© Lausanne Movement Canada
By Bosco Tung 董鎮陞
Canada’s demographic reality makes collaborative, cross-generational, cross-cultural obedience to the Great Commission not optional but urgent.
Jesus commands His Church to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). That command has not changed. What has changed is our proximity to those nations.
This is not abstract. It is measurable. According to the 2021 Census, 46.6 percent of Toronto’s residents were born outside Canada. Nearly half the city is foreign-born. In Vancouver, more than 40 percent of residents were also born outside Canada. In both regions, communities with roots in East and South Asia constitute a significant share of the population. These are not marginal statistics. They describe the lived context of our churches.
In comparison, in the United States, those who identify as Asian alone or in combination represent about 7 percent of the population. Both countries are diverse. Yet Canada’s urban centres reflect a uniquely concentrated global mix. The nations are not only across the ocean. They are across the street.
The point is not demographic pride, but stewardship.
Canada’s cities increasingly resemble the global Church in microcosm. Congregations worship in multiple languages. Families carry ties to several continents. Leaders move between cultural worlds as a normal part of life. What once required international travel now unfolds within a single neighbourhood.
Yet diversity does not automatically produce collaboration. Leadership insecurity, administrative silos, language barriers, and unexamined assumptions about control often make collaboration more difficult than we admit. Different traditions also carry different instincts about what “mission” means in practice. In some settings, it is framed in terms of strategy and structure. In others, it is expressed through sacrifice, collective responsibility, or spiritual heritage. Among younger generations, it is often framed in the context of vocation, justice, and public witness. These lenses are not competitors. They can be gifts, but they require deliberate alignment to move together.
This does not diminish cross-border missions. The Church in Canada remains called to send, to support, and to serve beyond our own shores. The gospel is for every people and every peoples. Yet when God gathers many peoples into shared space, obedience becomes both local and global. We are not choosing between here and there. We are entrusted with both.
At the Fourth Lausanne Congress in Seoul, Dr. Eun Ah Cho reflected on the Asian Church’s journey and drew attention to Paul’s words in Ephesians 4:16: From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. She suggested that Asia’s role in the body of Christ may resemble that of a ligament: not replacing other parts of the body, not seeking prominence, but connecting, supporting, and safeguarding unity amid immense diversity. That image resonates in Canada, and it was my biggest takeaway from the Congress.
Our cities bring together multiple languages, histories, and ecclesial traditions in a shared space. The question is not whether diversity exists, but whether it strengthens the body or strains it.
Dr. Allen Yeh describes today’s global reality as polycentric Christianity “from Everyone to Everywhere,” where leadership and influence are distributed across many centres rather than concentrated in one. Dr. Patrick Fung similarly frames polycentric mission as movement “from all nations to all nations,” resisting both Western dominance and new forms of regional triumphalism. No single region now defines the centre of Christian influence. The Church participates together.
Canada’s urban Church lives within that same polycentric moment. We are not observers of global Christianity. We are participants in it.
If ligaments hold the body together, their work is often quiet and unseen. They do not create unity. As Dr. Cho reminded us, unity is not something we manufacture. The Holy Spirit creates it. Our calling is to preserve and nurture it.
The greater danger in this season is not diversity, but fragmentation.
Churches can operate in parallel. Language congregations may worship separately—ministries sometimes duplicate effort without realizing it. In a secular and post-Christian society, such fragmentation weakens our gospel witness.
At the same time, not every distinct space signals division. Scripture reminds us that the body has many parts. Unity in Christ does not require uniform expression. Faithful collaboration does not erase cultural identity. It aligns distinct gifts and callings toward shared obedience to Christ.
In 2025, several mission gatherings in the Greater Toronto Area drew more than a thousand participants each. One Korean-led initiative brought together over 1,100 people across linguistic congregations. A Chinese Alliance-led Joint Mission Conference, in partnership with a local Evangelical Protestant Church, welcomed more than 1,600 participants. These gatherings did not eliminate structural challenges. But they created shared prayer, shared learning, and shared imagination. When churches cross cultural and institutional lines for the sake of the Gospel, people respond. (to be continued, June issue)
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Author Bosco Tung 董鎮陞 serves as the National Associate Director for Lausanne Movement Canada.