Diaspora Missiology Part 3 – Interview with Sadiri Joy Tira 1

Today, I want to continue the discussion in this series related to diaspora missiology.  In case you missed the first and second post, you can find them listed below:

Diaspora Missiology Part 2 – What in the World is God Doing?

Diaspora Missiology Part 1 – Interview with Enoch Wan

Sadiri Joy Tira is one of the leading experts in this new growing category of missiology.  Joy serves as the Senior Associate for Diasporas, Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, the International Coordinator for Filipino International Network, and the Global Ministries Diasporas Specialist for Christian & Missionary Alliance Canada. You can check out his bio HERE.

While I met Joy at an EMS meeting last year, he and I have been corresponding lately via email.  He recently invited me to join the Lausanne Team as a Subject Matter Specialist on Diaspora/Migration. 

With Dr. Tira’s involvement with Lausanne, I asked him to share some very important information with you related to what is happening on a global level with Evangelicals.  This is a lengthy post, but well worth the read.   

Joy, can you please explain the importance of having a group working on diaspora matters that is connected to Lausanne?

There are many groups (churches, organizations, denominations, local parachurches) already engaged in reaching diaspora people (e.g., international student ministries reaching foreign students on university and college campuses). We have organizations ministering compassionately to “people on the highway” (refugees). In the academic field there is the Institute for Diaspora Studies (IDS), hosted by Western Seminary in Portland, Oregon, USA, and by Alliance Graduate School in Manila, Philippines. Specialization in diaspora studies is also taking form at Fuller Seminary, Torch Trinity Graduate School in South Korea, Ambrose University College and Seminary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Oxford Centre for Missions Studies (U.K.) has several African and Asian students studying specific diaspora groups. This is an encouraging development in recent years.

The Lausanne Movement has responded to the diaspora phenomenon, and formed the “Lausanne Diasporas Leadership Team” (LDLT). The LDLT convened the Lausanne Diaspora Strategy Consultation in May 2009 (Manila, Philippines), gathering diaspora specialists, including sociologists, anthropologists, demographers, theologians, government policymakers, legal experts, key denominational leaders, and mission organizations that have a diaspora mission thrust.  The Lausanne Diaspora Educators Consultation held in November 2009 (Seoul, Korea) gathered theological educators and representatives from theological institutions to formulate the“Seoul Declaration on Diaspora Missiology” summoning the Whole Church of Jesus Christ, including its missions agencies and its academies to mobilise, train, deploy, support, and empower Diaspora Kingdom Workers.

We are developing an Evangelical Diaspora Theology and Strategy to present at Lausanne III in Cape Town in 2010. Hopefully, our humble contribution to mission literature and practice will be embraced by the whole Church. It is our prayer that this will result in a calibrated and synchronized advance of the gospel of Jesus Christ among people on the move.

What are your responsibilities as Senior Associate for Diasporas with the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization?

Part of my responsibility is using the Lausanne platform to initiate and motivate diaspora Christians to actively participate in world evangelization. Another responsibility is to communicate and represent Lausanne’s work whenever and wherever I am given a chance. I do have a team of associates called the “Lausanne Diasporas Leadership Team” who work with me toward Lausanne’s mandate and goal.

How is diaspora missiology practically helping in global evangelization?

If “diaspora in missions” refers to dispersed ethnic groups who are actively engaged or actively involved in fulfilling the Great Commission regardless of vocation and denominational affiliations of individuals involved, then “diaspora missiology” is defined as a “missiological framework for understanding and participating in God’s redemptive mission amongpeople living outside their place of origin.” (Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, “The Seoul Declaration on Diaspora Missiology,” November 14, 2009. Lausanne Diaspora Educators Consultation) .

Diaspora missiology has these elements:

1) Its focus is holistic Christianity and contextualization.  Conceptually, diaspora missiology is de-territorialized (the “loss of social and cultural boundaries” in mission strategy), glocal (a mission strategy that is simultaneously local and global), inter-disciplinary, and hybrid.

2) The perspective of diaspora missiology is non-spatial (not geographically divided or confined; i.e., home/foreign, regional/global, urban/rural), and is borderless. It is transnational and global. For example, planting churches is not only on land, but also aboard ships among seafarers.

3) The diaspora missiology paradigm goes where God is going and moves providentially where God places people spatially and spiritually, in contrast to traditional missions’ “sending and receiving.”

In contrast to traditional missions, Diaspora Missions is (1) economically sustainable; (2) benefits from travel accessibility to the target audience; (3) has less political and legal restrictions (4) partnership among like minded people and organizations committed to the Great Commission and (5) missions are done not only by “few experts” or “international workers.”

Some recent practical examples of Diaspora Missiology in Action include:

• The Filipino International Network (FIN) brokered a partnership between Operation Mobilisation, Campus Crusade for Christ, the Seamen’s Christian Friends Society, the Alliance Graduate School in Manila, and FIN in 2007.  This partnership formed Alliance of Churches at Sea (ACAS) which aims to train at least 500 Filipino seafarers every year in evangelism and discipleship.  Since Filipinos compose over 25% of the global maritime workers, ACAS has been training Filipino seafarers to plant churches on board cruise ships, super tankers, and container ships among“people on the ocean.”  In such a short period of time, there are now churches on the ocean!  This is a case of a multi-directional and trans-national approach to church planting.

• FIN also conducts ongoing evangelism and discipleship training in international locations boasting a large Filipino expatriate population.  This is done in partnership with Campus Crusade for Christ using their New Life Training Curriculum (NLTC).  An example of this is in Tokyo, Japan, where close to 200 people – Filipino and other nationalities e.g. Brazilian, Japanese, have gone on to train others, resulting in a diaspora missions force of multiplying disciples.

• Theological institutions are gradually installing a diaspora focus in their curricula.  It must be noted that Ambrose University College and Seminary in Calgary, Canada is working towards this via their Jaffray Centre for Global Initiatives.  In February 2010, Ambrose offered a college/seminary crossover course, – Diaspora Missiology in Canadian Context: A Third Millennium Trends and Issues in Mission. Western Seminary in Portland, USA also offered this course at the Doctor of Missiology level (April 2010) through the Institute for Diaspora Studies.

• Diaspora missions initiatives are sprouting up in many locations.  This includes ministries such as MoveIn in Canada.

• Local churches, such as Penticton Alliance Church in British Columbia (Canada) are also catching the “diaspora missions vision.”  This local congregation is intentionally reaching out to the thousands of Foreign Workers arriving from Mexico to work in the vineyards of the Okanagan.

Having said all this, I need to clarify that “Diaspora Missions/Missiology” should not be promoted over “Traditional Missions.”  I must underscore that these two strategies are not in competition with each other, but are complementary in light of the global situation in the 21^st Century.

What are some of the important matters you are researching at the moment?  What are you finding?

Many people wonder how “diaspora missiology” will work practically – particularly in terms of funding.  One thing of particular interest to me is the funding partnership of diaspora congregations with congregations in the homeland.  For example, there are officially over 8 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) deployed in more than 197 countries.  Approximately 7% of the OFWs are evangelical Christians.  OFW remittances to the Philippines reached close to $13 billion US Dollars between January and September 2009 (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas).  If you can imagine how much of these remittances have gone to churches in the homeland (directly, or via relatives supported by the OFW) to support “home churches”, you have to imagine how far these resources could go if used towards training in evangelism and discipleship, and deploying of “Kingdom Workers” who are already in place to be witnesses for Jesus Christ (i.e. Christian OFWs).  I am interested in seeing how diaspora Christians can intentionally and strategically partner with homeland churches to prepare and send Kingdom Workers.

Thank you, Dr. Tira for your time and sharing with us about this exciting area of missiology.