Mission Round Table Vol. 12 No. 2 (May-Aug 2017): 26-30

Stuart Bullington

Dr. Stuart Bullington served as a missionary in East Asia for nearly eleven years, where he ministered among Christian returnees and evangelised young people preparing to study in Western countries. He and his wife Beth now serve with OMF’s Chinese Diaspora Returnee Ministries field in Sheffield, UK.

East Asians who convert to the Christian faith while living abroad face a unique challenge—after returning home they will need to live as Christians in a context that is very different from the one in which they came to faith. Not only will the home context be different, it will be many times more difficult.

In the early decades (1950s–80s) of international student ministry in the West, this reality was often ignored. The emphasis was on welcoming and extending hospitality to foreign students, with little thought given to the future prospects for those who came to faith in Christ.

Since the 1990s, however, as communications and ease of travel have improved, the full measure of the challenges new converts face in the East has been seen more clearly. Anecdotal evidence gathered in the author’s interviews with international student workers in 2010 indicated that a mass defection was taking place among returnees in China every year: 75 to 85 percent of those who had attended Christian meetings as students in the West never met with Christians in China, and thus fell away from the faith. In Japan informed sources have indicated that the defection rate is even higher.

This article will focus on the thousands of East Asian young people, especially the Mainland Chinese, who study at the university level in Western countries (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Netherlands, etc.). It must be kept in mind, however, that the East Asian diaspora population is much larger, more widely distributed, and more diverse than this.[1]

Returnee challenges: A brief overview

Why is it that so many returnees are falling away? Why are we losing so many promising Chinese young people, for example, when they return to China? The change of context, already mentioned, is clearly the major factor. But we can be more specific than that. The following list provides a brief sketch of the kinds of challenges diaspora Chinese converts face upon their return.

Isolation, Identity, and Culture Shock[2]

Going home alone: From the moment a homeward-bound student boards the plane, all social support for his or her Christian faith is gone. The free dinners, outings, picnics, fun activities, and cross-cultural friendships that the student once enjoyed in Christian groups overseas have come to an end. Isolation immediately begins to take its toll.

For some students, there is a strong association between experiences in the West and the Christian faith and it can be hard to separate the two. This is especially true for those whose entire Christian experience has been in English. Having never discovered what it means to be a Chinese Christian, the students may unconsciously presume that leaving the West means leaving Christianity behind.

Adjusting once more to the traffic, noise, and crowded conditions of China may take some time. Some returnees now have concerns about food safety and the health effects of China’s air and water pollution, even if they never had these concerns before.

Re-entry (or reverse) culture shock begins to set in. This is usually unexpected, and can last from about six months to one year (or even longer). Returnees may struggle with feelings of not belonging and not fitting in. They may experience deep feelings of loss and “homesickness” for the host country. Since these feelings are not understood or appreciated by friends and relatives who have never left home, the returnees tend to withdraw and dream about going overseas again. Many find that their feelings are only understood by other returnees.

Family

For some, returning home means moving back in with parents and other family members. Every movement is under parental scrutiny. The freedom, privacy, independence, and personal space that students enjoyed overseas are gone.

Traditional Chinese families that practice ancestor worship or temple rituals will often expect or demand that their children participate. For new believers who are not prepared to negotiate their way through this conflict, the pressure can be intense and the result is often capitulation.

Female students, especially, may face pressure from their parents to marry non-Christians after they return. This can be very difficult to resist, especially when there are no eligible Christian men. Marrying a non-Christian, however, will make it difficult, if not impossible, to practice the Christian faith.

Work

Finding a job is usually not as easy as returnees expect. They often discover that there is intense competition for any job opening. This may predispose them to accept the first job that is offered. If they succeed in finding a job, they may immediately be faced with crushing and brutally long hours at work on top of a long commute. Chronic exhaustion can become a way of life.

The Chinese workplace often leads Christians into moral and ethical compromise. Cheating, lying to customers, bribery, corruption, kickbacks, tax evasion, false accounting, and alcohol abuse are often the norm. Employees may get fired because of failure to go along with these practices.

Financial pressures to buy a house, or to repay relatives for financing their overseas education, may drive returnees to seek the highest-paying positions, regardless of the personal consequences or cost to their spiritual lives.

Church

When returnees try to get involved in Chinese churches, they often discover that it is not easy. For those who do not live in the large cities or prefer not to join the registered Three-Self Church it may be difficult to locate a house church, since many are not registered and meet in undisclosed locations. Members of these churches have learned to be cautious after years of persecution, and newcomers may feel that they are not very welcoming. Returnees who attend house churches may also notice an often huge gap in age, education, and social status between themselves and the church members, which can make it hard for them to make friends or feel that they belong.

They often search for a church just like the one they attended while overseas, but of course it is impossible to find—there is no church like that in China. And so, after visiting two or three churches, they just give up.

Returnees may also be concerned about the possibility of trouble with the authorities or career repercussions from attending Christian gatherings.

In cities where returnee fellowships exist, newly arrived returnees will often find a warm welcome. But these groups can be hard to find and many returnees do not even know they exist.

Given all of the challenges they face, there is little chance that Christian returnees will make it on their own. Their only chance of surviving as practicing Christians is to join a close-knit faith community which, as we have just noted, presents its own set of challenges.

Reducing the numbers of those who fall away

Is there anything that we can do in Western host countries to reduce the defection rate among returnees? The options for intervention fall into two general areas:

1. Pre-return preparation
2. Post-return connection to churches and returnee fellowships in East Asia

In this article we will focus on the first area—doing a better job of preparing new converts for their return. We will take it as a working hypothesis that pre-return preparation can be effective in reducing the rate of returnee defection.

But what, in practice, does pre-return preparation consist of? Or, given the fact that many diaspora field workers are already involved in some form of Bible study and discipleship training with East Asian students, perhaps we can ask the question in a different way: “What kind of discipleship training can we give students to make it less likely that they will fall away as returnees?”

We offer the following five suggestions as to how this might be done:

1. Turn believers into doers

The New Testament depicts a true disciple of Jesus as a doer, one who abides in his word and translates faith into action (John 8:31). Disciples are believers, to be sure, but a fully biblical response to Christ does not end with belief, as all too many have defined it, that is, a mental assent to certain doctrines. Instead, in the biblical disciple’s life there is a seamless and natural expression of faith in ways that other people can see and experience: good behaviour, good works, right living, actions that put the fruit of the Spirit on display before a watching world.

The New Testament always assumes that there will be this kind of harmonious integration between the disciple’s inward faith and outward action, a consistency between the inner life and the public persona.

In John 13, after washing the disciples’ feet and commanding them to follow his example, Jesus tells them, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17). Tellingly, the blessing comes, not in the knowing, but in the doing. It is only the true disciple, the practitioner, who discovers the blessing that lies, dormant but waiting, in the word of God.

James 1:22–25 is another passage that addresses the question of this integration of faith and action directly.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. (NIV)

James sees any attempt to separate believing from doing as an aberration that requires correction! Listening to God’s word should naturally lead to doing what it says, and those who do this will “be blessed in what they do.” Apparently James apprehended, even among the earliest Christians, a tendency to substitute mental assent for wholehearted obedience.

The New Testament also includes doing as a critical factor in the disciple’s witness to the world. Matthew 5:16 is an example of this.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (NIV)

Believing flows naturally into doing, and those who witness the good deeds that result will experience God’s goodness in a way that leads to praise.

There is nothing in these verses that should lead anyone to question the clear teaching of Scripture on justification by faith alone. However, as Martin Luther said, “Good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works.” We are right to expect that the inward transformation of a disciple of Christ will be expressed in outward action, in behaviour, and in good deeds.

In the practice of diaspora ministry, then, it follows that we need to communicate and demonstrate that Christians are people who take action and do not just talk. Discipleship is not just a “mind game”, an empty intellectual pursuit. It is instead a purposeful quest for transformation—in the individual, in the family, and in society. The study of the Bible should bring about tangible changes in all areas of life.

It is important for those who disciple East Asian students to think of disciples as apprentices, those who are learning practical skills on the job by imitating a more experienced journeyman. In 1 Corinthians 11:1 Paul wrote, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” Again, the emphasis in Scripture is on a life on display, actions that can be seen and imitated. If East Asians become practitioners of God’s word while overseas, they will be better prepared to practice it in Asia.

Of course we cannot work with God to “turn believers into doers” until we first have believers! Faith always comes first. We hope that our disciples will have a clear and biblical understanding of the good news about Jesus and a genuine faith that emerges from this understanding. To this end, we never tire of proclaiming the good news accurately from the Scriptures in ways that make sense to East Asians. And we would do well to make sure that our disciples can explain the good news clearly to others before they return home.

But if we proclaim the good news to East Asians only verbally and not through action, we unwittingly encourage a “mental assent” view of faith. Our disciples may, with some justification, conclude that Christianity is mainly about words and ideas, rather than life transformation, and that these words and ideas may safely be discussed in private, without any impact or crossover into the public sphere. Is this the kind of Christianity that we want our disciples to take back to East Asia?

2. Contextualise

Contextualisation, if it is defined clearly and biblically,[3] can often be a helpful conceptual tool in cross-cultural mission. But in ministry to East Asians in the diaspora it is important that we do not limit our thinking about this to macrocultures (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc.). To be as practical and helpful as possible, contextualisation should also be more granular, that is, more individualised and specific. This will involve delving into the microcultures and social groups to which our disciples will belong after they return home. One way of pursuing this is by sensitively asking our disciples about their home contexts so that we can educate ourselves about them.

It may help us to think of “contexts” sociologically, in terms of the specific social situations the disciple will face. We have shown that a disciple is a doer, one who translates faith into action. This action will inevitably take place, however, in a social context—not in an abstract communication space such as “culture” or “worldview”, not just in the realm of ideas or values, but in concrete social situations that make up the relational fabric of daily life: school, work, family, church.

These are the settings into which the disciple will bring the biblical message incarnationally, that is, physically—by means of his or her distinctive lifestyle, behaviour, and good works that display biblical values and mediate the biblical message.

In the practice of diaspora ministry, then, we need to somehow prepare our disciples for the challenges that these future East Asian social contexts will present, while, at the same time, helping them to see the wonderful opportunities they will have to be witnesses for Christ.

Here are some general suggestions for the practice of contextualised discipleship among East Asians in the diaspora.

• From the moment we first meet an international student, we need to keep the end in mind. How is what we are teaching and modeling preparing this student for returning to East Asia?
• While teaching the Bible we need to emphasise practical application, both for current as well as future contexts. This should be done, however, with a high degree of cultural understanding, as appropriate applications may vary depending on the cultural and social contexts. An ongoing dialogue with East Asian disciples is recommended. How would they, as cultural insiders, appropriately express the values being taught in Scripture within their family setting back home? In the workplace? In the church? We do not want to be overly prescriptive, but rather help our disciples to develop skills in applying Scripture in daily life, wherever they may be.
• Since much of this is anticipatory, however, it may feel a bit unreal. How can we prepare our disciples for contexts that we ourselves have never seen or experienced, that we can learn about only through the person we are discipling? The difficulty is compounded by the fact that the new converts will, in many cases, not return to exactly the same contexts from which they came. Perhaps the best resource, supplementing the information provided by our disciple, is the experience of other Christian returnees. Case studies, constructed from returnee stories gathered in the home country, may be used to illustrate the kinds of conflicts that Christians are running into when they return. When studied together with relevant Bible passages, the disciple can begin to work out how he or she will respond if faced with a similar situation.

3. Encourage participation in Christian communities

The best discipling takes place in a community—a small group, a fellowship group, a church. In the community of faith new converts find multiple role models, gain from exposure to the full panoply of personalities and gifts, and learn by observing and communicating with Christians in all ages and stages of life. Here new converts can begin to serve, eventually learning to lead in various aspects of community life. By affiliating with and then belonging to a community, a new personal identity begins to form, derived from the identity of the group. Over time the convert begins to self-identify openly as a Christian in contexts beyond the community, hesitantly at first, but then with greater confidence as relationships within the community grow deeper.

What kind of Christian community, then, prepares new converts best for their return to East Asia? Here are some identifiable characteristics:

Ideally, East Asian students need a community that:

• Invites them into a hands-on, immersive experience of the living church, the body of Christ.
• Teaches directly from the Bible and applies biblical teachings to all areas of life.
• Provides opportunities for new converts to serve and to lead.
• Helps new converts to learn how to read the Bible, pray, worship, and share their faith in their own native language.
• Helps the person develop a Chinese, Japanese, or Thai, etc., Christian identity, so that they will not view Christianity as exclusively Western. We aim to produce indigenous Christians who will take Christ home without taking the West along with him!
• Provides instruction and guidance on how Christians should respond to the challenging aspects of East Asian cultures: ancestor worship, idolatry, organised or folk religious practices, obedience to non-Christian parents, pursuit of wealth and status, face, corrupt business practices, marriage to non-Christians, etc.
• Maintains relational ties to churches in East Asia and can introduce converts to people in these churches when they return.
• Can help new converts appreciate the history and culture of the indigenous churches back home, so that they will understand why they are different from churches in the host country. It is also essential to help new converts learn how to recognize and avoid cults.

4. Build skills in spiritual self-care and in cultivating the spiritual life

What are the essential things that disciples must understand, believe, and do to survive and thrive? These are the things we need to model and teach. This “curriculum” (for lack of a better word!) will include universal elements that apply in every culture, as well as contextual elements that will equip the disciple to make good choices when confronted by the specific temptations and trials likely to be encountered in East Asia.

As a general rule, it will be helpful to emphasise core biblical values and life skills rather than prescriptive solutions for every problem, so that the disciple may retain the utmost flexibility in finding the best way to apply Scripture in any context.

We suggest that the eight topics in the list below be included in a curriculum on the spiritual life. The order of topics does not imply any hierarchy, as all need to be covered. Each topic will need to be unpacked from the Bible and illustrated by practical examples and applications set in an East Asian context. The idea of making this selection is simply to give each new convert a basic spiritual survival pack, containing the most essential ingredients to sustain their spiritual life.

1. The Lordship of Christ
2. The Word
3. Bible reading
4. Scripture memory
5. Inductive Bible study methods
6. Learn how to identify God’s values in a Bible passage and how to live out these values in daily life
7. Prayer
8. Spiritual Warfare
9. The necessity of participating in church and Christian fellowship
10. Witnessing and mission
11. Marriage and family life
12. Workplace issues

Someone may protest that this is a lot to cover, and, given the short interval between the typical student’s conversion and departure for home, there is simply not enough time to teach it all. In response, we might suggest that it is better to be broad than deep. An overview of the most basic biblical teaching in each area could be done in a single weekend, and it would at least alert the student to the fact that the Bible has much to say in these areas that they may want to explore in depth in the future.

5. For those who are open to further training, try to extend their stay in the host country

Many East Asian disciples have to return home before they are ready to stand on their own two feet as Christian disciples. It is often painful to see them go, knowing what lies in wait for them on the other side.

In many cases, however, this situation can be avoided by extending their stay in the host country. Students may apply to a Bible school for additional Bible training. They may enter a training or internship program in a church, or serve with an urban mission. In the UK, Friends International offers a training programme—The Reach Programme—for committed Christians in international student ministry. There may also be opportunities to serve in cross-cultural missions in other countries. Whenever it appears that our disciples could benefit from an extended stay, we should work with them to explore all of the possibilities.

Conclusion

Perhaps, as we conclude, we can take a moment to answer a common objection to pre-return preparation. We could state it in the form of an extended question: “If these East Asian students are really saved, then how can they fall away? Isn’t God able to help them persevere in their faith?”

The implication is that any human effort (such as pre-return preparation) will ultimately have little effect on whether students actually persevere after returning home. The underlying theological question is a serious one that needs to be addressed. While we cannot even begin here to explain how God’s sovereignty and human responsibility work together, we can nevertheless offer a few thoughts in defence of pre-return preparation:

• The question essentially ignores God’s use of means. Yes, God will help them to persevere in their faith, and he may decide to use pre-return preparation to do it.
• The question suggests, a bit unfairly, that pre-return preparation is motivated by a lack of trust in God’s ability to take care of his own. On the contrary, it is God’s love for the returning students that compels us to help them!
• The question subtly implies that Christians cannot and should not be involved in helping other Christians to persevere. Is this really what the Bible teaches? Augustine is credited with saying, “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.” Yes, we can agree that everything depends on God, yet he still has work for us to do.

1 The reader may find it helpful to survey the ethnic diversity and geographic distribution of the East Asian diaspora by exploring the links within the following Wikipedia webpage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:East_Asian_diaspora (accessed 15 August 2017).

2 The segment here and the subsequent three segments on Family, Work, and Church, are taken, with some modification, from the author’s published article at http://www.chinasource.org/resource-library/articles/the-need-for-chinese-students-to-prepare-for-their-return (accessed 15 August 2017).

3 Of course the idea of contextualisation is not taught explicitly in the Bible, but it can be argued that there are many passages that lay a foundation for its later development as a missiological principle. As we minister to East Asians, we especially want to avoid any approach to contextualisation that involves changing the biblical message to make it more pleasing to the hearers, thus creating another gospel! True biblical contextualisation is faithful to the biblical message, changing only the presentation, not the content, so as to allow this message to be heard clearly and without confusion in the recipient culture.

Resources for Returnee Ministry

https://omf.org/asia/diaspora/resources-for-returnee-ministry/

Mission Round Table Vol. 12 No. 2 (May-Aug 2017): 20-25

Carolyn Kemp

Carolyn joined OMF International in 1993 and was a church planter for several years in Manila’s slums before joining the Diaspora Returnee Ministries (DRM) Field where she has been serving for fourteen years, the last seven years as DRM Field Director. Working in thirteen countries, DRM focuses on contextualised, intentional in-depth discipling, training, and coaching of East Asian academics, business people, and migrant workers living outside their home country. Carolyn is a member of NextMove, a global collaboration group working across mission agencies facilitated by Frontier Ventures. Carolyn leads the Returnee Team, a global think-tank of returnee ministry.

Introduction

Never has the need for intentional partnerships been more important than now. The challenge that confronts the local church, ethnic churches, and parachurch organizations in a host country with a view to discipling diaspora communities is immense. Whether they know it or not they need each other more than ever.

I’m constantly confronted with the challenge of discipleship across these contexts. The need for contextualized discipleship that is multi-dimensional and influences diaspora communities is critical. Even so, there are very few good examples at the grassroots level. We need complementary, not conflicting, models of partnership that express cooperation and trust. The urgency to address this issue can’t be underestimated.

Globally, there is a definite awakening to the potential of reaching the world’s seething number of migrants. Migration and diaspora have become missional buzzwords. This is not surprising when

More than 247 million people, or 3.4 percent of the world population, live outside their countries of birth. Although the number of international migrants rose from 175 million in 2000 to more than 247 million in 2013 and will surpass 251 million in 2015, the share of migrants has remained just above three percent (of world population) for the last fifteen years.[1]

More than 20% of all international students globally are Mainland Chinese and this is increasing all the time. According to a 2016 report by the Chinese Ministry of Education, 523,700 Chinese students went abroad to study in 2015 and about 70 to 80 percent of the students abroad have returned to China in recent years.[2] The graph (below) from the report shows the figures from 2010 to 2015.

Number of Chinese outbound students and returnees, 2010-2015. Source: Chinese Ministry of Education²

This presents a unique and God-given opportunity as people who live overseas express a greater openness to exploring issues of faith. Being away from their home culture removes social constraints and peer pressure so that they have greater freedom to seek God, trust Christ, and learn to live with the leading of the Spirit.

However, of those who consider or respond to the claims of Christ while overseas only 20% or fewer continue to follow the Lord after returning home. When we think of the opportunity presented to us through diaspora ministry, this statistic is frankly appalling. If 80% of Boeing aircraft crashed, there would be an immediate investigation. Aircraft would be grounded until Boeing got to the bottom of the problem and corrected it. Similarly, until we address the issues surrounding this fall-out rate we will lose one of the most profound mission opportunities of modern times.

One key factor is a lack of contextualized discipleship designed to prepare returnees to stand firm as Christians back home. That preparation must start in the host culture and for that to take place a multidimensional relational discipleship model needs to be adopted which includes input from the host church, the ethnic church, and parachurch organizations. This paper seeks to present such a model.

This model aims to work backwards, starting with the context of the home culture to which overseas students, businessmen/women, and migrant workers will return. However, since many of them live in and travel to different places—for example, two years in the UK then on to the USA for another few years—before returning home, we are talking of the need for a global mobile movement to equip them to become not only disciples of Christ but also cross-cultural ministers of the gospel who share Christ wherever they go.

Defining terms

Before we continue, I will clarify some of the key terms used in this paper. The term “returnee” refers to those who, having been abroad for a number of months or years, “return” to their home country. They may be students, migrant workers, or people involved in business. The key factor is that they will at some point return to their own culture and country, whether this takes a few months or a number of years. It is important, therefore, when we come alongside someone who will return that we intentionally nurture and disciple them from the first meeting with this in mind. While contextualized evangelism is just as important as contextualized discipleship, this paper will concentrate on contextualized discipleship.

When I write about “contextualization” I mean being culturally sensitive and appropriate to the context, history, values, language, and forms of expression of one’s home culture. It’s about seeing all the dimensions of the gospel impacting and relating to all the dimensions of a culture. It’s about sensitively taking all aspects of culture and worldview into consideration when relating the gospel story in order to communicate effectively and make Christ understood. It’s about seeing the gospel within a culture and worldview inform, challenge, and direct it.

When I use the term “discipleship” I am not talking about a program but about intentionally journeying with someone so that Christ becomes preeminent in life and ministry, impacting decisions, choices, focus, and worldview. It is not just about Bible study, although that is critically important, but it’s about the choices and decisions made, and the way time and talents are used. It’s about bringing Christ into the moments and completely trusting in his sovereignty and rule. It’s about submission to the lordship of Christ. This can only be modelled as we live our lives before men, openly and with transparency. Discipleship is a life-long journey.

When I talk about “multi-dimensional relationships” I mean that we need to acknowledge that it takes many people to help forge another individual. Each of us is engaged in many relationships that impact us. I talk to some of my friends about family, to others about my ministry, and to yet others about church. There is a smaller group with whom I walk through issues of a more personal nature. There are very few people that I talk to about all areas of life. Every day I am influenced and shaped by many different people who help me enter their experiences and understandings of a wide variety of issues. A healthy disciple needs to be exposed to various kinds of people who bring a richness to the discipleship process and journey that should be embraced.

The interaction between the host church, ethnic church, and parachurch coming together to disciple returnees puts the emphasis on the individual being discipled, and displays a kingdom perspective in which the global church has a role to play. This multi-dimensional discipleship allows each entity—host church, ethnic church, and parachurch—to work to their strengths to impact the life of an individual so that the disciple can be stronger than he or she would be otherwise.

As we will see below, when we bring all those definitions together and think about multi-dimensional discipleship for a student or migrant worker, we are talking about the focus being on the breadth of relationships impacting the life of the disciple so that the discipleship itself can be more effective.

The following scenarios help cement the definitions:

The Indonesian migrant worker in Taiwan who is being reached and nurtured by an OMF worker (a member of a parachurch organization providing contextual discipleship), and is working for a Taiwanese Christian employer (who attends a host church), and meets members of a local Indonesian (ethnic) church has a multi-dimensional discipleship experience. Everyone involved—the OMF worker, the employer, and the ethnic church members—will bring a unique (while biblical) perspective and breadth to the discipleship of this worker.

The Chinese student in the UK who is attending an “introductory Bible study on the Christian faith” run by a parachurch organization, and having one-on-one discussions with an OMF worker in his native language (a member of parachurch organization providing contextualised discipleship), while attending the global café run by the host church which provides a broader experience of Christian community, and the local Chinese (ethnic) church giving cultural context is also experiencing multi-dimensional discipleship. Each one provides input and plays a critical role in nurturing this student in the faith—the primary focus being equipping the student for future ministry wherever he may go with the aim that he will be able to effectively live as a Christian when he returns to his home country.

The Chinese businessman in Kenya who joins a Bible study group with other Chinese (run by the parachurch organization OMF), and attends an international service run by the local Kenyan church with the help of an OMF member (bringing a host church and parachurch organization together), while also attending the local Chinese (ethnic) church learns through these multi-dimensional discipleship encounters.

Each of these relationships help enrich the faith journey of these new Christians from different perspectives. Each may emphasise different aspects of what it means to follow Jesus in situations relevant to their own cultural backgrounds. But when put together there is a depth in the discipleship in which the new Christian learns about unity in diversity, allowing him or her to grow and develop a broader kingdom perspective and worldview.

The Context

In the following section we will consider some of the issues which must inform how we disciple returnees while they are still in a host context. By way of example we will look at the challenges faced by two groups of returnees—Japanese and Mainland Chinese—although returnees of many other nationalities also face the same issues.

Case study 1: Japanese returnees and the context they face

Japanese returnees who come to Christ overseas face numerous challenges. Though there are more, we will identify and explore two key areas: culture and church.

Culture: Anyone who leaves his or her own culture for any length of time adapts in many ways to the new culture. They take on new mannerisms, changing to blend in and achieve a degree of integration. Adaptation comes first in areas which least impact one’s value systems. Deeper levels of culture may change more slowly but will cause greater disruption when the person returns home. For instance, since Japanese society is hierarchical—based on Confucian teaching—older people should always be treated with respect. And though most societies show respect for the elderly, how this is expressed varies. For Japanese, this includes never addressing older people by their first names. Similarly, Japan is a group-oriented society that places a high value on preserving the harmony of the group. It’s important to “read between the lines” and say things that do not disrupt harmony. Returnees who have adjusted to living in a culture that greatly values individualistic behavior, direct speech, and an openness to express personal feelings and ideas may find relearning Japanese cultural norms to be extremely frustrating if not impossible. In some cases, returnees may feel that people at home are less warm simply because they are more reserved and a longer time is needed to build relationships of trust and friendship in Japan. Though these things may appear small and, due to the subtleties of culture, go unnoticed, they can also reveal a bigger problem of what is known as reverse culture shock. When people return to their own culture, expecting that nothing has changed, they may face a larger shock to discover that they have adapted to a host culture all too well and just don’t fit in at home anymore.

Church: The church in any society is a sub-culture of the whole. In churches where no one has lived abroad, there is very little understanding of a returnee’s experience. At the very least there is a cautiousness to what is unknown.

A Japanese OMF colleague recently shared what returnees generally experience:

The local church member welcomes returnees by treating them as they would anyone else, cautiously, with this message: “Forget what you experienced in the West. Concentrate on what you have in front of you.” Returnees feel rejected, and although they may have things they want to share, the sharing is unwelcome. While overseas the returnee had been welcomed into a church with often-targeted enthusiasm, taken on outings, put onto a “host” scheme, and was set apart from the beginning. Yet at home in the local church they seem almost invisible.

Another area of tension is that pastors in Japan prepare baptismal candidates in great depth so they will be able to stand firm in a secular world in which 99 percent of the people claim to be Buddhist and Shintoist. Pastors find it hard to accept the seemingly poor level of preparation the returnees had while abroad. It is the returnee who feels the full impact of such insightful judgments by Japanese pastors, which unfortunately, are often quite correct. Some churches distinguish markedly between church members and non-members. Returnees are initially considered as non-members, thus accentuating their feelings of isolation at church. If they had been nurtured in English overseas, it is difficult for them to go on to read the Bible and pray in Japanese, let alone understand Japanese Christian jargon, something which increases the sense of isolation and difference.

Even returnees from Japanese churches abroad have a hard time trying to settle into local churches in Japan as they are required to show loyalty to church and to the denomination in equal measure. They often wonder where loyalty to God really lies. In Japanese churches overseas, returnees are encouraged to help in church life soon after baptism, because the churches are small and relationships are closer. In Japan, they are expected to watch and learn for a while—at least a year—and then are slowly given tasks. Japanese face reverse culture shock in general.

Case study 2: Chinese returnees and the context they face

Sometimes we find that our new Chinese friend had become a Christian in China. However, more often than not, their every relationship—whether with family members, friends, or co-workers—is with non-Christians. While overseas, Chinese students are attracted to Christian groups because of their need for community. When they return home, it works in the opposite direction as they are flung back into a network of relationships which may now entail conflicts due to changed values arising from their Christian faith. This increases stress and isolation. The cross-cultural friendships that they enjoyed in Christian groups overseas are all gone. All of the available social activities are now hosted by non-Christians. Adjustments need to be made at every turn: living with parents and other family members again, losing privacy and independence, discovering how much everything changed while they were away, and experiencing deep feelings of not belonging and not fitting in. Finding and keeping jobs, joining the fast-paced world of work, and climbing the corporate ladder can be all consuming and overwhelming.

It is within this backdrop that returnees have to make many major, life-changing decisions in the first year after returning. These range from finding a job where one’s relational networks are diminished and competition is brutal to getting married—frequently facing great pressure to marry a non-Christian. Then there is the decision to identify oneself as a Christian or not! These may be compounded by questions and doubts about the faith and other issues. Was that just part of the overseas experience? Where is there a church anyway? Those who find a church and seek to grow as a Christian often face long work hours, not to mention a long commute. Opposition from people holding other beliefs and value systems is encountered in the workplace as well as the family. Since their personal values have changed with their new-found faith and through their overseas experiences, it is no longer possible to agree with the old way of doing things.

What could make a difference to returnees who are facing such pressures? What could change the experience of Chinese returnees looking for jobs? What could change the experience of the local church in Japan when a returnee joins their fellowship? What difference would a multi-dimensional model of discipleship make with the above case studies in mind?

The role of the host and ethnic (Japanese and Chinese) churches in the host country and the parachurch organization

Example 1: Reaching out and welcoming in

There can be no doubt that the host church is making a huge impact on reaching out to international students and workers. It is often the place where they go either to learn the language of the host country or observe culture. Many churches have an excellent “welcoming ministry”. However, in their exuberance to reach out and make international visitors feel welcomed and wanted, many churches have inadvertently started them on a journey which one day will alienate them from their own people and church when they return home.

Although the host church may have shared with the diaspora visitor how Christian community can function, it has only shared part of what life in community is, not the whole diverse story. This is because community includes the daily serving of others, which is often a role in the shadows. There also comes a point in church life when one moves from being a “visitor” (who is treated as such) to someone who is part of the community, and then moves into a relationship in which they become like the host who considers the needs of others and serves them.

An ethnic Japanese or Chinese church might have much to teach new Japanese or Chinese Christians about how these transitions take place within their culture. The Japanese church in the host culture, although different from the Japanese church in Japan, is at the very least one step closer to what they will return to. The subtleties and nuances of culture and communication within the Christian context is a necessary learning curve for the returnee. Things such as Christian terminology and the nature and expression of service are not easily learnt in a host church. In the long term, the returnee’s transition home will be greatly aided by being effective and fully grown in the things of Christ in their home language and cultural context.

As one colleague shared,

Whether consciously or unconsciously, it’s not uncommon for returnees to exhibit a superiority complex. After all, not everyone has had the opportunity to study abroad or get an advanced degree, and not everyone has gone through such hardship in the process. Even if you don’t really know a lot, at least you’ve been to a foreign country and you’ve seen and experienced more than others. Thus, you gain a special identity on returning to your own country, hometown, or church. Yet without a “humble attitude”, it will be very difficult to identify with others or be accepted by them.

Surely there is a special role here for the ethnic church. There is a way of being which is often overlooked by the host church, a posture which is culturally embedded. Humility can be felt as much as it can be seen.

People with cross-cultural experience who work with parachurch organizations can act as a bridge between the host and ethnic churches, serving both as a conduit of communication and trust. We should not minimize the critical role of bridge building—it is a requirement in our multicultural communities.

I will say more about the role of the parachurch organization below.

Example 2: Discipleship issues

One issue which always comes up in my conversations with church leaders in Asia is baptism. This should not be treated as one-size-fits-all concept in view of the fact that baptism needs to reflect the symbolism of dying to the old life and putting on the new. As many local churches in the West know little of the context of an “old life” (which includes the unspoken beliefs and values of a culture), there are limitations to how fully they can disciple regarding the issues concerned or prepare new believers so that they can live the “new life” in their home settings.

Discipleship needs to take place in a context. There are broad brushstrokes which the local church in a host country is fully capable of making when discipling diaspora communities. For example, the foundations of the faith are universal and part of the reality of being members of the body of Christ is experiencing diversity. I am convinced that God’s purpose in taking people “overseas” from their home country is to expose them to a diversity of experiences as part of the process of knowing him. This is highlighted very clearly in Paul’s sermon at the Aeropagus. “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:26–27).

However, what does the Western church in general know about ancestor worship or the complex responsibilities of the oldest son? How can we best help a new believer from overseas see this through Christian eyes? How can we help them to develop a biblical perspective and worldview that will enable them to be both members of their home culture and faithful Christians? What about the complex issues of harmony and respect for elders? How can the Western church help a new believer from Asia wrestle with such issues from a Christian perspective when it plays a diminished role in our own culture? How can the Western church address the issues of the spirit world and animism when it rarely acknowledges the spirit world in Scripture? As new believers prepare to return to their home countries, how do we help them wrestle with these complex issues?

Western discipleship methodology is often far too prescriptive and often relevant only to our limited context. In many cases, little thought has been put into the day-to-day lives of those we disciple even in our own context. Do we disciple people on issues pertaining to the workplace and the marketplace? How does the church equip people to live out their faith in a non-Christian family? Do we consider the context of those we disciple regardless of background? Do we ask what they need to live fruitful lives for Christ in their home, society, family, and workplace? If such questions are important for people from our own culture, they are even more critical for those living and working in a very different context from our own.

Ethnic churches in the host country are more likely to have thought through issues of baptism and discipleship for their own diaspora community (although not always with the view of candidates returning “home” in the near future). They know what to look out for and the subtleties of expression needed to guide new disciples into areas of freedom from the past and to prepare them for the future. Returnees need to see how Christ is expressed within their own culture, how being a follower of Jesus is modelled and lived out on a daily basis, and how their own cultural community expresses Christian community. This in no way diminishes the role of the discipler who is not of the same cultural background in the discipling process. What it does say is that the more culturally relevant the discipler can be, the deeper the understanding and application will be for the disciple. We all learn in community. We learn about ourselves and about others. We learn more about the different aspects of the character of God in community. The ethnic church can bring new believers a step closer to contextualized community living by helping them engage with issues of importance to their culture so that they can take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

What can be done? A kingdom building partnership

Many other issues make life for the returnee both challenging and exciting. But when the host church, ethnic church, and parachurch organization work together, they can make a greater difference than if they work separately! The kingdom perspective does not say “this returnee belongs to this church (or this organization), therefore …” but “what does this returnee/new Christian need to live for Christ and serve him wherever he or she goes?”

While host churches might not know what specific questions to ask in relation to the old life and how to prepare for specific aspects of the new life for the returnee getting ready to go home, they can and do play a significant role in welcoming and discipling diaspora believers in the foundations of the faith. In this way host churches are conduits of real grace and unconditional friendship. They are often less mono-cultural in their missiology, something which is greatly needed in our multicultural communities.

Diaspora Chinese or Japanese churches differ from their counterpart churches in the home country. The simple fact that a church is in a diaspora setting will effect changes which separate it from its cultural roots. Even so, it is closer to the culture of an international student or worker than is a host church. They therefore provide a bridge between host and home cultures and provide a good place for new Christians to learn the subtleties of how to express their faith appropriately in their own cultural context.

Since parachurch organizations exist to serve, they can often take a less “territorial” view where church is concerned. Looking in from the periphery, they can embrace both the host and ethnic church perspectives and act as a bridge between the host and ethnic churches. In so doing they can facilitate trust and respect between each group as they function in the life of the diaspora communities. Parachurch organizations can facilitate an objective coming together, a platform for communication, discussion, and true, valued partnerships. Often host churches need objectivity when it comes to cross-cultural contextualization. At such times, a parachurch organization with much experience serving a particular community (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Indonesian, etc.) can potentially bring that objectivity to bear. They can also train and equip host churches in specific aspects of a culture so that their communication will be culturally appropriate and understandable. They will also come with specific cultural understanding regarding church, family, and the spirit world of the culture in question.

Working together, the host churches, ethnic churches, and parachurch organizations can nurture and disciple diaspora believers so they can grow as members of the Christian community. The question should not be which church or group they belong to but how we can disciple them so they do not become cultural misfits. Our goal should be to see them living and working in whatever arena God has called them to, be it their own communities or another where they bring transformation through a powerful demonstration of the Spirit of God seen through contextualized theology and methodology which impacts society.

With this in mind, we need to see a greater commitment by all three parties—the host church, ethnic church, and parachurch—to come together. Effective partnerships take time and patience; often any initiative takes longer as more discussion is needed to bring everyone to the same place. Though we are often rushing to accomplish something, and partnering across cultures takes time, patience, and trust, we should continue to work together because the potential for rich rewards are great.

Could we see prayer groups coming together with members from the host church, ethnic church, and parachurch in cities where significant diaspora work is taking place—praying for the needs of the diaspora we are all working with? Could we also see multicultural forums held between these groups where discussions can build on the part we are all playing in the discipling of the internationals God has brought to us in our cities?

Could we invite representatives of the host church and ethnic church to events we run for those we disciple to build trust and kingdom perspective? Could we invite ethnic churches to join the host churches in outings they organize? If ethnic churches have special teaching weekends could they extend a welcome to host churches to send some representatives to join them, providing translation if needed? Could we see the special awareness training run by a parachurch organization—like OMF and the OMF Diaspora Returnee Ministries (DRM) Field—bring together host and ethnic churches?

I would like to close with two examples of host churches, ethnic churches, and parachurch organizations working together.

The first is a Chinese Returnee Retreat run by the OMF DRM in the UK and the USA for Chinese who will return home within the following year. Each retreat includes a small group of no more than twenty-five returnees. When we plan these events we invite members from the Chinese church and Chinese parachurch organizations in the host country, members of another parachurch organization, and representatives from host churches. Together we create a context in which we can all learn from each other and have effective and contextualized input into the lives of the returnees.

The second thing that OMF DRM engages in is cross-cultural training in all our centers. This includes participation from the host and ethnic local churches and parachurch organizations.

We all know that there are more opportunities than we can cope with, as everyone is busy, churches have full programs, and the time we can spend with any one person is limited as demands on our time stretch us. For this reason, having a kingdom approach is critical. If we make efforts to help any student or contact gain access to other churches and groups then the input they will receive will be greater. If they can gain exposure to biblical teaching, mission training, and Christian community, does it really matter if this crosses the ministry lines of several groups or churches in one city? Surely the focus should be to encourage diaspora believers to engage with the wider community as much as they can while still overseas and experience more deeply what it means to live in community as a member of the body of Christ. There is no room for anyone saying only the Chinese can reach the Chinese, or only the Thai can reach the Thai. That is not kingdom theology or a biblical model of mission. We all need to come together as a family ordained by God to love one another and to reach out into our communities with the love of Christ in the power of his Spirit.

Conclusion

The need for multi-dimensional relational discipleship has never been more crucial. Only in relationships will the trust be built that is needed to work together with a kingdom perspective. The one-dimensional discipleship where the returnee only has the view of the host church, the ethnic church, or the parachurch increases the risk of returnees falling away from the faith. They need the much richer perspective that comes through multi-dimensional discipleship to help them learn across cultures and get nurtured from the perspectives of both the host and ethnic cultures. In this melting pot of cross-cultural experience and nurturing we can think missionally as we prepare returnees to go home.

[1] World Bank Group, “Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016,” 3rd ed., v, http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPROSPECTS/Resources/334934-1199807908806/4549025-1450455807487/Factbookpart1.pdf (accessed 16 May 2017).

[2] ICEF Monitor, “A Record Number of Chinese Students Abroad in 2015 but growth is slowing” (6 April 2016), http://monitor.icef.com/2016/04/a-record-number-of-chinese-students-abroad-in-2015-but-growth-is-slowing/ (accessed 16 May 2017).

Resources for Returnee Ministry

https://omf.org/asia/diaspora/resources-for-returnee-ministry/