Strangers Next Door: Immigration, Migration and Mission

By J.D. Payne

More than ever, North America is being flooded by people from all around the world, many of them here illegally. How should the church respond to these sojourners among us? In Strangers Next Door professor of evangelism and church planting J. D. Payne introduces the phenomenon of migrations of peoples to Western nations and explores how the church should respond in light of the mission of God. As we understand and embrace the fact that the least-reached people groups now reside in (and continue to migrate to) Western countries, churches have unprecedented opportunites to freely share the gospel with them. This book includes practical guidelines for doing crosscultural missions and developing a global strategy of mission. It also highlights examples of churches and organizations attempting to reach, partner with, and send migrants to minister to their people. Discover how you can reach out to the strangers next door by welcoming them into God's family.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVP
• Release date: Sep 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9780830863419

J.D. Payne

J. D. Payne (PhD, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is a writer, speaker, church planter and currently serves as the pastor of church multiplication with The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. He previously served with the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and as an associate professor at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he directed the Center for North American Missions and Church Planting. J. D. has written extensively in the areas of missions, evangelism and church growth and he speaks frequently for churches, networks, conferences and mission agencies. He is the author of books such as Missional House Churches, The Barnabas Factors, Discovering Church Planting, Strangers Next Door, Kingdom Expressions and Pressure Points. In addition to these works, he and Mark Terry coauthored Developing a Strategy for Missions and he coedited Missionary Methods with Craig Ott. J. D. has pastored five churches in Kentucky and Indiana and has worked with four church planting teams. He formerly served as the executive vice president for administration for the Evangelical Missiological Society and as the book review editor for the Great Commission Research Journal. He and his wife Sarah and their three children live in Birmingham, Alabama.

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Strangers Next Door: Immigration, Migration and Mission Cover

Strangers Next Door

Immigration, Migration and Mission

J. D. Payne

IVP Books Imprint

www.IVPress.com/books

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InterVarsity Press

P.O. Box 1400

Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426

World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com

E-mail: [e-mail]

© 2012 by J. D. Payne

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

While all stories in this book are true, some names and identifying information in this book have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

Excerpts from Who Is My Neighbor? Reaching Internationals in North America by Phillip and Kandace Connor (Princeton, NJ: n.p., 2008) is used by permission. Available from www.reachinternationals.com.

ISBN 978-0-8308-6341-9

To my heavenly Father,

who oversees the movements of the nations,

and to Sarah,

whom he moved into my life

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Immigration, Migration, and Kingdom Perspective

2. What in the World Is God Doing?

3. The World’s Unreached in the West

4. Migration and Kingdom Expansion, Part 1

5. Migration and Kingdom Expansion, Part 2

6. Migration and the West, 15002010

7. Students on the Move

8. Refugees on the Move

9. Stories from the Field

10. Guidelines for Reaching the Strangers Next Door

11. A Suggested Strategy for Reaching the Strangers Next Door

12. Diaspora Missiology

Appendix 1 Unreached People Groups in the United States and Canada (Global Research)

Appendix 2 Unreached People Groups in the West, Excluding the

United States and Canada (Global Research)

Appendix 3 Unreached People Groups in the West (Joshua Project)

Notes

Scripture Index

About the Author

Acknowledgments

I am thankful that you have decided to read this book. While my name is on the cover, you would not be reading these words without the assistance of some great people, and in this section I wish to thank them. Of course, I take full responsibility for any limitations or errors in this work.

Thank you, Renee Emerson, for your administrative assistance and the development of many of the tables contained in this book. I must also thank my research assistant, Matt Pierce, for his labors of tracking down numerous resources for me.

Thank you, Volney James and the several individuals making up your committee. I appreciate your heart for the nations and for believing in this project. Thank you to my editor, John Dunham, and your team for your labors. And thank you, Mike Dworak and Dean Galiano, for all that you guys do to help spread the word about this book. Shortly after writing this book for Biblica Books, this division of Biblica Worldwide was acquired by InterVarsity Press. It has been a tremendous blessing working with the people of IVP. They have greatly assisted with this work and are to be commended for their professionalism and encouraging spirit. I truly appreciate all that you have done on this project.

Of course, I must say thank you to Sarah, the greatest wife and mother in the world! And also, thanks to Hannah, Rachel, and Joel as well. I truly appreciate all of your prayers and sacrifices to make this book a reality.

Most of all, I must offer a word of thanksgiving to the Lord. It has been a blessing to work on this book. His grace to me is amazing.

Introduction

Samuel and Young Cho are a middle-aged Korean couple living in Lutherville, Maryland.[1] Korean is their heart language and English is their second language. A few years ago, the Lord used this couple to begin Nepal Church of Baltimore, after they met a Nepalese waitress and her family. Recently, the Chos also planted a Bhutani church in Baltimore.

The Nepalese, whether from Nepal or Bhutan, are considered among the world’s least reached peoples . . . and they live in Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

In 2008 the Chos took a short-term mission trip to Nepal and visited the families of the church members living in Baltimore. In Nepal, one family invited other family members to hear Samuel preach. Several people came to faith and the Antioch Church in Jamsa was planted. By the conclusion of the trip, over two hundred people had made a profession of faith in Jesus.

Did I mention the Nepalese are considered among the world’s least reached peoples . . . and they live in Baltimore, Maryland, USA?

Shortly after returning from their first missionary trip, the Chos decided to take a second trip to Nepal to minister to refugees and also to travel into India. After finally arriving in a Jhapa refugee camp in southeast Nepal, the Chos were able to locate relatives of members of the Nepal Church of Baltimore. During this visit the Chos were able to share letters and gifts from family members in the States. One of the family members living in Nepal made a profession of faith in Jesus.

While on this second missionary trip, the Chos were able to plant two more churches and to observe two hundred Nepalese, three hundred Bhutanese, and thirty-five Indians make professions of faith in Jesus.

And it began when Koreans in living in Maryland started evangelizing and planting churches with Nepalese living in their neighborhood.

What if more believers like the Chos took seriously the need to cross cultural barriers and take the gospel to the least reached peoples living in the Western world, where the challenges to getting the gospel to the people are not as daunting as trying to reach them in their homelands? What if more kingdom citizens living in Western nations recognized the Great Commission opportunity set before them—that the Sovereign Lord has moved the world into their neighborhoods so that such peoples may become his followers?

Imagine the global possibilities if churches would serve, share the good news, plant churches, partner with, and send the least reached peoples of the world back to their families, tribes, villages, and cities as missionaries. Believers living in the West have dreamed and talked about these possibilities for some time. While some churches have moved beyond talking and are doing it, far too many kingdom citizens remain oblivious to the needs in their neighborhoods and the Great Commission potential that exists.

While the perspective used in this book is unique and contemporary, the notion of reaching those who migrate to our countries and sending them home with the good news is not new. For example, Frank Obien, in his book Building Bridges of Love: A Handbook for Sharing God’s Love with International Students, wrote that in the 1960s he noticed that while missionaries were traveling the world, international students were coming to the United States—only to return without anyone sharing the gospel with them.[2] Don Bjork, in a 1985 Christianity Today article, attempted to raise awareness of the migration of the nations to the United States. Commenting on the realities in the 1970s and 1980s, he wrote:

Millions of strange new faces began appearing on the streets of American cities, collectively changing the face of the nation itself. But who in the church really noticed? Unseen or unheeded, the fields at home were long since white unto harvest. Yet right down to the end of the 1970s, few missions leaders really knew what was going on. The invisible migrants took no pains to hide, yet it seemed few missions took pains to seek.[3]

Progress has been made since Bjork’s article, but unfortunately it is too little and too slow. While such discussions have taken place in the past, most evangelicals have been slow to respond. The good news is that more and more people, churches, networks, denominations, societies, and mission agencies are talking about this topic once again and starting to act on the need.

Many of the world’s least reached peoples live in our communities. Now is the time to cross the street and meet the strangers next door.

The Beginning of This Book

Authors always have reasons for writing books. For some time I had been thinking and lecturing on the topic of migration and the Great Commission but never felt strongly compelled to write a book on the topic. I knew such a work needed to be produced, but the vision for this book did not become a reality until one day during a conversation with my mother.

One afternoon we were talking about the Appalachian region of the United States. In particular, we were discussing a community in Laurel County, Kentucky, known as Swiss Colony, just a few miles north of my hometown. My mother noted that the name of that community quite possibly came from the migration of the Swiss into the southeastern part of the state, bringing their dairy skills, culture, and their faith traditions. I knew many European peoples migrated into Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee through places like Cumberland Gap in southeastern Kentucky. The thought of such people settling in Laurel County was not a surprise to me. However, the more I thought about the origins of Swiss Colony—an area far from Switzerland both geographically and culturally—the more the Lord started to stir my thoughts regarding global evangelization and migration and the opportunities for the church in the Western nations of the world.

The more I prayed and researched the topic of migration to Western countries, the more I realized how the church was missing out on a significant opportunity to reach, model, equip, partner, and send many people groups back to their peoples across the globe. For centuries the church has been sending missionaries to the least reached peoples across the globe. While this practice must continue, we also must recognize that over the years large numbers of peoples have been migrating to Western nations, peoples that have been categorized by missiologists as the world’s least reached people groups (or unreached people groups).

The Purpose of This Book

Such global movements of peoples across history, whether forced or voluntary, are under the eye of the Sovereign Lord. Migration does not occur by happenstance. This book is written from the conviction that God permits the movement of peoples across the globe in order to advance his kingdom. Some people move to locations that enable them to hear the good news (Acts 17:26–27). Others, who are kingdom citizens, move and are able to share the good news in their new locations (Acts 1:8). With these points in mind, the purpose of this book is twofold.

First, it is my desire to educate the Western church on the scope of global migrations that are taking place as the peoples of the world move to the West in search of a better way of life. At present there are large numbers of believers and unbelievers migrating to Western nations. Much of the Western church is fairly ignorant as to the numbers, cultures, and beliefs of such peoples.

Second, I want to challenge the Western church to reach the least reached people living in their neighborhoods and partner with them to return to their peoples as missionaries. An enormous Great Commission opportunity exists that seems to be going unnoticed by the church. The United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, other Western European nations, Australia, and New Zealand presently receive an enormous portion of the world’s migrants, with the United States receiving the largest percentage of those migrating to the Western world. Refugees, students, long-term and temporary workers, and immigrants move to these regions of the world every year.

At the time of this writing, the opportunities for ministering to such peoples are as simple as locating them, finding out their needs, and serving them with the love of Jesus. Obtaining visas is not a problem. Overcoming governmental opposition to missionary activity is not an issue. Western churches can easily begin welcoming and serving the strangers next door with little preparation. As migrants come to faith in Jesus, there are numerous opportunities for equipping, partnering, commissioning, and sending those believers as missionaries back to their people to multiply disciples, leaders, and churches.

What You Will Not Find Here

I remember being in a restaurant and ordering a dish that sounded good, based on the menu’s description. I was greatly surprised when the meal arrived. What I thought was going to be a delightful chicken dish covered with a mild sauce turned out to be a plate filled with chicken smothered in liquid fire! My expectations did not meet reality. And several gallons of water later, I remained greatly disappointed.

As you read this book, I do not want you to expect one thing and then receive something disappointing. Therefore it is important that I state from the outset what this book is not about. While I believe that the following matters are extremely important and that the church must speak to these issues, it is not my desire to address them in this book.

First, this book is not about the political issues revolving around immigration and refugees. As I write this introduction, countries such as France and the United States are facing numerous political debates on the topic of immigration. Second, this work will spend little, if any, space addressing the ethical issues regarding immigration and how people should respond. While there are chapters addressing what the Scriptures advocate regarding migration, I will not attempt to offer a practical response to the moral and ethical dilemma concerning how the church should address undocumented immigrants and immigrant quotas. Third, this book does not address how a church should respond to the cultural shifts that occur whenever its membership significantly increases in the number of minority peoples, sometimes resulting in local church conflicts. Fourth, while this book recognizes that the Majority World churches are now sending missionaries to Western countries and that the future dominant missionary force is likely to come primarily from the non-Western world, this book will not address the changing demographic and cultural shape of the Christian faith. For such information I will direct you to works such as Philip Jenkins’s The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity.[4]

This book is not written to an exclusively North American audience. While I must state my American bias from the outset and admit that more attention is devoted to what is happening in my neighborhood, it has been my desire to write for a wider Western audience, at least by noting migration matters related to other Western countries. I want to help you catch a vision for your neighborhood. Because I wish to leave you with an impression rather than a comprehensive look at the West, this book does not provide a detailed treatment for every Western country. And since I am the most familiar with migration issues in the United States, I beg for some grace whenever my ignorance is revealed regarding other Western nations.

I also am aware that what constitutes the West or Western countries varies from group to group. For the purposes of this book, whenever I use these terms, I am referring to the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many of the countries commonly referred to as Western Europe. While I am aware that many of the countries of this latter