Reverse Missiology

Re: New York, Prime Conversion Ground

Brother Joel Magallan founded the Tepeyac Association, an outreach group named for a Mexican hill where a vision of the Virgin of Guadalupe was reported.

The article above is about immigrant Christians from Africa, Asia, and Latin America evangelizing New York City. It touched on the main theme of Philip Jenkins' The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity; as Christianity withers in the West, a new vital, orthodox, and conservative Christianity is sweeping the so-called Third World, and this renewed Christianity re-evangelizing the West.

The article ends with Presbyterians from Brazil and Catholics from Mexico. It begins with Pentecostals from West Africa, and then discusses Koreans:

"The other great ethnic church engine in New York City is the Korean population. Several hundred Korean churches dot the boroughs, and have become a major center of social services and cultural continuity, said Wontae Cha, a professor of ministry at New York Theological Seminary."

It also describes one of the fundamental problems of Korean Protestantism, at home and apparently abroad:

"Competition for Korean congregants can be fierce, he said. He sends church members out to distribute fliers in Korean markets in Queens and advertises in Korean-language newspapers. The flow in and out of the neighborhood keeps his congregation changing."

Here in Korea, the cities are dotted with the red neon crosses of Protestant churches. It is not uncommon to see two churches of the same denomination (where I live, usually Presbyterian), right next to each other. The pastors must act as businessmen, and are in constant competition not only with the secular world, but with each other.