way” (196).

The gospel of the heaven-sent, incarnate Word, Jesus, visits men and women in fierce concrete jungles of Manhattan and in the marketplace chatter of Davao. The heaven-sent Saviour pronounces forgiveness in Korean and in Creole. Mark Noll’s book The New Shape of World Christianity reminds readers of the importance of allowing the gospel to express itself in new contexts and thereby making the God of the gospel known.  

The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith by Mark Noll 

Published: 2009 by InterVarsity Press 

Length: 212 pages 

Recommended for: Those interested in Global Missions and Evangelism; those interested in World Christianity

Cheapest place to by: Christianbook.com is selling it for $15.49