Toward a Regional Methodist Mission Approach in Southeast Asia

31 October 2018

Exciting new opportunities for Methodist Church growth and service ministries in Southeast Asia are on the horizon through a collaborative regional approach. This was the clear message from the first meeting of the Asian Methodist Mission Platform, which was held from 26 to 28 June 2018 at the Methodist Retreat Centre in Hong Kong.

Twenty-three representatives of seven groups from Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines, the non-geographical World Federation of Chinese Methodist Churches and United Methodist Global Ministries shared their current mission outreach in the area and discussed ways they could work together in the future

Pray for a Mission Movement
The enthusiasm that permeated the gathering was summed up by Bishop Hwai Teik Ong of the Methodist Church of Malaysia: “We pray that the Asian Methodist Mission Platform will become an Asian Methodist mission movement.”

The Rev Sung-Che Lam, President of the Methodist Church of Hong Kong, the host for the platform meeting, was excited by the prospects of identifying new places to start Methodist work and the possibility of building and unifying efforts around recently launched ministries.

Mission Roots
The origins of most of these churches are in American mission outreach. The present-day Hong Kong church is a union of American and British mission efforts. Most American-founded Asian Methodist conferences elected national autonomy rather than becoming parts of what is today The United Methodist Church.

The Philippines, however, became a United Methodist central conference, an organic part of the denomination. The United Methodist Church there—three episcopal areas with multiple annual conferences form the central conference—receives and sends missionaries through Global Ministries. It also engages in missions across many locations, especially among Filipino migrant workers in Asia and the Middle East.

Global Ministries, the church in the Philippines and the Methodist Church in Taiwan jointly sponsor missionaries among Filipino workers in Taipei. More partnerships of this kind are likely to emerge from the Asia mission platform.

Overcoming a Miscommunication
Interestingly, the origins of the platform are in a miscommunication that began at the 2016 United Methodist General Conference in Portland, Oregon.

Through the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, Global Ministries proposed and the General Conference approved the creation of a Provisional Central Conference for Southeast Asia and Mongolia, a measure required to allow Global Ministries’ missions in those areas to move toward annual conference status.

Several fraternal delegates from affiliated autonomous Asian Methodist churches saw this action as a move by the United Methodists to “take over” the future of regional Methodism, a kind of reasserted “American colonialism”.

I rejected on the floor of the General Conference any “takeover” motives and admitted our failure to explain clearly the purpose of the new provisional central conference. But Asian Methodist reservations continued and discontent grew when, in 2017, word circulated that Global Ministries was planning a regional office in Seoul, South Korea.

We invited leaders of Asian Methodism to the office opening and to sit down with me and our regional staff (all Asians) who are focused on strengthening the whole of the Methodist presence in Asia.

Our sincerity as a mission partner, not a colonist, was accepted and led to the idea for a regional mission platform. Our regional office, which is located in downtown Seoul, makes our staff more easily available to Asian personnel, projects and partners than they would be if located at our Atlanta headquarters.

Overlapping Work
The Korean Methodist Church (KMC), founded by American missionaries in the late 19th century and autonomous since 1930, has 1.5 million members in South Korea and is the largest Methodist mission presence in Asia.

Hundreds of Korean Methodist missionaries serve across the region, most of them sent and funded by local churches. Some, like Filipino missionaries, serve diaspora communities; others are cross-cultural. Many engage primarily in evangelism and new church development. Some are in education, such as staff for three schools in Pakistan; some in social or health ministries, such as two orphanages and a clinic in Nepal, where Malaysia, Singapore and Global Ministries also have work.

Each agency participating in the mission platform provided detailed reports on its regional presence—both Hong Kong and the Philippines have ministries in Macau; Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Global Ministries are represented in Japan, where Global Ministries and Hong Kong share a missionary. Most of the Korean missionaries in Japan relate to the Korean population there. Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Global Ministries work in Myanmar.

There is thus the need for data sharing and coordination, as opportunities for collaboration abound.

Building Trust, Joining Hands
While discussed, no decisions were reached in Hong Kong about new locations to start mission activities.

Our first platform meeting was mainly for joining in prayer and worship, getting better acquainted and strengthening trust. I think everyone was aware that collaboration is beneficial, possible and necessary.

One shining proof is the shared initiative in Cambodia, a partnership that is bringing about an autonomous Methodist Church there. Since 2004, five mission organisations have worked together in this adventure in faith. The new church has more than 150 congregations and about the same number of pastors.

The participating sponsors include Global Ministries, the Korean Methodist Church, the Methodist Church in Singapore, the mission agency of the United Methodist Church in France/Switzerland and the World Federation of Chinese Methodist Churches.

Bishop Ong of Malaysia said the hope he takes from the conference is for Methodists in Asia to move together in mission synergy: “We want to find where God’s work is being done and to join hands to make it even greater work.”

Thomas Kemper serves as the general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries. This article is republished with permission from the Global Ministries website.