Fair skin, light-colored eyebrows, a prominent nose, and deep, ocean-blue eyes—this is many people's impression of missionaries. However, missionaries are no longer predominantly white; Asian and Black communities are involved in missions.
“In the past, we would say Christianity was a ‘Western religion,’ and missionaries always came from Western countries, but this started to change 50 years ago—not all missionaries are white anymore,” said Jang, a pastor serving in a Korean mission organization.
He noted the rapid change in global missions, citing a survey from a North American research institute which showed that Christianity was growing quantitatively in the Global South.
A survey (unamed for security reasons) shows that in 1900, 82% of Christians worldwide lived in the Global North; by 2020, only one-third resided in the Global North. In 1970, 31,000 missionaries were in the Southern Hemisphere, compared to 227,000 in the North. By 2021, the Global South had 203,000 missionaries, while the North remained at 227,000. African, Latin American, Asian, and Australian Christians now make up a growing proportion of global Christians.
This change has led to a shift of mission movements from the West to the East. In the past 50 years, Korean missionaries have increased from fewer than 50 to 30,000; South American, from zero to 30,000; Philippines, from zero to 3,000.
Most countries in Africa, Asia, and South America aren’t wealthy. Mission organizations in those areas can not use the Christendom model of Western churches, since it requires extensive financial resources.
Pastor Jiang said, "At the 1911 Edinburgh Missionary Conference, Western churches proposed the mission slogan, 'From the West to the non-West, from here to the world; the West has the responsibility to evangelize.' Consequently, many countries in Europe and North America, including the UK, the US, and Canada, began mission efforts in other countries."
"Typically, mission agencies selected missionaries, whom churches prayed for and supported financially. Their mission strategy was to establish schools and hospitals first; once locals favored Christianity, they would establish churches. This is the Christendom model," he continued.
Some Western scholars began re-evaluating this model, pointing out that it is not applicable in the morden era nor suitable in other countries. For example, the Christendom model was the best strategy of its time for Western missions, but now it’s time for the churches in the Global South to move beyond the Northern Christian mission model, said Christian mission historian Andrew Walls.
Jang believes it is time to initiate a new mission model, which is “a new missionary force has emerged from Asia, Africa, and Latin America to reach out to other countries.”
- Edited & translated by Abigail Wu
