Time for Emerging Mission to Take the Coffin

 by Peter Tarantal.

Last year when I was teaching on the history of missions on the Doulos, I was recounting the stories of how people like William Carey left from Europe and Adoniran Judson left from the USA to go to places like India and Burma. 

I recounted the stories of how missionaries from Europe and elsewhere took their coffins with them when they went to places like Africa. We are indeed grateful for the rich history that we have in missions, and for what our brothers from North America and Europe especially contributed to the cause of Global Missions. As result of the sacrificial service of our brothers and sisters, the Church in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe is busy growing at a phenomenal pace. God is indeed doing a new thing in the areas that are now known as the Global South. 

Statistics tell us that in 1900 there were eight million Christians in Africa; today there are close to 500 million Christians. When we think of China, in 1949 when many of the Western missionaries left, there were reportedly about two million Christians. Today, conservative estimates tell us that there are approximately 100 million Christians. Some time ago I met with a brother from NEMA (Nigeria Evangelical Missionary Association) who told me about their 15:50 Vision. They hope to send 50,000 missionaries in the next 15 years. There are reportedly already 5,000 missionaries serving the Lord from this country. 

This is the story of OM's ministry focus, Emerging Mission Movements (EMM). We want to tell the story of what God is doing in places like Africa, Latin America, India, China, Eastern Europe etc. 

We hope to keep this regular blog to look at various examples of how Emerging Mission Movements is happening in the OM international context.