The importance of contextualization cannot be ignored in sharing the gospel as it enables the church to grow in a specific context. Nowhere is this displayed and modeled more than in Jesus’s incarnation. “The incarnation of Jesus serves as a key paradigm for a contextualized mission and theology.”1
The lack of contextualization has resulted in distortions in gospel acceptance. This is nowhere truer than in the Philippines, where mission went hand in hand with colonization. Catholicism has taken deep roots not just because of the forcible presentation of the cross with the sword during the Spanish colonial rule but also because of its utilization of pre-Hispanic animistic beliefs and practices that resulted in syncretism.2 Another issue is the Western-oriented model of gospel proclamation. Jamie Bulatao coined the term split-level Christianity to describe a “Sundays only” Christianity.3 This split-level mode is understood to be caused by Christianity being considered a Western import and thereby inconsistent with the Filipino value system. The split is unconscious because Western value is conceptual.4 This could also explain why the evangelical faith has not grown significantly. Introduced during the American occupation, it has not taken deep roots since Philippine evangelicalism follows American ways of worship, leadership, and evangelistic endeavors.
There must be a process of contextual mission to strengthen the evangelical movement in the Philippines. The contextualization process needs to be applied also to the Filipino diaspora. The gospel needs to take root and find a receptive audience through the lived experience of people who are living outside their places of origin. This article seeks to determine the contextualization process for mission among the Filipino diaspora in Canada.

Filipino Diaspora in Canada

Canada is highly dependent on immigration for its economic growth. Its immigration policy is skewed towards admitting immigrants under an economic category. Six in 10 immigrants fall under an economic category.5 It is also important to note that more than 20% of Canadians are foreign-born. Between 2011 and 2016, 61.8% of immigrants were born in Asia. In 2021, Canada brought in 406,000 permanent residents, the most immigrants in a single year in its history.6 This will further increase with Canada’s Immigration Level Plan aiming to welcome 465,000 new permanent residents in 2023, 485,000 in 2024, and 500,000 in 2025.7 Filipinos are one of the biggest immigrant groups in the country.
A significant source of Philippine migration to Canada is the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP). The program, while designed as a temporary working condition, is also a path toward permanent residency, with the program designed to address labor shortages in the caregiving sector.8

Situational Challenges of the Filipino Diaspora

There is significant evidence that most Filipinos are facing substantial challenges in their social and economic conditions. The LCP alone has been the source of frustration, with exploitation being prevalent. “Under exploitative conditions and uncertain work arrangements, the LCP creates several “what if ” situations like the sudden termination of employment, making the live-in caregiver homeless for some time.”9 Central to these exploitative working conditions are long working hours, sexual harassment, and abusive employers.10 This situation cannot simply be traced to a lack of qualifications among Filipinos.
The way that qualification designations have been stated is arrayed against Filipino migrants. A study by Pratt showed that placement agencies categorize European caregivers as professionals but Filipino caregivers as servants.11 A study on Filipino immigrant resiliency reveals this reality:

Filipinos’ high educational levels seem to offer them little advantage in an increasingly polarized labor market.12 High educational attainment is often not recognized by Canadian employers and professional associations. As a result, Filipinos struggle to regain their professional status in Canada, and their story is one of income disparity.13 Increasingly, they have trouble working in their professions and end up working in manufacturing, food preparation, and retail jobs; in some cases, they never return to their field of training. The fact that this group is experiencing these problems, despite their English proficiency and high education levels, indicates the pervasiveness of these issues in Canada’s immigrant population.14

This explains why most Filipinos are in the service and manufacturing sector. There is sufficient evidence, therefore, that institutional and societal racism plays a significant part in the challenges of the Filipino diaspora in Canada. This situational context provides key points for mission and contextualization by relating the gospel to their lived experiences.

Cultural Values as Sources of Resiliency

In this challenging environment, the Filipino diaspora in Canada relies on its own social network and value system for resilience. This is reflected in key cultural and value systems found in Philippine society that are adapted in the diaspora context.
Church life has been a social connector and is a symbol of continuity of cultural habits.15 “The church becomes the venue to meet a Filipino compatriot (kababayan) in a foreign land; a meeting ground of connecting with other Filipinos seemingly displaced by migration.”16 In this regard, church involvement becomes a new way of creating alliances and networking systems. Wan and Tira observed that “wherever there are clusters of Filipino communities, there are also thriving congregations.”17
The Filipino social network and family orientation deepen resilience and provide venues for settlement connections. Filipinos find their identity not through independence but through interdependence. Such interdependence becomes a source of survival in a country that is not hospitable to Filipinos in general. This does not mean that the whole Filipino community is a general source of support. The Filipinos in Canada are a fragmented community. This fragmentation is one reason why family kinship and social affinity are the major sources of resilience rather than the broader community. This fragmentation reflects particularism where the concern is not the broader community but only the smaller group of extended family, fictive relations, and social groupings.
The pervasiveness of Filipino cultural values is substantially evident among the Filipino diaspora in Canada and strengthens resilience as Filipinos adapt to the vagaries of migration. Thus, Liboro affirmed:

“Despite hurdles to attain economic integration, many Filipino immigrants made great strides and succeeded in overcoming negative attitudes towards new immigrants and challenges in Canadian society by remaining hardworking and relying on the sources of their strength and resolve—their families and faith.”18

Mission and Contextualization Among the Filipino Diaspora in Canada

The relationship between contextualization and diaspora mission is succinctly delineated by Rodrigo Tano, a Filipino theologian. He states:

The contextualization of the gospel and Christian theology then calls for a discerning of the times, involvement in one’s particular situation, and participation in the ongoing mission of the Church wherever it is situated. It brings the text (Bible) into a dynamic interaction with the context (life-situation). From this interaction, a life-situation or contextual theology emerges. As a theologia in via (pilgrim theology), contextual theology is neither final nor complete.19

While Tano understands this in relation to the constant need to adjust the gospel to the changing realities of life situations, it is also appropriate as applied to migrants’ journeys in general, and the Filipino diaspora in particular. Filipinos need to understand their struggle through a scriptural lens of migration. A foreigner’s journey is reflective of a Christian journey in this world (1 Pet 1:1,17; 2:11). The incarnation bears relevance to this experience. In the incarnation, God identifies with their suffering and communicates to them in their language of experience.
Filipino culture centers around relationships. The relational nature of Filipino culture should be grounded on the relationship with God. A key message is anchoring all relationships as proceeding from the triune God who is the source of all relationships. This relationship starts first with God’s own triune unity (John 10:30; John 14:26; Acts 2:33; 2 Cor 13:14) and proceeds to his relationship with humanity (Gen 2:7; Job 12:10; John 1:4). From God’s relationship with humanity, human interaction is then informed and inspired by God’s love.
Filipino culture has a strong element of shame. The concept of hiya or shame delineates this type of cultural mindset. Thus, there must be a shift in the presentation of the gospel from the Western orientation of guilt-innocence. Shame-honor societies have a strong group orientation.20 Making the gospel message relevant to Filipinos requires understanding and affirming hiya and bringing the scriptural message that God brings honor to those who receive his grace. A contextualization of a scriptural honor-shame perspective among Filipino migrants is a transformative one of giving them worth amid a shamed reality of marginalization.
Mutual obligation in the form of internal debt (utang na loob) is a core value system among Filipinos. Being part of a group necessitates helping those who are in need but requires one to have this inner obligation to help when one receives help. A contextual approach to this value should be tied to the new modality of relationships brought about by Christ where relationships are not based on mutual obligation but a real concern for others. There is no internal debt as the debt is paid once and for all by Christ (Heb 9:28).
For evangelical Filipinos, an apt understanding of the role of diaspora in God’s mission provides a calling of their migration beyond economic reasons but allows them to see their migration journey as a missional journey.

Conclusion

Contextualizing the gospel among the Filipino diaspora requires an understanding of their lived experience as migrants and delineation of Filipino cultural values as avenues for gospel presentation.
Contextualization among the Filipino diaspora is a transformative process that enables the Scripture to challenge the destructive aspects of these Filipino values while affirming the beauty and purpose of the cultural values that are reflective of Scripture. The Filipino evangelical community is given the task of connecting these values with the gospel and transforming the diaspora experience into a life-giving one.