Mission and Evangelism

Summary

Christianity is by far the largest religion in Latin America. Yet, one cannot exclaim, ‘Mission accomplished!’ Latin American countries have widely heterogeneous Christian beliefs. Such a lack of homogeneity is due not only to a lack of cooperation between different Christian groups but also due to the absence of mutual understanding, causing conflict. Furthermore, overwhelming external and historical factors dictate the settings in which Christian mission and evangelism are practised, and these cannot be ignored.

In contrast to other parts of the world, Latin America is affected by three elements of the historical process: (1) loss of political stability, (2) permanent powers, empires and dictatorships, and (3) the religious monopoly of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC). I would add five more ongoing, chronic factors that affect and shape communities, their institutions and, by extension, mission and evangelism, namely: (4) widespread poverty caused by continual economic inequality, (5) uncertainty and exclusion of people from the benefits of society, (6) endemic violence, (7) the rapid growth of religious pluralism, and (8) human-caused environmental disasters.

In other words, Latin America has lived and continues to live a dramatically different history, in which it did not possess the elements that allowed other regions, such as in Europe and North America, to thrive. Additionally, all the differing doctrinal and ecclesiastical conceptualisations of faith and praxis in Latin America have given rise to many conflicting Christologies. These are translated into very fragmented ways of defining and practising mission and evangelism. The many Latin American interpretations of Christ do not find common ground in the fundamental questions of mission (such as ‘What does “salvation” mean?’) and evangelistic premises (inclusivity, exclusivity, or pluralism?). This puts the Christian community in a constant state of competition, where proselytising and ‘sheep-stealing’ are officially anathematised but widely practised.

For this reason, it is not possible to scrutinise all the various forms of practising mission and evangelism in Latin America over the last centuries, particularly over the last 200 years. Consideration must be given to the five significant segments that have unfolded as the religious situation has diversified from the late twentieth century and through into the first two decades of the present century: (1) Catholicisms, (2) Mainline Protestantisms, (3) Pentecostalisms, (4) Independent Evangelicals and (5) an even more recent religious phenomenon that can be called the ‘Getting Away’ Christians.