Is the Church More Ethnic? World Christianity, Church History, and What is the "Norm"

Often, the questions we ask can reveal many assumptions and expectations which dumbfound those who to whom we ask. Maybe there are no dumb questions, but there are dumb, ignorant, myopic assumptions.

As scholars come to understand and explain World Christianity, it is often exclaimed, “the church has become more ethnic!” It is true that the majority of Christians around the world are from the “Majority World,” thus there are vast numbers of ethnicities represented. But really, has it become more ethnic than in the past?

Or has it always been “ethnic”?

The problem is not the question itself, but some assumptions that it might reveal.

In many ways, the latter question is better, and yes, the church has always been ethnic. It is an ethnocentric perspective that sees the facts of the growth of Christianity in Africa, Latin America, and Asia to mean NOW the church is multi-ethnic. Ethnocentrism, the focus of what is normative by the ethnic backgrounds to which one belongs, rears its head when it looks out and says the other as ethnic, while excluding one-selves.

Here are some reasons that one, the church has always been “ethnic” and, two, it is “ethnic” today.

1). No matter what period of time in church history one chooses, there are examples of Christian communities in places other Christians would not realize. Take the second century, though Greeks were becoming Christians there were still Christian communities in Jerusalem, and in Ethiopia, and in Arabia. In the Middle Ages, when we most think that the church’s “ethnicity” was regulated to Europe, there were communities of Christians stretching across Central Asia.

2). A majority does not abrogate the minority. If, in 1800s, more Christians were European 45 year old males, and now the average Christian is a 30 something Nigerian woman, does not mean there is no diversity.

3). The heritage and ancestry does not equate ethnicity or culture. In recent works, Mark Noll and N.T. Wright have highlighted L.P. Hartley, saying, “The past is a foreign country: They do things differently there.” Thinking that heritage excludes diversity, one should imagine journeying in time– wherever you land, though you might meet your great-great-great-great grandfather does not mean you both will look, think, feel, or act in recognizable ways.

4). Where ever a Christian is from today, they are different ethnically from Christians of the past, and many other Christians around the world. But this is true of almost any other time in church history.

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