Ruiz

“While one hundred years ago 95% of Christians lived in the western world, nowadays 70% of believers live in Africa, Asia and Latin America. The most dynamic and growing churches are in this part of the world, with a liturgy, organisation and ministry style that attracts hundreds of people.”1
“1. The missiology of these churches is based more in the local church. The relationship
between the missionary and the sending church is more direct.
2. Most of the Majority World missionaries focus on planting churches and evangelism.
3. The commitment to the missionary work is for lifetime, people do not think of it as
short periods of mission.
4. The new missionary force of the Majority World is growing, while in the West, the
missionary force is declining.
5. In the South-South relationship, there is a bigger ideological proximity.
We have recognised that we have weaknesses to address.
1. Financial support to missionaries frequently is not long term.
2. Many missionaries go to the field with a harvest mentality, like in their own country
and they become frustrated if they only have to sow.
3. There are few candidates for ministries with a less “visible” success, like Bible
translation or cultural interpretation.
4.There is a tendency to send missionaries where the same language is spoken.”2

H Brant “Redefining Missions for the 21st Century” in D Ruiz (ed.), The Two Thirds World Church, Lausanne Occasional Paper No 44, (Lausanne Committee for World Evangelisation, 2004) available online at www.lausanne.org [Accessed August 7 2008] 11–25.

points to the significance of a globalized church.3
“globalized world means that populations are more fluid than ever before. People in
hard-to-reach places are coming right into our back yards. The local churches of our nations
are not doing a very good job at reaching them. Missions, which specialize in cross-cultural
evangelism, are NOT paying much attention to the rapidly shifting demographics of our
Western nations.”4

“Our non-Western colleagues come free from the “arrogance and triumphalism” associated with Western Christianity”5