Source: Sam George, Lausanne Movement, August 16, 2021
Over the last few months, several colleagues in mission organizations and seminaries around the world have asked me, “How has the pandemic impacted the future of human migration and mission?” Here are three initial reflections, from the macro-level down to the micro.
First, from a macro-level and long-term perspective, the pandemic has caused a demographic shrink. Untimely deaths, return migration, deurbanization, and economic restructuring will produce massive population shifts and its full impact will be seen in 30-40 years from now. Some products, services, and industries will become obsolete, while several new markets will emerge. The new modes of work, workplaces, and workers along with the resulting socioeconomic crises will displace multitudes away from their homes and across many borders.
Secondly, from a meso-level and mid-term perspective, the pandemic-related lockdown has forced us to stay put, but we are now more connected to more people than before. Unable to travel, we devised new ways to transact the old business and invent new ones. Though there are many positives to this new way of work, the speeding up of digital transformation is also resulting in increased confusion, conflicts, and psychological problems at home, work, and community. The boundaries of life, work, leisure, family, and church are now overlapping and remain out of sync.
The increased flow of information, ideas, money, products, and services across borders will result in increased migration in the future. We will travel to more places more frequently at a cheaper rate than ever before. More people will end up in new places within their country, continent, and across the globe. We are entering an age of hyperconnectivity and hypermobility, all of which will produce increased cross-cultural interactions and greater hybridization.
Thirdly, from a micro-level and short-term perspective, we will be forced to adapt blended forms of work, life, and even church. The church is not something we do in a particular place or time anymore. It has been liberated from its captivity to place, time, structure, and leadership. It is beyond the current predicaments of going digital or reworking physical meetings—it is a blend of scattering (diaspora) and gathering (ekklesia), as all of God’s people are unleashed into the mission of God, not just a few full-time religious professionals with specialized training.
To learn more, connect with Lausanne’s Global Diaspora Network.