Conversion or Christianisation and Mission from the Margins

Interrogating the Foundations of Mission Thought and Practice

Abstract

The face of Christianity in the world has changed dramatically since the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh as the burgeoning number of Christians, churches, missionaries and mission agencies in Africa has upended many of the old assumptions about the place of Africa in world Christianity. Much of this growth is the fruit of the 19th century missionary movement, whose evangelical ethos continues to impel the church towards reaching the ‘unreached’. Not only was this movement rooted in particular social, political, cultural and economic realities that no longer exist, most mission thought, and practice is based on long-standing beliefs about the nature of Christianity, about the meaning of conversion, and about the differences between the ‘reached’ and ‘unreached’ that obscure the shared primal spirituality that unite them. These assumed differences often undermine the aim of mission and increase the marginalisation of those we hope to reach with the gospel. In this paper I explore some of the historical and cultural roots of this problem and discuss possible ways of re-framing our understanding of key concepts may lead to more effective mission engagement to those on the margins.