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Author: Sadiri ’Joy’ Tira
Date: 04.12.2011
Category: Diasporas
Recently, I had coffee with the former President of the American Society of Missiology, Dr. Miriam Adeney, at Starbucks in City Centre, Doha (Qatar). Yes we were in Qatar and in Doha. There are several Starbucks outlets there; most of their workers are Filipinos and Indians! (Speaking about globalization in labour industry, and economic migration, Starbucks has done it so well!) Dr. Adeney and I were talking about many missiological issues that concern us, including my recent blog post ( 21.11.2011 ) on Diaspora Readings and Intellectual Invasion. She agreed for the most part except she said that "there are [indeed some] missiologists (including herself) who are looking at the diaspora issues very carefully". In fact, she said: "in my presidential address to the American Society of Missiology (ASM), I mentioned diaspora." Her presidential speech was subsequently published in the ASM Missiology : An International Review (01.2011).
Please don’t get me wrong. There are some missiologists who are researching and writing about this global trend. To be fair with Dr. Adeney, I would like to also suggest to the Lausanne readers, Evangelical Missiological Society President, Dr. Enoch Wan’s seminal work Diaspora Missiology published by the Evangelical Missiological Society (EMS) Occasional Bulletin of EMS Vol. 20 No. 2, 2007. You may read this article at: www.enochwan.com/english/articles/pdf/Diaspora%20Missiology.pdf
So, the two leaders of the largest Missiological Societies in the USA and Canada are championing Diaspora Missiology! However, we need more scholars in four quarters of the globe to research and write. Diaspora issues in Latin America is very different than the diaspora issues in North Africa and Middle East; issues in Eastern Europe is different than in Far East Asia. We need to encourage more PHD, D.Miss., D.Min., to write diaspora missiology dissertations; and practitioners and field workers to document case studies. These young diasporalogists who are researching on Diaspora Missiology should be invited to come together in March 2015 for the Global Diaspora Forum to be held in Manila, Philippines.
For now, you may want to read the works of Adeney and Wan. Both missions scholars have written articles and books related to this subject. Also, people interested in Diaspora Missiology should also read Missiology An International Review: Mission and Migration 31,1. Then to hear from a diaspora and migration blogger, I recommend that you periodically visit Dr. J.D. Payne’s site, Missiologically Thinking at http://www.jdpayne.org/. Another significant book that I am recommending is Beyond Christendom by Dr. Jehu Hanciles, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary. You can find it at http://www.amazon.ca/Beyond-Christendom-Globalization-Migration-Transformaiton/dp/1570757909
The Whole Church can effectively preach the Whole Gospel to the Whole World as Kingdom Workers are well informed-practitioners.
*Dr. Enoch Wan and Dr. Jehu Hanciles were former members of the Lausanne Diasporas Leadership Team (LDLT). LDLT presented on diasporas with Senior Associate for Diasporas, Sadiri Joy Tira at Cape Town/Lausanne III. It was the forerunner of the Global Diaspora Network (GDN).
Sadiri Joy Tira (D.Min., D.Miss.) is the LCWE Senior Associate for Diasporas; Vice President for Diaspora Missions at Advancing Indigenous Missions (AIM); Director of the Institute of Diaspora Missiology at Alliance Graduate School (Philippines); and Diaspora Missiology Specialist at the Jaffray Centre for Global Initiatives at Ambrose University College (Canada).
Keywords: reading, Diaspora MIssiology
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Conversation Post Comment
United States
Dr. Tira,
I’m fascinated by your post here. But what does Diaspora Missiology mean?
For some years now I’ve been working intimately from within the Coptic diaspora in the United States. I’ve seen how this diaspora is not only helping their homeland, (Scroll down for diaspora posts on my blog for some more details: http://www.copticorphans.org/blog/) but actually driving missions themselves. (www.copticmission.org)
My earnest prayer for the Copts is that God will use ongoing events in Egypt that have caused a massive exodus of 100,000 emmigrants since the revolution (according to some, perhaps exaggerated reports) will cause a spread of evangelism around the world by Copts, just as in Acts the earliest persecution caused Samaria and other regions to receive the gospel.
06.12.2011
Canada
@ NathanHollenbeck:
Nathan,
I am glad to know to know that you are working among the Coptic Diaspora in the USA. The Coptic is one of the largest and oldest diaspora groups. Your blog is insightful. I would encourage you to write more. Thank you for your voice.
The post-Mubarak "Egyptian Exodus" is a matter of humanitarian concern. Most are IDP’s or Internally Displaced People. How will the Church come alongside NGO’s and UN agencies? You are right, this is a kairos moment to share the gospel. Theologically speaking, we see the the unseen hand of God in this mass migration. Practically speaking, the Church must respond compassionately to the IDP’s and "fractured" Egyptian nation. May these 100,000 Egyptians find their homes and shelters even if this is only temporary. Let us pray with open hearts and and outreached arms.`
Finally, you ask: "What is Diaspora Missiology?" Diaspora Missiology, defined by the Lausanne Diasporas Leadership Team and the LCWE Diaspora Educators Consultation 2009, is "a missiological framework for understanding and participating in God’s redemptive mission among people living outside their place of origin." You may read the entire Seoul Declaration in the Lausanne Documents at http://www.lausanne.org/de/documents/all/175-consultation-statements/1112-the-seoul-declaration-on-diaspora-missiology.html. There are also numerous blog posts on "Diaspora Missiology" on the Global Conversation. Please see:
http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11103
http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/conversations/detail/11346#article_page_1
09.12.2011
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