I have many thoughts on this, birthed from my experiences as a missionary in the EU, not all of which I can share here. I’ve seen evangelism done abysmally, in ways that v much resembled colonialism, seen it done well, & wrestled myself with the distinction between the two. https://twitter.com/theodramatist/status/1359499875151470600

While there is a white arrogance that assumes that Christianity does not exist in countries that are predominantly Orthodox, Catholic, etc, where it very clearly does, it’s also a mistake to think that these countries have no need for missions or evangelism.

In Greece, for example, Orthodoxy is so intertwined w the national identity that I often met ppl who described themselves as “orthodox atheists” or “orthodox agnostics”; i.e., they identified as Orthodox simply bc of being Greek but had little to no participation in the church.

I met Greeks who had no conception of Christianity as involving knowing God personally or of reading Scripture, etc, despite identifying as Orthodox.
Some of my dearest friends are Greeks who grew up Orthodox, but actually became passionate about their faith..

...after meeting missionaries who evangelized to them — NOT w the goal of separating them from Orthodoxy, but of demonstrating that union w Christ was available to them.
Not unlike how many in the states grow up attending church, but actually become Christians later in life.

Does the white church need to repent of the ways in which it’s conflated colonialism & evangelism? YES!!!
We need to continue to think through this, listen to our brothers and sisters of color, and stop assuming that we know best.

But the answer is not to do away with missions in these countries altogether. Just as white America desperately needs more evangelism & missions, so too do many places abroad.
Christianity is proclamational in nature, & we still have the Great Commission as our mandate.