Christianity and Conversion among Migrants

Darren M. Carlson, Ph.D (2018), London School of Theology, is President of Training Leaders International and teaches at various institutions in the majority world. He is also General Editor for the Journal of Global Christianity.

• ContentsAcknowledgementsAbbreviationsList of Tables and FiguresI1 Methodological Reflections1.1 Overview of Research1.2 Missiology, Diaspora, and Ethnography1.3 Critical Realism, Theological Understanding, and Social Science1.4 Challenges to Conducting Research with Immigrant Populations1.5 The Participants1.6 Insider/Outsider1.7 Interviews1.8 Participant Observation1.9 Research Ethics2 The Field of Study2.1 The Great Movement of People2.2 Reasons for Migration2.3 Global Christianity2.4 Diaspora Christianity Literature Review2.5 Definitions2.6 Christian Witness and Migration3 Travel3.1 The Basics3.2 Leaving Home3.3 Travel Stories3.4 The Migration Industry3.5 Conclusion4 Evangelical Refugee Centers4.1 Oasis4.2 Helping Hands4.3 Hellenic Ministries4.4 AMG International4.5 Father’s Heart4.6 Bridges4.7 Faros4.8 Issues Faced4.9 Conclusion5 Conversion from Islam to Evangelical Christianity5.1 Conversion from Islam to Christianity Literature5.2 Defining Conversion5.3 Reasons Given for Converting5.4 Dreams and Visions5.5 Fake Conversions and Reconversions5.6 What Happens Next5.7 Conclusion6 “Churches”6.1 Eritrean Church of Athens6.2 Redeemed Lighthouse6.3 Polis: Glyfada Church and Exarchia Church6.4 Iranian Evangelical Church of Athens6.5 Agape Church—Afghan6.6 Persian Leader 4’s Church6.7 Man Cave Church6.8 Conclusion7 Summary7.1 Immigration as Mission7.2 Hospitality, Evangelism, and Tensions7.3 “Western” vs. “Biblical”8 Chosen Sojourners8.1 Hospitality to Strangers8.2 Hospitality as Advocacy8.3 Hospitality as Gospel Proclamation8.4 Salvation for the MigrantAppendix A: List of Known Migrant Churches in Athens, GreeceAppendix B: Interview GuideAppendix C: Key Issues to Address While Attending Migrant Churches and Refugee CentersBibliographyIndex

"It is an excellent primer for those seeking a better understanding of migrant faith, as well as an encouragement to the Western church, showing the positive impact of a theology of welcome towards those displaced."— Will Cumbia, Vienna, in: Journal of European Baptist Studies, Volume 21.2 (2021).This book contributes to a theoretical enrichment of the myriad intersections between religion and forced migration. Hitherto, the forced migration field witnessed a dearth of research on religious imaginaries in refugees and migrants’ journeys. The author, located in diaspora missiology, and utilizing research triangulation and a multi-layered analysis, provides a rich longitudinal study that constructs complex narratives of travel, conversion and faith of refugees and migrants, but also role of migrant organizations in Athens. This book fills an important lacuna by privileging migrants’ agency, voices, profoundly formative Christian experiences and religious imaginaries in transitional, liminal contexts of displacement, journeys and sojourning. — Afe Adogame, Maxwell M. Upson Professor of Religion and Society, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA.Darren Carlson has broken new ground with his portraits of migrant Christian communities in Athens. There have been studies of churches formed by immigrants in places like London, but this is the first analysis of churches composed of migrants from Africa and the Middle East in transit to a final destination in Europe. — Dr Mark Beaumont, Research Associate, London School of Theology Christianity and Conversion among Migrants is a theoretically robust ethnographic account of immigrants, refugees, and the Christian ministries which serve them in Athens. Carlson provides a wealth of moving stories, interviews, and analysis to show how testimony to the life of Jesus is at work amongst these people on the move. For confessing Christians, Carlson also provides powerful stories for how the biblical practice of hospitality to strangers is being embodied in migrants, refugees, and others in the 21st century in Athens. — Joshua W. Jipp, Associate Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity SchoolThe migrants’ conversion to Christianity is one of several ‘responses’ to crises people on the move face. Whilst there are fine works on conversion to Christianity, this ethnographic analysis goes further. i. it rigorously maintains a distinction between Iranian, Afghan, Eritrean and Ghanaian migrants into Greece and offers an empirically supported and unexpectedly complex reasons for their conversion; ii. It underlines converts’ agency in conversion without over simplifying it by excluding the agency of the Christian workers; and iii. it highlights the crucial sense in which the context where this occurs is significantly different from other analyses of conversion stories; in that Greece, where all this unfolds, merely serves as a transit station in the converts’ stories. This book is an excellent resource for both missiologist and conversion specialists; it is also a must read for those starting their research in these fields. — David Emmanuel Singh, The Oxford Centre for Mission Studies