We can all gain

 by Peter Tarantal.

In 1988, I stood at the Berlin Wall with five team mates. Returning from Poland to West Germany, we stayed overnight in West Berlin. I still have a picture of our team beneath graffiti that read “Jesus love world conquer”. The Berlin Wall was a formidable challenge, symbolising a 'cold' war that had a large part of the world firmly in its grip and reegated every country to either to the Western sphere—the so-called 'first world'—or the socialist sphere (the 'second world'). More than 100 states in neither such 'world', mostly in the southern hemisphere, were defined as the 'third world'.

The prevalent view associated the North with economic and technological advancement, prosperity and wealth, democracy and good governance. In a nutshell: a better place to be. By contrast, the south was synonymous with bad governance and flawed democracy, civil wars and poverty, misery and hunger. As such, they were determined as needing help from the North.

That was then; this is now

Times have changed. One of the great moments of history happened 20 years ago, at midnight on 3 October, 1990, when East and West Germany unified. Since then, a considerable number of countries of the Southern Hemisphere, including South Africa, have experienced a dramatic upswing in nearly all spheres of political, economic and social development. Once seen as mere recipients of development aid, the economic dynamics of the South contributed to preventing the world from economic cataclysm and financial meltdown as the South's purchasing power, economic resilience and (sometimes) its fiscal and financial systems, helped lift the world economy in 2008.

One example of this dynamic development was South Africa's recent successful staging of the largest media and sports event in the world, the  Soccer World Cup. Billions of television viewers worldwide and hundreds of thousands of World Cup visitors on the ground in South Africa experienced a well-organized event. Some Global South countries are poised to catch up to, and even overtake, some Global North countries in terms ofnational income per capita purchasing power, research and development performance and infrastructure development. In the past, talk of partnership on a equal footing between North and South was mere diplomacy-speak not rooted in fact or conviction. Today, world affairs and bilateral relations between states of the former North and South are characterized by interdependence and a new balance of power. Just two years ago, few would have predicted the rapid rise of influence of a new political body, the G20, in which the Global South is well represented.

Parallel to this economic and political development is the rise of the Church in the Global South. It is well documented by Phillip Jenkins and others that the global Church's centre of gravity has shifted to the Global South. In 1990, there were reportedly eight million Christians in Africa; today there are close to 500 million. In 1949, when Western missionaries were asked to leave China, there were some two million Christians. Today conservative estimates indicate that there are between 100 and 130 million Christians.

While we celebrate what God is doing in the Global South, there is also a realization of the need for true partnership and interdependence in the global Church of Jesus Christ. Unlike economic and political spheres, where power often dictates agenda, those of us in the Kingdom are called to exercise Kingdom principles in esteeming one another and working together in a spirit of humility, servanthood and love. Instead of wanting to dominate, we submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

An exciting new day has dawned; let’s celebrate what God is doing in His world.