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July 29, 2005

Why should we listen to voices from Africa?

Most of you will probably see the title of this and pass on.
Talk about Africa is not on your radar.
Well, there are two good reasons why we as Christians need to be listening to voices from Africa:

1. The church is now vastly non-western. It is African, Asian, and Latin American. These are the places where the church is not only large, but growing and vibrant.

2. Jesus is most often found among the poor and on the margins. If you want to know where Jesus is, and what he is doing today, look in Africa!

Has not God chosen the poor in the eyes of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom? We need to hear what Africa has to say to us about spirituality, faith, and theology. And we need to hear the concerns of our family there, and ask how Christ, whom we call Lord, would have us respond.

Most of the discussion among Christians on the internet simply reflects the situation in the western world - rich white guys arguing amongst themselves about issues concerning an ever-decreasing section of the church: English Bible translations, American politics, postmodern church, Calvinism and Arminianism....

Not that these things shouldn't be discussed, of course. But the issues that concern the vast majority of the world's population, the vast majority of Christians in the world, and the vast majority of the materially and spiritually needy in the world, barely raise a ripple. Poverty, hunger, suffering, and injustice raised their heads recently, only because they give us a chance to talk about rock bands and espouse our own views. Then we returned to more urgent things. The needs of the 10/40 window and of the millions with no access to the good news of Christ are drowned out by expostulations about the war on terror.

We have the money to be able to broadcast our views in books, seminars, and blogs, however ridiculous our views or insipid our spirituality. Most Africans do not of course have a voice in blogworld or to the western church. And we don't want to listen anyway. Please don't disturb our comfort by asking us to be interested in Africa beyond giving some spare change occasionally to appease our consciences. Let us get back to our comfortable Christianity and our polemics.

And yet, that's where Jesus is.
That's where the needy are.
And that is the church of today, and increasingly of tomorrow.

As Graham Cray says in the book "the post-evangelical debate":
"The focus of influence within world Christianity will increasingly be the churches of the South, making the subject of this book (and maybe our blogs...? K) a marginal debate... Western Christians still have little awareness how far they have moved from the centre of influence. The crucial question for all Christians at this time, evengelical or not, may be, how much can we learn from our brothers and sisters in the Two Thirds World?"

And are we listening?

Tags: church africa christianity blogging

Posted by Keith at July 29, 2005 10:09 AM