Indigenization of Mission and Contemporary Lessons

Abstract

This article explores the history of the indigenization movement. Reacting to the colonial period’s emphasis on missionaries leading the institutions and churches they started, authors like Venn and Anderson provided a helpful response in their writings that emphasized the need for churches to be self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating. Later authors like Hodges, Brock, and Hiebert added self-theologizing, which is a helpful reminder that indigenous church leaders must be equipped with the skills to do theology in their own context. Though missiologists have largely moved on from the discussion of indigenization by focusing on contextualization and other topics, in actuality, the insights from these scholars continue to have relevant applications for the church’s mission today. After examining the historical discussion of this topic, the article will consider a few insights for contemporary missions efforts.