Presbyterians Discuss 'Shift in Gravity' of Christianity

Presbyterians from around the world celebrated the “shift in gravity” of churches in North America and Europe to the churches in the Southern Hemisphere, during a two-day global missions conference last week.

Mission should not be viewed “as flowing from the haves to the have-nots but flowing from the people of God to everywhere,” said Kwame Bediako, director of the Akrofi-Christaller Center for Mission Research and Applied Theology in Akropong-Akuapem, Ghana.

Bediako was among nearly a dozen speakers at the “From Everywhere to Everyone: The New Global Mission” conference at the Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Ga., on Oct. 20-22. The conference, sponsored jointly by the Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship (PFF) and the Outreach Foundation in cooperation with the Worldwide Ministries Division (WMD) of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), focused on the growth of the church outside of the West and emphasized ways for the North and South to work together to foster that growth.

At that end, Bediako explained that faith in the South is “more vital and more vigorous” than in the North, but can “fail to reach its full potential because of the lack of material and academic resources.” Therefore, he said, the church’s spiritual vitality in the Southern Hemisphere and its material resources in the Northern Hemisphere should be coupled in a common mission to reach the whole world.

According to statistics presented by Bediako, more than 60 percent of the world’s Christians are in the Southern Hemisphere, and that number is growing.

The Rev. Marian McClure, director of the Worldwide Ministries Division of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), elaborated on that point, saying the church in the South is sending more missionaries, enrolling more seminary students and enrolling more new members than the church in the North.

“More everything,” she said, “except maybe money.”

Therefore, McClure encouraged Presbyterians in the United States to take up the challenge and respond generously by giving to the denomination’s Mission Initiative.

“There is no greater impact you can have for our overall mission society,” said McClure, according to Presbyterian Church News.

Meanwhile, the Rev. Ramez Atallah, general secretary of the Bible Society of Egypt, warned against sending money with unwarranted expectations. Too often Western groups want quick results and a “return on investment” as they might demand from an investor.

Said Atallah: “We need to invest in ministries and not just projects.”