The State of God s World: Globalization and the Future of Integral Mission Tom and Christine Sine 1 Introduction: Taking the Globalized Future Seriously In the conclusion of his definitive work on the history of missiology, Transforming Mission, David Bosch states: The mission of the church needs to be constantly renewed and re-conceived. 2 One of the major reasons for this constant renewal is that the context in which we live our lives, operate our churches and do mission keeps changing. In this paper we attempt to sketch some of the new challenges and opportunities we believe are facing the church in mission as we race into a new century. We have found that very few churches or Christian mission organizations make any effort to make sense of how the context in which they are doing mission is likely to change before they plan. There is a tendency to plan as though the future is simply an extension of the present. Futurists seek to identify driving forces for change. There is a widespread consensus that one of the major driving forces for change as we race into the 21st century is globalization. It is our belief that globalization is already changing the world in which in which we live, seek to serve Christ and think about mission. We join others and use McWorld as a metaphor to characterize the globalization of our planetary society. In the 1990s the global community moved into a new neighbourhood which is discussed constantly in the business community, but seldom in the church. Overnight we moved into a new one world economic order. Two major events directly contributed to this process of rapid globalization. First, in the 1980s and 1990s we began hardwiring our planet at incredible speed into a single global electronic nervous system of satellites, fax machines and internet communications. Borders are melting. Distance is dying. One and half trillion dollars circulates through this global electronic nervous system every day directly contributing to the rapid creation of this new one world economic order. Second, with the sudden end of the cold war all the centrally planned economies were thrown into the trash bin and for the first time in history virtually all nations in the world joined the free market race to the top. We have moved into a new neighbourhood that we have never lived in before: a one world economic order. Even though this new boom economy has slowed and some fear a global recession, others are hopeful the economy will take on 1 This paper also appears in Justice, Mercy and Humility, ed. Tim Chester, (Carlisle: Paternoster, 2003) 2 Bosch, David J., Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in the Theology of Mission (Maryknoll, New York: Orbis, 1991), 519.
new life. Time will tell. In spite of the protests at recent G8 conferences, there are many upsides to this new global economy. It is creating jobs and increasing wealth for a number of people in many different countries. The internet has become an avenue for increasing international understanding and creating new forms of advocacy for justice, peace-making and the care of creation. This new global economy has become in itself a tremendous force for promoting global stability for the simple reason that doing war gets in the way of doing business. Globalization and the Future of the Poor In the 1990s we saw an unprecedented explosion of wealth among the top 20 percent with the creation of more millionaires and billionaires than during any decade in history. The bottom 20 percent, however, have actually lost ground in this very competitive race to the top. The United Nations Development Program states that 30 years ago the poorest 20 percent of the world's population earned 2.3 percent of the world's income. Now they earn only 1.4 percent and that amount is still declining. At the same time the richest 20 percent increased their share of global income from 70 percent to 80 percent. 3 Robert Wade, a professor of political economy in the London School of Economics, cited two very recent studies to express his concern regarding the apparent growing inequity. Between 1988 and 1993... the share of the world's income going to the poorest 10 percent of the world's population fell by over a quarter, whereas the share of richest 10 percent rose by 8 percent. 4 One of the cardinal doctrines of this new global economy is that if we are allowed to buy one another's banks and phone companies and fish in one another's ponds, it will automatically raise all boats. The reports from two missionaries in Uganda seem to call this assumption into question. They report that a European fish company contracted with the Ugandan government to build a large fish factory on the edge of Lake Victoria that sends 200 tons of fish a week flash frozen back to Europe. Of course there is some economic benefits for a few of the elite in Uganda, but tens of thousands of Ugandans can no longer afford to buy fish from their own lake because the European fish factory has driven up prices four-fold. Even though global population growth is slowing, it will still grow from 6.2 billion today to between 8 to 10 billion by 2050. Most of that growth will be among our poorest neighbours in densely congested urban areas. Today almost half of the global poor are under 15. According to Bread for the World this growing economic disparity is likely to be dramatically increased in the next 25 years when the huge population of children and young people in poorer countries hit the labour market. We will need to create 2 billion new jobs to respond to this challenge. 5 3 A Global Poverty Trap, The Economist (July 2, 1996), 34. 4 Wade, Robert, Winners and Losers, The Economist (April 28, 2001), 72-74. 5 Hunger in a Global Economy, Bread For the World Institute (1998), 25.
One other trend should concern us. In this competitive race to the top a number of Western countries are trying to find ways to reduce the drag on their economies by cutting back spending in foreign aid abroad and social programs at home. This means that the church and private sector will increasingly be asked to address the growing physical needs of those left behind in this new global economy. The new United States Republican administration is already expressing hope that faith-based groups will play a greater role in responding to the needs of the poor overseas and at home. Mission organizations involved in relief and development work and even church planting are going to need to dramatically increase their investment in vocational education for both young women and men, job creation and microenterprise development. Leaders in global missions will also need to explore how to respond to the new justice and environmental challenges that are a part of our new global economy. Globalization and the Future of the Middle Class Everywhere we work in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States people tell us they are working harder and longer to stay even in this increasingly competitive global economy. In 1977 less than half of families in the United States relied on dual incomes. Today that figure has dramatically increased to two-thirds and is still climbing. Some women are working simply to help pay the bills and keep their heads above water. Others are working in order to buy extras. Similar trends are observable in other Western countries. In fact, a growing number of people in this new 24 hour, 7 day-a-week on-line economy never leave work. McWorld wants more, not only of our time, but also of our money. This new boom economy is not only an assets-based economy, but a shareholder economy. And shareholders do not want a 3 percent to 5 percent return on their investment. They want a 15 percent to 30 percent return if they can get it. The only way that can happen is for all of us to be persuaded to consume at levels never seen before on this planet so that yesterday's luxuries become today's necessities. As a part of the need to keep the boom economy booming our young face escalating pressure to increase their consumption. Naomi Klein, in her book No Logo, documents how the marketers targeted the young much more directly persuading them to try to find meaning, purpose and identity in the things they buy and the brands they wear. In other words they are moving into religion's domain. 6 These trends mean that Christians in many of our Western countries have less time for family, prayer, Scripture, church or to volunteer for mission activities at home or abroad. This means that mission organizations need to increase significantly their investment to help their constituents find ways to 6 Klein, Naomi, No Logo (New York: Picador Press, 2000).
more effectively steward their time if they want to have their continued involvement. Some argue that if the pressure on us and our young to consume more continues it may be good for the global economy. But it will not be good for our humanity and spirituality or for the character of the church and for global mission. It will probably mean that many middle class supporters of mission are likely to spend more on comfortable lifestyles and have less money left over to invest in word and deed mission. Globalization and the Future of the Church The good news is that the church in Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia is enjoying rapid growth. In the West there is a growing hunger for spirituality, particularly among the postmodern young. But there seems to be little interest in what most evangelical churches are offering. God, however, started raising up new youth churches in the UK in the late 1980s that is much more successfully engaging the young. We see a similar emergence of youth churches in Australia, New Zealand Canada and the United States. They represent our best possibility in the West of reaching the postmodern young. All our churches are going to be challenged to address not only the mounting physical needs that are filling our planet, but the growing spiritual needs as well. What is not generally recognized is that we are actually going backwards not forwards in world evangelization. Peter Brierley of the Christian Research Association reports the 28 percent of the world's people identify themselves as some brand of Christian: Protestant, Catholic or Orthodox. Because population growth is outstripping our best efforts that percentage will decline to 27 percent in 2010 and continue to decline after that. 7 We are witnessing a new competitor for the hearts and minds of a new generation. In the past ten years we have seen the creation of a new a borderless global youth culture. The marketers of McWorld are not just selling products to the global young. They are consciously at work seeking to persuade the young to change their values so they will all buy the same products. While there is a growing hunger for spirituality in the West, church attendance statistics in continental Europe are in free fall as it rapidly moves to become a post-christian culture. Church attendance in Britain fell from 10.2 percent in 1980 to just below 8 percent in the year 2000. In Australia weekly attendance is closer to 10 percent but declining. Research in New Zealand suggests attendance is a little higher at 17 percent, but in decline. In Canada the falling attendance rate is closer to 20 percent, while Kirk Hadaway places church attendance in the United States at 24 percent. 8 7 Brierley, Peter, Future Church: A Global Analysis of the Christian Community to the Year 2010 (London: Monarch, 1998), 33. 8 Sine, Tom, Mustard Seed Vs McWorld: Reinventing Life and Faith for the Future (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 127-40.
The missing generation in the church in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States is the under 35s. The young are disappearing from our churches in alarming numbers. In his seminars George Barna says the buster generation those born between 1965 and 1983 is the first generation in America which is not starting life with some kind of clear Christian heritage. The buster generation in the United States attend church significantly less than any other generation. 9 If the Western church is to have a future we need strategically to target the evangelization of the under 35s. We must also give the Christian young who are with the church greater responsibility for leading and reinventing the church for the 21st Century as young leaders are already doing in Britain. Between 2010 and 2030 the boomer generation will retire which will mean a serious decline in income to the Western church. Finally, since the buster generation will be less numerous in our churches, have more college debt and spend a greater share of their income for housing they will not be able to sustain the present level of giving to mission. Therefore, our reluctant forecast is, given current trends, that mission support from the Western church could go into decline by 2020 for the first time since the end of World War II. Declining resources would likely mean growing competition between word and deed missions. Alongside these demographic changes, in the United States an integrated approach to mission has been losing ground in recent years. The majority of American pastors have not heard of the Lausanne Covenant, let alone any of the follow-up consultations on an integrated approach to missions. As well as this there is a heated debate among evangelical leaders in the United States who are very much aware of the ongoing international conversation on integral mission. This debate was sparked by James Engle and Bill Dyrness' book Changing the Mind of Missions: Where Have We Gone Wrong? 10 David Hesselgrave, professor of missions at Trinity Evangelical Divinity Seminary, expressed concern about the evangelical movement's slide into holistic mission and criticizes the book for not supporting the priority of evangelism, reaching the unreached, and planting New Testament churches. Both the words evangelical and mission are thereby eroded. 11 Furthermore, a number of evangelicals in the United States have embraced a view of social responsibility shaped largely by the religious right and the political right that largely ignores social justice issues. René Padilla offers a definition of integration between word and deed mission in his book Mission Between the Times. Both evangelism and social responsibility can be understood only in light of the fact that in Jesus Christ the kingdom of God has invaded history and is both a present reality and a future hope... it is God's redemptive power released in history, bringing good news to the poor, freedom to the prisoners, sight to the blind and liberation to 9 Barna Research Group, Church Attendance by Generation, (July 8, 1998). 10 Engel, James F. and William F. Dyrness, Changing the Mind of Missions: Where Have We Gone Wrong? (Downers Grove: IVP, 2000). 11 Hesselgrave, David J., Reform not Revolution, Evangelical Missions Quarterly (January 2001), 92-3.
the oppressed. 12 We believe the kingdom of God is not only the key to an integrated view of mission, but also offers a compelling alternative to the aspirations and values of the global consumer culture for our lives and communities of faith. There is a growing discussion on the impact of postmodernity. In the academy the issues is how we do intellectual inquiry. But postmodernity is also stirring a conversation in the church on how we think about faith and even how we do mission. As a consequence there is a growing movement away from the propositional theology that has been an integral part of the evangelistic message of most Western mission organizations involved in church planting and evangelism. As we struggle to define the relationship between evangelism and social responsibility we will need to rethink essential questions. What is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to what extent has it been modified by our seeking to accommodate the rationalism of modern culture? How do we communicate that message in a postmodern world? What does it mean to become a believer in a postmodern culture? Is it possible to measure our mission results? How do we relate the faith claims of the gospel of Christ to other religions in a world of increasing religious pluralism? Globalization and the Future of the Economy While the influence of postmodernity is growing, modernity's influence also continues to grow. The creation of this new global economy is actually accelerating the rate at which the influence of modernity and westernization is reaching into every corner of the planet. There seems to be little recognition of the threat modernity presents to the church. Evangelicals of course relentlessly do battle with modern culture on moral issues such as pornography on the internet and we should. But too often we treat the other messages that come from modernity individualism, materialism and consumerism as though they are value-neutral. Many evangelicals, for example particularly in the United States, tend to treat the free market, which is a product of modernity, as though it is simply a value-free economic mechanism that produces only positive outcomes. Rob van Drimmelen, in an important book Faith in the Global Economy, calls for the demystification of economics. He persuasively points out that the assumptions on which modern economics are based are far from being valuefree. 13 At core modernity and free market capitalism are driven by a vision of the better future the so-called Western Dream that is inherently a different vision for the human future than that of the kingdom of God. How can Christians possibly hope to contend with the messages from modernity and our new global economy about what is important if we have already 12 Padilla, C. René, Mission Between the Times: Essays on the Kingdom (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1985), 197. 13 van Drimmelen, Rob, Faith in the Global Economy: A Primer for Christians (WCC, 1998), 1-6.
unconsciously bought into the same dream for the better future that drives economic globalization? The Oxford Declaration on Christian Faith and Economics (1990) sounded a warning that we want to echo. There is... the danger that the model of the market, which may work well in economic transactions, will be assumed to be relevant to other areas of life, and people may consequently believe that what the market encourages is therefore best or true. The growing message we hear from this new economic order is that the ultimate is defined in largely economic terms. For decades, while talking about the importance of integral mission, we believe we have unwittingly exported a compartmentalized rather than integrated approach to discipleship all over the world. For example, we see middle class Christians who increasingly derive their sense of life purpose, identity and meaning from where they work and what they buy. We see Christians at the margins who, when they secure a good job, leave their poor communities behind and move into more affluent neighbourhoods where they can give their children the benefits. Before we can answer the question what is an integral approach to mission? we must answer first the question what is an integral approach to discipleship in our new global culture? In his book, The Integrity of Mission, Orlando Costas offered a prayer that still has not been fully answered. We need not only to join in this prayer for an integrity of mission, but to commit ourselves to see it become much more of a reality. The true test of mission is not whether we proclaim, make disciples or engage in social, economic and political liberation, but whether we are capable of integrating all three in a comprehensive, dynamic and consistent witness. We need to pray that the Lord will liberate us not only from this stagnant situation, but he may liberate us for wholeness and integrity in mission. 14 14 Costas, Orlando E., The Integrity of Mission (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1979), 75.