discovering missions - Southern Nazarene University

245187 Disc Missions ins 9/6/07 1:04 PM Page 37
Getting from where Christianity was on the day of Jesus’ ascension to where
it is today has made for an interesting journey. Along the way the faith has been
battered by internal and external persecution. It has found itself outlawed by government
decrees in some places and embraced as the state religion in others.
Through the rise and fall of nations and empires and the emergence and collapse
of cultural systems, the Christian faith has done more than survive; it has
thrived, spreading across every continent and to the islands of the seven seas.
No other religious faith has taken root and become indigenized in as many
places as has Christianity. Believers in Jesus Christ can now be found within
every one of the world’s 238 politically organized nations. Michael Jaffarian,
former missionary to India and Singapore, has asserted that Christians can
communicate in more than 90 percent of the world’s spoken languages and dialects.
1 What began 2,000 years ago as a small movement within Judaism has
clearly blossomed into a global religion.
Laying the Groundwork: Between the Testaments
Christian Mission 37
Synagogue Worship
After the Babylonians destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in 586/7 B.C., the
Jews went for the better part of a century without a Temple. Forced to come
up with new patterns of worship, they developed the infinitely reproducible local
synagogue. Synagogues, which did not use animal sacrifices, could be organized
anywhere there were at least 10 male Jews. This new style of worship
involved significant lay participation with male Jews in good standing allowed
to publicly read and comment on Scripture. During the first half century of
Christianity, these synagogue meetings served as centers for spreading the
Good News. In addition, synagogue services became a pattern for Christian
worship events.
Diaspora
In the aftermath of Jerusalem’s destruction, the Babylonians forced large
numbers of Jews to move to Babylon. To escape that forced deportation, a significant
number of Jews fled southward to Egypt. Over the next five centuries,
Jews from these two population centers—Egypt and Babylon—spread far and
wide. This dispersion, or Diaspora, of Jews created a network through which
first-century Christian mission could flow. After all, Jesus was the Messiah
whose advent had been prophesied by the Hebrew Scriptures. Having people
sprinkled all around the Mediterranean who were versed in those Scriptures
gave the Holy Spirit a perfect foundation on which to work!
That the Jews of the Diaspora became skilled in cross-cultural communication
was also a plus for the spread of the gospel. Living as a minority among