A Little Reverse Missions: In Search of a Global Perspective in Worship

Abstract

Throughout history the church has often been slow to recognize developments in the sciences and reorder its thinking about God's creation accordingly. The church in the northern world is now facing the reality that Christians in the southern hemisphere outnumber them two to one. The seeds of the gospel planted during the great mission movements of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have taken hold and Christianity is flourishing in many places in the south. Are Christians in the northern hemisphere ready to receive the gifts of worshiping communities through song and prayer from their southern sisters and brothers? Given the patterns of immigration to the United States, this is not an academic proposal but a reality of the twenty-first century. Congregations in the current century will need a global perspective in local communities. We dare not be as slow to respond to this reality as the church has been to scientific discoveries in the past. This article offers strategies for reciprocal mission mindedness in our worship.