Missiological Fluidity: The Scandal of Particularity
For more than a decade I have been fascinated with the changed and changing demographics in the US, due in part to our move to Durham, North Carolina from Portland, Oregon fifteen years ago. North Carolina was different than Oregon! Back then, we’d searched for decent coffee shops only to find out that super sweet tea (in huge plastic cups) is the south’s beverage of choice. Boiled Peanuts and vinegar-based Carolina BBQ replaced Tillamook Cheese and Oregon berries. Carolina blue skies replaced grey, rainy skies common in the Northwest. And, I hasten to add, that we learned to discern the difference between Carolina and Duke Blue and now hold our preference close to the vest.
You know you are not in Oregon anymore when you are handed a flier advertising a revival meeting to be held in the nearby Walmart parking lot. As the locals say, the mid-south is the buckle of the Bible-belt, and perhaps so once-upon-a-time. But not anymore.
Demographic Changes in Research Park, NC
My husband and I live in an area called Research Park, the heart of the Research Triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill). Our semi-urban neighborhood includes immigrants from countries in the UK and Europe, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East due in large part to large global corporations headquartered nearby like, IBM, Cisco, Fidelity, BASF, Apple, Lenovo, and SAS and medical research centers tied to major universities in our area. In fact, this pocket of Morrisville includes the fourth highest concentration of PhDs in the US.
The Research Triangle is much more diverse religiously, sociologically, and culturally than it was when we arrived just fifteen years ago. According to the 2020 Census, South Asian immigrants represent the fastest growing and majority demographic in our area nearly doubling in size between the 2010 and 2020 US Census. In 2022, a nearby suburb became home to the largest Hindu temple in North America.[1] My research just this week revealed that nearly 270 languages are spoken in the nearby Wake County School District—Spanish, French, German, Greek, Arabic, Cherokee, Egyptian, Lebanese, Syrian, Telugu, Chinese/Chinese Mandarin, Hindi, Indian, and Urdu, to name a few.
I hope to explore the implications of these demographic changes in future posts, but something struck me afresh this week as they relate to the True Story of the Whole World.
God has made it clear, from the very beginning, that God’s kingdom is populated with people from every tongue, every tribe, and every nation.
The True Story of the Whole World
In Genesis 10 we are introduced to the Council of the Nations—the nations that descended from Noah (Gen 10:5, 20; 31). This chapter ties the beginning and the end of this chapter together with an inclusio: “These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood” (Gen 10:1, 32). Soon, God calls Abraham and promises him that all the nations on earth will be blessed through him, “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless and make your name great” (Gen 12:1–3; 18:18). Jesus, just before he ascends into heaven, commissions his followers, “Go and make disciples of all nations.”
The Scandal of Particularity
Stop for a second to consider what the Scripture is saying—every tongue, every tribe, every nation. This represents no less but probably more than the 389 clans, languages, lands and nations represented in North Carolina alone! The scandalous truth is that God is drawing boys and girls, men and women, brown and black, white and freckled, brown-eyed and green, tall and short to himself with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, a particular male, born of God’s Spirit from the womb of a specific teenage mom named Mary, in a historically located town called Bethlehem. He grew up in that no-good place called Nazareth. He learned a trade from his (supposed) father Joseph, whose genealogy (by the way) traces all the way back to Abraham, then Noah, and eventually to the Triune God “in the beginning” (Gen 1:1; Matt 1:1–17; Luke 2:23–38).
This Hebrew man, Jesus, preached good news to the downcast, forgiveness and freedom to the prisoner, everlasting hope to the diseased and the desperate, love and compassion to the lonely and the helpless. God in human flesh then hung on a cross and died the death we deserved to die. God’s one and only Son, shed his human blood on our behalf and miraculously, gloriously, quietly, rose from the grave victorious over sin and death.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)
Since then, God’s Spirit has fueled the wildfire of the gospel as it spread from Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, Ethiopia, Greece, Turkey, China … to Lynn in Chicago who eventually who told me in Salt Lake City. In very specific ways, God’s Spirit, who knows our names, reveals the truth of the gospel to particular people like us.
A Kingdom of Priests: Multinational, Multicultural, Multilingual, Various, and Particular
In Revelation 4 the Apostle John is invited to walk through a door standing open in heaven! A voice that sounded like a trumpet invites him to come and see. There, seated on a throne in dazzling glory sat the “Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David” the conqueror, the Lamb of God. They worshipped…
Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth (Rev 5:9–10)
After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!’ (Rev 7:9–10)
Wherever we live, we dwell among people who represent the nations. Let’s lift our eyes and cultivate a Spirit-led awareness—google the US Census to find out the demographic make-up of your neighborhood. God is drawing particular people to accept the gift of forgiveness and eternal life and he often uses particular people like you and me to be His witnesses!
[1] Julian Grace, “Largest Hindu Temple in North America unveiled in Cary,” WRAL News, October 25, 2022, online: https://www.wral.com/story/largest-hindu-temple-in-north-america-unveiled-in-cary/20536970/.
