A Different Kind of Love

EMQ » July – Oct 2024 » Volume 60 Issue 3

Summary: Jesus calls everyone who follows him to practice a love that transcends boundaries. Missionaries have demonstrated this for generations as they have crossed ethnic and geographic lines. In contrast, the mission force from North American mission agencies still remains remarkably monochromatic. Why is this, and how can we change it?

By Heather Pubols

In a recent gathering of Christian writers in Asia, Soo-Inn Tan, the director of Graceworks in Singapore said, “The church must provide a question in which Christ is the answer.”^[i]

Chapter 10 of Luke’s Gospel can help us discover the question. In verses 25–37, Jesus tells the story of a man who is beaten almost to death on the dangerous road to Jericho. A Levite and a priest see him but don’t help. Then a person the beaten man would have considered an enemy – a Samaritan – comes, bandages his wounds, takes him to safety, and ensures he is cared for until he recovers.

The question we’re left with is, who can love like this? The answer is Jesus.

“If we love people like us, we are no different than the world,” Tan said. “It’s in our love across diversity that we demonstrate a different kind of love.”^[ii]

Jesus calls his followers to this same kind of love. Missionaries have exemplified it over generations as they have shared Christ’s love across ethnic and geographic boundaries. Yet within our own missionary ranks, that same level of diversity has often not been present. This leaves a hole in our global witness that still needs to be addressed.

Reasons for this are numerous, and the topic can be difficult to talk about. But as the demographics of committed Christians shift toward a more multicultural domestic church,^[iii] the urgency to come together in our global endeavors becomes even more critical.

Writers for this issue of EMQ invite you to take steps on a journey toward greater diversity and mutuality. Linda Saunders reminds, in her article, that the missionary movement must include everyone. In “Colorful Cooperation,” Mimsie Robinson and Bob Fetherlin encourage “courageous and transparent conversations … to establish authentic inter-racial relationships.”

These dialogues are important with global partners, too. Missionary teams are increasingly multi-national, bringing Western and non-Western colleagues together as equals. In her article, Abby Galzote shares about how these kinds of relationships developed in the Philippines over the course of 40 years.

Our extras section contains two articles. One explores diaspora collaboration – ways churches and ministries can connect to reach the unreached nearby. The other re-imagines the C-spectrum for contextualization. It puts forth the argument that there is “no central form of biblical faith” and encourages a “seismic shift in the mentality of missions” that better recognizes biblical obedience within local cultures.

Heather Pubols
Editorial Director

[i] Soo-Inn Tan, remarks during Morning Devotions, LittAsia conference, Bangkok, Thailand, April 10, 2024. His statement reflects the content of Lesslie Newbigin’s book, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1989).

[ii] Tan, Morning Devotions remarks.

[iii] “America’s Changing Religious Landscape,” Pew Research Center, May 12, 2015, https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/. The same appears true in Canada: “62% of Large Canadian Churches Are Multiethnic,” Multiethnic.Church, October 15, 2015, accessed June 4, 2024, https://multiethnic.church/62-of-large-canadian-churches-are-multiethnic/.

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