Oklahoma Baptists and World Christianity

What would Oklahoma have to do with World Christianity?

Often from an academic or scholarly perspective, the Bible Belt, let alone its Baptists, would be considered too Western to be part of a global representation of Christianity. This mindset itself can be indicative of cultural-centric perspective, seeing one area or expression as traditional and somehow forfeit. This article attempts to point out that Oklahoma Baptists are not excluded from World Christianity, either by distinctive beliefs or practices. Instead, they both express, participate, and reflect Christians from many cultures and backgrounds.

What is World Christianity?

First, it is good to ask what exactly is World Christian Studies. This field has gained a great deal of influence in the last few decades. Scholars of Christian history, theology, and missiology desired to document the growing Christian populations around the globe, which have often been inadvertently missed because of the concentration of so many theological schools and centers in the West. The desire was to record the voices of Christians outside of those typically studied, and document the shifting center of Christianity globally. This would be akin to missiologists in the 70’s and 80’s (such as Ralph Winter) pointing out the unreached ethnic groups who had been missed among mission organizations focusing on primarily nationalistic boundaries. Depending on the paradigm there is often a need to check for blind spots.

Scholars of World Christianity saw that many Christian communities lived in what was often referred to as the Global South (Christians from South America, Africa, or Asia). More recently, the Global South is referred to as the Majority World (as in those Christian communities which are from two-thirds of the world as opposed to the Western one third). Depending on the field and context of study, either or both terms can be used effectively. Their usage is especially relevant when discussing the unexpected and unprecedented growth of Christianity where, in recent centuries, it had been non-existent or only in small numbers. However, the terms Global South and Majority World often make scholars think in a bifurcated way that is not what the field desires to teach. World Christianity is not somehow removed or separate from Christians in the West. Instead, the West is part of the many voices of indigenous Christian communities around the globe. One way Oklahoma Baptists are part of World Christianity is that their impact on Christianity globally is often just as unexpected, but as powerful, as the growth of churches in China or Brazil. 

How do Oklahoma Baptists fit into World Christian Studies?

Below are a few points of how Christians from Baptist churches in Oklahoma reflect, express, and participate in World Christianity:

Shared expressions: Oklahoma Baptists share many theological beliefs and practical expressions that reflect many Christian communities around the world. David Bebbington’s evangelical quadrilateral and Philip Jenkin’s basic description of the growing Christian communities from the Global South will help to breakdown these similar beliefs. One of Jenkins major points is that most of the Christians in the Global South adhere to traditional beliefs that “Western experts rarely find the . . . much to their taste” (Jenkins, 8). Though calling Chinese Christians ‘conservative’ in the same sense as Oklahomans often use the term would be a mistake and over-simplification. However, as Bebbington has described evangelical beliefs (and Baptists at that) many Africans would readily follow. Biblicism, putting Christ’s sacrifice on the cross as the cornerstone of salvation, and the need for evangelism and conversion all have expression among Henan house church leaders and Oklahoma Baptists.

The first expression, Biblicism (as in seeing the Bible as authoritative in faith), has surprised researchers as one of the most significant for transmission of Christianity from one people to another while retaining cultural and ethnic identity. The late and distinguished scholar, Lamin Sanneh, is famous for describing the importance of translated scripture in discovering his own ethnic identity in a Muslim Ghana. Also, vernacular scripture, though not proven here, leads to indigenous church leadership. I have seen first hand how even a non-Christian can cling to a Bible translated into their minority and rare “mother tongue”. When they read it, they own it, and they share it. Baptists historically have emphasized local leadership through Biblical exposition. Oklahoma Baptists have been no different.

Another mutual Christian expression is mission: many Christian communities around the world are sending missionaries and church planters. Participating in cross-cultural engagement, Oklahoma Baptists have a long history. The desire to share their beliefs across national, ethnic, and cultural barriers continue to impact churches in China. Many unregistered house church leaders, who face the challenge of sending missionaries for the first time, are partnering with Christians from many other nations.

In discussing this similarity we should not skip over Native Baptist churches in Oklahoma. What others would decry as a sign of cultural appropriation or oppression usually has signs of self-designation and acceptance. There is plenty of examples of mistakes, but there are many more examples revealed by the many Native American churches in Oklahoma and especially in the Oklahoma Baptist Convention. Oklahoma Baptists have desired care for such congregations and leaders, and continue to want to improve the partnership.

Oklahoma Baptists also reflect many Christian communities in the Majority World and Global South. They, like Chinese Christians, come from a very monocultural background, which many might say gives a significant disadvantage to appropriately transmitting their beliefs across cultures. It could be that such experience would only lead to self-focus (even nationalistic expressions of Christianity- has any Oklahoman been stereotyped as such?). However, as research has shown, the call of diffusing the Gospel can phenomenally move from even such contexts (a blatant reference to my doctoral research:).

In summary, It should be pointed out that Oklahoma Baptists, while holding too many supposedly conservative and monocultural expressions of Christianity, have too many traits that reflect Christians around the world. Also, they have historically shown a great adeptness (not without mistakes) to intentionally and actively diffuse their beliefs across cultural boundaries. These Christians, their churches and associations, have done this with care for autonomy and growth of local leadership, the sharing and teaching of the Bible in vernacular translations, and aiding of those communities to send out others to share Christ. 

Truthfully, no community or people should be considered from too monocultural or insignificant places to be able to effectively serve and bless others. That is the very lesson professors such as Andrew Walls and Lamin Sanneh try to share in pointing out the significance of World Christianity in scholarship. This lesson is true for a young Nigerian pastor and his wife to go to Fulani Muslim neighbors, and true of Oklahoman college students. Astoundingly, today, so many of the former and the latter can find Christians in their hometown. Having the opportunity to see these occurrences is what World Christian Studies is all about.

See:

Audi, Moses. 2016. “World Christianity in Crisis: Glocalization, Re-Transmission, and Boko Haram’s Challenge to Nigerian Baptists.” Ph.D. diss. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Bebbington, David W. 1988. Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730s to the 1980s. Routledge.

_____. 2010. Baptists through the Centuries: A History of a Global People. Waco: Baylor University Press.

Hutchinson, Mark, and John Wolffe. 2012. A Short History of Global Evangelicalism. Cambridge University Press.

Noll, Mark A. 2009. The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith. Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press.

_____. 2012. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. Baker Academic.

Jenkins, Philip. 2008. The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South. Oxford University Press, USA.

Sanneh, Lamin. 1989. Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture. Maryknoll: Orbis. Mary Knoll: Orbis Press.

_____. 2003. Whose Religion Is Christianity?: The Gospel Beyond the West. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

_____. 2007. Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity (Studies in World Christianity). Oxford University Press.

Shaw, Mark R. 2010. Global Awakening: How 20th-Century Revivals Triggered a Christian Revolution. IVP Academic.

Walls, Andrew F. 1995. Christianity in the Non-Western World: A Study in the Serial Nature of Christian Expansion. Studies in World Christianity 1, no. 1: 1-25.

_______. 2002. The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.

_______. 1996. The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.