| This article endeavors to see and present one aspect of the big picture in Christian missions. It focuses in on a bird's-eye view of the whole of Christian history and the status of global Christianity today. The reader should understand that our approach in this instance is not missiology but missiography. In other words, this is not a normative analysis posited within Christian theology. Instead it is a descriptive analysis, describing reality as it actually is. Our research is in fact based upon a number of approaches or disciplines. Certainly, it starts from the Christian Scriptures and from Christ's Great Commission in particular. Then it becomes based on data, facts, phenomena, realities, objective research, scientific study, statistics, numeracy, logic, common sense, rational discussion, and many similar approaches. A progression of five diagrams Our findings are here then shown on a series of five standardized and stylized diagrams in which the background depicts the timeline for the whole course of Christian history from Christ's Cross, Resurrection, and Great Commission in AD 33 up to the present and on a few months to AD 2000. This timeline has recurred several times earlier in our lengthy series of 50 global diagrams over the last ten years. This history is first depicted in Global Diagrams 1 and 5, and is fully explained and expounded in Global Diagrams 29-32 in Our globe and how to reach it (New Hope, 1990). All those diagrams look at the same panorama from over to the lefthand side of Global Diagram 47. The timeline in the diagrams below is as it appears to the outside observer-namely, to a person unfamiliar with the structures of global Christianity. He could be a secularist, marxist, atheist, agnostic, or a member of one of the great world religions such as a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jew, Baha'i, or an Asian New-Religionist, or from any of the other 30 major world religions. We can imagine this outside observer standing in the middle at the bottom in the year 2000. Because the distances are immense, he trains his binoculars on the phenomenon we call Christianity, and he sees it hazily as Diagram 1 below. He then fine tunes his focus and it becomes clearer as Diagram 2. Intrigued, he zooms his lenses and sees it as Diagram 3. Again, he zeroes in on 33 gigantic monoliths and sees it as Diagram 4. Lastly, as he observes he begins to see some order emerging and finally Global Diagram 47 appears in view. The whole sequence is similar to fractals. At first you see it as a single, colossal entity. But the closer you get, the more you see an ever-increasing intricately-complex pattern to the whole mass of images. We now need to examine what our observer sees in more detail. The primal monolith (Diagram 1) Firstly, the observer perceives Christianity as a massive rectangle in the far distance, shrouded in haze. The first impression that any newcomer or outsider has of global Christianity is almost inevitably that of a colossal monolith-a towering block of stone of almost incomprehensible proportions. Like the massive monoliths in the science-fiction films 2001: a Space Odyssey and 2010: Odyssey Two (with their sequel 2061: Odyssey Three), its smooth, polished outer surface gives no clue as to what wonders lie within. From many points of view, the image of a monolith is a correct representation of the Christian religion and the Christian faith. It represents the enormous size and strength of Christianity. It represents the Church built on the rock of Peter's confession. And, of course, the image is a recurrent biblical theme as the prophet Isaiah declared (as reported in 1 Peter 2:6): "Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious". The reference would have been to the massive cornerstones found on the Temple site in Jerusalem, the longest of which still measures 38 feet 9 inches. The dwellers of the world are invited to "Come to him, to that living stone" (2:4), this being lithos, a cut and dressed stone (56 references in the Greek New Testament). Elsewhere the image changes to the Body of Christ. The emphasis is on the monolithic unity of God's people in the world. Differentiation emerges (Diagram 2) Secondly, our observer fine tunes his binoculars to see in greater detail. As he focuses in for a closer look, however, the monolith suddenly resolves itself into a vast number of smaller monoliths. This is the phenomenon that we refer to as the fragmentation of global Christianity. In place of a single monolith we now find that there appear to be something like 154,000 separate monoliths and micromonoliths- separate and distinct Christian denominations, agencies, and organizations. There are so many of them that the observer almost loses sight of the Cross. Christian history also disappears out of sight. The picture visible today is transformed into a vast, confused, fragmented mass of independent, autonomous, monolithic organizations. The metaphor of monoliths is very apt. In general use, a monolith is defined as "a single large block, usually of stone, with unity of structure or purpose, of unyielding quality or character" (Webster's). A micromonolith is one with very small dimensions. A megamonolith is an enormous monolith or grouping of them with measurements in the millions. Describing the average monolith Some 4,000 of these monoliths today are foreign mission agencies. We can depict the average or median or typical such agency as follows. The average mission monolith has 70 missionaries. This reminds us of Jesus' first organized band of 70 evangelists sent out to preach the Good News to symbolically the world's 70 Gentile nations (Luke 10; compare the Table of the Nations, in Genesis 10). In the 1990s, this median agency works in 5 countries and has control over the following numerical assets: the 70 foreign missionaries (men and women, including wives), 10 home staff, 2 computers, and a budget of $2 million p.a. Its missionaries generate each year evangelistic work as follows (using the new categories enumerated and expounded in AD 2000 Global Monitor, No. 15, January 1992, pages 2-4): 409,000 missionary presence-hours per year, 102,000 missionary witness-hours p.a., and 12,800 missionary evangelism-hours p.a., offering 1.3 million disciple-opportunities p.a. to those they are in touch with. Positive and negative aspects of monoliths There is a very positive side to this multiplicity of monoliths, especially to the 4,000 mission agencies. All of them share and hold in common with all other monoliths the following: faith in Christ as Lord, the power of the Holy Spirit, Holy Scripture, the Four Gospels, the Good News, the Great Commission, commitment to global missions, and much more. In addition, each monolith shares with a number of others membership in the same single denomination, in the same tradition, and in the same ecclesiastico-cultural bloc. So far, so good. Again, diversity by itself is clearly to be welcomed as likely to appeal to the whole range of the world's cultures and peoples. Nobody is advocating uniformity. These monoliths however live in uneasy coexistence. Even in 1992, when every mission agency has immediate global telephonic communications, the vast majority of the monoliths never communicate with each other except for the dozen or so closest to them. There is either very limited fellowship and contact with other nearby monoliths, or none at all. Monoliths are freestanding, standalone (Diagram 3)
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