south:east:north:west

[apologies – for some reason my blog went blank for a week]

I’ve been in ChiangMai at a conference on global Christianity organised by the International Council of Evangelical Theological Education (ICETE). We explored the implications of the shift of the center of Christianity from the North/West to the South/East.

Here are a random dozen quotes that I will remember…
[NB – these may not be word perfect as I was writing really fast!]

1. “Protestants are in such a hurry to jump from Augustine to Luther. And it is our Asian and African brothers and sisters who can fill in that gap best.” (Andrew Walls)

2. “Church History courses tend to ‘avoid most of the Christian world and the world of most Christians’. When we speak of ‘early church’ it is only ever that part of the church which laboured under the Roman Empire.” (Andrew Walls)

3. “The reality is that the North and the West are missing the party.” (Chris Wright)

4. “Why do we have to move to the West in order to have a voice to the Rest?” (Siga Arles, an Indian scholar, bemoaning the ongoing dependence on the Western PhD as a career track)

5. “The day we have an all-African faculty at our college will be the day I resign.” (Douglas Carew, principal of African graduate school)

6. “Unlike Islam, Christianity does not need to speak:pray:worship in the language of its founder. The God to whom it witnesses is available in the common language of marginalised peoples all over the world. There is nothing God wants to say to us that cannot be communicated through simple everyday language.” (Lamin Sanneh)

7. “Unlike Islam, Christianity does not need to know the exact birthplace of its founder. Jesus is born in the heart of the believer, wherever that believer happens to be.” (Lamin Sanneh)

8. “The missionary commitment to (Bible) translation affirmed the language of peripheral peoples. It not only gave them the gospel, it gave them their cultural roots. This led on to the emancipation of such peoples. Time and time again missionaries saved and deepened culture, rather than destroying it.” (Lamin Sanneh)

9. “The doctrine of justification must be kept central. Even the terrorist needs to be confronted with this truth. By their terrible deeds they are trying to win the approval of God. It can’t be done.” (Lamin Sanneh)

10. “It is not so much ‘I think, therefore I am (Descartes)’ as it is ‘A person is a person because of other persons’ (the Zulu).”

11. “Unless we are grateful to God for what we already have, he cannot entrust us with more.” (quoting Bonhoeffer)

12. Was that ‘Word becoming flesh’ or the ‘Word becoming fresh’ … I couldn’t pick the heavy Chinese accent and decided I’d write it down both ways!

May we in the North and West (which I guess includes New Zealand in the Deep South) find ways to enable the South and East to ‘breathe oxygen’ into our part of God’s mission in the world. And may we experience more of Ephesians 2 (the two becoming one) on a global scale.

nice chatting

Paul

Archive

Receive new posts to your inbox

I’d love to keep you updated with my latest news and posts.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

About Me

paul06.16

the art of unpacking

After a childhood in India, a theological training in the USA and a pastoral ministry in Southland (New Zealand), I spent twenty years in theological education in New Zealand — first at Laidlaw College and then at Carey Baptist College, where I served as principal. In 2009 I began working with Langham Partnership and since 2013 I have been the Programme Director (Langham Preaching). Through it all I've cherished the experience of the 'gracious hand of God upon me' and I've relished the opportunity to 'unpack', or exegete, all that I encounter in my walk through life with Jesus.

1 Comment

  1. Stephen G on August 12, 2006 at 5:03 pm

    You might be interested in this link then:

    http://www.redcliffe.org/standard.asp?id=2206

    I got halfway through the hybridity article, before getting having to put it down to do something else. Looking forward to finishing it when I clear my desk of paper.

Leave a Comment





This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

true, but not true enough

February 5, 2025

“What is a Christian?” A ‘follower of Jesus’ is the standard response. And it is true, but it is not true enough. Let’s think about this for a minute. So I have this encounter with Jesus. Maybe at a camp of some kind. In the singing and the speaking he becomes so real. It is…

yay! it’s you

January 27, 2025

We had been on holiday in Queenstown. Barby had to come back early to go to work. I stayed on for a couple more days with our daughter, Alyssa, and her family. When I did fly back, Barby had the car and so the easiest thing for me was to get an Uber home—and so…

expect an exception

January 24, 2025

I know I’ve mentioned this one before, but I am not really a flag-in-church kinda guy. All those years ago, as a student in the USA, it was a shock to see the flag up there in the same neighbourhood as the pulpit, the Lord’s Table and the baptistry. “What is going on?” “Have I…

transforming friendship

January 15, 2025

Just when I thought that it could not be possible to have another first-hand account of the impact of John Stott’s life (d. 2011), along comes this book by his close friend, John Wyatt. I am always ready to learn more about John Stott, but also about friendship. It fascinates me. It keeps coming up…

handa leads the way

December 29, 2024

Reading stories to grandchildren over Christmas reminded me again of how powerful they can be. They are so compact and simple in presentation, and yet so clever in construction. There are just so many features at work in an effective story. It is some years since I taught narrative preaching, but when I did I’d…

elchristo, elmina—and beyond

December 19, 2024

Today is Day 56—and on Day 57 we board a flight for home. There has been so much to absorb as Barby and I have encountered the people of God in different places. el-christo, in bolivia A few days before we left NZ, I discovered that I had five sessions to give in Pakistan. Yikes.…

cadeca art

November 20, 2024

The little chapel at Cadeca Casa del Catequista, a retreat centre on the fringes of Cochabamba (Bolivia), caught my eye on an earlier visit in 2017. Lots of photos… I was thrilled to learn that there would be a return visit, this time with Barby—and with lots of video. Enjoy. A 360 view Some Old…

the emus

October 19, 2024

Apart from the eight years in which we were based overseas, Barby has been working at the Refugee Resettlement Center in Auckland since 2002. This year she is a ‘release teacher’, spending one day each week in three different classrooms, with three different age groups. Impressive—and demanding. One day is spent with 11-13 year olds—from…