From Bangkok to Bishkek, Budapest to Bogotá. Kenneth D. MacHarg

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СКАЧАТЬ Churches are first responders answering in close proximity to global crisis assisting where there is geopolitical turmoil, natural disasters and displaced people challenges.

       POSITIONS of influence: Located and functioning in open and limited access nations, nothing can penetrate closed countries, tight cultures and the kaleidoscope of classes like an International Church.

       PERSONS of every tribe, tongue and nation: The International Church plays a significant role in gathering the scattered diaspora and reaching persons from least reached people groups around the globe.

       PRUDENT investment produces synergistic impact: In our ever increasing globalized world, properly positioned personnel in the International Church will catalyze national redemptive lift for countries and regions around the world. --Rev Dr Warren Reeve, Missional International Church Network Founder

      IC pastor James Carlson offers a fourth description, less extensive and complex, but helpful:

      An International church is a church where at least half of the congregation does not live in their passport country.

      An International Church can be found anywhere in the world. It specializes in ministry to people who are not living in their passport country for a variety of reasons. International churches use the lingua franca of the world as the language of communication, which in today’s world is English. They may offer translation into the local language or other languages found in the congregation, but English will always be used. International Churches are often different characteristically from local churches because of their congregation’s greater diversity nationally, theologically, denominationally, economically, educationally and linguistically. Because of these characteristics, demographically International Churches tend to have younger and more highly transitional congregations than the other churches around them.

      (James Carlson, International Church Assessment, privately published, available at www.amazon.com, 2019)

      Each of these differ in understanding as well as experience and while some may question the assumptions voiced, particularly in the third description, taken together they help to define and describe these churches in particular as they are different from congregations in the homeland.

      There are many common characteristics among the more than 3,000 such congregations, however, one can easily say that each of those is distinctly different and difficult to compare to others. While many may classify themselves as multi-denominational, each congregation’s theological and ecclesiastical profile is shaped by the denominational background of those who formed it or those who have influenced it in more recent times. Therefore, although a church founded by Presbyterian missionaries or lay people may bear a resemblance to its roots, eventually, with the frequent turn-over of leadership and membership, it may change to reflect a more formal liturgical style or adapt to a more evangelical theology. Given that many churches call pastors from a variety of denominational backgrounds over the years, it is no wonder that some will eventually become a melting pot of various denominational backgrounds or change their characteristics with the ebb and flow of pastors and lay leadership.

      Thus, while ICs are frequently characterized as being multidenominational and multinational, a particular church may reflect a North American way of doing things under the influence of leadership from that region. Years later, however, one could be excused for thinking its background is British or Australian as others come in and bring with them their practices and understandings of what a church might be.

For the purposes of this book, we will include under the title “international congregations” those churches in, primarily but not limited to, non-English speaking countries which serve third-culture people (i.e. primarily expats as well as locals with international experience). These churches are largely characterized as being multinational and multi-denominational individual supporting church.2

      So, why write a history of a movement that, while global, is little known in the home countries of those who make up their constituencies?

      First, this history is important because the international congregations reflect a long trajectory of ministry which has had a global impact, even when known only to a few.

      Second, as will be illustrated, these churches have roots in not only ecclesiastical settings, but in the political, cultural and religious nature of English-language cultures going back for over four centuries. The establishment of British Anglican international churches goes hand in hand with the development of the British Empire which dates back to the late 1500s and expanded to the four corners of the earth. After all, the expression that the sun never sets on the British Empire denotes its global outreach and the spread of the gospel to those lands. In turn, the development of American global influence and expansion which began in the early 1800s was strongly tied to the planting of Union or American churches from Europe to Latin America, Asia, Africa and points in between. Finally, the onset of globalization in modern times coincided with the rise to prominence of the American evangelical churches and their expanded missionary outreach globally which included the planting of hundreds of new, English-language, expat churches.

      Third, as I have been blessed to serve a number of ICs around the world and to attend several international gatherings of pastors, I have noted that many pastors are unaware of the history of this style of ministry. Too often they do not know that they share their work with other similar churches in the very communities where they labor.

      Finally, as the baton is passed to a new generation of IC members and pastors, it is obvious that most are unaware of the length, width and depth of these ministries. As my generation retires and dies out this rich history will, I’m afraid, be lost, ignored and lose what it has to teach to those who labor in the expat field in the generations to come.

      Several years ago I vowed that I would never write another book. Not that writing is that difficult—it comes rather easily to me. It’s the publishing and distribution of books that is a difficult task (what I call a “royal pain” in my more private moments) and I really didn’t want to go through it again.

      Then, two events occurred almost simultaneously.

      The first was the privilege of helping two men much younger than I explore the possibility of serving an IC. One accepted a call to serve an international church in Central America, the other who was living in Hong Kong and doing seminary work online, responded to my suggestion that he look into ICs by asking for information. It was refreshing and fulfilling to know that a new generation is stepping forward to continue and move the ministry of international congregations into the future.

      The second was the opportunity to personally see the continued outreach of the three main streams of IC establishment while on a five week trip to Asia. On that journey my wife and I were able to visit buildings that once held vibrant Union Churches in cities throughout China and which now maintain a silent witness to those who served, worshipped and ministered there. In addition, we were privileged to worship in an historic English-language, Anglican church still serving one of Asia’s dynamic cities. And, we were able to also visit new, vibrant ICs ministering to today’s young expats in some of those same cities.

      As will be explained more fully in the next section, three streams of IC development mark the worldwide expansion of English-language expat churches.

      The first, the Scottish/British/Anglican stream, began over 400 years before this book was written, and has seen the planting of hundreds of English, Presbyterian and Anglican churches not only in British Commonwealth countries, but in numerous nations around the world.

      In Hong Kong, we worshipped in the historic St. Andrew Anglican Church, the oldest English-language church in the Kowloon district of the island. The church’s website СКАЧАТЬ