Evangelical perspectives on mission
Among the statistics related to the status of global Christianity, one of the most difficult to determine is the number of evangelical Christians. This is mainly because it is difficult to define Christian Evangelicalism or Pentecostalism. The figure lies somewhere between 413 million (according to the Centre for the Study of Global Christianity (CSCG), a faculty of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, South Hamilton, MA, USA, in their Status of Global Christianity 2024) and 619 million (according to Sebastian Fath, a researcher of the French National Centre for Scientific Research). This figure is still very high when we consider that there are estimated to be over 2,500 million affiliated Christians throughout the world. So, it amounts to almost a quarter of all Christians.
One of the major problems with defining evangelicalism is that there are so many different evangelical denominations, and their numbers can vary considerably. On top of that, the numbers can vary over time. National Gallup surveys in the United States show a shift of anything from 33% during the height of the televangelist scandals in 1988 to 48% in 2005.
A central concern of evangelical approaches to mission is the fate of those who have neither heard nor accepted the Gospel.
Based on the belief that unless one renounces sin and believes in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there is no assurance of salvation, the conversionist approaches claim that the missionary imperative is to preach the Gospel with the aim of arousing personal conversion. At one extreme, the Fundamentalists stress the urgency of mission because of the impending end and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. However, it should be noted that some scholars would insist that Fundamentalists do not belong within the broader evangelical movement. On a more pragmatic level, the “Church Growth” movement applies statistical analysis in the endeavour to make mission more effective by targeting those people who are more likely to be receptive to the Gospel message.
At the other end of the evangelical spectrum, the dialogical approaches speak of entering a “dialogue of life” with people of other religions. Variations of this approach include the “new evangelicals” who prefer to speak of evangelism in terms of gift and the offer of salvation within the context of dialogue with those who are not Christian.
The pluralist approaches, on the other hand, view dialogue in terms of discovery or the possibility of relationships, whereby the Church, while not denying its role as the instrument of salvation, approaches each encounter with the other great world religions in the Spirit of anticipatory Love.
Rather than persuasion, these dialogical and pluralist approaches are based on invitation and anticipation.
Despite the problems of definition and leadership, it is important to keep evangelicalism in mind in studying the future of Christian mission because the growth of the evangelical churches, particularly in Asia, has been quite spectacular in recent times. The last General Assembly of the World Evangelical Alliance was held in Jakarta, Indonesia, in 2019. It brought together 800 delegates from 92 countries and focused on “a new decade of disciple-making and intergenerational leadership” (Evangelical Focus, 11/11/2019).
Columban Fr Tom Rouse lives and works in New Zealand.
Mission Intentions
June - For those fleeing their own countries: Let us pray that migrants fleeing from war or hunger, forced to undertake journeys fraught with danger and violence, may find welcome and new living opportunities in their host countries.
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