The second was when we moved away from home to go and live in South Asia. We felt the distance in more ways than we anticipated. One was the sense of losing a voice of influence in the lives of our children, as they set off in their different vocations and locations and communities. Giving them, every now and then, a significant book (to me, anyway!) seemed to be one way to keep speaking a little voice into their lives. 


Whether they take the time to read them is a different matter altogether 😀.


In my 60^th year, another reason to give them books came into focus. After a decade of working in a majority-world context, I found myself wanting my children to be more exposed to majority-world authors writing from within those contexts. Here is the inscription I placed in three books given to them on the occasion of this birthday.

[NB: Two possible reasons for not turning that way come to mind. One, as my friend put it yesterday, is that no one puts up their hand for suffering. Living under fire sounds too hard. Fitting-in and going with the flow is easier than standing-out and going against the flow. Books about cultural relevance are easier than books about cultural resistance. It looks like a tough world for Christians over here in the majority-world. It is. A second reason might be the sheer wealth and power and reach of publishing houses, with their authors and seminars, outside the majority world. The marketing can batter people into purchase, while the focus has to be on books that people want (ie that sell), rather than the books that people need.]  


We need to find a better way. Pastors, leaders and thinkers outside the majority-world need to grow some gurus from within the majority-world. It will be so good for them. 


WHY? 
1. To Learn 
People tend to live in bubbles, prefering to hear only the reassuring echoes of what they already believe. Same authors. Same schools. Same publishers. Same organisations. What they really need to do is burst out of their bubbles and venture forth. Living in multi-cultural societies might be new for us, but it is ancient for many in the majority world.  Bearing witness as a minority faith in a majority faith religious context (and yes, the ‘no religion’ folks do form a majority faith religious context) might be new to us, but it is ancient for many of them. Discovering that a biblically-faithful life invites persecution in the public world might be new to us, but it is ancient for many of them. If this is all true, then why, for God’s sake, are we not more willing to learn from them?


2. To Change 
If it is the bubble that is the concern above, then it is the blindspot that is the issue here. Using the language of the scholar for a moment, we can affirm that all knowledge is ‘perspectival’ and that there is a ‘pre-understanding’ that we bring to the text before we even open the text. We gotta find ways to get in and mess with that perspective and that pre-understanding because you can be sure there are blindspots in there that are at work. The best way to do this is to read familiar things through other peoples’ eyes. The suffering church sees different things in the text than the comfortable church. My next literary task is take a final look at a book by a Palestinian scholar entitled, Reading the Gospel of John through Middle-Eastern Eyes. Yes! This is how to expose blindspots – and it is also a jolly good way to melt the fears and evaporate the threats which so often surface when we encounter something that is alien to us. 


3. To Identify 
It is a small step from ‘reading through other peoples’ eyes’ and beginning to identify with them. This is how friendships are built. This is how partnerships get started. This is how solidarity seeps in. This is what we need to heal our lands and assist God with his mission in the world. Let’s give our lives not just to the unity of the local church, but also to the global church. Let’s extend the canvas on which we paint those experiences of ‘weeping with those who weep’. Let’s see churches in the majority-world and churches outside the majority world getting it together. The books will help. In fact, the books can lead the way…

2. Start with Hikmat Kashouh’s Following Jesus in Turbulent Times. It is short. It is engaging. It is a simple apologetic for the value of all that I am affiming with this post. While I did write a little review here, it is far better that you read the book for yourself. Another good starting place would be Ajith Fernando, but you’ll need to push your cart on another website for his books, starting with The Call to Joy and Pain; The Family Life of a Christian Leader; and Discipling in a Multi-cultural World.

A personal favourite of mine is the volume by Conrad Mbewe – which I blogged about here, before the book was published and after I heard the story from Conrad himself at a table in a restaurant in Sheffield. Interestingly, one of the unexpected consequences of the Langham Monographs series is that they are proving to be very popular with seminaries and colleges outside the majority-world. That is a good sign, isn’t it?!