Think deeper:
Why we handed over our magazine to Europe
The World Church is not just situated in Africa and Asia. We have much to learn from Europe. And there’s an easy way to start.
It’s 2019. We’re handing over control to Europe
It’s becoming almost fashionable to talk about listening to the World Church these days. And that’s a good thing. It’s not virtue-signalling or PC gone mad, it’s just wisdom and humility. The World Church is growing and we in the UK are experiencing contraction and a loss of privilege. We’d be arrogant or delusional to think we had nothing to learn from Christians in the Majority World. And we’d be spiritually and intellectually poorer if, in this connected age, we didn’t make use of emerging opportunities to hear voices we are not used to hearing. Voices from beyond the heartlands of our established western theology like Britain, Germany and the USA. That’s why BMS World Mission is committed to helping our UK family hear from Christians in places that don’t usually influence us. The God-given blessing that is the World Church.
So, we’re all agreed that we need to listen to the World Church, right?
But, are we limited in our thinking? There’s a danger in our automatic imagining about who (and where) the World Church is. Too often, we limit it to warm climates, different races or minority communities of evangelicals. In short: Africa, Asia and Latin America. BMS is committed to learning from the Church in these places as we do mission alongside their churches, and to bringing what we learn back to the UK. The countries and cultures we generally think of as the Majority World can teach us fresh practice and challenging, new theology, it is true. But, so can Europe.
And often we forget that fact – and in doing so we forget our brothers and sisters across the channel and the continent. We need to build an awareness of a Europe beyond our reflexive imagining.
BMS has long worked in Europe – in places where the physical need is greatest and the Church is most marginalised. And we also believe that we can learn much from our sisters and brothers there.
- Rev Dr Mike Pears
(The Netherlands) - Walter Klimt
(Austria) - Andrea Klimt
(Germany) - David Bunce
(Austria)
- Ksenija Magda
(Croatia) - Jan Martijn Abrahamse
(The Netherlands)
- David McMillan
(The Netherlands) - Denys Kondyuk
(Ukraine) - Henrikas Zukauskas
(Lithuania)
Guest-edited in the other Europe
That’s why we’ve dedicated an issue of our immensely popular magazine, Mission Catalyst, to hearing voices from Europe. We are very proud to announce that it will be guest-edited by Mike Pears, the Centre Director of the International Baptist Theological Study Centre (IBTSC), based in Amsterdam. IBTSC’s roots are in Prague and they serve Christians from all over the world, with a large number coming from the Europe most of us never hear from.
Croatia. Ukraine. Lithuania. If you’ve not recently read much Christian thought from these countries, subscribe to Mission Catalyst today to be sure to get our Europe-focused issue next month.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Church in parts of the World that often get overlooked, where the most marginalised and least evangelised people are in need of Christian witness, this issue is for you. And if you’re excited to make 2019 the year you deepen your engagement with the World Church, so are we! We’ve all got some distance to travel, but God is good. And even a small starting point can lead to a great journey.
Why not start today?
This is your chance to challenge yourself with the difficult topics facing Christians today. Subscribe to Mission Catalyst today to hear from the greatest Christian minds of the modern day, three times a year, completely free!
Words by Jonathan Langley, Editor of Mission Catalyst magazine.
