Short-term youth mission practice and the visualization of global christianity

Abstract

This article examines the visual mediation of evangelical short-term mission and the theologically inflected global imaginary that these forms engender. Recent decades have seen the resurgence of long-term mission and the emergence of short-term mission among US Christians. The latter, combining evangelization, service, and tourism, is a staple within evangelical youth culture. I argue that it is used by Christians to constitute themselves as global formations, while also offering theological frames for global Christianity. Central to this global theological imaginary are visual representations of mission encounters with ethnic, sectarian, and racial Others, which illustrate the global scope of mission and missionaries' understandings of their own efforts to engage and overcome those differences. Through an analysis of the visual content of four shortterm mission agencies' websites, I examine the mediation of global Christianity in contemporary mission and its recruitment of global Christian subjects.

Palestinian Evangelicals – A Theologically Engaged Anthropological Approach

“…Rarely a week goes by without the presence of a visiting tour group in Palestinian evangelical church services (usually from North America or Europe). Moreover, through the consumption of widely available Christian media originating mostly in the Anglophone world (Ingalls, 2016), as well as connections to their Southern Baptist founding organisations or associations like the World Evangelical Alliance, Palestinian evangelicals participate in a 'global' faith community (Coleman, 2013;Hancock, 2014;Oosterbaan, 2011;Rose, 2018;Schüler, 2008).…”

Geometries of ‘global’ evangelicalism

“…The emic dimension refers to how Christians themselves imagine their 'global' faith network. Examples beyond Coleman's discussion above can be found in Hancock's (2014) analysis of media visualization used in connection with American short-term missions, which plays on the idea of a 'global' faith family to which American Christians are connected. Further, Sebastian Schüler (2008) discusses how the emic ideas of a global faith family are realized in virtual prayer networks (cf.…”