Unreached People Groups Analysis - Research Paper Example

Religion and Theology College Table of contents Introduction………………………………………………………………… 3 2. Background information…………………………………………………… 5 3. Survey of the past missionary’s work………………………………………. 8 4. Proposal strategy. a. From the perspective of the missionary…………………………12 b. From the perspective of the missions organization………………15 c. From the perspective of the church…………………………………16 5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………18 6. Bibliography…………………………………………………………………..19 Introduction Christians make up 33% of the world’s population; a third of the global populace. Statistics bear witness that Christianity is a predominantly global faith that depicts the cordial Christian message of new life, hope, and renewal has and is continually being embraced by more people globally. This religion is clearly no longer a preserve for the western people. It’s breadth and diversity permeates over the seven continents down to different countries with different cultures all united by the same faith. Largely accompanying this thought is the assumption that everyone has heard of it. This prospect regards Christianity as everywhere presents and although we may not realize it, studies have indicated that this prospect is arguably not concise.(Adney, 2009) There are groups and communities that are unreached by Christianity and do not know anything concerning the same. They have adopted their own religion due to lack of knowledge of other alternative formative religion. Unreached people comprise of communities that have little or no access to the gospel. There are various reason that impede the spread of Christianity’ one is because some nations endorse laws that curtail Christian faith. Another impeding factor is geographical and cultural barrier. All men in nature desire to know and it is unfitting that man should be content with knowledge that is unsuited to him, yet after the acquisition of this knowledge in sense things must change in a way that is contrary to the original beliefs. The message of Christianity should in this regard be contextualized in the particular culture in order for it to be meaningful to them. (Crossman & Hoke, 1995) Using conservative estimates, unreached people compromise 70% of the global population. One eminent group in this category is the Chinese accounting for 150 million unreached Chinese in 900 groups. A particular group that has null knowledge about Christianity and is in dire need to hear of the gospel and salvation is the Hui from china. Although there are a meager number of scattered of believers, this group is most likely the largest group globally that has no record of the presence of a Christian fellowship group. Below is a map showing the location of the Hui communities in china. (Boling, 2012) Background information Language and identity The Hui are an official minority scattered all over china. Their populace is densely concentrated in some provinces such as the Ningxia also known as the “hometown of the Huis” which habits about 20% of the Hui population, Qinghai, and Gansu. They are about 10 million in the country. They have high cheek-bones and round eyes- conspicuous features that distinguish them from the Han Chinese. The Hui speak in standard mandarin in some locations however the dialect has a pint of Arabic and Persian vocabulary. The Hui are distinguished from the nine Muslim groups in china by not having a dialect of their own; they speak languages of other ethnic groups Customs and tradition. The Hui’s custom forbids them to consume pork nevertheless that prohibition is overlooked by referring to meat as mutton. They reside in closely knit communities and maintain their customs through dietary practice. The Hui are said to believe in “Islamic moral purity and authenticity of ethnic ancestry, lifestyle and heritage. Economy The Hui are famously known to act as smart businessmen. They have built upon the economic activities practiced by their ancestors. Such activities are animal husbandry, the tea industry, some venture into butcher related trades, others however have taken occupations centered on trade. In the world today, the Hui have indulged in to various economic activities outside the scope of agricultural and animal trades. Many that have settled in major towns have acquired white collar jobs Family The Hui maintain a strong sense of patriarchal oversight with the individual being. They have strong family ties and one is under the influence of the family with regards to a person’s physical and moral upbringing, social associations, the foundation of one’s beliefs and attitudes, educational achievement, and one’s material security. The family is conceived to have a vital role in maintaining social control, moral education in maintaining a steadfast economic role and in governing the rest of the group. According to the Hui, members of a family are supposed to stand by each other. (Martin & Scott, 2008) This strong belief in family is an important accord in the Islamic ideals of the Muslim Hui and is based largely on the eastern societies concept of understanding family rather than the individualistic depictions found in the various western societies .though they might be geographically distant, they still do recognize their membership in a unit where the members are held together by blood ties and mutual responsibility. Religion A great number of all Hui are Sunni Muslims. They are deeply ingrained to the monotheistic belief in Allah and strictly adhere to the five pillars of Islam. They get to worship in mosques that are widely spread throughout china. Islam first came to china through one of Mohammed’s contemporaries, Abu Waggas. In recent years there has been a consistent increase in the number of Hui taking a pilgrimage to mecca annually during the haj. Subsequent centuries of harmonious and intercultural assimilation with the Han Chinese have resulted in the acceptance of religion and culture by the indigenous Han. They are so deeply rooted by their Muslim faith in their identity such that the notion is regarded ethno-religious. Survey of the past missionary’s work The Muslim Hui in china remain to be greatly un-evangelized, oblivious of the advent of the Nestorian Christians in the 7th century where their efforts of evangelism is utterly untraceable; with lack of any evidence of Nestorian churches existing nor copies of translated scriptures, nay copies of any scriptures at all. The recent efforts of indigenous Christians and engagement of the western missionaries and the openness of the government also notwithstanding. A barring factor is that the Hui are deeply tied to Islamic faith and the practices associated to it. At times Small Christian outreach groups have been established among the Hui but still no tangible progress has been made. At times, there has been Missionary efforts between the two cultures i.e. the Han and the Hui have been hindered by the initial persecution of the Hui by the Han and foreigners in pre-historic times Consequently the distrust of the Han by the Hui has led to poor reception to other Christian evangelistic missionary efforts. Another contributing factor is the ambivalence of the native groups towards reflecting any large scale care and concern for spreading the joy of salvation. (Boling, 2012). Serious missionary efforts emerged in china in the early twentieth century which was spurred by the influence of the china inland mission even though a few facets of missions made after the tenth century. The idea that Islamic in china was a religious enclave, stigmatized by the larger Chinese populace to the degree that they were forced in to either rebellion or assimilation, and led the evangelistic missionaries in the region to envision them as a potential pool of willing converts to Christianity. Under the wings of the china inland mission, efforts to spread Christianity sprouted. The initial region for the establishment of evangelism was North West Chinese provinces which were mainly inhabited by the Chinese Muslim population. This exploration to reach the Hui and other Chinese Muslims encouraged quite a number of Christian missionary scholars to commit their time and lives to working among the Muslims in china, spreading the gospel. Some of the best known workers from the china inland mission renown for reaching the Hui were Claude and Elizabeth Pickens. In 1930 They together with Samuel zwemer made a survey of the Muslims if north west china. Years later in 1946, G.K Harris wrote the renowned book”how to lad a moslem to Christ” with a foreword from Samuel zwemer. These efforts bore fruits leading to the establishment of a church among the Hui in 1949. The congregation comprised about 80 members which further reflected the reluctance of the Hui Muslims to embrace Christianity. (Patrick, 2005) However, their work did not go unnoticed. The efforts of the china inland mission were noted by author Zhao Dunhua. He chipped in by distributing the bible and pamphlets in Arabic. He further published magazines to promote their missionary work. To increase their comprehension on of the Islamic religion’ the Hui identity, their custom and lifestyle, they carried out fieldwork and social studies. In addition they also did some academic research all to increase their understanding of the Muslim ethnic communities. Despite the efforts they made in missionary propaganda, success was still not realized and the progress made was very minimal. This was due to the fact the Muslims had a firm foundation in their religion and it was not as shallow as the missionaries perceived them to be. It could not be easily wavered. Although the relationship between the Hui and the china inland commission in spreading the gospel was not cordial, in other cultural atmospheres that was dominated by clouds of Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism; there was mutual respect and the relationship between them and the Christian minorities was contrarily tranquil and friendly. (Dayton & David, 2008) Despite this warm relationship between the different religious ideals, the lack of insight in to the Moslem culture that was a pedestol among the Hui Chinese resulted in minimal progress of the evangelistic efforts of the china inland mission. In general the missionaries expected a willing group of potential converts, it was however unfortunate that what they got instead was miscommunication between cultures and religion. The unstable social understanding, from a numerical point of view resulted to minimal success. As if that was not enough, the opportunities to further attempt to spread the gospel were diminished with the takeover of china by communists in 1940. The rise of these communists barred the entry of foreign missionaries in the country which greatly limited the spread of Christianity. (Guyneth, 2012) In modern times, the near Han neighbors have made tremendous efforts in embracing Christianity. Perhaps the most shocking limiting factor to the spread of Christianity is the reluctance of the Han Chinese Christian community toward the sharing of the gospel and reaching out to their neighbors the Hui just as the bible proposes. The typical and effective approach since the two have a similar culture milieu here would be cross- cultural evangelism. Unfortunately this is not probable due to the animosity and mistrust that reigns over the Han and the Hui people ethnic groups. The Hui regard the Han as liars and cheats. Such negative attitudes reflected make it more complex to develop cross-cultural evangelism. In recent years there have been more inventive methods to reach the Hui. Perhaps the most recent effort has been by the Tent-making Franchise International. (TFI). This organization was established for the reason to provide opportunities for Christian businesses to establish a foundation in countries such as china with the express purpose of providing doors to evangelize the group of people their business is established among. TFI has recently, made some connections among the Hui people by “partnering with a Christian owned antenna manufacturing firm”. The goal of these establishments is to hire more local Hui’s. (Boling, 2012) This methods of tent making are a viable alternative mechanism in reaching such people groups like the Hui as it allows for a consistent base of operation under the auspices of a cooperation, a Christian organization for that matter that will provide job opportunities for the Hui people and at the same time look for chances to share the gospel with them. Perhaps as the government continues to embrace western cooperate movement, some opportunities may abound for non-traditional missionary strategies like the TFI which is viewed as intrusive Proposed strategies for reaching the Muslim Hui From the Perspective of a missionary going to the Hui community. To reach the Hui, the missions should knock on their doors on the perspective of the local community. The gospel can expand in a community but is very difficult for the gospel to jump across cultural boundaries between peoples especially those characterized by hate, mistrust or discrimination. Believers can easily influence the notions perceived about Christian ideologies to their neighbors whose language and culture they can relate with. However religion is bound by cultural identity. This relationship is clearly reflected by the Hui and the Han communities with the starking reticence of the latter to be reluctant in reaching toward the Hui. Missions should consider the need to establish a cross cultural mission within the bounds of the ethnic identity as means to reach out the Hui. It’s also very important to bear in mind what it means to be a Hui Muslim. This entails learning and understanding the Koran and how the teachings influence the Hui customs and lifestyle.in essence cross-cultural evangelism entails one to put their culture aside, learn a new language , learn how to eat new food, live a different lifestyle, love people even though they seem cold and share the gospel with them. Historic distrust for foreigner’s especially non-Muslim religious cooperation’s may limit the above approach. A preferable approach would be to engage the Hui by using Chinese believers. The approach, incarnational servant hood, serves to alleviate the baggage of hostility between the missionaries and the Hui Chinese. This approach seeks to operate outside the structure of the church by putting in place mature Christian professionals and business people within the Hui Chinese local community. (Dayton and David, 2008) The idea is to make significant economic and professional contributions to the community while at the same time interact with their Chinese counterparts at personal level. The incarnational servant hood approach entails the ideology of developing relationships within a group of people, while utilizing individuals that are not only familiar with the Hui language but also with the Islamic faith, Arabic and the Hui lifestyle. By developing a professional relationship within the Hui community and sharing the love of Christ and the joy of salvation in a relational manner, a Chinese missionary abiding by the incarnational servant hood can help a great deal in obliterating the wall of past grudges, cultural bias against the Han indicating the power of renewal in the gospel. God ordained three institutions in the bible; the government, the church and the family. A concept that is a commonality in the Chinese culture as well as the Hui community is in the belief centered extended family units hence the one to one method of evangelism may not take root as fast as desired. Missionaries hoping for success reflected in conversion numbers in such Islamic lands should consider the social and cultural associations of Muslims rather than single handedly coping with theological concepts related to the unity and the nature of God. Missionaries seeking to venture in the Islamic lands of the Hui should understand the family concept in the perspective of the Hui culture. The family is an important element that can be targeted by a mission organization. William Reyburn notes that “a major aspect of the missionary task is the seeking of the point of contact. A contact point that can be effectively utilized by the Hui as a focal target of emphasis is the relationship building; the family which is a fundamental building block in the society. This can be accomplished by using the above mentioned approach; the incarnational servant hood approach. The family emphasis of the Hui combined with the relative evangelistic approach will be more efficient than personal evangelism on the side of the missionary organization hence a house church will be the result if the family is converted.in the context of the Hui, developing relationships within the Islamic social code, the missionary should first approach someone of the similar sex. A smooth solid working relationship can be improved by creating a good rapport with the head of the community. These practices coupled with the demonstration of biblical doctrines of friendship, rejoicing with those that rejoice and weeping with those that weep; doors will open to reach more people in the Hui community. All the same the missionaries should emphasize that the biblical accounts provide more than stories.an approach that will ultimately lead to the development of small churches in the households that will merge and start a track to conversion of many. From the perspective of a missions organization How far a community can maintain its socio-cultural identity and still be embraced as believer are important issues a missionary organization needs to grapple with before engaging a venture to the Hui community. The process of contextualization is very important in the aspect of taking cultural ideals within the framework of that community’s culture and then reflecting those concepts within the relevant biblical ideals in a culturally relative manner. Efforts to convert the Hui have often focused on altering their culture and disintegrating traditional identity to conform to the more westernized Christian prospects of living rather than allowing them to maintain their distinct cultural prospects and eventually utilize these cultural elements as a bridge for contextualization and evangelization. Deep throating the Hui as well as the engrained Muslim proclivities with these western ideals is an impeding factor to the evangelization of the Hui. Changing a person’s religion from Muslim or Hindu to Christian or even vicecersa is considered a grim betrayal of a person’s family and friends. Regardless of this notion Rebecca Lewis comments that Christianity can spread through insider movements. Insider believers live under the doctrine of the bible and the authority of the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and at the same time maintain their socio-religious identity. From the Perspective of the church; Efforts to reach the Hui community with Christianity is not a preserve role for the missionary’s organization and the missionaries themselves only, the church also has role to play in establishing strategies that are effective in widening the spread of the word. The church should consistently and continuously engage the community of believers to be actively involved in providing support to the missionaries. Arguably, the most important strategy for a church is to provide substantive and consistent support through reputable, knowledgeable and committed mission’s agency that is devoted to reaching the Hui. Support from the church should however not be limited to merely financial giving although subsequent and consistent financial support is very essential for the progressive operation of the organization. A potent tool that should be employed by the missionaries, the missionary organization and the church is prayer. Prayer is a vital tool in the overall strategy; prayer and faith that the Lord will give them strength to have their projects not only come in completion but also have tangible results bringing new brothers and sisters to share in the Christian faith because when people come together and focus their lives, experience and gifts towards the progress of a particular mission, tremendous changes can sprout An undisputable effective means of communication would be to use the media to communicate with the Hui community. This could be done using visual kits and broadcasting efforts in television. Visual media is the most powerful medium in the country. It is a molder of attitudes, behavior and taste. Any medium that is captivating, that is psychologically powerful in the sense that it can capture the mind, the attention, and the imagination of these communities can be used in a great deal to disseminate information about Christianity as many emulate what they see or rather ponder about what is said on television. A good example is TWR-Asia, an organization which teams up with regional ministry agencies and partners all over Asia to produce contextualized Christian programs and it also follows up with viewers. It is vital to support the ability of an agency that has gained mileage in a country such as china which has recently become more accepting of outside media influence. Illiteracy, lack of believers in close proximity and language barrier can be overcome by fostering programs in the TWR-Asia audio ministries. This makes up the most effective tool in getting to many people. Despite the many advantages of technology, the missionaries should not be dependent on technology alone. Lack of getting information first hand lessens the value and hence Personal interaction should still be there to properly engage the Hui with the word of God.the various technological tools should only be used where most appropriate. (Boling, 2012) Conclusion All people on earth should be disciple for the kingdom. Every people on earth should be given a chance to be in the know; they should all know what the gospel is and what concepts it manifests. The Muslim Hui of china have been referred to as unreached for an ample period of time These deeply rooted Muslims represents a bountiful harvest untapped by previous Christian missionaries like the china inland mission which only went as far as converting a handful. More attempts have been made to engage the Chinese Hui but still the number of believers in the community remains to be meager despite the consistent growth of the rapidly emerging believers from the Han dynasty just neighboring the Hui community. It is because of this that. Hui have been branded the unreached. Despite the historical issues between the Han, Hui and non-Islamic foreigners, it is now about time to venture in to these lands and apply the above holistic missionary strategies. This is coupled with the advantage of china now being more open to western missionaries and the capability to utilize modem tools of technology to spread the gospel so as to obey God’s command by living for God’s purpose. This applies to all believers and hence a global missionary effort is the responsibility of all Christians to do whatever it takes to be faithful to Christ and live purposely for him. \ Bibliography ADENEY, M., (2009). Kingdom without borders; the untold story of global Christianity. Downers Grove, Ill: IVP Books. DAYTON, EDWARD, R., AND DAVID A.F. (2008). planning strategies for world evangelization. Grand rapids, Mich: W.B. E Edmans KLAUBER, MARTIN I., and SCOTT M., (2008). The great commission: evangelicals and the history of world missions. Nashville, Ten: B & H Publishing group LAI, PATRICK. (2005) Tent making: the life and work of business as missions. Bletchley, Milton Keynes: Authentic LEWIS JONATHAN, MEG CROSSMAN, and STEPHENE HOKE. (1994) World mission: An analysis of the world’s Christian movement. Pasadena, calif: W, Carey library WILLIAMS, GUYNETH, (2012) Get in the Go; A guide to short –term missions. New York: Author House, MICHAEL BOLING. (2012). the Muslim Hui of China Read More