Re-imagining Global Missiology: rethinking Christian mission from the majority world 

A significant gathering of theologians, mission practitioners, missiologists and pastors from the Majority World took place in Dubai recently. Baptist minister and One People Commission director Israel Olofinjana was there, and offers this reflection 

Disclaimer

This reflection is a personal reflection of mine based on participating, observing and listening to different voices at the conference. As such it will be limited in scope, methodology and breadth. Nevertheless, I hope it inspire other participants to reflect and write for their own context about the conference.


Introduction

A significant gathering of about 115 theologians, mission practitioners, missiologists and pastors from the Majority World took place recently. The Majority World in this context refers to Africans, Asians, Latin Americans and Middle East and North Africa often described as the MENA region.

In attendance were people from all these various and diverse regions making this conference a global conference. An observation noted was that Francophone Africans were missing in the room and conversation. The conference also had less delegation from the Caribbean. (I wish we had more Caribbeans in the room). In addition, the conference did not have anyone from the Oceania region. The global diversity of the conference was reflected in the styles of prayers, language of prayers, intercultural worship and how Bible study was conducted and plenary sessions were delivered.

The conference was organised by the Majority World Christian Leaders Conversation (MWCLC here after). Majority World Christian Leaders Conversation started in 2016 with some group of friends drawn from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the MENA region.

From then on, MWCLC have developed as a missiological movement with distinct chapters in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the MENA region facilitated by a facilitation team in each region.

The theme of the conference in Dubai was Rethinking Christian Faith and Mission: A Majority World Conversation. The aim of the conference was to give space for Majority World Christians to reflect on their own and develop their own agency around global mission.

It is recognised that despite the statistical data demonstrating that representative Christianity is now in the Majority World, western Christianity continues however to have dominance through theology, methodology, finances and infrastructure. The result is that many Majority World Christians continue to follow the modus operandi of western mission, sometimes realising it and on other occasions not recognising it.

With this backdrop, identity and more precisely colonial identity of many Majority World Christians becomes crucial to interrogate. The role of the Holy Spirit in empowering and developing missiology as opposed to heavy reliance on organised mission with leanings towards administration and management also becomes important.

If the Majority World mission is going to be Spirit-driven and not admin-driven, then the formation of disciples and their reliance on the Holy Spirit for their development, sustenance and empowering becomes critical in global mission. The conference therefore addressed four themes of identity, Holy Spirit, Mission and Disicpleship.


Identity and colonisation

A major concern that came up most of the time at the conference is how colonisation has shaped the identity, discipleship and mission of Majority World people. From a Latin American perspective, Maria Alejandra Andrade Vinueza, an Ecuadorian theologian who works for Tearfund, drawing on the work of decolonial thinkers in Latin America, highlighted four ways of how coloniality impacts us.

The first is coloniality of power which refers to how, since the conquest, a world order based on race and economy was imposed.

Secondly is coloniality of knowledge which has to do with the way in which European scientific knowledge was considered the only valid knowledge. This is epistemology as power.

Thirdly is coloniality of being pointing to how the humanity of colonised peoples was denied.

Lastly is coloniality of belief which points out how European Christianity was imposed as the only true religion.

While conversation on colonisation and the need to decolonise mission was talked about, what was not properly addressed is how colonisation functions differently in the different regions and what a contextual decolonised missiology might look like in each region. For example, Palestinians are wrestling with settler colonisation, Africans continue to wrestle with the legacies of enslavement and colonisation, Latin Americans with the conquering of their continent by the Conquistadors through Spain and Portugal, and Asia through partitioning and imperialism of European empires.  


Fragmented Identities: Through the history of colonisation which most of the time is also the history of western mission in the Majority World, Majority World identities are fragmented. This is one of the inherited impacts of colonisation. Fragmented identities occur through European languages, tribal divisions, religious divisions and socio-economic divisions.

An ongoing consequence of this is that sometimes Majority World mission is fragmented and divided to the extent of duplication and competition. Collaboration becomes problematic because everyone wants to build their own empire and silos.  


Homogenised Identities: One of the goals of European and North American colonisation is to cast humanity in its image. Part of that process means Majority World humanity with distinctive characteristics such as language, religion, tribe, caste, socio-economic background was reconfigured in a new homogenised European or North American identity.

It is therefore no surprise that today in many western contexts, one diaspora person could be called upon to represent the Majority World on a board, council, executive teams, church leadership and so on. As part of our decolonial process, we must continue to speak up and challenge this homogenisation of Majority World Christians and peoples.


Divide and Conquer Syndrome: In order for Europe to conquer different parts of the Majority World, one of the key strategies employed was the principle of divide and rule. This again was achieved in the different regions through ethnic division, capitalisation of tribal conflicts, religious conflicts and violence and socio-economic divisions.

My observation is that this divide and rule syndrome has impacted Majority World mission to the extent that we are now recolonising each other in our own image in our mission enterprise. We have basically replaced European images with the different Majority World images.


Holy Spirit

It will be remiss to have a Majority World conversation on mission and ignore the role of the Holy Spirit in mission. In essence, a Majority World mission conference without pneumatic theology is not going to be complete.

This does not however mean that there is a common agreement on the work of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, because there is diversity in our pneumatic theology and experiences.


Pentecostal Theology versus Reformed Theology

What theological tradition shapes and informs Majority World theology? If 70 per cent of global evangelicals are in the Global South does that mean they draw heavily on western evangelical theology?

In addition to this is that the expression of Christianity that has blossomed in the Majority World through extraordinary signs and wonders is Pentecostalism. The question therefore is does the Majority World theological framework gets shaped by western evangelical theology or a pneumatic theology?

Another way of responding to this question is, evangelical theology was introduced into the Majority World contexts through western evangelical movements.

Pentecostal theology on the other hand, whilst having a North American and European roots and routes into the Majority World, also has an indigenous root in the Majority World. Some of the renewal that has taken place in Asia, Africa and Latin America has an element of indigenous roots because of indigenisation of Christianity in those contexts.

In this reference, we can refer to the African Indigenous Churches and indigenous Pentecostals in Africa (AICs); in the Caribbean we can reference the Jamaican Revival of 1860-1861; in Asia, the Mukti Mission in India from 1905-1907 and the Korean renewal movement from 1903 (Pyongyang 1907).

Whilst some of these renewals have a foreign element, they also have an indigenous development. If Pentecostal theology therefore has an indigenous element in its emergence in the Majority World, one can argue that should it be the defining theological framework in the Majority World? My observation is that this is not the case, as both theological frameworks have shaped and continue to define Majority World theological framework.

A related issue and perhaps a concern is that western evangelical theology with its point of historical departure being in the European Reformation, cannot and should not be the overarching theological framework of Majority World theology. Whilst Majority World theology is shaped by evangelical western theology, Majority World Christians must go beyond the European Reformation for its theological basis. Some aspects of Majority World Christianity originate in ancient Christianity such as the Coptic Church in North Africa or the Indian Orthodox church in Asia.

In essence, Majority World Christianity must also draw its theological resources and formulation from Patristic Christianity.


Managerial missiology versus pneumatic missiology

Seelan Govender, Operation Mobilisation (OM) Director of OM ships, a participant at the conference, stated a reflective question. When does the Spirit-gift of administration become the decision maker in mission enterprise?

It is very easy to conclude that managerial missiology is western and pneumatic missiology is Majority World, except things are not as clear cut as they seem.

There are many Majority World mission that are very good at managerial missiology and equally there are many western mission movements that are very good at pneumatic missiology. It will be wrong to stereotype that managerial missiology is a strong point of western mission and pneumatic missiology is a strong point of Majority World missiology.

But perhaps, the challenge is, which one defines our methodology to the extent of crippling the other?

In this light, there are some western mission movements that solely rely on the bureaucratic organisation of mission with little room for the Spirit to disrupt things.

In similar vein, there are African, Asian and Latin American churches and organisations that rely solely on the spontaneity of the Spirit to the extent of not planning properly and managing procedures effectively.

One of the table discussions highlighted that perhaps more concerning is how managerial missiology could be manipulative by some western mission movement in its use of resources, personnel, administration and processes to the extent of colonial control and dependence. The conversions conclude that we definitely need both if Majority World mission is going to fully mature.


Discipleship

Suffering is normative in the mission task therefore, begs the question, are our discipleship models and paradigms driven by numbers, and evaluations to justify the need to be attractive to funders?

Too often our discipleship models and paradigms have been reduced to grow churches or plant churches rather than living and doing life with people that leads to the flourishing of their humanity. Our discipleship models have become exploitative, using people statistically through metrics and data to measure our success and growth. What is success after all and how do we define success in ministry?

Our models of discipleship must therefore be re-imagined in light of people and community as opposed to discipling to replicate church growth and church planting.

Again, the managerial and pneumatic missiology comes into sharp focus here in regards to how we measure discipleship. The role of the Spirit in leading followers of Jesus into suffering contexts cannot be underestimated or ignored in our discipleship models, neither can we ignore the role of the Spirit to prepare well followers of Jesus for the task of God’s mission that involves suffering. In essence, both pneumatic and managerial missiology are needed to make effective disciples who embraces theology of suffering but are also well prepared for the context of suffering.


Mission

The discussions on mission centred on looking at mission from the different vantage point of the Majority World. This raises a lot of questions on contextual mission and how the various contextual theologies have engaged the realities of the varied regions.

A key discussion in this respect is, who should be doing the contextualisation, the person bringing the gospel into the context or the person receiving the gospel in context? In addition, what sort of contextual approaches are needed to engage the interfaith religious diversity of Asia? What contextual mission theology is required in Africa to engage the renaissance of African religions and the emergence of dangerous religious cults on the continent? What liberative hermeneutics is needed to continue to engage the indigenous, Catholic and socio-economic and political realities of Latin America?

And lastly, what contextual indigenous missiology is needed in the MENA region to help Christians engage from the margins as minorities in a Muslim, Jewish and secular context? There are no easy answers in regards the various approaches required.

But a gap observed in some of the discussions is that how can we, in a Majority World discussion on mission not examine the colonial baggage in mission history and the implications of the use of the words mission, missionary and missional?

Should Majority World Christians continue to use the word mission to describe their holistic witness?

Do we need a different language to describe mission and what indigenous concepts and symbols could help in this process?


Re-imagining Missiology from the Majority World

The conversation in Dubai was a significant crossroads in Majority World thinking. The organisers have to be applauded on taking the initiative of conceiving this vision to gather mission leaders, theologians, mission practitioners, and pastors from the Majority World together to begin a conversation on developing our own agency on our terms.  


Developing the agency and Capacity of Majority World Mission

The initiative to gather Majority World Christian leaders together to discuss their own problems in order to come up with their own solutions is a starting point. A key question is, where do we go from here, that is, what are the next steps? How does such a diverse group as this relate with global western movements such as Lausanne and other related organisations to which many participants are involved?

There is a general consensus that just as western Christianity needs Majority World Christianity, Majority World Christianity needs western Christians. We need each other because after all we are all part of the one body of Christ which is a global intercultural multicultural Church. To use the four marks of the Church from the Nicene Creed, we are all part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

But the key question is, is Majority World Christianity so colonised that its dependence on western Christianity has limited its authenticity and originality? Majority World mission is currently dependent on western mission, therefore to create its own agency it must first be independent in order to enter an interdependent relationship with western Christianity.

The process of developing an interdependent relationship with our western brothers and sisters on an equal term, requires us to continue to develop our own agency in the areas already identified such as identity, witness, theology and leadership.

There are more areas we need capacity building but these four could be a foundational focus to take the work forward. The work on identity must continue because we do not want to be recolonised again.

As a matter of necessity, we need to move from mission to witness that incorporates holistic thinking around discipleship, pilgrimage and societal transformation.

We need ongoing work on theology that is intercultural, indigenous, contextual and prophetic. Prophetic in the sense of community and societal transformation.

Lastly is investing and developing the next generation of Majority World leaders to sustain this project or else it will not survive. An acknowledgement was that more younger leaders are needed in the room.


Colonial Resistance and Re-existence

As already mentioned, the conference discussed many issues around colonisation in relation to identity, mission and discipleship. Majority World Christians must therefore continue to develop thinking and practices around resistance to recolonisation and imagine a new existence.

Majority World Christians need colonial resistance to continue to mitigate against dependence on western methodologies, approaches, theology, finances and leadership. This means having a framework in place in which to measure colonial attempts or collaboration that are exploitative.

The following questions could help to serve as a colonial framework to measure attempts at recolonisation or dominance.

Is this project, finances or methodology making us dependent or interdependent? This is a question around creating interdependence.

Overall, who does this project, collaboration, initiative benefit? In essence, who or which community gains overall and at what or whose expense? This question helps to gauge intentions and exploitative nature of relationships

In this relationship, endeavour or partnership, where is power concentrated? This question seeks to interrogate the power dynamics of engagement.



Development of Contextual Indigenous Theologies and global advocacy concerns

One of the challenges we still face in the Majority World is that many of us still conceptualise and theologise in European languages that colonise us. This problem also continues to persist because many of us have done our masters degree and doctoral studies in the western context, leaving us to think and conceptualise theology and missiology from a western perspective.

One of the important questions discussed at the conference was, do we have a distinctive Majority World missiology?

If so, what are the distinctive features of Majority World missiology?

In another mission consultation in Europe that I have the privilege of attending, Europeans are also wrestling with the question of what is the role of Europe in global missiology? For more on that conference consult the reference below.[1] 

From my own research and observation, a distinctive ingredient in Majority World missiology is suffering.

I was struck by the recent World Watch List of 50 countries where Christians are persecuted produced by Open Doors.[2] All 50 countries are from the Majority World. Twenty-six are from the continent of Asia, twenty in Africa and four in Latin America. Therefore, when we are talking about the persecuted church or Christians, we are basically referring to Majority World Christians therefore a distinctiveness of Majority World Christianity is a suffering missiology or to put it in the framing of Christians in the Patristic Period, martyrology missiology, that is, a missiology rooted in martyrdom.

The suffering aspect of Majority World Christianity also has connotations of racial justice because while it is the Majority World Christians that suffers the most, western Christians and Christianity are very quick to cite this for prayers and testimonies in church services. Whilst this is not necessarily bad, sometimes it unsettles how the western church sometimes glories and revels in the suffering of others almost in a triumphalist sense of what God is doing.

Another distinctiveness of Majority World missiology that develops from the first is the idea of liberation. If you are in a suffering context liberation becomes imperative. It is therefore no surprise that due to imperialism, colonisation, empire, conquest, settler colonialism and enslavement, Majority World Christians have had to develop liberative theologies.

We first of all see this within the Latin American liberation theology having a preferential option to side with the poor and the oppressed within the socio-political and economic context of Latin America, South African Black theology developing in the apartheid context of South Africa, and Palestinian liberation theology emerging from the settler colonisation in Israel/Palestine. We cannot ignore that in the global north, particularly in North America, emerged Black theology, but this was because of the oppression of people of African ancestry whose existence was premised on slavery, racial discrimination and segregation in the United States.

If suffering and liberative lens becomes a focal distinctiveness of Majority World missiology, how can Majority World missiology collaborate and speak distinctly into issues and concerns that have been ignored by western Christianity?

In frustration, Palestinian Christians and theologians wrote to western Christians in the aftermath of the tragic incident in October 2023 about how the western church have been silent in their trauma and pain.[3] A Palestinian theologian stated that Gaza is a missiological crisis for the Church.

Whilst some pockets of the western church have been speaking into the Palestinian struggle and the atrocities in Gaza, largely, the influence of Christian Zionism has meant many in the western context are either not sure how to engage the issues or do not want to fall into the western church past and ongoing sin of antisemitism.

If for some of these reasons and more, the western church is silent or the voice is not vocal enough, can the Majority World with the suffering and liberative lens enter into solidarity and collaboration and speak prophetically into the Palestinian struggle and the atrocities in Gaza? This could shift Majority World missiology in a new direction of prophetic witness and global consciousness.   

A second area that such a Majority World missiological collaboration could engage is the concern of climate and environmental justice. Every part of the globe suffers the impact of the climate crisis, but people from the Majority World disproportionately suffers from the impact of the climate crisis more. If this is rightly observed, then surely, Majority World missiology should be engaging collaboratively climate and environmental justice. The holistic worldview and contextual indigenous theologies of Asia, Africa, Latin America and MENA means that our missiology can not be divorced from this foundational worldview and current reality.


Conclusion

Majority World Christians have come a long way from been enslaved, colonised and conquered. The shift in global Christianity means that Majority World is numerically growing but power, resources and theological frameworks are still concentrated in western Christianity because of the schema of things to use Sam K. Law’s descriptive framing of worldviews.

If Majority World Christians are to become independent before entering an interdependence relationship with western Christianity, it is imperative to develop our own agency, engage in colonial resistance and re-imagined our existence and finally continue to develop indigenous contextual theologies that addresses global issues ignored by western Christianity. This in turn helps to create a distinctive Majority World missiology.


[1] Israel Oluwole Olofinjana, Towards a European Public Missiology, Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World (CMMW). Available at cmmw.org.uk/2025/09/04/towards-a-european-public-missiology/

[2] World Watch List 2025, Open Doors. Available at opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/

[3] A Call for Repentance: An Open Letter from Palestinian Christians to Western Church Leaders and Theologians. Available at infemit.org/response-call-palestine/ 


Image | G + L | Unsplash
 

Israel Oluwole Olofinjana is a Baptist minister and director of the One People Commission of the Evangelical Alliance. This reflection originally appeared on the Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World website, and is republished with permission

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