Immigration and Missions – Biblical Models of Immigration as a Witness for Mission and Spirituality

This article is based on a paper I wrote for one of my courses at Fuller Theological Seminary. Please feel free to comment or suggest. God Bless.

Introduction

It has been eight years (10 now in 2010) since I left my home country of India and moved towards the west. I have spent three and a half years in Germany and four (six now) years in the United States as an immigrant. During the course of these journeys I have visited several immigrant churches in Germany, Singapore and United States and have ministered in a few of them and have witnessed their struggles, questions and issues that are of much significance to the central thesis of this paper. During my times in Germany, God opened doors for us to disciple a bunch of German professionals (one is now serving as a missionary in Papua New Guinnea and the rest are active in their churches in Germany), share the gospel with students and refugees from 33 countries over the span of three years in the living room of our home and minister to the German church. In the time I have spent so far in USA, God has opened similar doors to share the gospel among International students and an occassion to share God's word to the North American Church. This paper reflects much of the learnings I have had from these experiences as well.
The thesis of this paper is that, “Christian immigrants in North America represent the biblical model of immigration as a witness for mission and spirituality amidst rampant materialism and growing plurality of religions.”

The Bible is a dynamic narrative of people of God who are always ‘on the move’. The diagram shown in figure 1 captures the migrant strands across history reinforced against the backdrop of the grand salvific work of God. The movement begins with the ousting of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, followed shortly by the dispersion of Noah’s descendants that created several nations, and ends in the culmination of God’s mission in the New Jerusalem. Seen in isolation, immigration appears to have no big significance and when immigrant communities are unable to connect to God’s mission they remain ineffective and in most cases easily degenerate and get assimilated into the gentile culture surrounding them. When observed within the grand scheme of God’s plan of redemption, it becomes evident that God actively and intentionally uses immigrants to accomplish his mission of blessing many nations and winning them to himself. New Testament authors use two words paroikous(para – beside/along; oikos – house – outside of home) and parepidēmous (para – along; epi- around; demos-people)-while referring to immigrants of both Old and New Testament such as Abraham, Moses and scattered believers (Acts 7: 6, 29; I Peter 2:11). Both these words reflect the fact that immigrants are a community of people displaced from their familiar and welcoming homelands. It is this setting that God appears to have used mightily to shape many of His children towards accomplishing His purposes.

Several aspects of South Asian Immigrant Christians has been discussed by immigrant church scholars and pastors that address the struggles of these immigrant communities and churches (Cha, Kang et al. 2006) such as generational conflicts (George 2006), identity and church dynamics (Alexander 1997). However most of them appear to have approached them from a ecclesiastical dimension rather than a missional dimension. As important as these issues are, without an overarching understanding of how they fit into God’s plan, it is possible that immigrant churches can lose significance over time which is aptly captured by the decline and many times closing down of such immigrant churches within a generational timespan. Churches in the host nations have predominantly been concerned with justice and hospitality aspects of catering to the immigrant churches (Caroll 2008) and have never viewed them as potential partners whom God has brought within their spheres for missions and mutual edification.

Globalization has accelerated the movement of people across borders. One major ramification of this is the displacement of Christians particularly in the marketplace. Although the effects of globalization could be ‘grobalization’ (Ritzer 2004:121) at a sociological level, from a missional perspective it could be a big boon to the universal church which can now with more immediacy give and receive the blessings that arise out of interacting with Christians reared in foreign lands (particularly from the global south) in a different cultural setting and possessing a different form of spirituality. Particularly within the United States, which has had a relatively uniform religious landscape over the past two hundred years, the recent immigration of people from South Asia has changed it into a pluralistic one. In this situation, South Asian Immigrant churches can be a vital partner to local American churches in effectively reaching them. Most of the Indian Hindu immigrants who also belong to the affluent class of society have been fiercely active in retaining their religious identities and have built several temples and ashrams which many a times exist adjacent to a local church with an invisible and impenetrable wall between them. The church in the US no longer needs to send missionaries to these far off countries but now has people from those countries at her doorstep but it is unable to engage, connect and evangelize them.
In this paper, I have attempted to examine four different passages that discuss immigrants in four different eras and analyze them through missiological lenses to see how effective they were in being centripetal and centrifugal missional communities helping accomplish God’s kingdom on earth. In the application section that follows I have attempted to apply the principles that I have gleaned from these passages into my own ministry context. The concluding section highlights and summarizes some of the signficant findings of this paper.


Part I: Abraham and Lot – Models of Contrasting Immigrant Witness and Spirituality (Genesis 12:1 – 25:18)


In his paper Old Testament Roots of Mission, Richard de Ridder says,
“The whole history of Abraham and the story of his call and pilgrimage is a remarkable demonstration of how one who was himself dispersed by the command of God…. – became the gracious instrument by which those who had been dispersed by the judgement of God …will again be brought back to the only source of life and into unity with each other..” (2007:155).

This is also exemplified by the diagram in figure 1. As can be seen in this diagram, the Bible is filled with immigrant movements from beginning to end (highlighted blocks in the diagram) across all eras. There are very few eras where God’s people have been static. The narrative of Abraham and Lot provides an exemplary contrasting illustration of how immigrant communities have engaged their neighbours. Throughout the disucssion of this passage I seek to bring out the contrasting missional responses of Abraham and Lot and their communities to their surrounding nations and peoples. Genesis 12 begins with a roaring call of God to Abraham to move out of his father’s land. Although God began moving Teran to Canaan, it appears that he stopped half-way (Genesis 11:31) and now God is picking up where Teran stopped and uses immigration as a tool to advance His purposes. This is clearly reflected in Genesis 12:2 where God states clearly that it is now His purpose to ‘create a nation’ which will eventually be expected to be a light to the gentiles (Kaiser 2000:51). Originally Abraham appeared to have left a rich and affluent Mesopotamian Civilization to follow God’s call. As Wright points out, “Only Abraham’s leaving releases the nations’ blessing” (2006:202).

However, later on when famine threatens and he moves to Egypt he encounters difficulties and does not serve as an effective witness to the gentile nation. He appears to have moved away from God’s intention of creating a nation out of him in Canaan, thus inflicting pain upon himself. Israel would later on repeat the same feat and once again God would have to intervene mightily this time to bring them back to Canaan. Only after he gets back to Canaan was he able to reaffirm his calling (Genesis 13:4). The same is observed when Lot is seen moving away from Canaan to the land as far as Sodom. Whenever an immigrant community loses it’s focus and calling it tends to become ineffective missionally as can be seen in these two cases of Abraham and Lot’s detour. Once again God allows political unrest that results in Lot being taken as captive and eventually redeemed by Abraham to bring him back to the promised land. Abraham’s venture in restoring his people back to the promised land displays a missional glimpse with Abraham’s act being commended and Abraham being acknowledged as belonging to ‘God most High’ by Melchizedek the king of Salem. Abraham himself is now able to speak about God to the gentile kings in Genesis 14:22-24. Here we see how Abraham and his men as an immigrant community have begun to influence their neighbours for God in contrast to Lot. The tryst of Abraham with the three divine visitors brings out his passion for the lost despite their wickedness where he pleads for Sodom hoping that it would have some righteous people expecting that Lot could have won some. Lot’s discourse with the evil men of Sodom stands in stark contrast to that Abraham had with the kings of his surrounding nations. When the angels help Lot and his wife and two daughters to leave the city it is apparent that there was no one else who were righteous. This evidently points to Lot being unable to missionally engage the people of the city he had moved into. Even after being delivered, rather than returning to the promised land he choses to move away to another city where his own daughters replicate the evil that they saw in the city of Sodom. Lot and his family are a clear example of what happens when immigrant communities fail to influence the people around them and get influenced by the gentile cultures thus depriving them of participating in God’s sovereign plan. Abraham’s encounter with Abimelech is yet another contrasting illustration of how God displays His power through Abraham that leads to Abimelech coming to know that God was with Abraham (Gen 21:12). By now Abraham appears to have realized God’s grand plan and displays this faith in seeking to get a bride for his son Isaac from His own people and instructs his servant to bring his son back to Canaan to be part of God’s continuing action of creating a nation (Gen 24:6).

Throughout this narrative, the stark contrast of Abraham and Lot reveal how an immigrant community that seeks to align itself to God’s purposes of bringing his kingdom are blessed and used by God. Lot appears to have been constantly self focussed with no room for God and is seen going down in history sadly in contrast to Abraham who went died as a man ‘full of years’ (Gen 25:8) and God’s purposes continue.

Part II: Esther and Mordecai – Model for Transgenerational Missional Witness (Esther 1-10)

The narrative of Esther and Mordecai are among the most encouraging and affirming for immigrants who often find themselves in marginalized situations. Despite being in exile, Mordecai exemplifies the contrast community (Lohfink) life-style by rearing a godly orphan girl in his own family Mordecai himself is a fourth generation immigrant (Eshther 2:5) which by itself speaks contrary to commonly observed phenomenon particularly that the second generation immigrants lose their identity and become naturalized. Although not much mention has been made, the role of the ancestors of Mordecai from the time of exile deserve much attention. Being in a marginalized position as forced immigrants from Jerusalem, they appear to have reared the next generations with godly instruction and faith that has preserved until the fourth generation without being corrupted by the gentile cultural and religious norms and pratices. Mordecai’s exemplary compassion of taking care of the fatherless in his family reveals his compassion and obedience to the word of God that has been imparted to him by his ancestors. Here we come across an immigrant whose faith and action would play a key role in preserving the remnant of Israel through an orphan girl to whom he succesfully passed on the same heritage that he received. Esther also displays her loving obedience to Mordecai in both good and difficult times (Esther 2:10, 20; 4:15,16). Here is an example of the fruit and significance of godly parenting that plays a key role in accomplishing God’s purposes in the life of immigrants which usually appears to span across several generations just as in the case of Abraham (it would be several hundred years later that his descendants would inhabit the land of Canaan). Most of the time, South Asian immigrant parents lose their children over to the materialistic lifestyle and are hence unable to pass on the mandate of God to them. The narrative of Mordecai and Esther reveals that they may not have lived a different cultural lifestyle (as Esther was able to get into the king’s palace still hiding her ancestry) but focussed on accomplishing God’s purposes in their immigrant land. When this is borne in mind, God’s purposes can be accomplished across generations irrespective of the cultural conflicts as long as they do not violate scriptural norms. Mordecai’s self-disclosure of his religious identity brings him and the remaining Jews more difficulty (Esther 3). This is another nugget that reveals the non-compromising life-style that he lead despite knowing the consequences which attracted the attention of his co-workers. One of the most striking passages in the book of Esther is found in the fourth chapter (Esther 4:13-17). This passage clearly reveals the faith and hope that Mordecai had in God accomplishing his purposes for his nation and Esther willing to obey God by defying the rule of the king to be able to participate in God’s redemptive act. The missional touch of this immigrant community can be seen in the response of the wife and friends of Haman (Esther 6:13) who appear to know of God’s plan and purposes for the exiled Jews. This would not have been possible without the godly lifestyle and active communication about God to them by the immigrants in their land. The exemplary life of Mordecai and Esther extended upto the palace in the way Mordecai saved the King’s life and the gracious manner in which Esther carried herself utterly relying on God to influence even the mightiest King of those times to yield to Yahweh’s plan and purposes. The fruits of these simple steps of obedience turn out to be profound in helping the Jews to truly be a light to their host nation which began to rever them (Esther 9:2-5) and they were able to accomplish more mighty things in preserving the remnant from their enemies using their newly found favoured position.
Mordecai’s rearing of Esther has signficant insights for immigrant parents who can possess hope of being part of God’s plan in using them in the host nation to advance his kingdom even when the children accept the external cultural norms but retain their passion to obey and serve God who is often described as a multi-generational God (God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob).

Part III: First Immigrant Church – Model for Centrifugal Missions (Acts 11:19-30, 13:1-3)


The place where the disciples were first called Christians was at a church in Antioch pioneered by immigrants (v26). Antioch was the third largest city in the Roman empire according to several commentators,, only next to Rome and Alexandria. God is intentionally using the persecution to make the believers scatter from Rome. Although persecution has been used by God in this instance to move His children to unreached places, Globalization may well be God’s instrument today in moving His people to different nations. Thus, it is imperative that one looks at immigration not just from a cultural and sociological perspective but also from a missional perspective to see how this strand fits within God’s grand design of establishing God’s kingdom on earth (Glasser; 199). The believers in Antioch clearly display a strong centrifugal (Bosch) tendency concerning missions.

Interestingly, it was the greek speaking Hellenists from Cyprus and Cyrene who made the first attempts at connecting with the gentile Greeks of Antioch. Antioch being a Syrogrecian town and filled with a large number of both Hellenists and Greeks of non-Jewish origin, God moved the Hellenists who could reach out and connect to them rather than Peter and other apostles who were still warming up to the idea of God reaching out to the gentiles. The contrasting approach of these Hellenists to those who preached only to Jews arises from their belonging to non-Jewish nations thus making them immune to several religious prejudices that were affecting those from Jerusalem. This demonstrates a significant advantage immigrant communities can bring to missions in countries that have traditionally been Christian such as the United States where conventional ‘How can you go to heaven?’ approaches in evangelism have not worked well with recent Asian Indian Americans who appear to be largely untouched by any missional efforts so far and worse still have been agggressive in proselytizing several Americans into Hinduism using methods employed by American Christian missionaries themselves.

The recognition of this budding immigrant church which is now no longer just a fellowship of immigrants but has actively began evangelising the gentiles is another model for immigrant churhces who tend to be introverted and accomodating Christian immigrants alone without seeking to evangelize those from their ethnicity who are away from the truth. It is interesting to note that the core team of prophets and teachers comprised of Barnabas from Cyprus, Simeon called Niger (meaning black and hence from South Africa), Lucius of Cyrene who was also from South Africa, Manaen from a high socio-economic group and Paul who himself was an immigrant living outside Palestine in Tarsus.

Not only did the church at Antioch grow in numbers reflecting the exemplary missional engageent of the immigrant community of believers but also it was able to demonstrate generosity to the established Jewish churches back in Jerusalem (which took a while to acknowledge them) that were in need. Here is another towering model of healthy interaction between immigrant churches and the role they can play in partnering with local home churches.

Apart from efffectively engaging their local neighborhoods missionally and supporting other churches financially, they became the first church to send missionaries to to other places. This is in contrast to some churches dichotomizing evangelism and missions with the former referring to communication the gospel to those around them and the latter referring to sending those to distant nations. Once again the intentionality of God seeking to establish his kingdom is seen by kindling this responsive immigrant church to go ahead and carry on what they did at Antioch that results in several missionary journeys by Paul and Barnabbas expanding the Kingdom of God. Interestingly these missionary journeys were even taken to Cyprus from where the first ‘missionaries’ had arrived. Such a situation can be seen in several western nations that were once sending out missionaries and are now attracting missionaries from the same people to whom they brought the gospel to.

Thus, the first immigrant church demonstrated strong centrifugal dimensions of mission, plurality of leadership and effective partnering with other churches including their mother church and serves as a towering model for all immigrant churches today.

Part IV: The Persecuted and Scattered Immigrant Churches: Model for Centripetal Missions (I Peter 1-2:12)


In contrast to to the immigrants encountered in Acts 11 who conscpicuosly exhibited the centrifugal aspect of mission by reaching out, Peter emphasises the ‘centripetal’ dimension of mission (Glasser) as an effetive means to engage those around them to the recepients of his letter. Throughout the epistle, Peter refers to his recepients with terms such as pilgrims (1:1), aliens and strangers indicating their disposition to the local population. These were predominantly Jewish believers who were scattered possibly as a result of persecution that broke out in Rome and settled in these places and are still suffering persecution. Peter uses the same words ‘aliens and strangers’ to refer to the recepients of his letter which is the same that has been used in the Septuagint to refer to Abraham in Genesis23:4 which his Jewish converts would have been able to connect. This once again re-affirms the motif of the emphasis on the centripetal aspect of mission. As Richard de Ridder notes that ‘Election is always for a purpose and is based on covenant. (Ridder 155) and hence Peter reminds his hearers of their election and ties it to the expected holy living that was meant to attract those around them to Christ just as how Isreal’l holiness was expected to attract other nations to Christ.

On the ouset it appears that Peter is not calling his hearers to ‘share’ the gospel with those around them much like how such explicit commands are missing in the Old Testament concerning the Israelites. However, Peter calls for his hearers who were not just immigrants but were being persecuted on various fronts to display holiness in all walks of life both outside (in their work places) and inside their homes. Such a quiet testimony was expected to win even unbelieving spouses (3:1) for Christ. Although Israel constantly failed to exemplify this lifestyle, Peter was confident that his hearers would be able to do so and urges them to use their lifestyle as a loud apologetic and that would attract the unbelievers to enquire about the hope (3:15) that they have within them. We know that his hearers did heed to his advice based on the contents of the second epistle that were writen to them by Peter himself (II Peter 1:12). An immigrant community can be an effective missional community by leading a life of holiness even under hostile conditions that would provoke those around them to seek to know the truth.

Thus, immigrants who are in marginalized conditions and do not have much opportunity to witness explicitly can still do so by leading exemplary lives in the marketplace and homes. One interesting fact concerning the Asian Indian Christian immigrants in the United States is that they possess more stable homes with much less divorce rates compared to those around them (Sam George). In addition, many of them occupy key positions in Corporations that gives them an opportunity to share their faith among their peers in equivalent capacities.

Part V: Implications for Ministry among South Asian Immigrants in the United States


What emerges clearly from the discussion of the role of immigrants in the above texts is their vital disposition in being used as a missional community both to the people around them and parterning with the local churches amidst them.

Recent studies estimate that there are 200,000 South Asian millionaires in the United States (Gidoomal 2005:82). It also claims that the median income for the South Asian community is over $ 60,000 far above the national average of 38,885$. It further highlights that according to the U.S. 2000 Census, there are about 1.89 million people of South Asian immigrants making up roughly 0.7% of the total population with 1,679,00 of them coming from India alone (informal estimates of Indians in the bay area alone exceed 200,000). Most of the immigrant Christians come to the United States to realize the ‘American Dream’ rather than feeling a sense of God’s calling. Surrounded by a materialistic culture around them they tend to be sucked into it soon. However, whenever people migrated for economic purposes they appear to have gone down history without playing any vital part in accomplishing God’s purposes as exemplified by Lot. This continues to remain a great challenge for South Asian Christian immigrants and they need to be challenged based on the biblical examples discussed in this paper to be vigilant in not losing their missional significance and purpose. As I lead the bible study sessions for the members of our church, I hope to be able to discuss these issues with them.

Another area of concern to most South Asian immigrants is the future of their children who grow up with dual identities. Most of the parents tend to focus on imposing the external cultural symbols on their children and fail to encourage them to missionally engage their world around them. I have seen this in my own church and it has been difficult to convey this message to the parents. I spend one night every month with the youth of our church and attempt to kindle a passion to engage their world as I wait for their parents to be able to understand and join by not focussing on the external cultural symbols but aim for their heart.

Another missiong element that is characteristic of Biblical immigrant communities is the centrifugal dimension and this is found wanting in the North American context particluarly with respect to the South Asian immigrants. Most of the churches however apply most of their energy into sustaining their presence and longivity tha finding God’s purposes for them in His grand salvific plan and finding ways to equip themselves to engage the multi-religious surroundings. It is my prayer and vision to help the local pastors and leaders to see and partake in God’s grand narrative of ushering His kingdom on earth.

Part VI: Conclusion

As we have seen in the Genesis narrative, God intentionally moves His people with a missional goal in mind which is to ‘reconcile the world to Himself’ (II Cor 5:19). He does this by ‘choosing, calling, and sending one to be the bearer of blessing for all’ (Newbigin 1995). God moved Abraham to Canaan, so that He could create the nation of Israel which could be a ‘light to the nations’ . For this to happen He needed a ‘people who were not a people’ weened of all gentile influences and would fall in love with Him to help bring the nations back to Him. Whenever people failed to do so, He had to move them again to refine and bring them back to accomplish His purpose while at the same time using their immigration to touch those gentile nations who came across their exiles and returns including mighty kings like Ahaseuraus. Once the gospel was opened up to the gentiles, He had to once again forcibly move people through persecution so that they could continue to bring the elect from the nations back to him through both centripetal and centrifugal missional efforts as exemplified by the church at Antioch and the ‘aliens and strangers’ of the dispersion. Thus we see that the immigrant motif runs throughout the Bible starting with Genesis and culmination in the ‘New Jerusalem’ when all His people with be gathered to Him. In the light of this, all immigrant communities can now find their true identities and value by not merely seeking new cultural identities but by being a witness in their displaced ambience to participate in ushering God’s kingdom on earth. As pointed out by Hanciles “In both North America and Europe, these new immigrant Christian groups embody a fresh and vital spirituality that is likely to have an impact far beyond their immediate sphere of witness and influence” (2003:151).


References Cited

Alexander, George P.
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2005 Catalyst for Change- The South Asian Diaspora Delhi, India:Horizon Printers and Publishers
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2008 "Christians at the Border: Immigration, the Church, and the Bible." Publishers Weekly 255(9): 12-12.
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Hanciles, Jehu J.
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Kaiser Jr., Walter C.
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Wright, Christopher J.H.
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