need for “continuous discipleship that enables the formation of Christian character in order to develop spiritual consciousness…. Each one has the task of taking the Gospel message.” God “uses the testimony of witnesses, messengers, preachers,

missionaries,” Christian believers. Donald Ndichafah

“You have not known love until you begin to give . . . sacrificially.”

Donald Ndichafah, vice president of the All Africa Baptist Fellowship and former general secretary of the Cameroon Baptist Convention, reminded Baptists of the power of love within the Christian community. This love has several characteristics. It begins with opening up oneself to and giving oneself to God. “A person must come to a point in life that he senses an emptiness that cannot be satisfied by any human agency or material thing.” The opening of oneself to God comes by repentance, which is “to consciously reject our wrong ways and consciously embrace God’s way as being the best.” Repentance signifies that “we come to God on His terms, not ours.” Christian love is selfless and unselfish, even to the point of being

sacrificial, according to the Cameroon Baptist leader. He warned that Christians should guard against focusing more on self than on ministry. “You have not known love until you begin to give, and to give sacrificially.” This sacrificial love was exemplified by God who gave sacrificially through Jesus Christ, the Son. Each person has a unique door through which God is leading him or her, said Joel Gregory, professor at Baylor University’slate 18th

There is an increasing trend of Christian mission from the Global South to the Global West, a reversal of what transpired from the century to deep into the 20th

century. C. Duh Kam, pastor of a church of mainly

Myanmar immigrants in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area in the United States, noted that approximately 370,000 Christian immigrants from regions such as the Caribbean and Latin America enter the US on a yearly basis. He reported that there are some 300 Baptist churches in the US of largely refugees from Myanmar. Kingsley Appiagyei, a Ghanaian immigrant who founded two of the largest Baptist churches in the United Kingdom, said the most vibrant growth among churches in western countries comprise minority

immigrants. Immigrants, Appiagyei

asserted, are responsible for planting the most churches in some western nations. Because most immigrants live in large urban

areas in European and North American countries, Kam said there is a need for greater attention to be given to urban ministry. Many immigrants to western cities live in deprived conditions and suffer from poverty, unemployment and may experience gang violence. Others move to western countries lacking basic skills in the host country’s language and job skills suitable to their new environment.

and all

Truett Seminary in the state of Texas in the United States, who delivered the keynote address at the last plenary session. Gregory called on Baptist Christians to make a commitment to discover the door of opportunity that God has opened for them. He explained that there is a personal door for each individual. “Understand that each door is a personal door, a door for me,” he emphasized. The prayer of the individual should be, “God show me my door. God, open my door. God, give me the will to walk through my door.” At times “God brings the door to you rather than bring you to the door.” One can discern the door of opportunity by listening to the Spirit within us, knowledge and awareness of the scriptures before us and sensitivity to the circumstances around us. But the professor of preaching warned the gathering that opportunity often comes with opposition. It is rare to have the first without the second. “If you are going to live and work for Jesus Christ opportunity and opposition will always go hand in hand,” Gregory said to the responsive gathering. “But this should not surprise us.” However, opposition should not thwart the Christian believer because “we serve a Lord who turned the ultimate opposition into the ultimate opportunity. No one turned opposition into opportunity like Jesus.” Jesus turned what seemed like ultimate defeat, his death as a criminal on a cross, into ultimate victory, transforming “the cross of shame into the symbol of salvation.”

Joel Gregory

“ . . . opportunity and opposition will always go hand in hand.”

Migrants in the Church

Yet, despite these needs, some of the older and more established congregations are leaving cities for suburbs, creating a void. “Rich and poor churches need to work together in mission,” Kam, who is general secretary of Chin Baptist Churches USA, declared. “We need to think locally, regionally and globally.” Racism is also a factor, said Appiagyei, a former president

of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. “British Christians prayed for revival but didn’t recognize it [when it came] because it was black,” Appiagyei stated. There are “attempts to downplay the significance of immigrant Christian growth.” He claimed that “segregation is too common in our western Churches.” There are problems at a wider level as well, said Appiagyei.

In the UK, “acquiring places for worship is a major challenge. Muslims get planning permission, where black Christians [often] don’t.” What he calls the “anti-Christian press” stereotypes Africans as primitive. These problems help bring immigrants together, including

within their faith communities. As a consequence, immigrants have made an “immense contribution toward growth in all denominations in the West.” There are other positive developments as well. In the UK, “many Afro-Caribbean leaders are becoming prominent in religious and political affairs,” Appiagyei said. “From being a mission field, the Global South has become a mission force.”

Welcoming the Stranger Embracing migrants is an important missional challenge

facing Christian churches. Rothangliani Chhangte, BWA director (Continued on next page)

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