Missional encounter : approach for ministering to invisible peoples

Abstract

This book explores Christian mission and the Mbuti Pygmies, a sub-group of Central African Pygmies who are mostly forest dwellers. The Pygmies are often still unseen and discriminated against, and as consequence, still remain unreached and unchurched. The missional encounter to reach and minister to the invisible is the key focus of this research. In order to minister to this population, this book proposes that mission among and for Pygmies should be conceived and practiced in the light of new paradigms in relation to the concept of conversion. Theological education should be a holistic Christ-like approach to reach and minister to the invisible. Author's summary: This study explores the Mbuti Pygmies, a sub-group of the Pygmy peoples, one of the main ethnic groups of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Mbuti Pygmies are settled mostly in the Ituri rainforest, and are, with regard to Christian mission, still unreached and unchurched. The oversight of the churches vis-à-vis these people is highlighted, through this book, as a challenge to Christian mission. This challenge is a result of the way Christian mission is understood and undertaken in Democratic Republic of the Congo, namely in the selective and exclusive way of missioning, according to which some peoples are targeted and others forsaken. Churches in the Democratic Republic of the Congo shy away from the Mbuti Pygmies probably because, on the one hand, these forest dwellers belong to the group of Pygmies whose existence as full human beings is enigmatic and very controversial. Because of the uniqueness of the Pygmy peoples in terms of physical features, culture, and way of life, on the other hand, the non-Pygmy peoples, including Christians, suffer from the complex of superiority that creates in them a spirit of discrimination against the Mbuti Pygmies. As the Mbuti Pygmies are discriminated against even by Christians, it is very difficult for them to be considered within the mission agendas of the churches. This is a challenging issue to the extent that the Mbuti Pygmies have become “invisible peoples” in the Christian mission enterprise. This real challenge to Christian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is highlighted by two facts. Firstly, Christian mission is designed for all the nations to which the Mbuti Pygmies belong. Secondly, the churches, with their missional mandate to all the nations, shy away from the Mbuti Pygmies as if these people were outside the scope of Christian mission and, thus, unworthy of God’s grace and love. To remedy this challenge, with the aim of implementing Christian mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and throughout Central Africa, this study suggests a missional encounter as a way forward to addressing the Mbuti Pygmies. In practice, this may be implemented through the missionary conversion, the right perception of the Mbuti Pygmies as being fully made in the “image of God” and fully part of the “all nations”, promoting formal education among the Mbuti Pygmies, and sustaining the churches by an integrated theological education. (pages 21-22)