|
Marginalized...
The concept of “unreached people
groups” is a central idea in mission circles today.
In fact, most missionary-minded churches and
ministries will express their prioritizing of
ministry among people that have received little to
no gospel witness.
One of the challenges, however, is
to figure out what defines an “unreached people
group.” Often this is done geographically. The
concept of the 10/40 Window (largely the Muslim
nations of Asia and Africa) is a classic example.
But few people are aware that even in places that
many would geographically consider “reached,” there
are millions of people that have still never heard
the gospel.
Recently, a team of CMI staff and
Encounter with God pastors led a seminar on the
topic of “Developing Impact Churches in Latin
American Capital Cities.” During the course of the
seminar, Jorge Giacommeti – Senior Pastor of the
Cumbayá Church in Quito, Ecuador – shared on the
importance of developing churches among the middle
and upper classes in Latin American society.
“For the entire history of the
evangelical church in our country,” he said, “the
middle and upper classes in our society have been
marginalized from the gospel.”
Marginalized. The word stood out to
me. It means to confine to the outer limits or the
edge. From a physical standpoint, the middle and
upper classes in Latin society seem to live far from
the outer limits. Their day to day routines and
lifestyle are in many ways similar to those of us
living in North America. They look mainstream. But
spiritually it is a very different picture.
In the last 30 years, the
evangelical church in Latin America has experienced
remarkable growth. However, digging past the shallow
statistics, one finds that the evangelical church in
Latin America is seated on a very fragile
foundation.
Virtually all of this growth has
occurred in the poorer segments of society. While we
praise the Lord for this because this segment of
society represents the vast majority of the
population, these fervent believers often lack the
training and resources to sustain and multiply the
gospel apart from outside assistance. Moreover,
centuries-old social barriers prevent them from
conveying the gospel to the higher social classes in
their countries. Thus, social barriers marginalize
these influential groups from hearing the gospel
communicated in a way that is meaningful to them.
In addition, our failure as North
American missionaries to emphasize a cross-social
evangelistic strategy also contributed to the
marginalization of the higher social classes.
Exclusivity of ministry among the poor and rural
areas has led to the mistaken idea among the higher
social classes that evangelicalism is the religion
of the poor and ignorant.
That is why I am so greatly
passionate about our role at CMI in equipping the
Encounter with God churches to reach their nations.
Churches like Pastor Giacommeti’s reach people in
the middle and upper-middle classes.
In doing so, they also reach the
people with the education, training, leadership and
resources that will secure the foundation of the
evangelical church in Latin America for the future.
The outcome is not merely “reaching” a marginalized
group of people, but equipping the entire Latin
Church to be full-fledged partners with believers
from all nations in expanding the Good News of Jesus
Christ throughout their countries and around the
world.
EQ Summer 2008 Issue Main Page
|
