Iraqi Missionary to Canada?

I met my first Missionary to Canada the other day. Odd you might say? Perhaps even odder is the fact that she was from the country of Iraq! Wait a minute, why are missionaries coming to Canada? Don’t we “send” people to places like that? Why are they coming here?

Alister McGrath in his book The Future of Christianity says “One of the most dramatic developments of the of the final decade of the twentieth century  was the growing realization within the established churches of the west that the numerical center of gravity of Christianity now lies in the developing world.”  He goes on to explain in his own Anglican denomination “on any given Sunday there are now more Anglicans attending church in the western African state of Nigeria than in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, and Australia, taken together.”

He states further that Christian leaders in North America “are deeply concerned with the surge in growth in Christian communities in other regions in the world, which threaten to rob them of their once self-evident position of leadership and privilege.”

According to the World Christian Encyclopaedia, of the 2 billion Christians that are alive today approximately 820 million live in North America and Europe while 1153 million live in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Christianity is clearly no longer a "White man's religion" as the center of gravity of Christianity has shifted in recent decades. This isn’t the first time in history that a shift like this has happened in Christianity. But, it sure does make you think.

I don’t know about you but, I welcome this shift with open arms. We as leaders must be humble enough to be ministered to by Christians from other countries. Perhaps they might have answers to those nagging questions and dilemmas that we church leaders in the west find ourselves in. Perhaps they should be the ones that speak at our church leadership conferences. Perhaps, they need to plant churches in our country and expose the failings of our worldview. Perhaps there might come a day when we send our church leaders overseas to go to school and learn. Perhaps this shift could be a positive thing for Christianity and worldwide evangelism.

At a recent “Missions Conference” I attended I listened to a passionate speaker from Africa. He thanked the church in the west with tears in his eyes for the missionaries that we had sent to his village to share the gospel. He was saved because of them. Then with John the Baptist rebuke he turned to call us out of our complacency and showed us that the church is slowly dying in the west. There was chill in the air but also a submission in our souls as we all realized the need to learn from leaders such as this.

For years we have thought of missionaries as those that go overseas in to win the “heathens” for Christ. Although we still may carry on this tradition because of our wealth as North American Christians, it is important to see the mission field right in our own back yard. This missionary from Iraq explained to me through broken English that she is here to pray and serve. Pray for me, pray for the church and serve Jesus. I was humbled by her childlike faith and her perspective on North American Christianity. Today we must see ourselves as missionaries even within our country and stop acting like we are a “gift” for the rest of the world.

You’re a Christian from Iraq are you? – What can you teach me?