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The Impact of Migration on Evangelism in E urope
Author(s) -
Terfassa Dawit Olika
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
international review of mission
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.118
H-Index - 11
eISSN - 1758-6631
pISSN - 0020-8582
DOI - 10.1111/irom.12061
Subject(s) - evangelism , gospel , context (archaeology) , humility , sociology , identity (music) , faith , christianity , theology , religious studies , philosophy , history , aesthetics , archaeology
The extensive secularization that eroded C hristian belief and practice and that caused a drastic decline in church membership and the presence of an increasing number of non‐ C hristian migrants in E urope today is not only endangering the future of C hristian faith, but reminding us that there are millions of people in E urope who need to hear the gospel. But generally, there is a continuing decline of interest in evangelism among the local churches and theological training in E urope, with the exception of free churches and some mission organizations. Theological training in E urope, at least in its present shape, has not been successful in shaping, leading and equipping the church for the task of evangelism as discipleship: a life‐transforming encounter. Therefore, we need a renewed vision of evangelism to develop contextual evangelistic approaches that takes paradigm shifts of our time into account. Migrant C hristians bring a remarkable new dimension to the understanding and practice of evangelism in E urope. They come from a context where evangelism is intrinsically interrelated to discipleship making and is seen as the central identity of a church and a primary goal of theological training. This can inspire, encourage and compel E uropean C hristians to rediscover a courageous missional identity and develop effective cross‐cultural evangelism. Meanwhile, migrant C hristians need the guidance of E uropean C hristians in order to use a proper and contextualized approach to win the trust of E uropeans and succeed in evangelizing them. Humility is the key element that is commonly needed in this win‐win situation. Positive theological and multicultural networks along with interdependence and mutual learning–oriented relationships between migrant and local C hristians can help to develop ecumenical missiologies that are relevant to diverse contexts of E urope today. The issue of the I nternational R eview of M ission focuses on the theme of E vangelism as D iscipleship . This theme is held by most migrant C hristians and congregations as the main interrelated aspect of evangelism. I will start by giving a brief background on the status of migration and evangelism in E urope. The main focus will be the impact of and contribution of migration on evangelism and some major aspects in which migrants may influence the search for new ways of evangelism and the development of ecumenical missiologies in E urope.