From the Editors · 2010-08-17 · From the Editors Mission and Missions, Going ‘Glocal’, Holism and Other Terms…. Dealing with Missions Jargon, K. Rajendran From the Heart

From the Editors

Mission and Missions, Going ‘Glocal’, Holism and Other Terms….

Dealing with Missions Jargon, K. Rajendran

From the Heart and Mind of the Editor, William D. Taylor

A Word from our Creative Graphics Artist, Jarin Tadych

Featured Articles

Reaffirming the Missional Heart of God, Rose Dowsett

Rethinking Missional Structures in the Globalized Mission Context-for Both Church and Mission Societies, David Tai-Woong Lee

Reflections from the Younger Generation on Mission and theGreat Commission: Are we Dysfunctional, Difficult or justDifferent? Rob Hay

Revisiting Strategic Collaboration, Alex Araujo

The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ in the Missional Heart of God:A Kingdom-Oriented Framework for Encountering BuddhistWorldviews, Kang San Tan

The Missional Church is Passionately Glocal, David Stoner

Proverbial Perspectives on the Missio Dei, Stan Nussbaum

Global Reports for Global Impact:

Taking Mission Mobilisation on the Road, Chacko Thomas.

The Impact of an African Regional Missions Movement,Bayo Famonure

Doing it Right: The Great Commandment is Key to theGreat Commission, Dave Pollock

Raising up a New Breed of Missionaries in the Philippines,Bob López

Effective Equipping of the Cross-Cultural Worker, Rob Brynjolfson

Book Reviews and Resources:

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (USA) has launched a

new Center for the Study of Global Christianity and a WebVersion of the World Christian Database (WCD), Todd Johnson

“Acquainted with Grief, Wang Mingdao’s Stand for thePersecuted Church in China”. Author: Thomas Alan Harvey.Reviewed by Samuel E. Chiang

“Exploring World Mission: Context and Challenges”.Author: Bryant L. Myers. Reviewed by William D. Taylor

Welcome to a new creation: the WEA Missions Commission newdatabase-driven web site: www.WEAresources.org, Jon Lewis

Missiological Reflection:

Exploring World Mission: An Introduction, Bryant L. Myers

Connections February 2004

The Journal of the WEA Missions Commission

WEA Missions Commission#1-300/118, Arul colony,

ECIL post,

Hyderabad - 500062.A. P., INDIA

www.globalmission.org

Dr. William D. Taylor, Editor

Dr. K Rajendran, Consulting

Editor

Evan RiffeeManaging Editor

Sam ArackalProduction Coordinator

Jarin Tadych

Design Coordinator

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Connections The Journal of the WEA Missions Commission

fromthe editor

Around the world, there has been much debate,awakening and vision for Christian “mission”1. In themidst of all these enlightenment, there is a need tocontinuously re-refer to the meaning of “mission” andthe way to go about. Christian “mission” in the contextof Christianity is serving in obedience to fulfill the GreatCommission of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The interpretation or definition of “mission” by diversetheologians, missiologists, and the practitioners do nottally. At times, the interpretation of “mission as the GreatCommission of the Lord Jesus Christ” is done withoutunderstanding the contemporary context or thegrounded realities, thus making it difficult for the actualpractitioners of mission who carry out the task ofcommunicating Christ to establish the “kingdom of Godat hand”.

In the protestant era of mission, there has been muchemphasis on “conversion”, especially as a reaction tothe negative history of crusades and colonization.These negative histories of mission, combined withrejection of (even neutral and good) native cultures byboth missionaries and mission organisations havewarped the mission of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even among the misunderstood colonial-minded people,there were divided opinions related to the process ofconversion of the locals from heathenism, and thetransformation of nation. All these were connected to

Mission, Missions, Going ‘Glocal’,Holism and Other Terms …. Dealing withmissions jargonby K. Rajendran

“Mission, Missions” – What or which is it?

Around the

world, there has

been much

debate,

awakening and

vision for

Christian

“mission”1

Editorial - 1 . . .

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www.globalmission.org • January - April 2004 Connections

their understanding of mission and theextent to which they practiced the teachingof Christ. Many of the colonial occupiersunderstood more about missioncompounds than the mission of Christitself, making the compound almostequivalent to the fortresses of occupation.

Many such issues carried over from thepast have even led to think of the missionof Christ as mere development of people,civilizing people, or just cross-culturalactivities. Even the concept “holistic” isa reaction to some who communicatedChrist only to the minds of people ratherthan applying the full teaching of Christto the daily living of the peoples indifferent communities. The mission ofChrist often was restricted to preaching,conversion and discipling people withinthe walls of the colonial-lookingcathedrals than Christ’s teaching aspracticed in the market places and thepolitical decision making areas of thenations.

Furthermore, the narrow Protestanttheology of holiness and contextualization,with its rightful apprehension of Christiansyncretism, has kept Christian activitiesin a small mental box with narrowboundaries. This has crippled Christians,not allowing them to be involved in thetotal society and transformation of thenations. Even when some nations havebecome more or less “Christian”, so muchof what they had was the importation ofpractices, church structures of theChristian church and its missionaries fromoverseas, including their and Westernpolitical systems. This did not allowopportunities for the indigenization oftheology and the fuller applications ofthe teachings of Christ that would releasethe best of new structures.

In this context, to this day, too many timesthe mission agencies continue thinkingof mission with imported cultures andtraditions to their receptive nations,communities and societies. Thesereceptive nations and communities arestill discovering the meaning of the fulltransformation that comes from Christ.There is much to work on by the presentChristian church in reflection andrecovery of the effects of Christ’steaching in each ethnic community byboth churches and the missionorganisations.

In this contemporary context,evangelicals have to reaffirm ourcommitment to and understanding of thetrue mission of Christ.

Going “Glocal” – What in the world doesit mean?

The mission of Christ was not cross-cultural vs. local culture. His mission wasnot restricted to Jews or gentiles. Hismission was not poor vs. rich, literate vs.illiterate, men vs. women; tribal vs. non-tribals, masters vs. slaves. His missionwas not biased in anyway, shape or form.It was not biased by language, culture,people groups, economical standards,status quo and gender. This is reflectedin the final command of Christ in Acts 1: 82

and also in Paul’s affirmation in Rom 1: 16.3

Thus our Lord’s mission was as muchlocal as global. Thus it has to become“Glocal”. If local church is not motivatedfor local impact, if it is not missional inthe true sense of the word, then it willhave very little to offer to the rest of theworld. The commitment to local impactprovides the key in understanding theimportance of missions further beyond,even as it helps us to understand and

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rural, to the down trodden, to the weak, tothe uncivilized and other odd species!This mindset has neglected a hugepercentage of influential people in thecommunities and has sidetracked church,mission agencies and missionaries in thetask of Gospel to all people which aim fortransformation of lives, ethos, thoughtpatterns, communities and the nations.This mindset also made church “laity” tofeel that their only role in the mission ofChrist is to contribute finances to missionagencies.

“Mission” is so much of the time cross-cultural even within the same geographicarea-whether ethnic, generations,worldviews. In a sense “mission” is botha mental and geographical cross-culturalexperience. Bill Taylor has further clarifiedsome of these dimensions in his owneditorial words following my reflections.

What he writes about the missional and“glocal” vision is very true in most of thecountries, especially in the cities wherecommunities are cosmopolitan andmultiethnic. In the cases of North Americaand Europe, churches by and large havedealt with western audiences, but this haschanged radically in recent years with the“nations” coming to them. In thesepredominantly western churchcongregations, consciousness must bebrought about the multi ethnicity aroundthem. Actions out of this consciousnesswill definitely prepare the local church toexpand their vision and will help them togrow deeper in their own understandingof others and a growing openness to

reach out to other cultures and peoples.This may challenge them to accommodatethe new peoples in their churches, even ifas separate congregations due to differentlanguage, or leadership and worshipstyle. These efforts also will have indirectresults in the countries of these peoplewhere they originated.

Quoting Bill Taylor again: “Thus for us inthe Missions Commission, mission andmissions begin in the heart of the TriuneGod, and this is revealed from beginningto end of our Scripture. The GreatCommissions must not be used simply assloganizing motivators, and they must berestored in their fullness, richness andcomplexity.”

Tying it up!

Therefore, in the globalized world, withmultiethnic peoples living under thedoorsteps of Christ followers, the churchand its mission structures must awake tore-orientate themselves and practicemission as cross-cultural and local, henceglocal. Sending bodies, the missionagencies, must rethink their focus. Theseactions will revolutionize the church andits mission, missions and missionaries.This will help church members to buildnew mindsets that mobilize all membersinto the glocal mission. The missionsagencies also must reorder themselvesrelevantly to the present realities of theworld in their doorsteps and to the peoplewho are at a “stone-throw” distance,whether physically or electronicallyspeaking. May the Lord give us his mind.

K. Rajendran is the General Secretary of the India Missions Associaion andthe chair of WEA Missions Commission Global leadership Team. He can becontacted at [email protected] or [email protected]

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fromthe editorEditorial - 2 . . .by William D. Taylor

We welcome our global readers to this fifth issue of Connections. From the creativecover, through the lead articles and reports of task forces and networks, you willfind substance of a growing team of reflective practitioners who have gatheredaround this writer’s roundtable for a frank discussion.

The prime focus of this issue affirms themissional heart of God in all that the MCdoes. What might this mean? “Missionis understood as being derived from thevery nature of God. It [is] thus put in thecontext of the doctrine of the Trinity, not,of ecclesiology or soteriology. Theclassical doctrine of the mission Dei asGod the Father sending the Son, and Godthe Father and the Son sending the Spirit[is] expanded to include yet another“movement”: Father, Son and Holy Spiritsending the church into the world.”(David Bosch, Transforming Mission,1991, p. 390).

As Rose Dowsett writes: “Mission isnot primarily a human task to becompleted, a command to be obeyed.First and foremost, it is embedded in thevery being and character of God himself.We who were made in his image, and thenare being re-made in his image in our new-creation lives, engage in mission as anexpression of our image-ness – reflectingthe nature of our Creator, Saviour, andLife-Giver”.

Additionally, for us the concept of“missional” means that our faith by

definition is not only a sending faith, butit must also reflect a local as well as aglobal focus. Hence the coinage of“glocal”. A church cannot just have amissions program; it must be missionalwhere it is and then radiate its influencein a Good News spiral of community,integrity, grace, salt and impact. Todayby definition churches and missionagencies must be creatively cross-cultural—grappling with differentgenerations, ethnicities and worldviews.The nations/ethnicities are fluid—coming and going, whether voluntarily(immigration) or involuntary (refugees—legal and illegal).

For us in the MC, mission and missionsbegin in the heart of the Triune God, andthis is revealed from beginning to end ofour Scripture. The Great Commissionsmust not be used simply as sloganizingmotivators, and they must be restored intheir fullness, richness and complexity.

As I survey this issue, note the six leadarticles, meaty, diverse, rich. You willengage with reflections from ourcolleagues from the South and the North,women and men. Some of the writers are

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A really final word. Write editors; disagree, agree, add or query. But write!

known, but we have some new voicesand for this we are thankful.

As usual, Rose Dowsett (Scotland),David Tai-Woong Lee (Korea) and KangSan Tan (Malaysia) will challenge you.Fasten your seat belt with Rob Hay’s(UK) more personal and direct narrative,but don’t turn him off. Regardless of ourculture and country, there are at leastthree distinct generations in each one.Try to contextualize some of Hay’sthoughts to your own geographic andmission situation.

Listen to the heart of David Stoner,representing God’s community, thechurch, and an unusual church, not onlyfor its youth and size (five years old,10,000 in Sunday attendance). David’sarticle is one of the clearest and mostcogent presentations of what he calls“…a seamless missional community”.

Alex Araujo (Brazil/USA) expands ourunderstanding of strategic missionalcollaboration, i.e. partnership, with newsof the creative network he is a part of.And Stan Nussbaum continues hiscreative presentation of missionalproverbs. Note: if you have a proverb

from your own culture, send it to Stanfor use in a future issue.

The section reporting on the MC taskforces and networks is here to continueto inform you of some of the uniquethings God is doing around the world.Read them with care and connect withthese missional teams.

We present four resources to you: twobook reviews, information from ToddJohnson on a formidable and accessibledata base, and the introduction of thenew MC database-driven web site,<www.wearesources.org>, thanks toJonathan Lewis.

We are grateful to Jarin Tadych, ouryounger colleague and gifted graphicsartist, who has created our last threecovers. Note her story and her seriousapproach to this marvelously texturedcover. If you want to visit another ofher creations, check out<www.hopearts.org>

Finally, we conclude Connections withBryant Myers’ provocative first chapterof his new book, Exploring WorldMission: Context and Challenges, usedby permission from World Vision.

William Taylor is the Executive Director of the Missions Commissions,World Evangelical Alliance. Born in Latin America, he and his wife, Yvonne,served there for 17 years before a move to the USA. He is the father of threeadult GenXers born in Guatemala. Send letters to the Editor [email protected], or to 1-300/118, Arul Colony, ECIL Post,Hyderbad -500 062, Andhra Pradesh, India.

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About Me

My great-grandmother, a Polish-American, USA-Depression-era womanopened the world to me at a young age.She talked funny, dressed funny, andcooked funny foods, like kieszka (bloodsausage) and czarnina (blood soup). Iloved it.

When I reached college, my memories ofher-Polish lessons at the kitchen table,stories of communists and farm chickens-still exerted a powerful influence. Theylanded me in the Slavic studiesdepartment at the University of Texas (UT,Austin) then eastward to St. Petersburg,Russia, for a semester of study.

College mission trips further expandedmy heart for culture. It started with springbreak trips to Mexico and continued witha summer stint in Amsterdam. My mostchallenging “trip,” however, was a year-long outreach to the students of UT as acollege ministry intern.

Post-ministry, I worked briefly inAustralia, then joined an Israeli start-upfounded in Austin, where I still am today.

I have recently been discovering myearthly loves: the Christian imaginationand the arts. In 2003 I was privileged toserve the arts ministry at my local church,in a role which included designing ourwebsite and collateral, assisting withvisual art exhibits, and reading lots ofgood books.

In my spare time I am growing my graphic

design business and learning to love theglobal, eclectic City of Austin togetherwith the communion of saints.

About this Cover

“Digital collage” best describes my styleof design. I like to build meaning throughlayers of line, text, color, and image. Thismonth, two nineteenth-century maps ofProtestant missions form the backgroundof the cover. The red map is of India; theyellow is of the Middle East. I chose redfor its association with the heart, blood,wine: archetypal symbols of Christianreality. Yellow hints at light andregeneration.

The passports play an ironic role in thedesign. God needs no passport. The HolySpirit knows no ethnic or nationalboundaries. Man, however, moves withinhuman and political limitations. Thussomething as petty and bureaucratic (orpersonal and necessary) as a passportbecomes a vital tool of his work. Liketreasures in jars of clay, the mundane andthe glorious co-exist in the missional task.Humble means to enable eternal outcomes.

People, God’s image bearers, are at theheart of the piece. Through diverse ages,ethnicities, and gender,their faces representthe superabundance ofGod in creation, as wellas his mission torecreate his image in allthe people of the earth.

From Jarin Tadych, our Graphics Artist

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Yesterday a special family friend went to Glory followinga massive stroke in Shillong, India. Jo was 73, a veteranmissionary. Already turned 40 when he first wentoverseas, he served for 30 years in the Philippines, andthen, at an age when most westerners would be enjoyingretirement, he started all over again in India. He livedvery simply, almost ascetically. He walked humbly withhis God, and humbly with his brothers and sisters. Hewas greatly loved. A passionate and compassionatedisciple-maker, Jo was used by God to bring many peopleinto living faith in Jesus Christ and into committed Spirit-fired discipleship. He will be greatly missed.

But today, even though our family will miss him sorely, Icannot do other than be joyful for Jo. He so lookedforward to seeing his Saviour face to face. And now hedoes. Despite a sense of loss (for separation throughdeath, though temporary for the Lord’s people,nonetheless always hurts), I am comforted that Jo iswhere he should be, in the presence of God, for eternity.One day, when it’s my turn to die, there will be manyjoyous reunions, including one with Jo.

Does that sound presumptuous? It should not. For it isbecause our God is a missionary God, throughout historyshowing himself as the one who comes to seek and tosave, that sin and death and separation can be swallowedup and dealt with, and eternity in his presence is securefor his people. Our God, because he is a missionary God- Father, Son and Spirit - seeks and saves for eternity aswell as time.

Our God has a missional heart.

Reaffirming the MissionalHeart of Godby Rose Dowsett

A passionateand

compassionatedisciple-maker,Jo was used by

God to bringmany people

into living faithin Jesus Christ

and intocommittedSpirit-fired

discipleship.

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The Cross at the centre of the universe

At the very heart of our Christian faithstands the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.The Incarnation, and the life and ministryof Christ are, as it were, the immediateprelude to the Cross; and theResurrection, Ascension and Pentecostare the Father and Spirit’s “Amen! It isdone!” to the Son’s standing in thesinner’s place as sacrifice and atonement.It is the Cross which is the interpretativegrid through which we must understandthe whole of Scripture: everything beforepoints forward to it, and everythingafterwards points back to it. For it is theCross which deals with the central problemfor all humankind, and indeed for thewhole of Creation, ever since Genesis 3;and, if I may say it reverently, it is theCross that addresses the central problemfor God himself since Genesis 3: how todeal with the sin that has so traumaticallyafflicted us all ever since Adam and Evefirst aspired to be God’s equals rather thanhis creatures.

But the Cross is no divine after-thought.Immediately following that firstdisobedience, God comes seeking Adamand Eve. “Where are you? Why are youhiding? Tell me about what you havedone…”, he says. There is no option butto banish them from his immediatepresence and companionship, such is theenormity of what they have done. Yet, inthe very act of banishing them, andexplaining to them the consequences theyhave brought upon themselves, heprovides for their immediate needs(clothes for their nakedness[consciousness of which is a direct resultof their disobedience], as well as homefor their homelessness) and promises to

deal with their far deeper needs: one day,the serpent will be crushed. Further,almost beyond human comprehensionexcept that the Word declares it to be so,it is our Lord Jesus who will himself becrushed and bruised, identified with bothsin and sinner (see for example Isaiah53:10, Hebrews 2:13-15, Romans 16:20,Revelation 12:9 and 20:2), and who willbecome the Second Adam, the perfectimage of God. Herein lies the gospel-Good-News: sin is real, its consequencesdeadly; but grace is yet more real, and itsgift is eternal life. Father, Son and Spirit,with heart-yearning for men and womencreated in their image, ensure that there isa new and living way back to friendshipwith God, that death and decay have beendealt with decisively, and that there is thepromise of eternal life within a newcreation.

So far, so good. Most orthodox Christianswould happily assent to the above. Butwhat is most mind-blowingly peculiar isthat many of those same Christians donot make the connection between theCross at the heart of history, and worldmission at the heart of God. That failureis an obscene contradiction, and abankruptcy in grasping the nature of God,the truth about the Cross, the meaning ofthe gospel, and the calling of the Church.How badly we need to read the Scriptureswith missional eyes; for only so can weread them in tune with the heart of theTrinity.

Mission flows from God’s character

Mission is not primarily a human task tobe completed, a command to be obeyed.First and foremost, it is embedded in thevery being and character of God himself.

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We who were made in his image, and thenare being re-made in his image in our new-creation lives, engage in mission as anexpression of our image-ness - reflectingthe nature of our Creator, Saviour, and Life-Giver.

Genesis 3:8 gives us a marvellous pictureof God’s intention: ‘walking in the gardenin the cool of the evening’ in satisfyingcompanionship with Adam and Eve. Hecomes to them, not they to him. And, evendespite the catastrophe of rebellion andthe resultant banishment, over and overagain we find that same pattern of divineinitiative. He comes to Noah, and provideshim with “a way of escape” from thedevastating flood. He comes to Abram(Abraham-to-be), taking him on anextraordinary journey of faith, providingboth son and sacrifice in order that “allpeoples on earth will be blessed throughyou” (Genesis 12:3). All the way throughthe Old Testament, repeatedly he drawsnear through dreams and visions, throughangelic messengers and direct words fromheaven, through prophetic inspiration andsovereignly Master-minded events.

Over and over again, he pours out wordsof love and longing, and demonstrates theawesomeness of judgement and theinsistent overtures of grace. What couldbe more poignant than the yearning loveof God over an unfaithful ‘bride’ pouredout through the book of Hosea? Whatcould express more forcibly than the bookof Jonah God’s insistence that his people’scalling is to reach the nations? Whatcould be more tender than the story of hisprovision of a kinsman-redeemer for Ruth,the vulnerable widow from the despisedMoabites, setting her instead right at theheart of the Son of God’s ancestral line?

Not once, nor occasionally, but on pageafter page we read of the missionary Godwho comes seeking and wooing rebelliousmen and women, anguished as well asangered when they turn their backs onhim, pouring out blessing when theyrespond to him.

Old Testament hints give way to NewTestament revelation of the Trinitariannature of God. Emmanuel, God with usand among us, the invisible made visible:this is the Son, who tells us on manyoccasions that the very reason for hiscoming is in order to seek and to save,through his death to draw men and womento the Father. It is no accident that someof the best-loved parables that Jesus toldare about searching for the lost, whetherit be a coin, a sheep, or a precious son;and in each case the search endsgloriously in finding. And then Pentecost.Why is the Spirit given to make his homewithin God’s people? The very firstresponse of the first disciples that amazingday is to praise God and bear witness toChrist in their own languages to the menand women from all over the worldgathered in Jerusalem for the greatfestival. The Spirit’s first gift is one ofpowerful communication of the factsabout Jesus, so that thousands could begathered into the Kingdom.

So, Father, Son and Holy Spirit - all threePersons of the Trinity demonstrate theirtotal commitment to making possible therestoration of men and women to thefellowship with God for which they weredesigned. The Living God is mostprofoundly a missionary God.

Unless Christians grasp that mission isessentially rooted in the character of God,

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their understanding and practice ofmission, and their motivation forengagement in mission, will always beimpoverished, distorted and defective. Sothere must always be an ongoing deeplytheological task (in the truest sense of“theological”: devoted to the wisdom andknowledge of God) in the mobilisation ofthe church to mission. This must happenfor each successive generation, so thatas each new generation takes up the batonof discipleship and disciple-making, theyhave embraced and internalised the truewell-spring of mission.Praxis without biblicaland theologicalreflection soondegenerates into “theenergy of the flesh” andworks-based service, asort of baptisedhumanism, what weachieve rather thanWhom we reflect. Thisis why in the Missions Commission wegive ourselves not only to passionateevangelism but also to Spirit-soakedtheological reflection.

The Cross declares both love andjudgement

Above all else, it is the Cross that declaresthe missional heart of God. This is theultimate length to which God must go inorder to deal with death, the wages of sin,and restore life and communion withhimself. In the person of the Son, our LordJesus Christ, God must himself bear thepunishment of human rebellion, and the onewithout sin must become sin. The Lord andCreator of life must die, in order that thosewho are by nature dead because of sinmay be born again into life without end.

What love! What seeking, saving love!But here is love that must be true to thewhole nature of God, so that justjudgement, divine wrath against sin, andyearning love go hand in hand. Had Godbeen other than a missionary God, had henot loved the world beyond ourcomprehension, the Father would nothave paid the agonising price ofseparation from his only beloved Son; theSon would not have paid the price ofvoluntarily leaving the glory of heavenfor poverty, rejection, suffering and the

ultimate depths of hisdeath; and the Spiritwould not have comefor the express purposeof empoweringChristians to declare byword and life the truthabout the Cross andResurrection. This isno passive declarationof love. It is full of

movement, full of the initiatives of graceand of action that God alone could take.It reaches from eternity to eternity,embracing all of time and space andhistory, the whole of humankind and thewhole creation, in its intended scope. So,the Father sends the Son, and the Fatherand the Son send the Spirit. And Father,Son and Spirit send God’s people out intothe whole of God’s world, to bear witnessto that seeking, saving God, through howwe live, how we are being transformed,how we speak, how we make visible theKingdom of God, and how we die.

How wide is the heart of God?

The Bible absolutely negates thepossibility of universalism or of pluralismbeing acceptable in the eyes of ourcompassionate Lord. All religions,

This is why in theMissions Commissionwe give ourselves not

only to passionateevangelism but also to

Spirit-soakedtheological reflection.

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however sincerely held, do not lead toGod. There is only one true and livingGod, the Trinitarian God of Father, Sonand Holy Spirit. And there is only oneway of reconciliation with him: throughthe death and resurrection of the LordJesus.

It was the greatest tragedy imaginable thatthe Old Testament people of God sodeeply misunderstood their responsibilityto the surrounding nations. Yes, theremust be destruction of all foreign gods,and relentless denunciation of them andof the worship of them. But, as God madeso vividly clear to Abraham, this specialpeople were to bring blessing to all thenations of the earth. They were so to live,and so to worship, that those who were“outside” would be able to see embodied- incarnated - what the trueGod was like, what hedemanded of his creatures,what true faith andobedience looked like.The Temple was to be notonly the place of sacrifice,but also the place whereGentiles could be prayedfor and welcomed andgathered in, shown and taught what trueworship was all about. Grace was for Jewand Gentile alike.

Tragically, the Jews lost sight of this mostfundamental truth about their role in God’splan for the world, and diminished God toa tribal god, a god for their people alone.Even after Pentecost, and then later theextraordinary events connected with firstthe Samaritans coming to faith, thenPeter’s encounter with Cornelius, the earlyChristians found it almost impossible tobelieve that God could really want to saveGentiles. This fusion of Jewish and

Gentile believers into one family of Godproved too high a barrier for many toaccept, so that within a very few decadesthe church was virtually entirely Gentile,and its Jewish strands faded away. Thatfirst century story has become so familiarthat we easily lose sight of the way wetoo easily fall into the same failure to graspthe grace of God as did those Jewishbelievers who could not believe God’sfavour could rest on Gentiles. How oftendo we want people to become like usbefore we can believe they are followingJesus? How often do we want to hoardthe gospel for those like ourselves ratherthan share it prodigally with those on themargins of society or of cultures wildlydifferent from our own? Do we, like thoseearly Jews, try to domesticate God,consciously or unconsciously?

The church has alwaysebbed and flowed, butwhenever it has becomepreoccupied with itselfand lost sight of itsmissionary calling, it haslost its way. Sometimesit has disappeared fromview, as with the North

African churches in the early years of therapid expansion of Islam. Sometimes ithas become a hollow and spirituallypowerless institution, as with some of theEuropean churches in the past twohundred years. On the other hand,whenever it has turned out towards theworld with a missionary heart, seeking tobring the gospel of Christ to thoseoutside the church’s boundaries, it hasrecovered its meaning for being. For inreaching out in love and longing, it hasbegun to beat again with the heart of God,it has begun once again to reflect thecharacter of the God in whose name it

Do we, like thoseearly Jews, try todomesticate God,

consciously orunconsciously?

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stands. The church that is not missionalis no church at all. Our seeking and findingis a mirror reflection of God doing just thesame - and ahead of us. We seek andfind, because God first sought and found.

Reflecting the wholeness of God

What will authentic discipleship anddisciple-making look like, if we arereflecting the missionary heart of God?

To be sure, there must be consistent,urgent, reasoned and winsomedeclaration of the facts: the facts aboutthe Being of God, about sin andjudgement, about the Lord Jesus and hisdeath and resurrection, about new life inthe Spirit. The Lord’s own partinginstruction, immediately before hisascension into heaven, was that we must,as we go, wherever we go, make disciples- committed learner-followers - baptisingthem and teaching them. This is not thekind of instruction that leads to passingan examination in theory, but the teachingand mentoring and shaping that leads tolived-out, three-dimensional, ongoingobedience to all that Jesus taught. Thedepth and breadth and scope of this arebreath-taking. This is no minimalist halfdozen statements to assent to, nor thework of a passing encounter. Of course,there will be times when that’s all that’spossible, a small link in a chain where onecan only trust God to organise the otherlinks in the chain that leads to faith. Butoverwhelmingly Jesus is talking aboutsomething far more demanding andprofound.

And we need to grasp that the Kingdomof God is not just about words but aboutshowing in every dimension of life thatwe live under God’s authority and in the

reality of the transforming power of theSpirit. Often, I think, we have a veryshrunken view of the implications of theCross. We reduce it to a message of theneed for individuals to ‘make a decisionfor Christ’. While it is undoubtedly truethat God calls men and women andchildren to himself individually and byname, and that a response of growingrepentance and faith is necessary, theCross achieved far more even than this.For not only did Christ deal with sin as itaffects us individually, but he alsovanquished the principalities and powersof darkness. He created a new community,the community of the family of God, withnew relationships between his children aswell as between each one and himself. Thisnew community will be credible when itdisplays a passionate concern for justiceand mercy, for truth and generosity, forwatchful care for the orphan and widowand refugee, for love and service. It willbe a community of men and women andchildren reconciled across every barrierthat keeps our world fragmented into athousand broken pieces. How else will awatching world even begin to understandwhat the God of whom we speak is like?We are to be visual aids of the Kingdom.

Drawing to a close

We continue to struggle, still living in thein-between time, where we experience thetension between what we can alreadyenter into, and the not-yet of what stilllies ahead. The book of Revelation,difficult though it is to understand inmany respects, nonetheless brings intoclear focus what centuries before Isaiahhad already seen in vision: that newheaven and new earth, where the cosmicimpact of sin will be rolled back, and allshall be as the Creator first intended. At

16


the centre of it all, the enthroned Lamb,and around him, the nations of the wholeworld, bringing their tribute and worshipand love.

Just as in the here and now, we have tostruggle against sin and Satan’s defiantattempt to keep us entangled, seeking toshow that different way of life that Godoriginally intended and intends again, soalso we need to demonstrate wherever wecan what that different way of life lookslike when the rule of God breaks in. Thisis why, from time to time, God will grantmiracles of healing or victories ofdeliverance. Ethical commands are notarbitrary: they describe life that reflectsthe character of God himself. So we are tobe truthful because he is Truth, to befaithful because he is faithful, generousbecause he is the supremely generous andgrace-filled Giver, committed to justicebecause he is. And because he is Creatorand created - and will re-create - a perfectworld, we will seek to steward our worldin such a way as to honour him, and makeit easier for those who look at it torecognise his creative hand.

The God who is Trinity is nonethelessindivisible, and it is for this reason that aswe reflect his image in his world, we will

not only speak a message of salvation inthe narrower sense, but we will also reflectour God as Creator and sustainer, as life-bringer and reconciler, as healer and light,as source of justice and mercy. All theseand more are part and parcel of what itmeans to stand at the frontiers betweenfaith and unbelief, and demonstrate whatit means to belong to the Most High, sothat the nations may be drawn to knowand love him.

We are sent out into the world in greatweakness, and yet with divine authority.We are sent, as our Lord Jesus was sent,into hostility and rejection, as well aswelcome and response. Like him, we musthold the life of the Cross at the heart of itall, willing to suffer, willing to die, if onlythat may open the doorway to life forothers. He sends us, whoever we are, fromevery corner of the globe, to love and woohis precious world, whether the world ofour own homes and families andneighbourhoods, or the world of aliencultures and distant peoples. For thiswhole world is his by right of creation andby right of redemption, and until our LordJesus comes again we are sent to do ourFather’s business. And that meanshaving hearts that beat with his heartbeat.

Rose Dowsett serves as International Chairman of InterserveInternational, is a member of the WEA Theological Commission, and aWEA Missions Commission associate. She can be contacted [email protected] or [email protected].

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Introduction

With the globalization of the Christian church andmission, mission is no longer as simple as it used to be inthe beginning of the modern missionary movement. Thenthere was virtually no church other than that of the West.Today there are churches in nearly every country of theworld if we move out of an “unreached people group”framework that almost dominated a number ofmissiological strategy camps for the past three decades.According to this missiological thinking the world isneatly divided between “reached” and “unreached”when coming to strategizing. This way of looking at theworld is no longer possible with the globalization of boththe churches and its mission societies. We now havesending churches as well as receiving churches all overthe world. The Two-Thirds World, once a mission field,has not only become missionary sending block as wellas the West, but also both the West and the Two-ThirdsWorld are all senders and receivers of missionariessimultaneously. Therefore relationship between thechurch and mission societies must be reexamined to suitthe new context of the 21st century. I will first provide ahistorical overview, followed by a biblical and criticalanalysis of the current dominant theory. Third, I willattempt to examine the topic in relation to the globalizationof the church and mission societies. Finally there will besome suggestion for application of the findings.

Historical Overview

As we survey missiological literatures, regretfully littlehas been published about the church and missionrelationship, let alone about missional structures of boththe church and mission societies. One of the reasons

Rethinking Missional Structures in theGlobalized Mission Context, Both Church andMission Societies

With theglobalization of

the Christianchurch and

mission,mission is no

longer assimple as it

used to be inthe beginningof the modern

missionarymovement.

by David Tai Woong Lee

18


may be because our missiologizing so farhas focused on church and missionsocieties with the field perspective, tryingto find appropriate relationships betweenthe mission as sent (by the West) and thechurch as planted (in the Two-ThirdsWorld). Even those that were written onlypaid a lip service when coming to the themeof missional structures of both the churchand mission societies and how they applyin doing mission. We need to move on toinclude both the sending aspect of thechurch and her mission societies as themissional structures for our discussions.This would not only force us to look atthe church and mission societiespragmatically and strategically, but alsotheologically and ontologically. Thediscussion will inevitably take us back tothe Bible and we will be required todetermine what the Bible has to say aboutmissional structures of both the churchand mission societies.

Perhaps the most popular theory inrelation to missionalstructures of both thechurch and missionsocieties, was the “twostructure theory” soeloquently presented byRalph Winter. It seemsthat this view of sodalityand modality has helpedshape Western mission,particularly from NorthAmerica, since WorldWar II. It fitted conveniently with thewestern worldview and the nature ofmissionary outreach since the modernmissionary movement began, whenmission was almost synonymous with“overseas” ministry. Despite a danger ofcreating a caricature, I mention only a few

possible reasons that led the westernmissionary community to embrace thistheory wholeheartedly.

First, neatly dividing the role of missionsocieties and church probably was easierfor the western worldview than that of thenon-West. It was natural and convenientfor the churches to be engaged inministering to her own people, while themission societies were concerned with socalled “overseas” ministries. In many ofthe Two-Thirds World contexts such aclear and neat division of the roles is notpossible, for they tend to think morewholistically. Geographically, they arecloser to the mission field. All of thesefactors will demand a greater integrationof church and mission societies asmissional structures. Second, themodeling after the missionary teams sentout by the Church of Antioch in Acts 13was the closest to the form that the Westconveniently adopted at the time of theWestern hegemony of mission. This was

the missional structureknown to some as the“Antioch model.”

Throughout the last halfcentury a number ofstudies have beenundertaken andmissiologizing effortswere made in relation toecclesiology andmission. In practice,

though, the Western model of missionfollowed the Antioch model without toomuch criticism until perhaps 1985 or so,when the Western churches began to raisegreater concern over a dichotomist natureof the missionary work. It may sound oversimplistic, but according to this theory

Throughout the lasthalf century a numberof studies have been

undertaken andmissiologizing effortswere made in relation

to ecclesiology andmission.

19


churches usually give personnel andmoney while the mission societies do theactual mission, in many casesindependently from the church, thusconveniently dividing the roles. A numberof the Two-Thirds World missionstructures have also been built under thesame rubrics. This is seen especially incountries that have to send theirmissionaries “overseas,” over againstworking in their own localities.

By the end of the twentieth century theso-called mission fields did not only havechurches but also began to engage in theirown mission expression. As a result ofglobalization there are now churches andmission societies actively engaged inmissions globally. It is in fact happeningall over the globe without a fixed direction.Consequently the missionary task is nolonger neatly divided between the churchand mission societies structures. This istrue not only for multi-cultural contextsuch as some parts of Central Asiannations. It is also true for a mono-lingualand mono-cultural context like Koreawhere the cultural gap between agegroups is becoming bigger and bigger,and the context in which the church findsherself is rapidly changing socially andculturally with the glocalization effect. Inthis context it would be appropriate to lookafresh at the relationship between thechurch and mission, especially from theviewpoint of structural function.

Biblical and Critical Analysis

Now we need to go back to the Bible andtake a fresh look at it to find some cluesfor missional structures in light of theglobalization of the church and missionsociety. Because of our space, it will belimited to analyzing only pre and post-

Acts 13 passages. If we can establish theauthenticity of mission by the churchbefore any other missional structures werefounded, including sending of missionaryteam by the Antioch church, it will helpus to see that the local church is alsointended by the Holy Spirit to be amissional structure.

Pre-Acts 13 Passages

There is much evidence of passages thatreveal the church as receiver of the GreatCommission. Almost all of the studies thatdeal with the biblical basis of missionagree on the following points: (1) Missionis not simply based on Mathew 28:18-20.It is based on the whole Bible, includingthe Old Testament. Jesus succinctlysummarizes this in Luke 24:43-48 in Hisresurrection teachings. (2) The church hasthe central place in God’s entire mission.The church has never been permanentlyrelieved of its obligation to carry out theGreat Commission, despite the fact that itmight have been enthusiastic groupsrather than the churches that formed themissionary teams that God used to launchmodern missionary movement. Even then,while the essential nature of the churchhad not changed, the fact is that thechurch failed to act upon it. In thisglobalized context, it is no longeraffordable for the church to be sitting idlyby while mission is done in the same wayas it has been done in the last two centuries.

Perhaps no other author has made so clearof the progressive nature as well as thecontinuity of the whole plan of worldmission of God than Luke in his two books.The founding of the church in Acts 2 isno accident. It was in the heart of Godfrom the foundation of the world. Eventhe coming of Jesus, the training of twelve,

20


cross and resurrection anticipated thebirth of the church. This church was to bethe recipient of the Great Commission.The coming of the Holy Spirit made thechurch in Jerusalem fulfill herresponsibility of doing mission. DavidBosch has stated this fact very succinctlywhen he said:

The classical doctrine of the missionDei as God the Father sending the Sonand God the Father and the Sonsending the Spirit (is) expanded toinclude yet another movement: Father,Son and Holy Spirit sending thechurch (emphasis mine) into the world.

Luke gives Acts 1:8 as the thematic versefor his book and consequently for theentire missional program of church of God.The Holy Spirit used the newly foundedchurch to spread the kingdom of God “inJerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria,and the ends of the earth.” If not inprinciple, then in practice, Westernmissiology has grossly overlooked themission of God in Jerusalem, Judea andSamaria by the Jerusalem church. Insteadit has jumped to the post-Acts 13 for itsbasis. In so doing it has conveniently builtits missiology largely upon the missionaryteam as its main structure at the cost ofthe church as the missional structure.There is an urgent need to explore theJerusalem church model as a legitimatemissional structure for the globalized 21st

century without dismantling the conceptof the missionary team. As Harry Boer hadrightly argued, by being filled with theHoly Spirit the Jerusalem church did morethan its share of mission as it spread thegood news simultaneously in Jerusalem,Judea and Samaria until the Jerusalemchurch extended its parameter to the

Antioch and beyond. Lausanne II inManila, 1989, captured this idea well whenit used the catch phrase the “wholechurch, the whole Gospel and the wholeworld.

Post-Acts 13 as the biblical basis for themissional structure

We see in Acts 13 that the church atAntioch was planted and nurtured by themissional work of the Jerusalem church,in the context of persecution. It was thechurch at Antioch that sent out mission-ary teams to extend its horizon even far-ther. While Luke focuses his emphasis ontraveling missionary teams in the rest ofthe Book of Acts, there is no warrant toclaim that mission is from then on the soleresponsibility of the missionary team. Thechurch has never been excused in doingthe missionary work even as it sends themissionary team. One must go beyondActs to the Epistles in the New Testamentsuch as Corinthians and Thessaloniansto prove this. It will be omitted in this pa-per, as it will take another paper to includeall of the evidences. Bruce K. Camp, how-ever, has helped us to put the status ofthe missionary teams in right perspective.

In regard to the belief that churchstructures must be primarily nurture-oriented, and agency structures must beprimarily outreach-oriented, the historicaland didactic portions of the Scriptures donot support this position…Pragmaticallyspeaking, agencies (independent ordenominational) are a gift from God andshould be utilized by congregations…Legitimacy ascribed to mission agenciesstems from their service with churches, notfrom usurping the local church’s biblicalmandate.

21


Meanwhile, the missional structures fromthe West were mainly built upon thismodel with little exceptions, thus neatlydividing mission as done “overseas”while evangelism at “home.” We admitthat the missional structure based on thispassage of the Scriptures has servedworld missions, particularly in thebeginning of the modern missionarymovement when the established churchof the 18th century did little to send outmissionary teams. We acknowledge thatthis structure was used effectively andhas filled the gap for several centuriessince than. At the same time we mustadmit that any reductionistic view of themissional structures will not be able toprovide sufficient basis for the globalizedcontext of 21st century mission.

Prior to the rise of the Two-Thirds Worldmissionary movement in the 1970’s, whenthere were very little missional activitiestaking place other than from the West, theemphasis on the missional structuresbased on the “Antioch Model” seemedbearable. In this global era, when missionalactivities take place in a global scale, wemust reclaim the Jerusalem church modelwith the local church as a legitimatemissional structure without neglecting theAntioch model.

What then is the relationship between thetwo models? Is it one of equals or of onebeing dispensable, as some missiologistsseems to suggest? It is true that God canuse anything, and some churches havebeen bypassed when they shutthemselves out of the will of God. But it isalso true that God did not remove theresponsibility of carrying out the GreatCommission from the church throughoutthe ages. Even while the missionary team

was being sent out, both the Jerusalemand Antioch churches had a central rolein mission: nurturing, preparing,interceding, sending and keeping themissionaries accountable to the church.Missionary teams reporting back to thechurch in Acts are one of the strongevidences of this phenomenon. As in Acts15, whenever a major decision wasneeded, the church was consulted. In thisregard, those who are in the missionalchurch movement, which began with theinspiration of the late Lesslie Newbigen,have done us a valuable service. Theyhave helped us to revive the church asthe legitimate missional structure in thewestern context. Bill Taylor has said thesame thing succinctly:

A church cannot just have a missionsprogram; it must be missional where it isand then radiate its influence in a GoodNews spiral of community, integrity,grace, salt and impact. Today bydefinition churches must be cross-cultural grappling with differentgenerations, ethnicities and worldviews.The nations/ethnicities are fluid-comingand going, whether voluntarily(immigration) or involuntary (refugees -legal and illegal).

Having entered the new millennium, wemust look at the Scripture afresh anddeclare loudly and clearly to the world thatthe church is missional both theologicallyas well as practically. The missionary teamis also missional, used by God in the earlychurch even in its primitive structuralforms, and will be used continually asdirected and overseen by the church.More sophisticated structures of the lattermodel have been used extensively in thelast two centuries during the modern

22


missionary movement. Thisunderstanding is probably not new tomany. Yet to understand this theologicallyas well as applying it on a practical levelis another thing. It is a matter of greatimportance for the 21st century. We shallsee the reasons in the next section onglobalization and missional structures.

Globalization and Missional Structures

With the coming of the moderntechnological development of the midtwentieth century the world became aglobal village. The world is now moreinterconnected than ever before in thehistory of the mankind. This face ofglobalization has had a tremendous impactupon all sectors ofsociety globally,particularly social-cultural-commercially,but no less religiously.Christian church andmission have to be donedifferently than before. Ithas to take the newcontext intoconsideration. Unless wetake globality and its implications for themission seriously, we will be swept overby the secular force of globalization. Weneed to globalize Christianly withkingdom of God values throughout ourworld evangelization. Christianity is bynature global. The Bible never onceadvocated a regional or a tribal religion.Its doctrines such as God, the Savior, thechurch, the Kingdom of God are all globalin orientation.

We are now living witnesses of theglobalization of the church and missionsince the late twentieth century. As PatrickJohnstone suggests in, The Church is

Bigger Than You Think, we havechurches initially planted by the missionsocieties and since than self-propagatedin many Two-Thirds World countries. Inmany cases they are facing similarsituations as the New Testament times.The churches are usually surrounded bycultures that are antagonistic to theChristians, animistic in worldview (closerto a Biblical reality than not) oftenrequiring cross-cultural workers in theirown locale to be thoughtfully effective.Countries like India, parts of Africa andLatin America would be the classicexamples. But they are not the only placesthat require workers trained in cross-cultural ministry in their own locale.

Mono-lingual-culturalcountries such as Korea,Japan and parts of Chinaare also in need of thistype of ministry.

In this regard, it is criticalfor the 21st centurymissional vision that thechurch recovers itsmissional identity as well

as its function, especially when there arechurches scattered globally. Missionariesalone, for instance, cannot reach China.The Chinese church, whether it open orhouse churches in form can, however,make a tremendous difference. Themissional church movement has done usa great service in claiming thistheologically by their writings in the lastdecade or so in the western context.There is a fear, though, that the Westmight neglect the sending of themissionaries through the missionalstructure consist of missionary teams asthe environment turns more and morehostile to Americans after the September

With the coming ofthe modern

technologicaldevelopment of the

mid twentieth centurythe world became a

global village.

23


11, 2001 attack, and only concentrate onthe church doing mission in her ownimmediate world.

The ongoing sending of missionary teamsthrough similar structures, as the Westhas done, must not be minimized either inthe West or the Two-Thirds World. It willtake no less than the two structures to dothe task of reaching the world in this 21st

century. However, if mission is done inthe same way that was done in the lasttwo centuries since the beginning of themodern missionary movement began, theworld will never be reached even afteranother millennium.

Practical Implications for Both Churchand Mission Structures

There are at least two dangers that wemust guard against in missiologizing boththe church and mission as legitimatemissional structures. The first is apossibility of missionary work lapsingback into local affairs. This is also true ofthe “missional church movement.” Inemphasizing the missional church, thefocus of the church may shift fromsending global missionary teams tofulfilling its mission duty right where theyare, namely the West in this case. It is onething to reinstate the church its originalnature as missional. It is another thing toneglect its duty to other parts of the worldwhere pioneering work is still to be doneamongst unreached people groups. Thechurches in the Two-Thirds World can fallinto the same error. While there areunprecedented opportunities for thechurches to serve right where they are, itis also true that there are still many placeswhere only the sending of the cross-cultural missionaries can do the job. Thismust be done not with one simple variable,

though, as we have done in the latter partof the twentieth century. More and morewe must look at multi-variables and multi-locations in sending missionaries. Wemust not overlook nor weaken the sendingof the missionaries.

The second item offers the other side ofthe coin. The global church must notsimply send missionaries as she has beendoing for several centuries and say thatshe has done her duty in mission. For onething it is not biblical, as we have seenabove, for the church to relegate missionto missionary teams and go about doingher own things. The other thing is thatmore and more, the church will have toface the fact that her own back and frontyards are cross-cultural setting. This hasbeen the case for the most of the Two-Thirds World contexts except a few areaswhere the evangelization has had unusualsuccess. Otherwise it is more like a firstcentury context in doing mission. Missionmust take place simultaneously both bythe church and the missionary teams asin the Book of Acts. The West is noexception when coming to this point, forsome parts of the West long since haveentered the post-Christian era similar tothat of the Two-Thirds World.

As we enter the 21st century of theglobalized mission context, we faceunprecedented odds that work againstChristian mission. There was theSeptember 11, 2001 incident, then the warbetween the United States and Iraq, withall of its implications. The globalizationof major missionary minded religions suchas Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism poisesno small threat to the cause of theChristian mission throughout the world,particularly the West as the vast numbers

24


of immigrants with their own religionsalready occupy many parts of Europe. Yet,if we consider churches that have a globalperspective, capable of functioning asmissional structures in their own right intheir own context, we have a totallydifferent outlook. If we add to this thepotential that the churches with such aperspective will send out missionaryteams both to the West and the Two-Thirds World, we face unprecedentedopportunity to complete theevangelization of the world in the nearfuture.

For this to actually happen we will needto include the church inour missiologizing asnever before, especiallywhen missionary teamwas the main focus ofmissiology. Further, weneed to discuss what arethe implications whenboth the church andmission societiesfunction as the missional structures. Forexample, it does not necessary mean thatchurches and mission societies competewith each other, operate independently ofeach as they send out missionary teams.The church must, at all times, fulfill her

missional duties locally as well as globally.Preferably, it will mean that both churchand mission societies work in harmony,where the church engages in missionlocally as well as sending teams globallyin corroboration with mission societies.

How is this different from the old form ofmissiologizing on the church and mission?Functionally there seems to be not muchdifference. Ontologically, though, thechurch is missionary by nature, and byits mission to its own context and also bysending teams to remote areas, it becomesan equal-value missional structure. Therewill be fewer dichotomies between the

church as missional andthe sent missionaryteam as missional. Wewill need no less thanthe whole church in allher facets to actuallycomplete the GreatCommission given bythe risen Lord. It isunthinkable that the

Lord would give us an impossible task.But it will be impossible without bothmissional structures, the church andmission societies respectively, with thechurch being the official heirs of the divinecommand to disciple the whole world.

We will need noless than the whole

church in all herfacets to actually

complete the GreatCommission given

David Tai- Woong Lee is the director of the Global Missionary TrainingCenter in Seoul, Korea, Chairman of the board of directors for theGlobal Missionary Fellowship, and a member of the WEA MissionsCommission Global Leadership Team. He can be contacted [email protected]

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Some initial thoughts

Perhaps I should start with the clarification that my pointof reference on “generations” is as a younger missionleader from the UK. Some of my statements may applyto other parts of the West, but just as I suggest later thateveryone is a child of their time, so I must recognise thatI still wear the cultural lenses of my background andupbringing. Each culture, however, has at least threegenerations, and they will have their particular points ofview. The second clarification is that whilst I believethese views to be reasonably representative of mygeneration, diversity is a characteristic of our time and Iargue later against generalisations so the bottom line isthat these are my views so like the warning label oncertain products, “Apply with care”.

It is often said that Xers are contradictory and seem tolive with unresolved tension in their lives. I would agree,but there is a tension or contradiction that most Xerscannot stand, and that is an incomplete life. What do Imean when I say an incomplete life? Mission for the Xeris a life commitment. It will last for the whole of our lives,it will be life encompassing but will be worked out in allsorts of ways and, most likely, settings too. We cannotfollow Jesus just on Sundays, or in just one geographicalsetting. We may not be as good at following Jesus onSundays as our forefathers but hopefully we are muchmore likely to follow through on the other days of theweek. We have never had a sacred-secular divide in ourlives. By the time we came of age, the sacred canopyhad long since been blown off by the howling gale ofscientific modernity. It was never un-cool to be intospiritual things. Spirituality is trendy. There has never

Reflections on Mission andthe Great Commission:

by Rob Hay

Are we dysfunctional, difficult or just different -considering Xers.

It is often said

that Xers are

contradictory

and seem to

live with

unresolved

tension in their

lives.

26


been the pressure to divide up our livesfor different audiences-the one we spendSunday with and the one we spend therest of our lives with.

We are different - but so are youAccepting that we are children of our time

Another thing I am conscious of beingaccused of is that Gen Xers are cynical. Ifby cynical you mean that I am cautious ofpeople’s motives and their ability todeliver, I would have to say yes, I amcynical.

The time of the Boomers (the generationabove us), with whom we often stand in acontrasting position on so many things,was an age of expectation, hope anddiscovery. An example: Boomers grewup in an age where they watched mantravel to and then walk on the moon(1969). Ask them who the first astronautswere to walk on the moon and they willtell you Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.They will probably remember watching thelanding on TV, albeit in black and white.

Xers grew up in a time and a world thatwas very different. If you ask me as anXer what I remember watching on TV, Iremember the first space shuttle launch. Ican tell you the names of Aldrin andArmstrong, but that is from legend andanswering quiz questions. Ask me whichnames come to mind? Space ShuttleChallenger and Christa McAuliffe. Who?I hear you say. She was to be the firstteacher in space. It was the realisation ofthe dream talked about in the fifties,sixties and seventies - space flight for thecommon man/woman. Something thatwould become regular, easy and common-place. She did not make it. Challengerblew up on take off. That is my memory

of space exploration.

I could give numerous other examples.The free love of Boomers became theAIDS epidemic of Xers. The shorterworking week and early retirement hasbecome the long hours and worthlessinvestment plans.

“Cynicism is lack of optimism” say ourelders. “It is realism” we reply.

Add to this the fact that we grew up at thepeak of the cold-war. I was talking to afriend recently about the UK children’snews programme, Newsround. This is a5pm show that does a summary of newsfor children just home from school. Theoverwhelming theme we remember fromthe years we watched as children was thecold war stand off and the nuclear armsrace. There was a real imminentexpectancy of nuclear conflict and theresultant world destruction. Wegenuinely felt it was unlikely we wouldmake it to forty! Given this childhood is itany wonder that we are sometimesaccused of being short-termist?

Tolerance on “truth”Our primary school mantra

Another area we generally find difficult isstraight apologetics. We have grown upfrom childhood being taught that the onlyintolerable thing is intolerance. It was finefor us to be into spiritual things. Everyoneelse was. But it was not fine for us toclaim that ours was right and theirs waswrong. Why? Because we did not have amonopoly on the truth. In England I grewup with a Prince who, knowing he wasdestined, as King, to become the Head ofthe Church of England, had declared hewanted to be “defender of faiths” not“defender of the faith”.

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IntegrityThe antidote to an incomplete life

The definition of integrity is “The qualityor condition of being whole or undivided;completeness” A divided life as I said atthe start is a tension too far. Given theimportance of integrity I find, for example,any underhandedness in mission quitedistasteful. For instance, the “work” visasfor creative access countries that arenever worked for! In the same way withwitnessing (even in the light of what Ihave just said on tolerance), I find myselfhappier to reveal my true colours and nailthese to the mast, than kid myself for thesake of a pseudo tolerance. If I genuinelybelieve that Jesus is the best thing thatcan happen tosomebody, I must wantmy Muslim, Hindu orAtheist friend to meethim and interact with himas Saviour and Lord.Therefore the bottomline is that I do have aconversionist agendaand for the sake of myintegrity I need to ownthat. When tolerancemeets integrity I have tobe honest with myself and with otherstherefore integrity wins out.

Children of The Word [Logos]Strap lines, sound bytes and thecharacter of God

When Bill Taylor first asked me to writesomething on Xers and the GreatCommission my reply was “Ok, so longas you don’t just mean Matthew 28:19”.Why? Because that passage is primarilyused by too many as a slogan….a goodslogan but a slogan all the same. And it

was more than just the strap line that Jesusused to sum up thirty years of work andthree years of training. Unfortunately inthese days of sound bytes you couldsometimes be mistaken for thinking that itis the Bible’s first and last word on mission.When every other book on the top tenChristian best seller book list is “The______ steps to spiritual _____.” (Inserta number below 8 in the first space, insertalmost anything desired in the secondone, e.g. success, diet, high) is it anywonder that mission is popular only whenit is simple and easy?

For me mission is seen first with Genesis12 (and there are pointers to mission evenbefore this) and runs right through to the

end of Revelation.Scripture helps me seeGod, the source ofmission, and understandthe world (the beautifulcreation, now fallen andbroken, one world nottwo) which is our contextfor mission. I cannotever hope to understandthe diversity andcomplexity of either Godor his World and

therefore mission is something I can neverhope to pin down. Mission is thecharacter of God.

Perhaps this is another reason I findapologetics difficult. There is a part of methat knows fundamentally I have nointerest in giving my time, life and worshipto a God I can understand. If I can, he isnot big enough to warrant my effort andmy response. Any kind of attempt toreduce mission to a slogan, a target to bemet by hard work and human resources,leaves me cold. Much of the ongoing

Much of the ongoingeffort to segmentand strategise the

mission task ends uplooking so Babel-like

as we build, striveand stretch to reach

our goals.

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effort to segment and strategise themission task ends up looking so Babel-like as we build, strive and stretch to reachour goals.

Don’t get me wrong. I trained in strategicmanagement, am experienced in projectmanagement and have spent the lastcouple of years in research. I believe instrategy. I believe in research. I believein planning. We need to be the beststrategists and the best planners we canbe, working with the most robust researchdata we can get. Anything else is notworthy of my God. But we also need tohave complete faith that we can’t do it.That’s right; we need to believe that wecannot do it! When asking our supportersto pray for us I say “Pray that our workwill be as good as it can be and pray thatwe will never think it is enough.”

I am not advocating becoming aworkaholic (we have enough of thosealready in mission). I am advocatingrealism. For instance, mission requiresrelationships, but often the structures,strategies and programmes leave scantroom for such nebulous and intangiblethings. I have a friend who, when workingas a church planter inEurope, reached a pointwhere he was so busy withdoor-to-door and otherevangelistic efforts, he hadno non-Christian friendsand no time to make them.He quit traditional mission,started a business and found time forcoffee shops and wine bars. It had littlestrategy but at least he had some non-Christian friends to relate to. When wecome to the work of mission there seemsto be a fine balance between “let go andlet God” and “we can win the world for

Jesus”. For us, as for every generation,the key is finding the balance.

“Friends™” and Philosophy

Descartes was called the father of modernphilosophy and is best known for hisphrase “I think, therefore I am.” If we hada father of post-modern philosophyperhaps he would say “I relate, thereforeI am.” Certainly Xers have been calledthe “Friends™” generation (the USA TVshow) for their need to relate.Relationships take time and energy. Frommy years in Asia I learnt much about whata society is like when it places relating asa higher priority than time keeping andstructure. It is messy to a Westerner,particularly to an Englishman! It is rarelytidy, organised or indeed having anyappearance of efficiency, at least as wedescribe it in the West. But there is adepth to their relationships and afunctioning of community that we in theWest do not begin to understand. Perhapsthis is why we do not understand howthe non-Western Church is so effectivein its missional endeavours, how thecentre of the church has shiftedsouthwards when they don’t seem to have

many (sometimes any) ofthe structures, resourcesand size we think are soessential to “do mission”.

This emphasis in mygeneration on the need torelate is, I believe, a God-

event. It is appropriate and God’sprovision for the time. Still, in missions Iregularly hear people talk about“worldviews” to describe the outlook ofa people group, country and even acontinent. And yet it is so seldom thatone can speak of a collective worldview.

For us, as forevery generation,the key is finding

the balance.

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We live in a solipsistic world where formany people the only thing that can trulybe known is the self. The experiences ofindividuals are increasingly shaped anddiversified by the forces of globalisation.Even in the remote parts of the Himalayas,people’s worldview is not common to theirvillage or valley anymore. They havetravelled and seen and experienced at firsthand, or at least vicariously throughsatellite TV, the world beyond their locale.Therefore there is a diversity of experienceand consequently thinking andperspective not known before. For myselfI find even now I have more in commonwith my software programmer friend inKathmandu (who falls in an Asian orNepali worldview) who I can email or callon his cell phone, than I do with theunemployed miner I met in North EastEngland (with whom I supposedly sharea Western, British or English worldview).In a diverse world where generalisationsapply less meaningfully than before, andease of travel and communication hastransformed daily life, relating seems tobe something I can do, something that Iam meant to do. Now my only problem isto find time.

Work Life Balance

I remember a comment from one of myteam in Asia when another colleague wasleaving: “I don’t think we will get someoneto do his job, it will need at least threepeople” (said with a slight tone of awe inhis voice). I said “Yes, he’s amazing. Idon’t know how he manages to do somuch” (the tone of weariness evident inmine). Recently, I thought back to thiscolleague who left the field with childrenin their early teens. My wife had justreturned from a workshop on eatingdisorders-it was run for mission agencies!It highlighted some early research that

seems to indicate an apparently higherlevel of eating disorders amongst thechildren of mission partners than amongstthe general population. Unbelievable?Then she told me a story of a girl who hadexplained that during a furlough she hadjoined the queue of people waiting to talkto the mission speakers after a churchmeeting. She had a long wait, they werepopular speakers, but she waited becauseshe really wanted to talk to them-shewanted to share a major life event withthem. They were her parents! This wasthe only way that she could get theirattention in the busyness of their furlough.As I thought back to my old team membera cold chill ran down my spine.

Work/life balance is not a sound byte forme, or I believe for most Xers. Nor is itcoming out of a self-centredness. In arecent survey, 91% of Xers wanted to havea family. Work-life balance is anotheraspect of a whole life. We want to be goodmissionaries and good parents. Goodchildren to our own parents and goodfriends to others. We recognise that thismeans we probably cannot be the “bestmissionary” that ever lived. Balance byits nature requires elements ofcompromise. If that is slack, if that is notsacrificial enough, then we must agree todiffer and I will accept the title of “slacker”!For me, I would rather answer to Godabout why I was only an OK missionaryand an OK Dad who did his best at both,rather than hiding my screwed-up kidsbehind all the churches I had planted.That’s the only conclusion my exegesis ofMatthew 15 allows.

Something distinct to say

Beyond the fact that a healthy work-lifebalance might mean my kids are notsacrificed on the altar of my work, I also

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believe that my message can be moremeaningful. We live in a time (at least inthe West) where the search for the spiritualis probably greater than at any time sincethe beginning of the Enlightenment andyet we seem to have succeeded in makingthe church irrelevant to answering so manypeople’s heart questions. Shoot me downif you will, but my experience is that mostnon-Christian friends don’t care whethertheir local church has a male or femaleminister, or even a homosexual one. Theycertainly aren’t aware of oureschatological issues. They are trying tohold their marriages together when theyhave to work 60 hour weeks to provide fortheir family’s lifestyle. They want to knowwhy, when they have all the possessions,they don’t also possess the happinessadvertised with the products. These arethe issues I hear people talking about whenthey go to the bars, coffee shops and gyms.I don’t hear them saying these things atchurch because they don’t even considercoming to church to find the answers. Iam not sure we have the answers inchurch! Perhaps we have less of a clue.The protestant work ethic that equatesservice to God with hours worked hasmade us a bunch of workaholics. In theUK, the rate of marriage break up is aboutthe same between Christians and non-Christians. The hours Christians spendaway from their family between work andchurch meetings is often far more then non-Christians. And then there arepossessions. If I am honest, I see littledifference between the way mostChristians and non-Christians spend. Forboth, obsolescence has come to meanwhen we don’t like the look of something,the fashion has changed or the colour isdifferent

Xers, and increasingly others too, discard

words that don’t match actions andtherefore until we have somethingdistinctive to offer, the meaningfulness ofmission will be limited and the messagediscarded as lacking authenticity. Andyet I take hope because I see in Xers thepotential to be different here. IncreasinglyI find friends who have chosen to workflexibly or part-time. Because of pressureat work they end up doing a forty hourweek in four days so rather than make itfifty or more they don’t work the fifth dayand spend a long weekend with their kids.Or one partner works three days and theother three days so that the kids are onlyin day care one day a week. They areprepared to put their money where theirmouth is and take the drop in income thatthis entails. We should and maybe doapplaud them, but I wonder what mostmissions would say to the idea!

Xers lack commitment

“No-one wants to serve long termanymore”. “I actually had a long-termapplicant the other day. Hadn’t had oneof those for about 4 years”

These are just two comments fromnumerous ones on the same theme that Ihave had from mission directors andpersonnel managers as I have visitedmissions around the UK. This puzzledme because it was not what I heard talkingto individuals, both those on the field andthose preparing to go. I did some limitedresearch on this last year. I gathered someXers together in focus groups andinterviewed others. I asked:How long do you feel called to serve inmission?The shortest answer was 10 years andmost were 20 years, to a lifetime.Then I asked:If asked at interview how long you would

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commit to with an organisation, whatwould you say?Almost unanimously the answer was 2-3years.I explored the difference. Two key thingscame out: Trust and Integrity. Trustingan organisation was hard. This is a traitof Xers, one developed for good reasons.We grew up in a time of organisationsfailing. Entire industries collapsed andleft our parents out of work-out of their“job for life”. The churches faced scandal-their failures exposed. Pensions incompanies had been diverted anddisappeared. The organisationsthemselves failed but they also failed thosethey were expected to help. One of myfriends was made redundant five times inhis first five years of work. It was not hisincompetence - he now has his ownsuccessful company, it was just “badluck”. But think how he feels aboutorganisations now. Is it any wonder thathe is slightly suspicious? How can loyaltyto an organisation be expected whensomeone’s experience is that noorganisation they have worked for hasever shown them any loyalty? I am notsaying that loyalty is impossible, just thatit needs to be earned and built up. In thefocus groups, one guy had done fiveshort-term mission trips with one agency.He knew them a bit and his experiencehad been that so far he had found themtrustworthy: he was prepared to committo two terms, five or six years. Hardly acareer commitment or a card carryingmission partner but he has the potential.

The ability to develop longer termcommitments was reinforced by ReMAPII (The WEA Missions Commission 20nation study on missionary retention)findings recently that showed that evenfor the worst retaining agencies, the

average length of mission service wasseven years and the best retainingagencies averaged seventeen years. Xerssee mission as long term. They will gowith the agencies that allow them in thefront door perhaps without a long-termcommitment but with the potential todevelop in the long term a trusting andmeaningful loyalty on both sides.

“I have been waiting for you Xers to seizepower from us Boomers as we did withthe Veterans 20 years ago, but youhaven’t done it yet”. - A Boomer

Xers have a self-confidence issue. Thisaffects our commitment as well as ouractions. The second reason people wouldonly commit to 2-3 years initially wasbecause they did not want to commit tosomething they could not fulfil. They didnot know how they would cope with theorganisation, the work, the climate, thelanguage. How would their family cope?To them committing long-term at theoutset was not enthusiastic, good orspiritual, it was naïve. Getting Xers intoleadership is equally hard. We often doubtour ability to do something well and haveseen the dangers of leadership. Thosethat have failed in their role or held onwith grim determination and elements ofdespotism to a job they should neverhave been given and were never skilledfor. We will only respect and follow thosethat lead with competence, integrity andauthenticity so why should we expectothers to follow us if we cannot, or at leastfeel we do not, measure up?

Conclusion

1. We Xers are committed to long-termmission (20 years plus) - but it isunlikely to be with one organisation

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and if it is to be with your organisationyou have to be prepared to build trustnot just expect to have it from day one.

2. We are wanting (and attempting) todo it wholistically - meeting peoplesphysical and spiritual needs. Onewithout the other is only half thegospel for us.

3. We want to be authentic. FollowingChrist means having a good ministryand a good marriage; or if not married,having a good ministry and a life ofwholeness.

4. We are attempting to contextualise andbe true to ourselves as we seek to domission.

5. We are not over-confident. This meansthere is little danger of triumphalism inour approach but we do needencouragement to step out in newroles, particularly in leadership.

6. We believe in missio dei; otherwise weare not interested. If it is seven stepsto anything, we see it as is a marketingploy, it’s too easy and won’t work. IfGod and his work is not beyond ourunderstanding he is not worthy of our

worship.7. We will give up material things and

sacrifice if the situation demands it.“He is no fool who gives what hecannot keep to gain what he cannotlose.” makes sense to Xers - why havea safe job for 40 years to pay into thepension plan when it will probably beworthless anyway!

8. We are passionate - not for a slick,polished strategy for an evangelisedworld with ticked off target groupsdesigned by a professional marketingexecutive. Rather for the reality of theKingdom that a carpenter from Nazarethtalked about. The reality that a messy,complicated and broken world looks for.

If you want a passage of scripture for mymissional vision as an Xer, try Isaiah 58;my strap line (if I have one):

“Those from among you shall build theold waste places; you shall raise up thefoundations of many generations; And youshall be called Repairer of the Breach,The Restorer of streets to dwell in.”

BibliographyVicedom, G. (1965) The mission of God: An introduction to a theology of mission.Concordia Berger, P. (1991) The Social Construction of Reality: Treatise in the Sociology ofKnowledge.Penguin Books Vermeulen, C. (2002) The significance of the Missio Dei concept for effectivemission today. <http://www.woodlandsproject.com/html/missiodei.html>

Rob Hay runs Generating Change, an organisation focused on helping missionseffect change. He is also a Research Fellow at Redcliffe College (Gloucester,UK) researching, lecturing and writing on generational issues and societal change.He spent several years in Asia with an international mission agency and waspreviously a management consultant. He is a Member of the Institute ofDirectors and UK Co-ordinator for ReMAPII. He is married to Sarah, a HRconsultant, and they have a two year old son, Thomas. Rob can be contactedon [email protected] or [email protected] . Vvisitwww.generatingchange.co.uk.

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During the long and painful Soviet occupation ofAfghanistan, tribal warlords who seemed unable to agreeon anything except that they wanted the Soviets outwaged opposition. What united them was the negativemotivation to rid their land of the occupiers. They wereunited against the Soviet puppet government, but couldnot agree on what to replace them with. As a result, oncethe Soviets left Afghanistan, what followed was a periodof internal strife that led eventually to the success of theyoung Taliban, and the beginning of a new brutaldictatorship. Yet, when compared to our fragmentedEvangelical missions movement, the Afghan warlordsseem to be one step ahead. After all, they do indeedhave diverse cultural and clan loyalties to protect. WeEvangelicals, on the other hand, are one people, having“one Spirit … one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Godand Father of all.”(Ep. 4:4-6). In fact, oneness in Christ isat the very essence of our missionary message to theworld. Collaboration should be the norm for us.

A review of our missional history will portray us morelike the cutthroat world of business competition than apeople of peace bringing the good news of peace to aconflicted world. It is, indeed, the nature and mandate ofthe gospel to bring enemies together as one single peopleof God, to reconcile all to God through Christ. Christhimself prayed earnestly for our unity in him (Jn 17), andhis apostles proclaimed this same objective:“Consequently you are no longer foreigners and aliens,but fellow citizens with God’s people, and members ofGod’s household, …” (Ep. 2:19). Why, then is it so hardfor us to model this unity in our mission effort? Lest wejudge ourselves harshly, it is good to remember that theseed of discord was present amidst the apostlesthemselves. Differences concerning Jewish rituals

Revisiting Strategic Collaborationin Missionby Alex Araujo

A review of ourmissional

history willportray us more

like thecutthroat world

of businesscompetition

than a peopleof peace

bringing thegood news of

peace to aconflicted

world.

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caused division in the early church;relational differences led to the breakingup of the earliest missionary team (Pauland Barnabas concerning John Mark).

I do not intend to discuss the diversenature of religious institutions withinChristendom. Since the church manifestsitself locally, it must be flexible andadaptable to the local realities. This, overtime, leads to growing diversification anddifferentiation in form and even doctrineand theology. And since the church is, bynature and mandate, missional, it will tosome degree export its diversity beyondits local context as it seeks to bring thegospel to those who are distant. In thisalone we can already see the multiplicationof differences within the one people ofGod. Not all diversity is contrary to theoneness of the gospel, and there arehistorical, cultural and practical factorsbehind the development of differentEvangelical denominations. The diversityof Christian expressions need not be acurse, but rather a blessing, as it enablesthe one people of God to ministereffectively to diverse cultures andpeoples.

Valiant Efforts In The Right Direction

Much can be said about the fragmentedand embarrassing side of the missionsmovement. But that would obscure thefact that some valiant efforts have beenmade over the years to bring us intoeffective cooperation with each other forthe sake of missions.

I was taking my baby steps in missionswhen I heard of “comity”, and I heard of itin disparaging terms. The term referred toan arrangement occasionally made

between different Christiandenominations whereby they agreed, intheir missionary efforts, to avoid workingin each other’s geographical area. Thedisparaging tone used by my peersconcerning comity was due to their sensethat it was merely an agreement on howto preserve peace by staying out of eachother’s way. It did not illustrate onenessand mutual help, but simply a way ofpreserving the differences without openclashes. Yet, comity may have been apossible beginning, a truce amongfeuding denominations that madepossible an evolution toward eventualmore active cooperation.

In the mid 1980s, an organization namedCNEC chose to change its name toPartners International. It was under thisUS-based agency that I was sent to Brazilin 1986 to help give focus to the emergingLatin American mission movement.CNEC’s choice of the name PartnersInternational did not happen in a vacuum.It reflected, if it was not actually motivatedby, a growing trend among businessestoward partnerships, and a growing senseamong Christians in the USA thatcooperation rather than division was thedesirable mode of operation for churchesand Christian agencies. It was a time inwhich books were being written aboutgreat corporate mergers, and emphasizedthe mutual benefits that corporationsgained by cooperation, joint ventures,and partnerships. The benefits of goodstewardship were not lost on theEvangelical missions movement.Collaboration was not only good forbusiness, but it meant better, moreeffective use of the Lord’s resourcesgiven to his church.

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It is also true that, by the mid-80s, thetension between Charismatics andtraditional Protestants had begun toresolve itself in creative ways. TheCharismatic movement was crossdenominational, and it brought believersfrom various denominations togetheraround common themes. When thetraditional Protestant-Evangelical churchbegan to soften toward Charismaticpresence and certain forms of worship, itbrought with it, initially grudgingacceptance, then a growing openness tofellowship. The Latin missions movement,known as COMIBAM, might not haveemerged when it did without thisrapprochement betweenCharismatics andtraditionals. Thesteering committee ofCOMIBAM-Brazil, aswell as of its continent-wide counterpart, wascomposed of delegatesfrom both camps. Thecontinent-wide missionscongress held in S. Pauloin 1987, with over 3000 delegates, includedboth groups, and most majordenominations on both sides. Theplenary speakers and seminar presentersalso represented the full Evangelicalspectrum. Emerging missions agencieswere also, for the most part, open tocandidates from different groups anddenominations.

Denominational mission boards havetended, naturally, to retain theirdistinctives in recruitment of missionaries.Yet, even they began to open to informalcooperation with others. I well rememberthe rejoicing that accompanied the

decision by the International MissionBoard of the Southern Baptist Conventionof the USA to release the results of itsextensive missions research to otherdenominations and mission bodies. It hasbecome one of the most valuable and usedresources for missions planning andstrategy, along with Patrick Johnstone’s“Operation World”.

History also has had a major part to playin bringing a change of attitude amongEvangelical missions towardcollaboration. I refer in particular to thefall of the Soviet empire and consequentopenness to missionary activity in formersoviet territory. Ironically, the initial impact

of this historic event wasto strengthen divisionsand fragmentation in themissions movement. Allat once, mission boardsand agencies saw anopportunity to move into a much-prizedterritory, one that hadbeen in the prayers of thechurch worldwide for

decades. There was also a fear that theiron curtain might once more be drapedacross Europe and a brief window ofopportunity would be lost. Under thepressure of time and the excitement of themoment, there seemed to be no time topursue cooperation, rather, each agencymoved quickly and individually to walkthrough the gap. Long-lived and testedmission groups as well as new andinexperienced initiatives met andsqueezed each other through the newopenings in the curtain. But competition,duplication, and a bad testimony led tomuch disappointment and frustration. Iremember in the early 90s listening to an

History also has hada major part to play inbringing a change of

attitude amongEvangelical missionstoward collaboration

36


Eastern European pastor speaking to agroup of North Americans. He told of howhe was reduced to preaching once everyten Sundays in his church, because therewere so many Western visitors asking tohave the pulpit, and he wanted to behospitable and welcome the long hopedfor fellowship with the worldwide church.Yet, all these visits were random,uncoordinated, and weakened rather thanhelped the long-suffering church in thoseplaces.

The ugliness of what was happening didnot go unnoticed, and soon missionleaders began to discuss ways to repairthe damage and collaborate with eachother. One such initiative was theformation of the CO-MISSION whichbrought several western agencies andchurches into a joint plan to work withthe Russian Ministry of Education todevelop a religious education curriculumfor the country. Another significantexample is the Alliance for SaturationChurch Planting in Eastern Europe(ASCP). This alliance, still very activetoday, gathers over 60 churches andmission agencies for the specific purposeof collaboration in mission among thecountries formerly under the control ofthe Soviet empire.

Even as the traditional, Western missionboards and agencies were beginning tomore fully collaborate in missions, newparticipants entered the scene in the formof Koreans, Latin Americans, Filipinos andothers. This brought fresh perspectivesand fresh challenges to cooperation inmissions. The historic mission agentswere predominantly from Protestantcountries, and shared not only cultural

perspectives on evangelization but alsomore similar levels of material resource.The new participants brought newchallenges. While the earlier group couldfunction naturally in their mother tongue,English, the new comers were not socomfortable outside their mother tongue.They also introduced a vast disparity withtheir Western colleagues in material livingstandards and mission assets andequipment. Attempts to form multiculturalteams met with major challenges, whichare still in process of being resolved.

The Turning Tide

My colleague Gary Walsh, formerly of theEvangelical Fellowship of Canada andthen of Interdev, has put it succinctly andaccurately: “We have managed to changethe mind of the church towardpartnership; now we must change itsbehavior”. When Phill Butler began theministry of Interdev over 20 years ago, heand his team needed to focusconsiderable effort merely to persuadeChristians that collaboration was not onlybiblical but also beneficial to their task.The 1980s and 90s were times of explodingmission initiatives, fueled by economicgrowth in the West and by fast growth innumbers and evangelistic zeal in the non-western churches. At the same time, thepredominant North American missionsmodel was being influenced by businesstrends toward frugal, highly professionaland results-oriented enterprise. Oddly,while the trend toward mergers in thebusiness world encouraged openness topartnerships in missions, the drive towardfrugality and effectiveness in producingquick results led to obstacles to

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partnership and collaboration.

Collaboration requires extended periodsof time dedicated to communication,meetings, review and revision of plans inorder to develop common strategies andprojects. Joint planning introduced newexpenses, not directly and immediatelyapplicable to result-generating fieldactivities. So, while on the one hand wordslike partnership and collaboration becameincreasingly dominant in missionsvocabulary, the practice of collaborationitself laggedsignificantly behind. Itseemed that, as Walshhad suggested, the mindof the church was indeedchanging towardcollaboration while itsbehavior was restrainedby predominantphilosophical andstructural barriers. Amindset of urgency andnumeric effectiveness inmissions encouragedisolated strategies moreeasily controllable by mission executives,even while they began to recognize thatthe gospel of peace and oneness in Christfor which they work so hard was beingundercut by lack of collaboration. Toresolve this tension, we mission leadersmust face significant changes in ourbehavior as well as in the numericaleffectiveness model that has so shapedour missions behavior. This is the currentchallenge to the Evangelical missionsmovement.

What on earth is Collaboration?

The term “partnership” has become verypopular in mission circles as well as amongthe individuals, foundations andchurches that help fund the missionsmovement. They are frustrated with theduplication and competition thatcharacterize the missions industry, andwant to find ways to change it. Ourconferences, congresses andconsultations have given dominant placein their agenda to issues of collaboration.As early as 1992, the MissionsCommission of the World Evangelical

Alliance sponsored aconsultation in Manila toaddress this topic. Itspapers and outcomeswere published as“Kingdom Partnershipsfor Synergy inMissions”, Ed. WilliamTaylor. The AD 2000 andBeyond movementsought to generateworldwide cooperationto complete the task ofworld evangelization,and sponsored several

regional and global consultations to thatpurpose.

Yet, with all this attention to and interestin collaboration, the movement hassuffered from a lack of clear andcommonly shared vocabulary regardingwhat it means. The term “partnership” hadbecome the universal term for any form ofcooperation imaginable. It was used todescribe the Trinity, at one end of thespectrum, and to the coming together oftwo friends for a time of prayer, at the otherend. At the Missions Commission Manilaconsultation in 1992 I became more fully

Collaborationrequires extended

periods of timededicated to

communication,meetings, review

and revision of plansin order to developcommon strategies

and projects.

38


aware that we were using the same termto describe different things, and that thislack of adequate vocabulary wouldhamper our efforts to grow incollaboration.

In consultation with Timothy Halls, thenwith OC International in Guatemala, Ideveloped a discussion paper proposinga series of words describing differentpoints in a continuum of cooperation.Though a continuum is by definition asequence of an infinite number of points,I selected four points along thatcontinuum as the most applicable to thequestion of collaboration in missions.

Fellowship, Cooperation, Partnershipand Merger.

My intention here was to focus on“Partnership” as the place in thecontinuum that indicates practicalcollaboration in missions. These terms arechosen because they are familiar to ourgeneration, but I will give them my owndefinitions. The important thing is not theterms themselves, but the ability todifferentiate between forms ofcollaboration, so that we can betterunderstand each other when discussingthe subject.

Fellowship describes the fundamentalrelationship we share in the body of Christ.It binds us together in the Spirit throughtime and space, and it is true even if welive in different centuries and continentsand never meet on this earth. (See Hb.11)It is the oneness whereby our identitywith Christ identifies us also with oneanother. We share in the agendaestablished by Jesus Christ in the Great

Commission, even though we may not beinvolved in the same specific task.

This fellowship is initiated by the Lordand predisposes us to love one another.It opens us to cooperation with oneanother whenever we meet. Yet, thisfellowship in the body of Christ worldwide,real as it surely is, does not in itself providethe opportunity for practical partnership.For that to happen it is necessary that ourpaths cross in space and time, our realmsof activity come in contact.

Cooperation - As those of us who havefellowship in Christ encounter each otheron this earth, we have opportunity toexpress our spiritual fellowship in practicalcooperation. I am using the term“cooperation” to mean a voluntaryinvolvement in what each other is doing.It is given and received voluntarily,without obligation. There is little or noexpectation imposed on each other andwe each are grateful for whatevercooperation we can get. It is aspontaneous good will response to eachother when we meet, and we should notfeel obligated to turn every cooperativerelationship into a structured partnership.I happen to be in your region, and youwould like me to give a hand with ateaching seminar, or I see you working onyour fence and pick a tool and beginhelping you.

Partnership takes us to the next stop onthe continuum, where cooperation takeson a more intentional, planned andrepeatable character. Here we don’t justhappen to meet each other, butpurposefully seek each other out forcooperation around a common project orobjective. In a partnership there is intent,

39


commitment, and contribution from eachpartner toward a common goal. Two ormore agencies might partner to producethe Bible in a given language. Thougheach retains its separate identity, theyadopt a common objective and makethemselves accountable to each otherconcerning that objective.

Merger becomes advisable when two ormore entities have such an overlap ofpurposes and principles that theyeffectively duplicate each other’s work. Ifthere is no significant distinctive to justifytheir separate existence, it may be well toconsider coming together structurally andmaking better use of resources.

No doubt there are other ways todistinguish between various types ofcollaboration. I find these definitions tobe practically helpful to me whendiscussing mission collaboration. Theymake it easier to establish mutualunderstanding about what it is we aretrying to do.

Is MissionalCollaboration In OurFuture?

The trend towardcollaboration in missionsbegan beforeglobalization and thepopularization of theInternet, and of the new,so-called virtualorganization. At firstcollaboration centeredon formal agency-to-agency structural collaboration. Butcommercial, social and culturalglobalization has weakened organizationalboundaries, as it has state and country

borders. Today, we are in frequent andprofessional contact with people of otheragencies and nations. We share similarconcerns about the same events orcircumstances. HIV/AIDS in Africa drawsthe attention of thoughtful Christianseverywhere; we belong to email forumsand web-based interest groupsregardless of our mission agency ordenominational affiliation. In thisenvironment, collaboration is happeningwithout formal agreement at the toporganizational level of mission agencies.

“Seconding” is nothing new. It is thepractice whereby one mission agencypermits one of its missionaries to dedicatehimself/herself to the objectives ofanother agency, while remaining formallya member of the original agency. This isoften done by agreement or amemorandum of understanding betweenthe two mission agencies. Interdev, theagency of which I have been a part, hasbenefited from this seconding

arrangement. Several ofour PartnershipFacilitators on the fieldwere seconded toInterdev by theiragencies. Yet, Interdevup until last year,retained its own centraloffice with dedicatedadministrative andmanagement staff. InNovember of 2003 itbecame clear thatInterdev would not beable to sustain itself

financially, and its board decided to closedown its USA and UK offices.Meanwhile our Partnership Facilitatorsfelt that their fieldwork was vital and

These are voluntary,consensus-based

collaborativearrangements thatbring together thevarious agencies

and missionresources in a givenfield, for mutual help

and sharing ofresources.

40


needs to continue. Over the years we havebeen helping missions personnel fromdifferent agencies to form partnerships forgreater effectiveness and strongertestimony on the field. These arevoluntary, consensus-based collaborativearrangements that bring together thevarious agencies and mission resourcesin a given field, for mutual help and sharingof resources. Members appoint afacilitation team from among themselvesto keep the partnership together from yearto year, and gather the partners annuallyto review the state and progress of theircollaborative work. As we faced thedrastic changes in Interdev, those of uswho are field staff have agreed to form anassociation of partnership facilitators tocontinue the work of Interdev. Yet, withouta central organization to hold us together,we determined that we would use the samemodel of partnership that we have beenpromoting throughout the missions world.In practice, this means that each of us hasneeded to find another agency willing toprovide platforms from which to operate.Each of us also must find our own sourcesof financial support. Yet, we will maintainthe objectives of our association, whichwe have embodied in a covenant amongourselves and others who would like tojoin us (see Appendix). Thus, through thepractice of secondment, several agenciesare in effect collaborating to make aspecialized ministry possible. Our currentmembers represent 8 nationalities, workingfrom bases in Indonesia, Philippines, India,Mali, Senegal, Ivory Coast, USA, Canada,and United Kingdom.

We see great possibilities for this kind ofarrangement. Rather than creating newagencies, other such associations mightbe created for specific purposes with full

agreement from seconding agencies. Ourassociation, which we are calling InterdevPartnership Associates (IPA), is taking itsfirst baby steps, and it will be a year beforewe can evaluate its effectiveness as amethod of collaboration. We are eager totest the model, revise and perfect it, andperhaps help other similar efforts takeshape for greater effectiveness on the fieldand greater unity of testimony to a dividedworld.

Appendix:

Interdev Partnership Associates -Covenant

Introduction:

On 4 November 2003, the Board ofTrustees of Interdev announced it waspassing the baton of partnershipdevelopment ministry to InterdevPartnership Associates (IPA). A transitionis now underway. IPA will continue tofacilitate and develop partnering as a keystrategy to bring the Gospel to the world’sleast-reached peoples. This responds tothe continuing widespread need anddemand for help in partnering for mission.We Partnership Advisors, who formerlyserved Interdev’s field ministry, have astrong commitment to each other as aTeam, and have determined to carry onpartnership ministry through a covenant-based Association.

We anticipate that we will be joined byothers with the same commitment topartnering in mission. As soon as we haveestablished our Association we will seekto expand it.

We all have our own support bases. Formost these are mission agencies that bless

41


and release us into partnership ministrythrough IPA. Our bases are dispersedregionally across India, Indonesia, Africa,Philippines, USA, Canada, and UK.

We give thanks to God for theorganization Interdev that served astrategic role in planting the partnershipmindset in the mission movement, and infacilitating the formation of manypartnerships during the past 17 years.IPA will now model what Interdev hastaught and continue this ministry as apartnership, a voluntary association,rather than a traditional organization.

Covenant:

We describe our Passion, Purpose, Planand Values which drive the relationalreality already present among us. Weaffirm that IPA seeks no other strengththan that which comes from our deepindividual and corporate communion withGod and our maturing relationshipsamong and beyond us. Together, may weserve Christ’s Church for partnership inmission!

Our Common Passion:Christ’s Church, present, unified andministering effectively among all peoples.

Our Common Purpose:To serve the Church in its mission to theleast-reached peoples by equipping,encouraging, and catalyzing thepartnership movement.

Our Common Plan:* Promote the formation and maturing of

strategic mission partnerships* Provide training for exploring, forming

and operating strategic mission

partnerships* Recruit, equip, and release for service

new generations of partnershipadvisors.

* Develop and promote standards of bestpractice for strategic missionpartnerships.

* Meet together annually.

Our Common Values:* Rooted in the evangelical Christianity

as expressed in the WEA Statement ofFaith.

* Communion with God, community withothers as we obey Christ’s commission

* Godly relationships, integrity,accountability, transparency, mutualsubmission.

* Collaboration and partnership forChrist’s commission to and among the

unreached peoples of our generation.* Intentional: deepening personal

relationships, expressing truth in love

Our Diversity:* International: we are diverse, yet unified

under Christ.* Inter-dependent: we help each other

and work together where possible andappropriate.

* Inter-denominational: the LausanneCovenant defines our common praxis.

* Inclusive: we will act to include morepartnering people in IPA as soon aspracticable.

Our Common Constituency: those weserve

* Our Lord* Our families* Our home & sending/supporting

congregations* One another* Our regions and peoples of Great

42


Commission focus* Our sending agencies/societies.* Our supporters (prayer, finances,

resources).

Our Function (the role of IPA):* Provide an international communication

and coordination center* Provide mechanisms to resource one

another* Provide a forum for mutual

accountability* Convene meetings of partnership

people

Our Structure (what we look like, andhow we operate):We are an international, voluntaryassociation, which makes/takes decisionsbased on the consensus of members. TheIPA provides no organizational supportsuch as employments and control. OurAssociates in various countries or regionsare free to organize themselves as theydeem best. Our structure will be definedby necessary functions. We are primarilya partnership of intentional relationshipsunited around a common passion,purpose, and plan. We are all accountableto our respective sending agencies, wewill make ourselves mutually accountable

in our common partnership work, and wewill form relationships with senior leadersin our respective regions for consultationand accountability.

Our Resources (how we will achieve andfund our operations):* We bring together our corporateexperience in collaboration for mission.* We look first to Christ and His Churchto provide our financial needs.* We affirm the presence of a coordinationoffice, wherever our Team Coordinator isbased.* All IPA members raise salary andministry expenses commensurate withneed, and affirmed by their sendingmission structure in consultation with IPATeam Coordinator. We will help eachother in this.

We affirm a facilitation team for a periodof 18 months (through 4 May 2005):

Alex Araujo, Team Coordinator. (US)Reg Reimer, Facilitation Team Member(Canada)Prem James, Facilitation Team Member(India)Mike Roemmele, Facilitation TeamMember (UK)

Alex Araujo coordinates the field team of INTERDEV under the newstructure, Interdev Partnership Associates (IPA). Interdev, and now IPA,promote strategic mission partnerships among the least reached peoples ofthe world. Alex, born and raised in Brazil, has served with IFES in Portugal,COMIBAM in Brazil, and Partners International in the USA. Married toKaty, Alex has three adult children and one grandchild. He can be contactedat [email protected]

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The Need for Christian-Buddhist Encounters

Christianity’s relationship with non-Christian religionsis a key missiological inquiry for Evangelicals concernedwith the Great Commission. Traditionally, Evangelicalmissions have concentrated on proclamation of thegospel and avoided interfaith approaches (John Stott,1975). Increasingly, most missionaries in Asia work withinrestrictive environments which prohibit direct evangelism.Do we have a theology of witness for genuine encounterwith Buddhists? In the West, the privatization ofreligious faith in increasingly making direct evangelismsocially unacceptable. Globally, rising ethnic-religioustensions threaten peace and racial harmony in manycountries in Africa, India, Indonesia and the Middle East,to name a few places. Even in seemingly “peaceful”Buddhist countries, Christian proselytization efforts areproblematic. Another concern is the partial conversionof people groups in Asia, where Church growth is notaccompanied by worldview transformation. From avariety of perspectives then, wherever the gospel ispreached, there is a need for deeper encounter withtraditional Buddhist worldviews. The purpose is not tocompromise the gospel but to confront underlying beliefsystems at their deepest level.

Some key questions for this study are: What theologicalimplications does the kingdom of God have for theinterfaith encounter with Buddhists? In particular, canconservative Evangelical theology provide an adequateand creative foundation for a genuine interfaithencounter with other truth claims such as Buddhism?How will a distinctive Evangelical encounter be differentfrom pluralist models?

The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ in theMissional Heart of God: A Kingdom-OrientedFramework for Encountering Buddhist Worldviews

by Kang San Tan

Christianity’s

relationship

with other

religions is a

key

missiological

inquiry for

Evangelicals

concerned with

the Great

Commission.

44


I define interfaith encounter as an inter-religious conversation whereby both theChristian and the Buddhists desire towitness to their faiths as well as listen andlearn from the neighbour’s faith.Worldview can be said to be “a set ofshared framework of ideas of a particularsociety concerning how they perceive theworld” (Burnett 1990, 13)

The article begins by outlining a briefsurvey of the Buddhist scriptures whichinfluenced East Asian worldviews,followed by an outline of a distinctiveEvangelical theology of the kingdom ofGod that places Jesus as the unique Kingover the nations. My goal is to illustratethe theological framework of an AsianEvangelical living in multifaith communitywho by nature of his or her commitmentto Christ, is required to live out his faithwithout ghetooism. However, interfaithconversations in the context of friendship,and living multi-culturally need not requirea reductionism of other religions nor ofone’s personal faith in Christ. Instead,one is challenged to live out the authenticChristian life in the context of full religiouspluralism

Scriptures in Buddhist Traditions

Although we do not have good historicalevidence on the life of Buddha, Christiansmust be willing to engage with theBuddhist scriptures because these are thesources of their religious beliefs. While itis true that the extant versions ofBuddha’s life were created long after hisdeath by his followers, our purpose inreligious encounters is to understand whatBuddhists believe and how the Christiangospel addresses those belief systems.

The words of the Buddha, which becamethe Buddhist scriptures, are stories of howhe seeks after truth and finally achieves

Nirvana. The words he spoke wereintended to exhort others to enter into thesame experience of release. These wordswere new and different from the handeddown Hindu Vedas:

That this was the noble truth concerningsorrow, was not, O Bhikkhus, among thedoctrines handed down (i.e., the Vedas),but there arose within me the eye (toperceive it), there arose the knowledge (ofits nature), there arose the understanding(of its cause), there arose wisdom (toguide in the path of tranquility), therearose the light (to dispel darkness fromit). (Harold Coward 2000, 140)

Buddhists hold that the authority ofBuddhist scriptures arose out ofBuddha’s enlightenment experience.Unlike the Christian position on the Bibleas divinely revealed and inspired,Buddhists are open to subsequentscriptures from “other Buddhas.”Tradition records that within the year thatBuddha died (c483 BC), 500 monksgathered and agreed to codify the Rule ofthe Monastic Order. Ananda, Buddha’sclosest follower and relative, was reportedto recite all the “remembered words”which were then approved by the worldcommunity (Sangha). Ananda is said tohave recited the original five Nikayas (alsocalled Agama) in the Sutra Pitaka, or theBasket of Discourses.” Centuries later,these were compiled into Sutras (Buddha’steachings) as part of the Buddhist canon.In addition, the School of Elders(Theravada) expanded texts(Abhidharma) were judged necessary partof the Dharma. Consequently, we havethe tripitaka or “three baskets ofscripture”: sutra (Buddha’s teachings),vinaya (monastic rules) and Abhidharma(philosophic treatise). Many TheravadaBuddhists felt that only these transmitted

45


sayings of the Buddha could be part ofthe scriptures while others take a moreopen view of the Buddhist canon. Thesemore open groups accepted the samegeneral sutras and vinayas but developedtheir own Abhidharma or sastra(philosophic literatures). The Mahayanasalso add many new sutras such asPrajnaparamita Sutras and the LotusSutras. Later, other devotional texts suchas Tantras (inspired words of Buddhas)and Jatakas (popular stories or fablesabout Buddha) were developed.

Although folk Buddhists may not beliterate in Buddhist scriptures, it isarguable that the teachings of Buddhashape the worldviews of Asian societies.There is certainly more to Buddhistreligious life than theirdoctrines, but with therevivals of Buddhistintellectualism and thecomplexities of variousstreams of Buddhism, itwill be very difficult forthe Christian missionaryto gain an appreciation ofwhat Buddhists reallybelieve without a good grounding ofBuddhist doctrines as found in thesescriptures.

God’s Kingship as the BasisFor the Christian-Buddhist Encounter

Central to the above Buddhist scripturesrequires that genuine Buddhists willultimately negate the existence of a CreatorGod or a supreme personal Being,although in some streams of Buddhism,they do believe in the existences of divinebeings and deities (Paul Williams 2002, 25).In this regard, the Christian who holds tothe divinity of Jesus needs to address theatheistic viewpoint of his Buddhistfriends. At some point, it will be necessary

to introduce the ontological argument forGod. Buddha is an ordinary human beingwho discovered the true way that bringsrelease from an infinite series of sufferingsand rebirths. The remedy to oursufferings lies in letting go of ourattachments to things or beliefs (includingGod). While Christians cannot prove thatGod exists beyond reasonable doubt, wecan begin with the humble confessionthat we believe in a creator God, asrevealed in the Christian scriptures.

Three theological implications from God’ssovereign kingship may be highlighted asproviding foundations for a kingdom-oriented theology of religious Encounters.First, God’s character and his sovereigndealings with humankind provide the

basis for engagementwith humans. As arighteous and holy God,Yahweh cannot toleratesin. Because humanityhas sinned andcontinually rebelsagainst God’s kingship,God intervenes inhistory as judge.

Interfaith relations cannot ignorehumanity’s persistent rebellion againstGod’s kingship.

Second, in the midst of judgement, Godprovides salvation due to his mercy.Yahweh is not only a God of wrath, butalso a God of mercy and boundless grace.This pattern of “sin-judgement-salvation”provides a paradigmatic approach to allreligions. The emphasis is on salvationas the goal of the kingdom, althoughjudgement is also clearly communicatedas an inevitable consequence on thosewho continually reject God’s kingship.

Third, an encounter that is firmly rootedin God’s sovereign character must hold

Interfaith relationscannot ignore

humanity’spersistent rebellion

against God’skingship.

46


both aspects of God’s righteousjudgement and loving kindness increative tension. Without such “biblicalrealism,” Christianity’s approach to otherreligions is bound to fall intoreductionism. Christopher Wrightcomments:

The fallen duplicity of man is that hesimultaneously seeks after God his Makerand flees from God his Judge. Man’sreligions, therefore, simultaneouslymanifest both these human tendencies.This is what makes a simplistic verdicton other religions—whether blandlypositive or negative— so unsatisfactoryand indeed, unbiblical. (1984, 5)

Thus Christians who are the recipients ofGod’s mercy and who are worshippers ofthe righteous and holy God, have anepistemic and ethical duty to engage indialogue with Buddhist people, even ifthey are atheistic or agnostic. In astimulating and intensely personal book,The Unexpected Way: On Convertingfrom Buddhism toCatholicism, Professor PaulWilliam, Professor of Indianand Tibetan Philosophy atUniversity of Bristol, amongother things, presented thearguments for the existenceof a God. After over 20 yearsas a Buddhist, William was profoundlychallenged by Thomas Aquinas writingsin seeking after the question: “Why isthere something rather than nothing?” Hestruggled over two viable alternatives:

The Buddhist position: The fact that thereis something rather than nothing, and theway things are, in terms of causalprocesses and so on, as discovered bythe Buddha, just is how it is. End of thematter.

The Christian position: The reason why

there is something rather than nothing,and things are the way they are, isbecause they are grounded on anecessary being who has in some sensebrought it about. (William 2002, 33)

Beyond William’s philosophicalarguments, a kingdom-oriented theologyof religion moves on to the affirmationthat God’s kingship is universal. God’suniversal kingship in the Old Testamentis reflected in the repeated accounts ofGod’s ruling activities over Israel and thenations. In particular, God is oftendepicted as exercising his power overforeign nations in the following examples:his concern for Nineveh in the book ofJonah, his use of the Assyrians andBabylonians as instruments of judgmenton Israel, his sovereign rule overNebuchadnezzar (Daniel 1-4), his use ofCyrus as agent of restoring his kingdom(Isa 44:28, 45:1, 13), and his providentialuse of Xerxes as agent of preservation ofIsrael in the book of Esther. Believing

that God is actively at workamong unbelievers,Christians can approachnon-Christians looking forevidences of his work.

God’s kingship is not onlyuniversal, but also

covenantal. This is where the uniquenessof Jesus as the Kingdom bearer of God’sredemptive plan for the nations becomescentral in any religious conversation thatis authentically Christian. God’sredemptive action is expressed andexercised through successive covenants:Noahic, Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, andculminating in the New Covenant(Dumbrell 1984). In the Old Testament,God’s kingship is associated most closelywith Israel, a particular people with whomGod has chosen to establish a covenantal

God’s kingship isnot only

universal, butalso covenantal.

47


relationship. In the New Testament, God’scovenant people are identified with theChurch of Jesus Christ. Membership inthe kingdom is predicated upon the “newbirth” (John 3) which is possible todayonly through faith in Jesus Christ. Thetheological implication for interfaithrelations is that, at some point in thedialogical process, kingdom-orienteddialogue will issue the call for a covenantrelationship with God through faith inJesus as Lord and Saviour.

In summary, God’s sovereignty asexpressed in his kingship provides thebasis for a missionary encounter withBuddhists. God, who is already theHeavenly King, must become king in thehearts of people. Therefore, those whoare already subjected to God are obligatedto persuade others to submit themselvesto God. This is the philosophical basisfor interfaith relations. It is based on thefact that there are others who do notacknowledge God’s kingship and thattheir search for truth has something toteach us about God and His Kingdom.

Yet, why should the interfaith encounterbe utilized instead of simply relying onproclamation as the means of propagatingthe gospel? The primary reason is thatGod’s rulership must be brought to bearon the existing faith-commitments,presuppositions and worldviews of ourBuddhist friends. However, in order tobe genuine, their submission to Godcannot be coerced or manipulated.Therefore, Christians need to enter intodialogue in order to witness effectivelyand persuade others regarding thechallenge of God’s kingship.

The Kingdom-Oriented Encounter isChrist-Centred

Salvation is accomplished through the

unique person and work of Christ.Commitment to Christ is the preconditionfor the kingdom-oriented encounter, afterwhich Christ becomes the model forapproaching Buddhists. Although God’ssalvation plan begins with the call ofAbraham and the nation Israel, it ultimatelylooks forward to Christ, the seed ofAbraham. Due to Israel’s failure to be afaithful instrument of the kingdom, Godhas invaded human history through thework and person of Jesus. In contrast toIsrael’s misguided ethnocentrism, Jesusmakes it clear that all people are welcomeinto God’s kingdom, with special attentionbeing shown to the poor, the oppressedand the marginalized. Not only is Jesusthe embodiment of the kingdom, he aloneushers in the kingdom of God. No oneenters into a relationship with the Fatherexcept through Jesus Christ.

What are the implications of a Kingdom-oriented Encounter where Jesus isconfessed as Lord? First, Jesus is boththe ultimate judge of all truth and thecriterion against which conflicting truth-claims are evaluated. “Jesus is for thebeliever the source from whom hisunderstanding of the totality ofexperience is drawn and therefore thecriterion by which other ways ofunderstanding are judged” (Newbigin1981, 4). More specifically, a distinctiveEvangelical theology of religion (incontrast to an Ecumenical perspective)holds a high Christology that does notcompromise the truth of the supremacyof Christ over all the world’s religions.Christ is the only way to the Father, andwithout him as King there is no kingdomof God. Evangelical encounters with otherreligions, therefore, reject any form ofrelativism that undermines the uniqueperson and work of Christ in bringingsalvation to the world.

48


High Christology need not mean rejectionof the truth of other religions such asBuddha’s teaching on morality, or thatChristians cannot learn anything new fromBuddhists, truths which the philosophicalriches of Mahayana Buddhism may bringto Christian views of life, purity,disciplines and meaning of sufferings.Buddhist background Evangelicals havea tendency to degrade everything aboutBuddhism as idolatry and pagan. I thinkit is possible to retain a high level ofsympathy and even admiration forBuddha’s compassion and his teachings,if only one ventures with love for Christand the Buddhists He so loved.

In a Christ-centred encounter, Jesusbecomes the model for approachingunbelievers. His preaching and teachingmethods, lifestyle and his commitmentsare the way that Christians shouldapproach unbelievers. In particular,Christ’s incarnational modelprovides the key towardmeaningful dialogue. Jesusradicalized the law of love,“that we love God by lovingour neighbour as we loveourselves, with neighbourunlimited, as the onlymeasure of membership inGod’s reign” (Groome 1991, 16). Such anapproach to Buddhists needs to beshaped by Jesus’ total mission. And histotal mission encompasses the challengeof discipleship, the confrontation withdemonic powers and religious authorities,a compassion for the broken and the lost,and the creation of a new society. Theimplications for interfaith encounters areprofound. In particular, Christians are notmerely to be interested in sharing thegospel, but also to be seeking the totaltransformation of the person and society.Finally, Jesus is the message. In interfaith

encounters, the Christian makesaccessible the gospel story about theChrist who brings salvation to the world.However, our message must be presentedwith humility and grace. “The cross isnot merely the centre of the message ofsalvation; it is crucial for Christian livingand ministry” (Ralph Covell 1993, 169).Therefore, commitment to Christ is both aprerequisite and a goal for an Evangelicalengagement with Buddhists. With a deepcommitment to Christ, Christians willnaturally and logically enter intomissionary encounters for the purpose ofpersuading their dialogical partners aboutthe truth of the gospel.

The Trinity and the Interfaith Encounter

Johannes Verkuyl proposes that akingdom-centred theology of our faithmust be thoroughly Trinitarian in nature,“It is a theology that has God the Creator,

the Redeemer and theComforter at its veryheart” (Verkuyl 1993, 72).Within a Trinitarianperspective of InterfaithEncounters, one needsto take into account therole of the Holy Spirit inthe world and in the

Church. George Peters insightfullydistinguishes a pre-Pentecost ministryand an extra-Pentecost ministry of theHoly Spirit,

The pre-Pentecost ministry is fullyexposed in the Old Testament and inthe gospels, while the extra-Pentecostministry relates to world missions. Wemay speak of it as the general oruniversal ministry of the Holy Spirit,keeping in mind that the Holy Spirit isthe presence of God and isomnipresence. (1972, 76)

In a Christ-centredencounter, Jesus

becomes the modelfor approaching

unbelievers.

49


A more recent attempt was made by AmosYong in his article, “Discerning theSpirit(s) in the World of Religions” (ed.John Stackhouse, 2001). Yong sought tomake a methodological claim that “apneumatological theology of religions notonly commits but also enables Christiansto engage empirically the world’s religionsin a truly substantive manner withtheological questions and concerns”(Yong 2001, 38).

What implications can we draw from theuniversal work of the Holy Spirit forChristian Encounters with Buddhists?First, Christian-Buddhist encounters arepossible because the Holy Spirit is theone who reveals the mystery of thekingdom, and has been active beforeChrist’s earthly ministry and continues toreveal God’s truths to all people, Thaisand Japanese included. Evidences of thehidden work of the Spirit include revealingtruths about Christ in dreams tounbelievers, planting in the minds ofunbelievers an irresistible desire toworship the Creator and convictingunbelievers of their sins through theirconscience that wascreated in the image ofGod.

Second, the active workof the Holy Spirit assuresChristians that despitethe rebellion ofhumanity and thedepravity of certainpractices within otherreligions, humanity has not been totallyleft alone (John 16:7-8). “There was totaldepravity but not total destitute anddeprivation” (Peters 1972, 79). Theelement of mystery coupled with theongoing role of the Holy Spirit points to

the place of prayer and spiritualdiscernment in Christian engagements.Recognizing the hiddenness of God’sworking in people’s minds and hearts, therole of the Christian in interfaithencounters is to explain truth in anintelligible fashion and to help unbelieversdiscern God’s work in their lives. God’spart is to make that truth effective. In theprocess of encounter, God can open thespiritual eyes of unbelievers. God can alsoopen the spiritual perceptions of hischildren. Therefore, the interfaithencounter is a discovery process aboutGod for Christians and Buddhists alike.

Third, a pnuematological engagementalso reminds the Christian of the spiritualbattle of the kingdom (Eph 6:10-18). Thereal enemy is Satan, who blinds the eyesof unbelievers, and not unbelieversthemselves (2 Cor 4:4). The interfaithencounter proceeds with a combinedattitude of prayer and spiritual warfareagainst the powers of darkness as well asreconciliation and compassion towardunbelievers. Prayer that centres on thereal enemy will generate within believersan attitude of dependence upon the Lord

as well as an attitude ofhumility and compassion inrelation to people of otherfaiths.

Drawing to a Close

In conclusion, the ultimateuniqueness of Jesus Christin the heart of God begansince the salvation history

of Israel of God establishing His kingshipover the nations through Israel. The Asianchurch today is a pilgrim community thatcontinues in this continuing story ofredemption. At the heart of God’skingdom is a King named Jesus. Withoutnaming the King as Jesus, no community

The Asian churchtoday is a pilgrimcommunity that

continues in thiscontinuing story of

redemption.

50


of the King can claim to usher in thebiblical kingdom! Therefore, realencounter can only be undertaken whenthe Christian is committed to the LordJesus but then seeks to allow God toteach and reveal Himself within apenultimate framework of understanding.He is open for Buddhists to teach Himabout God. This is possible due to hiswillingness to submit to the Lordship ofChrist, who is bigger than his traditionsand his church, and then to allow the Holy

Spirit of the inspired scriptures to be hisguide. In encountering Buddhists, theChristian must belong to a real rather thanfictitious community of faith. Therefore,syncretism will eventually be guarded byscriptures, the Holy Spirit and a localEvangelical community of faith.Ultimately, the Christian needs to possessa theological framework that places JesusChrist as the Saviour and Lord, aframework that the theology of Jesus’ totalkingship demands.

REFERENCESCovell, Ralph. 1993. “Jesus Christ and world religions”. The good news of the kingdom: Mission

theology for the third millennium, ed. Charles Van Engen, Dean S. Gilliland, and PaulPierson, 162-171. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.

Coward, Harold. 2000. Scripture in the world religions. Oxford: Oneworld.Dumbrell, William J. 1984. Covenant and creation: An Old Testament covenantal theology.

Exeter: Paternoster Press.Groome, Thomas. 1991. Sharing faith: A comprehensive approach to religious education and

pastoral ministry. San Francisco: Harper and Row.Gross, Rita M. and Terry C. Muck. eds. 2000. Buddhists talk about Jesus, Christians talk about

Buddha. New York: Continuum.Newbigin, Lesslie. 1981. “The gospel among the religions”. Faith meets faith, ed. Gerald H.

Anderson and Thomas F. Stransky, 3-19. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.Peters, George W. 1972. A biblical theology of missions. Chicago: Moody Press.Stott, John. 1975. Christian mission in the modern world. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.Verkuyl, Johannes. 1993. “The kingdom of God: Test of validity for theology of religions”. The

good news of the kingdom: Mission theology for the third millennium, ed. Charles VanEngen, Dean S. Gilliland, and Paul Pierson, 71-81. Maryknoll: Orbis Books.

Williams, Paul. 1989. Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. London: Routledge. 2002. The Unexpected Way: On Converting from Buddhism to Catholicism. Edinburgh:T & T Clark.

Wright, Christopher. 1984. The Christian and other religions: The biblical evidence. Themelios9 (2): 4-14.

Yong, Amos. 2001. “Discerning the Spirit(s) in the World of Religions: Toward a PneumatologicalTheology of Religions”. No other Gods before me? Evangelicals and the challenge ofreligions, ed. John G. Stackhouse, 37-61. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.

KanSan Tan is the Director for Missions Research with OMF Interna-tional in Malaysia. He is the member of WEA Missions Commission. Hisinterests are on Asian Theology and Christian Encounter with Muslimsand Buddhists. He can be contacted at [email protected] [email protected]

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The reality of massive global people movementscontinues to reshape the demographic contours of everyurban population center in the world. This surge in ethnicdiversity is not only being showcased in the historicworld class cities of our time. Increasingly, smaller scalereflections of the same cultural mosaic are now on displayin almost every small city and town across both ruraland urban landscape of North America, with somedifferences between the United States and Canada.

The Nations: now showing at a neighborhood near you

It is an indictment of the North American Church thatthis increase in multiculturalism where we live has caughtso many Christian communities by surprise. What iseven more unfortunate is that a troubling number amongthem continue to operate in a state of completebewilderment or even denial. Uncertain of how torespond, most of these local churches continue to gothrough the motions of doing missions as usual.

Thankfully, a fresh breeze of the Spirit is awakening all ofus to a new missional agenda for our times. Every localchurch that shares God’s heart for the nations is wrestlingwith the unique implications of these global humanhighways for the places where we live and serve.

Compelled by the millions of migrating and displacedpeoples in the world today, the Mars Hill churchcommunity that we are a part of has been asking thefollowing kinds of questions: how should this realityinfluence the way we are defining the focus and scopeof our global outreach efforts? (For the purposes of thisarticle, global outreach is being defined as used by ourMars Hill community: “…the intentional advance of the

The Missional Church isPassionately “Glocal”by David W. Stoner

Thankfully, a

fresh breeze of

the Spirit is

awakening all

of us to a new

missional

agenda for our

times

52


gospel across cultural and languagebarriers beyond our church’s normalboundaries of influence.”)

What effect should the new culturalcomplexities impacting our city have onthe way we realign our missional visionand strategy?

The “glocal” missional church

Every slogan and catch phrase is cursedwith a surprisingly short half-life. Thoughthe use of glocal (the creative merger ofglobal and local) in secular and missionalcircles is of fairly recent origin, it may bequickly wearing out its welcome.

Nevertheless, we are allindebted to its creator-advocates for thecontribution they havemade to our missionalvocabulary. Theaddition of glocal to ourdiscourse has broughtinto much clearer focusthe potential disconnectand distortion that canso easily cripple amission-minded church’s best intentions.

This missional idea not only rebukes ourignorance and neglect of the growingpresence of the ethne (nations) in our ownbackyards. Glocal also critiques theflawed architecture that undermines theintegrity of countless local churchmissions efforts.

Too many Christian communities haveorganized their obedience to the GreatCommission around inadequate missionaldefinitions and models. Over time, theunique meaning of missions (the historic

sending activity of the church in serviceof God’s advancing kingdom acrossethnic and language barriers) has becomea blurred and indistinguishable dimensionof many local church evangelism orgeneral ministry programs.

The introduction of the glocal conceptforces all of us to reexamine our missionalgrounding, inviting us to realign our localoutreach strategies in a way that reflectsthe same cross-cultural intentionality ofour global outreach initiatives.

More directly, glocal also brings ourfaulty church missions structures undersome desperately needed scrutiny. It is

not uncommon for a localchurch to operateseparate local andinternational (the fartheraway from the church themove valid) outreachprograms, often underthe oversight of differentministry divisions.

At the very least, thisbuilt-in dichotomy in alocal church’s outreach

strategy saps the vitality and strength ofits overall missional impact. And in morecases than we’ll ever admit to, it has alsodegenerated into something far moredestructive: competing missional agendasand ministry turf wars.

A seamless missional community

We are grateful for the way that themissional values inherent in the glocalconcept are informing Global Outreach(GO) at Mars Hill. Not only has it helpedus clarify the intentional cross-cultural

At the very least,this built-in

dichotomy in a localchurch’s outreachstrategy saps the

vitality and strengthof its overall

missional impact.

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identity of our GO vision, it hasstrengthened the focus of our strategyon the least evangelized peoples of theworld, regardless of their geographicalproximity to our community.

Glocal has also affirmed the integratedorganizational model we are pursuing inour community’s missions efforts. OurGO ministries are structured into two majorarenas: local and international. Led bygifted teams of volunteer servants andpastoral staff, both local (LO) andinternational outreach (GO) answer to thesame Lead GO Pastor. And all of themtogether are under the spiritual authorityand oversight of a group of servantrepresentatives of the Mars Hillcommunity known as the “GO LeadTeam.”

In these definitional and structural ways,we are purposefully moving our GO modelaway from compartmentalization and thecompeting interests it can breed, towardgreater complementarity and cohesion.This is the ethos that drives our vision of“the new kind of church in the world” wefeel called to fulfill: a seamless missionalcommunity.

We have observed that in the brief historyof our community’s GO efforts, few wordsseem to have power over us the way thatseamless does. It has evoked our dreamof the kind of missional church we long tobecome: one that regardless of age,gender or gifting, shares the samepassionate pursuit of God’s heart for thenations.

But the idea of seamlessness not onlydescribes what we are dreaming; it alsoinfluences how we are pursuing that

dream. This concept emphasizes ourcommitment to the kind ofinterdependence and synergy in our GOvision and strategy that overcomes theusual barriers that divide and separate thevarious ministry arenas of a local church.

While we recognize the unique “missionalguidance system” that the GO ministryteam provides for Mars Hill, we areconvinced that God never intended ourmissionary identity and calling to be theexclusive interest of only a portion of thechurch. We, together with every spiritualleader in our spiritual community, arecompelled by a shared sense ofresponsibility that the full measure of allthe spiritual, human and financialresources entrusted to us must bestewarded wisely in service of God’sadvancing kingdom.

For that reason, regardless of the principalministry arena in which someone may beserving at Mars Hill (whether Children’s,Counseling, Student’s, Teaching, HouseChurches, Administrative Services,Student’s or Worship Ministries), whetherpaid staff or volunteer servants, we desireto see each person’s kingdom capacitiesreleased so that the full measure of theirglocal disciple making potential isrealized.

The seamless missional community iscaught up in a transcendent vision of theunique local and international purposesof God for which it has been created, avision that moves us beyond ourselvesand across the barriers that can isolateus, whether they are inside or outside ofthe church.

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Seamlessness not only reclaims a pictureof the kind of organic, interactive, “fluidstate” that we are aspiring to in all of ourcommunity’s GO activities, it specificallyfocuses our attention on continuity vs.discontinuity in the relationship betweenour local and international strategies.This glocal seamlessness has not onlyshaped the ways that our LO and GOinitiatives intersect and overlap, it iscentral to our understanding or how menand women are best prepared for cross-cultural service and nurtured toward life-long learning as global disciple makers.

There is no more obvious or naturallaboratory for training and testing thecapacities of a GO ministry candidate thanin the multiethnic neighborhoods of ourown North American cities. Our localoutreach urban platforms provide us withideal classrooms in which to expose andprove the ministry capacities andtrustworthiness of a person expressinginterest in international service.

Ultimately, we envision this glocalsynergy of experiential equipping andserving opportunities to be both the pointof departure and destination for everyMars Hill GO servant. A seamless localand international developmental processsuggests the promise of a learning cyclein which global disciple makers areexpected to both receive and give back,where our previous missionalunderstandings are being continuallyenriched by the new experiences andinsights of our GO community as it goesand comes from our city and world.

Bringing local and global together again

Someone once said, “There are no God-forsaken places in the world…just church-forsaken.” We have found that statementto be so convicting and compelling, thatits language has been recast in the MarsHill GO vision statement we’ve felt led bythe Spirit to embrace:

To join God where he is already at workamong some of the most “church-forsaken” peoples, places and issues ofour city and world.

As a young church, Mars Hill isdiscovering the practical ways in whichGod intends this vision to be explored.Nevertheless, a beautiful convergencebetween international and local outreachis already evident in the followingexamples of current GO relationships andservice opportunities:

Global: Ministry partnerships amongseveral people groups of North AfricaLocal: “Loving our Muslim Neighbors”(in our city and state)

Global: North African initiatives amongthe Saharawi people of Western SaharaLocal: “Hosting Saharawi Students”(summer visits with Mars Hill families)

Global: Strategic Focus Regions of Sub-Saharan Africa, SE China and North AfricaLocal: “Befriending InternationalStudents” (university campus)

Global: HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa

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Local: “Engaging AIDS” (hospice care,Hispanic and African-Americanpartnerships)

Global: The Refugee Highway Partnership(With the WEA Missions Commission)Local: “Welcoming Strangers” (refugeementoring and care ministries) and“Teaching English as a Second

Language”

Our community’s GO story has just be-gun. Nevertheless, we hope that theseearly reflections from our journey thusfar might be useful in stirring the pas-sion with which you and your commu-nity are seeking to become a glocalmissional church

David Stoner has served the Mars Hill community (a church 5 years old withan average attendance of 10,000) as the Lead Global Outreach (GO) Pastorsince 2000. He spent his childhood in Chile and Spain, returning to Spain withhis family to work in urban ministry for 12 years. After two years of teachingat a graduate school, he now leads a gifted GO Staff and volunteer Lead Teamthat oversee all of our community’s local and international outreach efforts.David has a passion for the global church, and loves to explore the uniqueways God is inviting Mars Hill to join him and what he is doing in the world.David and his wife Wendy live in Eastown, Grand Rapids. He can be contactedat [email protected]

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Here are some Lugbara proverbs from Uganda to stimulateyour thought and action as you consider the otherarticles in this issue about God’s mission.

“People do not erect a house on water.” A house needsa solid foundation. So does a theology of mission. Wecannot build our understanding of God’s purpose onjust one or two favorite mission texts or slogans. Weneed the whole Scripture and the whole heart of God asour basis. (See Isaiah 42:5-7 for a connection betweencreation, God’s loving plan and our mission.)

“The crow of the cock is its characteristic.” A mission-minded God is the God who is always telling people whattime it is in his cosmic plan. That is what Jesus did. Hebrought the good news of the end of human night andthe dawning of God’s day. Our God is not a God who hasto be sought through a religious quest like a secretiveanimal of the night. Our God parades noisily in plainsight. He wants to be found (Is. 60:1-3).

“The owner of things is the soul of things.” When wespeak of the missio Dei (mission of God), we remindourselves that God owns mission. He is the soul ofmission. We may be the visible body of mission, but thebody without the spirit/soul is a corpse. (See Job 38:4 fora reminder of who is in charge.)

“The satisfaction of a pregnant woman is a child.” God’smind is pregnant with the idea of the mission oftransforming the world. His satisfaction comes when thatidea is born into reality. The baptism of Jesus was anespecially satisfying moment for his Father (Mt. 3:17).

“Millet does not sow itself.” God’s good news is likeseed. It can produce a great crop but not if it remains in

Proverbial Perspectiveson the Missio Deiby Stan Nussbaum

A mission-

minded God is

the God who is

always telling

people what

time it is in his

cosmic plan.

reports

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storage. The gospel has to be embodied and announced by transformed human beingsand groups (Mt. 28:19-20).

“The cricket chirps by its hole.” This is the opposite of mission. The cricket thinkslike a coward, not a missionary. While it makes noise, it stays close to its hole so it canquickly dart back inside in case of danger. Jesus walked far from home down the roadof danger, rejection and sacrifice. If we follow him, we will have to be on the same roadhe was (Acts 4:31).

“The sun does not miss a day.” This is genuine mission. The sun was created by Godfor a purpose and it serves that purpose without fail. Because the sun is faithful,everyone benefits from its light. Let us greet the sunrise tomorrow with thanks to Godfor giving us such a wonderful, obvious reminder of what mission is all about. He wholit the fire of the sun can surely light the fire in us (Gen. 1:14-15).

Stan Nassbaum is the staff missiologist for Global Mapping Internationalin Colorado Springs, USA, and a member of the Global Missiology TaskForce of the Missions Commission. He can be contacted at [email protected],[email protected] or at GMI, 15435 Gleneagle Drive, Colo-rado Springs, CO 80921, USA.

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reportsBacked by many people’s prayers, evenfasting, I found myself blessed “out ofmy shoes”, to use a George Verwerexpression, in my mission mobilisationefforts. In November 2003 I travelled totwo cities, Sacramento, USA and SanSalvador in El Salvador, Central Americawhere I had a total of 26 meetings in twoweeks. Most were small gatherings.Meeting with individuals after themeetings or over lunch or dinner was justas fruitful.

From the USA

Dr. L. Mualchin is a big supporter of themission movement among the MizoChristian people in Mizoram State, India.This is the smallest state in India withonly 860,000 people but they have alreadysent out 2000 missionaries, anunprecedented sending rate. This brotheroverwhelmed me when he said that “theleadership’s vision is to multiply it tentimes to 20,000 missionaries, and intomany more nations.” How can I help thisvision? Well, I have started in a small wayby sending him books such as “Whichway forward for Indian Missions?” by Dr.K. Rajendran.

After one meeting I came across a manwhose activities include constructingchurch buildings in developing countries.I happen to know a brother in adeveloping nation whose vision is to see

Taking Mission Mobilisation on the RoadChacko Thomas

places of worship for churches meetingin houses which have outgrown theirfacilities. His method can buy land andput up a building in a small town foraround £7,000 (about US $11,000). Thismakes the congregation legal as well asgiving police protection for theworshippers. I hope these two men willbe able to work together.

My hosts in Sacramento are helping theirchurch to put together a missionprogramme for a congregation of about300 people. I was able to put my two centsworth into it. Among other things thechurch’s embryonic missions committeehas agreed to promote outreach toimmigrants in the area (among them, Sikhs,Iranians, Afghans) as part of mission. Atthe same time they want to focus on twounreached places of the world in theirprayer, finance, short term missions andsupporting nationals. My hosts, theDietz’, have spent most of their adult lifein Asia, Europe and Latin America andare well able to equip the church to docross-cultural work both at home andabroad.

Then there was the dinner meeting with aretired couple who are preparing to go toIndia just to get to know the country. Theyhope to return home with details of manyprojects for Christians to pray andsupport, through an organisation they arelinked with.

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My preparation for the US visit hasshown me something of the immense roleAmerican Christians have played andcontinue to play in missions all over theworld. Just as I was leaving for the States,in a Trans World Radio newsletter I readthat through this radio ministry 650churches have beenplanted in India as aresult of listener follow-up. I realise most of theworkers in India areIndians. But I would bea fool to think that all theleadership or moneycame from within India.We all know radiobroadcasting is notcheap. The world hasbeen blessed by thegenerosity of American Christians. PraiseGod!

I am glad to see such partnership, indeedmission is working together. The USAentry in “Operation World” tells me of thesignificant way they are blessingChristian missions around the world. Weneed to see a huge work force releasedfrom this nation in short term, tent makingand other forms of missions, including arenewed focus on Europe.

From San Salvador, El Salvador

The four-day San Salvador event wasorganised by 13 churches with 850participants from about 30 nations, mostlywithin Latin America. I am sure I am notthe only one who had to repent of mywrong notions about the Latin Church. Ihave never been to a better organised andco-ordinated conference anywhere in theworld. The Latin American Church is amature partner in world missions on an

equal footing with the rest of the Churcharound the world.

What made the conference very specialto me was that there were many Latinsthere who are or were missionaries, someshort-term, others serving longer. Praise

God! A friend whoattended a majorCOMIBAM conferenceprior to this, wrote to mesaying that there are6,500 Latin missionariesout there in almost everycountry of the world,including my ownbeloved country, India.My friend reminded meof the time when aBrazilian missionary

died in India of cancer and how hethought this is the end of missions forBrazilians. Obviously not!

It was a joy for me to spend an afternoonand evening after the conference with twocouples who are about to leave their jobsto go to a tough mission field, one of themtaking their two children with them. I wasable to relate from my three years workingin that nation with my Singaporean wifeand young family, which included muchsickness and other kinds of struggles andstress. May God give them their visasand help them to settle down and findtheir place in serving Him and the peoplethere.

I met with a Latin dentist whose ministryincludes taking short-term teams to needycountries to provide medical and spiritualservices. He had plans to go to aparticular difficult country and I was ableto answer many of his questions andmake suggestions, possibly making hisvisit easier and removing some of the fear

The Latin AmericanChurch is a mature

partner in worldmissions on an

equal footing withthe rest of the

Church around theworld.

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of the unknown. In one of the meetings Imet a lady, a dentist from El Salvador whohad been to India with a medical team.Wow, praise God!

Perhaps the most encouraging word Iheard from the conference was thatseveral pastors are returning to theirchurches now to encourage the peoplewhom they had previously discouragedfrom going into missions. One of thespecific cases I heard was a pastor whohad hindered four of his members fromgoing to India. He has now returned tohis congregation to help them realise theirvisions and call. Thank you, Lord Jesus.

I am glad to know thatdozens of Latins will beserving the Lord amongthe most unreachedfollowing thisconference. An email Ijust got from a younglady asked for advice inbecoming a Bibletranslator among peoplewho do not have theLord’s word in theirlanguage. Shementioned her 16-year-old brother whohas missions as his goal when the timecome. Pray for parents who have to copewith the decisions many youngsters andeven adults have taken. A lady told methat her parents are upset that they willnot be able to see their grandchildren asoften as they used to.

The conference was mission enthusiasmwith real substance. Yes, there was thenormal Latin excitement about missionsbut the realism and having “been there,done that and learned from it” was also

evident on many faces and in theirlanguage. I have learnt not to write offLatin mission excitement as some kind ofenthusiasm with no substance to it. Eventen years ago, when I last spent about 2years in the region, I was tempted to thinkthat. But even though for some it tookten years to reach their field, they havedone it. I was there in the late 70’s andearly 80’s when Latin America was stillconsidered a mission field. But there hasbeen a major change in the role of theseand similar nations in missions. It is adifferent world today.

Returning home to reflect

It is a different UK orUSA for that matter.While the UK is still oneof the leadingmissionary sendingcountries, there arepeople in this nationwho will be only bereached by missionarieswho will come here. MyKorean friend whopioneered a church plantin the UK now has a

congregation of about 100 white Britishpeople, most of were formerly un-churched. Oh yes, missionaries will beneeded in Latin America but they are alsomissionary sending nations. I had toremind myself of that when I first went toArgentina in 1979; one of the churcheswhere I preached had a pastor who wasformerly a missionary to India with theNazarene church.

Being an Indian, everywhere people wereasking me what is going on there. Itamazed people to discover that there are

While the UK is stillone of the leadingmissionary sendingcountries, there are

people in thisnation who will beonly be reached bymissionaries whowill come here.

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at least 43,000 cross cultural Indianmissionaries, most of serving within ourborders, but the church is growing undermuch opposition and even persecution.Yet a nation this large, with 1 billion ofGod’s lost children, with the largestnumber of unreached people groups inany country (some numbering many

Chacko Thomas coordinates the Misison Mobilisation Network of theWEA Missions Commission. He was the associate leader of George Verwer’sOperation Mobilisation International (OM) coordinating team in Londonand the Director of the OM ship, Logos II. He can be contacted [email protected] or [email protected] or at POBox 660, Forest Hill, London, SE23 3ST, England.

millions), it is wonderful that the churchworld-wide is paying attention to it inprayer, going, sending, giving and everyother way. I am glad to know that therewill be thousands in Sacramento and LatinAmerica encouraged to believe God forIndia to turn to Him.Amen!

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reports

Africa! A continent of immense contradictions! So rich,so poor! So much available in the area of humanresource, yet this vast treasure is largely ignored withinthe continent. The awareness of the vast potentials ofthe continent and what it can offer the entire world, iftapped and sharpened in the right way, caused Africanevangelicals to come together in 1966 to launch theAssociation of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA). One ofthe early things the AEA did was to set up thecommission on Theology (TC), and the commission onEvangelism and Missions (EMC).

Rev. (Dr.) Panya Baba was appointed the ExecutiveSecretary of the EMC and he did a good job of settingup the first National Missions Movement in thecontinent - the Nigerian Evangelical MissionsAssociation (NEMA). He tried to move around othercountries but was hampered by low finances and thefact that he was also the Executive Director of the largestmission organisation in the continent - the EvangelicalMissionary Society of ECWA.

A full time executive secretary was appointed for theEMC in 1989. At the time, there were very few missionagencies in the continent, so there was no reason orpossibility for National Missions movements. Theschools of missions were in only about 4 countries andthere was an abysmal ignorance about missions andmissionaries.

Of course, there had always been some missionmovement right from the time the Apostles came topreach in Africa. This movement was not a massmovement but it was there. For example, Samuel AjayiCrowther, a slave boy from Nigeria, rescued from a slave

The Impact of an AfricanRegional Missions Movement

Africa! Acontinent of

immensecontradictions!

So rich, sopoor! So much

available in thearea of human

resource, yetthis vast

treasure islargely ignored

within thecontinent.

by Bayo Famonure

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ship by a British boat in Sierra Leone,rapidly became an evangelist and amissionary soon after his conversion. In1842 through the help of the ChurchMissionary Society of the Church ofEngland, Crowther was taken to Englandfor theological education. There he wasordained as a pastor in the AnglicanChurch and later returned to Nigeriawhere he served as a great church leader,a theologian and amissionary statesman. In order to hastenthe missionary endeavour of the Church,Bishop Ajayi Crowther single-handedlytranslated the whole Bible into his mother-tongue, Yoruba in 1864 AD.

In 1880, Edward Blyden, an African-American in a speech before the AmericanColonisation Society said:

“Africa may yet prove to be the spiritualconservatory of the world. Just as in pasttimes Egypt proved a stronghold ofChristianity after Jerusalem fell, and justas the noblest and greatest of the Fathersof the Christian Church came out ofEgypt, so it may be, when the civilisednation, in consequence of their wonderfulmaterial development, shall have hadtheir spiritual perceptions darkened andtheir spiritual susceptibilities bluntedthrough the agency of a captivating andabsorbing materialism, it may be that they may have to resort to Africa torecover some of the simple elements offaith; for the promise of the land is thatshe shall stretch forth her hands untoGod”. (Edward Blyden, 1880:124)

It was the presence of these patches ofrevival that helped to inflame themissionary vision we have now in Africa.Many of us got converted through the

revivals of the late sixties. The ScriptureUnion of Nigeria for example wasinstrumental in helping many of us cometo Christ. That was how I, for example,got converted. It was a very serious issueto repent of sins those days. It meant atotal break from the old ways and adetermination to go all the way withJesus. There was much teaching onholiness and sacrifice for God. These ledus to the movement in the universities.In West Africa, the Christian groups inthe campuses went by the same ChristianUnion, while in the East, they were calledFOCUS - Fellowship of Christian Unions.Village outreaches were a trade mark ofthese groups and many of the studentsgot involved in going out to where thesinners were! It was not difficult for theirzeal to translate into missionary vision.

Since I came into EMC as a full timeExecutive Secretary, much has been doneto impact the continent, Africans indiaspora, and some effort beyond thecontinent. Whereas there were only 4countries with missions training in anyform, now there are about 23 countrieswith viable missions trainingprogrammes. Some of the trainers andteachers were trained through a MissionsLeaders Training Course (MLTC)organised by EMC, and there are othertraining programmes for those who willequip the African mission force.

The first journal of missions from Africais receiving much interest from missionstrainers, theological schools and pastors.This journal also is part of the EMC vision.

So where are we? Permit me to quote DrTokunboh Adeyemo, the immediate pastGeneral Secretary of the AEA. “Since

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independence largely in the sixties,missions initiative by theAfrican church has reached exponentialdimension. Numerous indigenousmissions agencies have sprung up allover sub-Sahara Africa with Nigeria takingthe lead with over 135 independentindigenous mission societies and over4,500 Nigerian missionaries serving athome and abroad. Today, the most vibrantand dynamic assembly in Belgrade was

started and is pastored by a Nigerianmissionary”.

In closing, it is helpful to note that muchmore can be achieved through unity. TheAfrican regional missions movement iscommitted to uniting and sensitisingChurches all over the continent to tacklethe task of the great commission in greatearnest, complete this task job even aswe face the world beyond our continent.

‘Bayo Famonure, a long-term Nigerian missions leader, leads the Evange-lism and Missions Commission of the Association of Evangelicals of Africa.Based in Jos, Nigeria, he also is Editor-in-Chief of “Missionafric: A Journalof Mission Practice in and from Africa”, the EMS journal, published threetimes a year. He serves on the Global Leadership Team of the WEA Mis-sions Commission. He is married to Naomi, a mission leader in her own rightand founder director of Messiah College, a full-service boarding school forAfrican missionary kids. He can be contacted at [email protected].

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reports

The cover story for December 8, 2003 edition of U.S.News and World Report was entitled “The NewEvangelicals.” In response I wrote a letter to the editorexpressing my appreciation for the fair, kind, insightfulwork done by the reporter AND how deeply pained andconvicted I felt as a result. Terms such as “stronglypersonalist,” “therapeutic,” “theological fuzziness” and“market-savvy” used to describe us caused me to thankthe editor for the necessary wake up call for us. Theconviction came because of the characteristics theirwriters had not seen in us. The article made no referenceto the Great Commandment that our Lord said would be“The Mark of the Christian.”1 No reference was madeto a demonstration in obedience to the “one another”admonishments of the epistles. He referred to thischristianity changing America but there was no apparentevidence that this influence produces a deep commitmentto justice or compassion or humility as Micah indicatedis a requirement of a virtuous nation. Seeking to obeythe Great Commission in the post modern world, as ithas been for 2000 years, requires obedience to theMaster. He clearly instructed us, at the most importantPassover celebration in history, that the GreatCommission cannot be fulfilled without obeying the GreatCommandment.

After washing the disciples feet Jesus said, “You callme Teacher and Lord and rightly so, for that is what Iam. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washedyour feet, you should wash one another’s feet...” AfterJesus predicts his betrayal, breaks bread with thedisciples and dismisses Judas to betray Him, he speaksof being Glorified - of having His characterdemonstrated. Significantly, He prays about this veryissue2 as He moves from Demonstration3 and

Doing It Right:Great Commandment Key to Great Commissionby Dave Pollock

Seeking to

obey the Great

Commission in

the post

modern world,

as it has been

for 2000 years,

requires

obedience to

the Master.

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Proclamation4 of His love toSupplication5. The Scripture repeatedlyreminds us that the motivating factor inthe God of Creation is Love (John 3:16;Rom. 5:8). It follows that at the heart ofthe Proclamation is the GreatCommandment - “A new commandmentI give you: Love one another. As I haveloved you, so you must love one another. By this shall all men know that you aremy disciples if you love one another.”

Sadly, it may be no accident that Peter’snon sequitur in this passage seems todeflect the impact of the command ofJesus when He asks “Where are yougoing?” We, all too often, tend toemphasize the prediction of Peter’s denialin this passage rather than Jesus’command. Could it be that our sinfulnature, coupled with the attempteddistraction of the Prince of this world,prevents us from seeing the seriousness,the pivotal factor of this command? Whydo we find it so difficult to take thisseriously! In 50 plus years of being aChristian, I am yet to hear a missionaryspeaker, attend a mission conference, orparticipate in a mission strategy sessionwhere there was full recognition that thefulfillment of the Great Commission isdependent upon obedience to the GreatCommandment. Could this explain whatmay go wrong with the Harvest orperhaps what could go right with it?

The Great Commandment is first andforemost a Mandate with all of thesignificance and authority of the Lawgiven to Moses. When Jesus was askedby the Pharisees “which is the greatestcommandment in the Law”6 He said,“Love the Lord your God with all yourheart, soul and mind.” Interesting, is it

not, that Jesus - God in flesh - says to Hisdisciples “If you love me, keep mycommandments”7. He proceeds inMatthew 22, that “the second is like thefirst: “Love your neighbor asyourself”...and in John 13 “mycommandment is that you love oneanother.”

Since it is a command to obey, love mustbe defined not as a feeling but rather as achoice to act on behalf of another for thatperson’s good and God’s glory. This isthe force of the 10 commandments. It isthe leverage for loving one’s enemy8.

This love is projected in the parable ofthe “Good Samaritan.” 9 It is the heartbeat for the proper response to the “oneanothers” of the New Testament. It is thekey to submission. 10 It is central to themind of Christ. 11

Second, it is the key Method of evangelismas it demonstrates to a world that theDivine has invaded us and performed themiraculous in individuals that in turnimpacts the whole - “By this shall all menknow that you are My disciples.” JoshMcDowell, in his book “The NewTolerance”, points out that the apologeticfor the post modern mind is thedemonstration of Christ’s love in andthrough us. It should be no surprise thatin John 13 Jesus ties the GreatCommission inseparably to the GreatCommandment. How we respond to oneanother is the testimony ofreconciliation. John’s first epistleindicates that being in Christ is revealedin three ways. First, has his mind beenaffected? Does he believe that Jesus isthe Christ? 12. Has his will been affected?Does he desire to be obedient to Christ’scommands?13 Has his love been

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affected? Does he love his brother?14.His letter explodes with the developmentof John 13:34. Peter also reflects on thissame theme when he says “Be clearminded, self-controlled so you can prayand love one another deeply...”15

Fulfilling the Great Commission is clearas Peter, echoing Jesus16 instructsbelievers so that “they may see yourgood deeds and glorify God” 17 whichleads naturally from Demonstration toProclamation as we “give an answer toeveryone who asks a reason for the Hopethat we have.”18

Third, the Great Commandment fulfilledis, in fact, the Message incarnated. Ourcommitment to incarnational evangelismis not simply the mastering of crosscultural skills but the message lived inthe presence of a watching world. John13 through 17 must be seenas a whole. What Jesusdemonstrated in John 13and proclaims in John 13-16 flows into Hissupplication to the Father,apparently in the hearing ofJohn, James and Peter whowent with Him in thegarden19. Jesus prays inregard to Himself that Hewill continue to demonstrate (glorify) thecharacter of the Father and then Hedefines Eternal Life, “That they may knowyou, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,whom you have sent.” Is it not startlingthat as He prays for us, “those who willbelieve in Me through their (disciples’)message” that He prays that we might bebrought to complete unity to show theworld that you (the Father) sent me (theSon)? It is the essence of Eternal Life. But how does such a prayer discover its

answer? Simply it is produced byobedience to the Great Commandment...love one another... and the product isunity... the message is incarnational firstin Him and then in those who are His.

Finally, obedience to the commandmentis our Motivation to fulfill the GreatCommission. Paul, whose persistentmessage is that we are called to obedienceand such obedience brews unity as theproduct of our love20 acknowledges thatthe key to our investment in the Kingdomis that “the love of Christ compels us.” 21

No other motivation is powerful enoughto press us to truly fulfill the GreatCommission. One might be motivated todevelop a church organization for prideof accomplishment, or position of poweror even financial gain but to truly fulfill

the Great Commissionrequires the power of theGreat Commandment. “Gomake disciples... baptize...teach them to obeyeverything I havecommanded you.” Thesufficient motivation toendure through the processof discipling is only Hislove in us, and key to this

kind of shepherding is living it, being “anexample to the flock” 22. The GreatCommission states that the indication ofits fulfillment is that the disciple obeyswhatsoever He has commanded. TheGreat Commission is not really fulfilleduntil the Great Commandment is obeyed.

Whether it be evangelism, discipleship,service, member care, properadministration or any other exercise of ourgiftedness 23, the Great Commandment is

The GreatCommission is

not really fulfilleduntil the GreatCommandment

is obeyed.

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our Mandate, our Methodology, ourMessage incarnate, our Motivation andHe is our Model of what we as individualbelievers and we as the Church should

be before a watching world. Anything shortof obedience to the Great Commandmentis failure to fulfill the Great Commission.

Endnotes:1 Book by Francis Schaeffer2 John 17:1-53 John 13:1-114 John 13:12-16,335 John 176 Matt. 22:34-407 John 14:15,21,23; 15:9-10,12-14,178 Matt. 5:449 Luke 10:3310 Eph. 5:21f11 Phil. 2:5f; Rom. 5:1-812 I John 2:30f13 I John 2:3-614 I John 3:11-24; 4:7-2115 I Peter 4:716 I Peter 2:11,1217 Matt. 5:13-1618 I Peter 3:1519 Matt. 26:36-3820 Rom. 12:1-21; I Cor. 12:12-16; I Cor. 13; I Cor. 16:1-4; II Cor.1:3-7; 8:1-9; Gal. 5:22; 6:1-10; Eph. 4:6; Phil. 1:9-11; 2:5-18; 4:2-321 II Cor. 5:1422 I Peter 5:323 Eph. 4:11-16; Rom. 12:1-21; 13:8-10

Dave Pallock is the director of Interaction, an organization dedicatedto support and care for internationally mobile families and third cul-ture children. He is the co-chair of MemCa. He can be contacted [email protected] or [email protected] ,or at Interaction, PO Box 158, Houghton, NY 14744, USA.

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reports

The year 2003 saw stepped-up activities in Global InTent,the Tentmakers mobilization ministry of the PhilippineMissions Association. With the goal of deploying200,000 tentmakers by the year 2010, significant strideswere made in mobilization, training and strategicintercession in the Filipino global church.

In the challenging task of raising up world-changers forthe global marketplace, owning a paradigm of excellenceis non-negotiable. Over the last twelve months,approximately 1,500 people and over 400 pastors invarious parts of the country have been challenged withthe tentmakers vision. Several dozen more underwenttrainings to further hone their ministry skills as well asgain much needed insight about the issues in the globalspiritual arena that they would be facing in the future astentmakers. Another spiritually significant event wasthe signing of the covenant of support of the Filipinotentmakers vision by dozens of national, regional andlocal church leaders during the Global InTent 2003Tentmakers’ Congress last March 23, 2003. A songentitled the OFW (Our Faithful Witness) Song wascomposed for the said event and has since become theFilipino tentmakers anthem.

As a result of these activities, a sense of ownership ofthe vision has taken root. As of this time, regionalmovements have been formed in different parts of thecountry. Individuals took the initiative to organizethemselves to so that they can effectively mobilize local

The Almighty is orchestrating the dispersal of Filipinos in over 200 countries inthe world as contract laborers and professionals. With about 500,000 believersamong the nearly 8 million Filipinos living and working overseas, the potential

of bringing the witness of Christ to the tens of millions of people is there.

by Bob López

Raising Up the New Breed ofMissionaries in the Philippines

In thechallenging

task of raisingup world-

changers forthe global

marketplace,owning a

paradigm ofexcellence is

non-negotiable.

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churches, arrange and conduct training,set up an intercessory network and tapcommitted and qualified people toprovide member care. Prominentdenominations like the ConservativeBaptists, the Christian and MissionaryAlliance, the Luzon Convention ofSouthern Baptists, and even two differentwings of the Methodists have alreadybegun taking a serious look at how theycan re-invent their mission departmentsin order to be at the cutting edge of worldevangelization. Many smallerdenominations and local churches havestarted commissioning their tentmakersto the 10/40 Window.

Vision casting has not been limited tochurches in the Philippines. Filipinopastors and lay workers serving asexpatriate contract workers in Asia andthe Middle East have also been inspiredto use their occupations as platforms forcross-cultural witness and ministry. Moreand more leaders are beginning to realizethe redemptive design of the Almighty inorchestrating the dispersal of Filipinosin over 200 countries in the world ascontract laborers and professionals. Withabout 500,000 believers among the nearly8 million Filipinos living and workingoverseas, the potential of bringing thewitness of Christ to the tens of millionsof people is there. Initial steps to

establish a global database of Filipinochurches and Christians have been takenby PMA to harness the potential of thisawesome army of the Lord.

Short and practical training modules havebeen developed by various Philippine-based missions training organizationswith the Christian Overseas FilipinoWorker (OFW) in mind. Training moduleswill be reproducible and transferable inorder to using mass media and in order toequip as many as possible in the shortesttime at the least expense. Several trainingevents have already been conductedwithin several countries where Filipinochurches are operating. The existence ofFilipino ministerial fellowships like theFilipino International Network and thePinag-ISA is making all of this feasible.All over the world, Filipino churches havebeen attracting people of various ethnicbackgrounds to join in worship andfellowship. We are in the process of tryingto document the number of Muslims,Hindus, Buddhists that are being touchedthrough the witness of the Filipinotentmaker.

Yes, we are anticipating even moreglorious days ahead as the impact ofstrategic global outreach is realizedthrough our hundreds of thousands ofOFWs (Outstanding Filipino Witnesses)!

Currently serving as the National Director of the Philippine MissionsAssociation, the missions commission of the Philippine Council ofEvangelical Churches and is a Board member of Tentmakers InternationalExchange (TIE). Formerly served as the Chief Operating Officer of theAsian Center for Missions, the largest missions training organization inthe Philippines. Bob considers mobilizing Christian overseas contractworkers to share the gospel cross-culturally as the most strategic workthat can be done for Filipinos on a global scale.He can be contacted [email protected]

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reportsby Rob Brynjolfson

I have brought you glory on earth by completing thework you gave me to do. Jesus of Nazareth (John 17:4)

The effective equipping of cross-cultural workersis a monumental task on a scale too grand for oneentity, organism or institution alone to achieve. Itrequires a synergistic delivery of training by aspectrum of providers strategically targeting desiredoutcomes at the points of greatest need over the lifeof the individual missionary. The purpose of thisarticle is to explore the need for cross-cultural trainingto be delivered over a ministry life cycle through adiversity of educators and equippers. No otherapproach can accurately be described as wholeperson or holistic.

What is the ministry life cycle? What are theinstitutions, organisms, entities that can be identifiedas providers of learning and training over the spanof a ministry life cycle? How significant is thistraining perspective in relation to the task of worldevangelization? What role does the Church play?Where does the dedicated missionary training centrefit in this spectrum? These compelling questionsare summarized by the admission that training iscritically important and impossible to achieve withouta holistic and long term outlook. This article isdivided into two portions. The first examines theministry life cycle training concept from a perspectiveof life long learning. The second considers the kindsof training needed to meet the needs of today’smissionaries.

Effective Equipping Of theCross-Cultural Worker

The effectiveequipping of

cross-culturalworkers is a

monumentaltask on a scale

too grand forone entity,

organism orinstitution alone

to achieve.

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Life Cycle and Life Long Learningin Ministry

One could claim, in contradiction to thefirst paragraph, that there is an exampleof one entity, a person actually, whoachieved the impossible dream andeffectively trained people for cross-cultural ministry. Jesus rises above allothers when we think of effectivetraining. When he emitted those words“I have brought you glory on earth bycompleting the work you gave me todo” (John 17:4), remember that theresurrection lay before Him, the passionwas still to be endured, but his task oftraining the 12 was finished. It wasthis finished task that brought glory toGod. However, before one assumesthat Jesus alone could miraculouslyachieve the impossible task of training12 men for the premiere inaugurationof the global cross-cultural mission,remember only a short time prior healso admitted that more learning wasneeded, and to that end he was sendingthe Comforter (John 14:26). Thepurpose of the Holy Spirit is to lead usinto a life long pilgrimage of growth.We sojourn in the land of long termlearning.

The Master Teacher/Trainer establisheda principle that missionary trainersrepeatedly affirm: learning for liferequires life long learning. The cradle-to-grave approach to missionarytraining is the perspective of deliveringneeded information, facilitatingunderstanding, achieving proficiency inskills and abilities and developingcharacter qualities and attitudes overthe ministry life cycle of the cross-

cultural worker. Unlike our Lord, wedo not have the luxury of ever sayingthe work is completed. There is alwaysmore to learn. More specifically, it isnot our place to assume the task canbe finished by ourselves, in one stageor by one institution or one generation.Graduated does not mean finished. Thefront-end loading of academic degreesprior to overseas service mediatesagainst worker effectiveness on twoplanes. First, it postpones languagelearning and culture adaptation at theperil of achieving functionality in thesecritical skills. A twenty year old has abetter chance of excelling in Arabic thana 28 year old. Second, the actual needsof a field or team may differ and if ayoung missionary can learn thelanguage and adapt to the culture beforechoosing a career path, he or she willbe able to make a wiser choice in thelong run. In other words, wait andsee what you really need to learn to bemore effective on the field.

The ministry life cycle includes thehome, where the vast majority of alllearning takes place; the Church; anda variety of educational experiencesincluding vocational/professional,biblical/theological, formal/nonformal,pre-field missionary equipping, on-fieldand in service training, specializationtraining, up-grading, or retooling. Thefollowing diagram, though publishedover 12 years ago, outlines the cyclesof learning throughout the career of amissionary. The various spokes of thistraining wheel, as it has been called,reflect possible points of input from adiversity of training entities orinstitutions. It is possible that one entity

74


might cover a number of spokes.Feasibly, the church or agency couldalso be a provider of formal, non-formal

Different Strokes for DifferentSpokes

In this section, we begin to see theneed to adapt the training “strokes” tofit the different spokes of themissionary training wheel. One of theother questions to ask is howsignificant is this training perspectivein relation to the task of world

evangelization? This could be restatedby asking what role does training playin light of the urgency and monumentalscale of the task before the Church?My ears still burn at the thought of awell-meaning and zealous brother whotold me “don’t waste time going toschool, brother. Souls are being losteven as you read your books.” A moretranscendent view perceives not only

Biblical/Theological and cross-culturalstudies. An additional spoke could beadded: vocational/professional education.

From William Taylor1, ed., Internationalizing Missionary Training.

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the long-term benefits of adequatetraining but also the necessity ofobedience to the will of God, and ifobeying God means going through amissionary training centre, one hadbetter do it.

For this discussion, it is imperative tounderstand how the right kind oftraining helps the Church achieve thegoal of reaching the world. The rightkind of training, for instance, willincrease the work force. My shortsighted friend believed that rushing offto the field would increase the workforce and shorten the task of worldevangelization. Unfortunately, theopposite is true. Ill preparedmissionaries do not remain on the field.Although the WEA MissionsCommission ReMAP I study of attritiondemonstrated that one of three factorscontributing to longevity was pre-fielddedicated missionary training, theReMAP II project, focusing onmissionary retention, is determiningthat pre-field missionary training makesa significant impact on the longevityof workers overseas.2 Longevityequals more workers. I recall amissionary candidate in his impetuouszeal to get to the field telling me hedidn’t need pre-field training and if hewanted conflict management skills hecould get them at the Justice Institute.He returned within a year from hisassignment, his church is nowunwilling to send him back, but I fearthe lesson was never learned.

The right kind of training will alsoincrease a worker’s effectiveness.Frankly, little is known regarding the

effectiveness of field missionaries.Missiologist Don K. Smith estimatesthat only 10% of all westernmissionaries are really effective.3 Theadded stress and instability due tomaladjustment and culture shockproduce an ineffectiveness that can bealleviated by adequate pre-field training.Myron Loss believes that 75% ofmissionaries do not function adequatelyin their field assignments. He writes,

Based upon personal experience,numerous contacts withmissionaries representing manymissions and many fields, andextensive reading of relevantliterature, I estimate that onlyabout one out of fourmissionaries function at a levelnear to that which was normal intheir home culture.4

Finally, the right kind of training willalso increase an entire group’seffectiveness. Interpersonalrelationship issues continue to hamperthe effectiveness of today’smulticultural teams. More than ever,missionaries need adequate training toensure that they already enjoy theneeded skills, such as conflictmanagement or interpersonalcommunication, in order to deal withcharacter and attitude issues that inhibitthe work of a team.

So what is the right kind of training?Where does one go to find suchtraining? It should be obvious by nowthat the right kind of training cannotbe encapsulated within oneorganization, institution, agency, school

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or church. This is why we need acommitment to training throughout theministry life cycle of the cross-culturalworker. Perhaps, we can ask wheredo the various institutions, organismsand agencies enter into the picture oftraining for effective ministry?

The primary institutions working in thissynergistic life-span training include thehome, the church,missionary agencies,formal schools anddedicated missionarytraining centres.Whether or notministry life cycletraining is the issue, thepoint of all of this is toend up with aneffectively equippedperson. The only wayto be certain that thisend is achieved is todevelop trainingprograms that areoutcomes driven, because they beginwith the end in mind. An outcomedriven program will begin by askingwhat does a trained cross-culturalservant look like? Normally, keyinterested parties would providedescriptions that could be tabulated andorganized into categories includingcognitive (mental/intellectual), affective(character and attitude) and skill(abilities) outcomes.

The acquisition of some of theseoutcomes will be straightforward.Cognitive, outcomes requiretransferring or acquiring knowledgeand understanding, and our schools

excel in achieving these outcomes.Skills, on the other hand, requiredevelopment and practice. A cross-cultural trainee cannot normally gainthe needed cross-cultural skills in thecontext of home, church or school.Adapting to another culture and learninganother language will requiretransferring of needed information,observing modelled behaviour and

practicing the desiredskill until proficient.The agency canfacilitate the processby providing on-fieldand in-service trainingthat includes languageacquisition andorientation during initialcultural adjustments,but this is where adedicated missionarytraining program candeliver practicaltraining to ensure skillsare honed before

departing for the field.

The third area of needed outcomes isin the affective domain. Desirablecharacter traits and attitudes need tobe identified, but the greater challengeis ensuring that these are actuallyachieved. During the WEA MissionsCommission global consultation lastyear, the International MissionaryTraining Network team stronglyexpressed the need to address characterand attitude outcomes in missionarytraining. In fact, a look at the ReMAP1 findings demonstrates that this is thearea of greatest training need. BillTaylor wrote:

Adapting to anotherculture and learning

another language willrequire transferring

of neededinformation,

observing modelledbehaviour andpracticing the

desired skill untilproficient.

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Perhaps a better way to state the casefor training is to address the top fivecauses of OSC “preventable” attritionand realize that these causes have todo primarily with issues of characterand relationships. Then we can askthe question: In what ways do ourformal and non-formal training equip

missionaries in these two crucialdimensions?5

If we take the findings of ReMAP Iand adjust them to reflect reasons forleaving that relate to character andattitude traits, we find the following listand percentages:

Reasons ALL % OSC % NSC % RANK ORDER

Problems with peers 5.9 6.0 5.7 6 5 5

Personal concerns 4.9 5.2 4.5 7 6 9=

Disagreement with agency 4.7 3.9 6.1 8 8 4

Inadequate commitment 4.4 2.7 7.3 9 14 3

Lack of call 4.1 1.8 8.0 10 19 2

Immature spiritual life 3.3 2.5 4.5 12= 15 9=

Marriage/family conflict 3.3 3.6 2.8 12= 10 16=

Poor cultural adaptation 3.1 3.2 3.0 14 12 15

Problems with local leaders 2.9 2.2 4.0 15= 16= 12=

Inappropriate training 2.7 1.6 4.5 17 20 9=

Dismissal by agency 1.6 1.0 2.5 21= 23= 18

Immoral lifestyle 1.4 0.9 1.5 23 25 20=

Attrition percentage forreasons involvingcharacter and attitude traits. 42.3 34.6 54.4

Calculated number ofreturning missionaries peryear for reasons involvingcharacter and attitude traits. 3,236

WEIGHTED CHARACTER & ATTITUDE REASONS FOR LEAVINGMISSIONARY SERVICE

ALL OSC NSC

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Bob Ferris writes in his paper onStandards of Training Excellence7 thattraining for character is one of thehallmarks of excellence in missionarytraining centres. The secondcharacteristic he mentions is trainingin community. There is an implicit linkbetween character and community.Our behaviour, our Christian walk, isa reflection of the values we hold. Thesame is true of attitudes. For example,racial pride produces prejudice. Bothare attitudes formed by the values wehold, normally in our subconsciousmind, and were acquired through thesignificant communities in which wehave spent time, such as our homes,communities, schools, even churches.

So, how can missionary candidatesachieve the desired outcomes? Weneed to understand that it is onlythrough gaining new experiences insignificant communities that we canadjust and change our attitudes ordevelop the character traits needed tosucceed on the field. Whichcommunities best serve to facilitate thedevelopment of desired character andattitude traits? Those communitiesintentionally focused on achievingneeded character and attitude traits willbe most effective at producing theseoutcomes.

The home generates tremendousamounts of social learning, but fewhomes are suited to produce thecharacter traits and attitudesmissionaries need. The church iswhere we can expect more intentionalcharacter formation in genericChristian terms. In this sense,

churches are the primary institution forcharacter and attitude formation in theministry life cycle of the cross-culturalworker. Unfortunately, few churchesare well suited to facilitate charactergrowth and attitude adjustment whenit comes to those traits more directlyrelating to life overseas. Flexibility,adaptability, patience and long sufferingin the face of cultural differences arenot the kind of character and attitudeoutcomes churches normally strive toproduce in their members.Furthermore, our churches are notalways intimate communities. Ourchurch relationships too frequently lackopenness, vulnerability andaccountability.

This is why one of the needed spokeson the missionary training wheelshould be a community experience ina dedicated missionary training centre.More importantly, this is why ourdedicated missionary trainingcommunities need to take greaterstrides at becoming the kind of learningcommunity where character is mouldedand attitudes are adjusted throughintentional interventions using diversemethods and are not left to chance orspontaneity. After all, if the formationof needed character qualities andattitudes is such a significant need inministry training it requires a moreintentional effort.

Drawing to a close

As such, since there is no feasiblemeans of providing a complete trainingpackage without this approach, weneed cross-cultural training to be

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intentionally delivered over the entireministry life cycle of the worker. Uponadopting a ministry life cycle approachto training we can encourage schools toexcel in developing understanding andbuilding theoretical foundations.Furthermore, we can encourage trainingcentres and agencies to work inconjunction towards the development ofneeded cross-cultural skills. Finally, andmost significantly, we can begin todevelop training programs in churches,

(End notes)1William Taylor, ed., Internationalizing Missionary Training, (http://www.wearesources.org,

accessed Dec. 18, 2003), p. 4.2 Detlef Bloecher, Missionary Training Makes Missionaries Resilient – Lessons from ReMAP II,

(http://www.wearesources.org) ReMAP I & II Articles and Files, accessed Dec. 18, 2003), p.3 Don K. Smith, from a telephone interview conducted by Peter Duyzer, January, 2001.4 Myron Loss, Culture Shock: Dealing with Stress in Cross-Cultural Living, (Winona Lake,

Indiana: Light and Life press, 1983), p. 3.5 William Taylor, ed., Too Valuable To Lose: Exploring the Causes and Cures of Miss ionary

Attrition Pasadena, CA: William Carey, 1997. p. 13.6 Data taken from the table “Total Weighted Reasons For Leaving Missionary Service” William

Taylor, ed., Too Valuable To Lose, p. 92.7 Robert Ferris, Standards of Training Excellence, (http://www.wearesources.org) accessed Dec.

18, 2003), pp. 2-3.

agencies and missionary training centresthat intentionally use communities tofoster growth in needed characterqualities and adjust attitudes for fieldeffectiveness. In this way, we can providethe synergistic delivery of specializedtraining by a spectrum of gifted providersand equippers strategically targetingdesired outcomes in the intellectual,emotional and skills domains of the cross-cultural mission force.

Rob’s first term of service was in South America where he was involved inchurch planting with International Teams. Married to Silvia from Argentina,they served together with WEC International in South America, Europe andEquatorial Guinea, and were involved primarily in leadership development.Rob was the founding director of Gateway Missionary Training Centre,Langley, BC. and presently, is the pastor of Esperanza Multicultural Church,Burnaby, BC and the program director for Gateway Missionary TrainingCentre. He can be contacted at [email protected].

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review

The director of the new center is Dr. ToddM. Johnson, co-author with Dr. David B.Barrett of the World ChristianEncyclopedia, Second Edition, publishedin 2001 by Oxford University Press. Dr.Barrett, editor of the first edition, andAustralian missiologist Peter F. Crossingare also working with the center.

The World Christian Database (WCD),the new electronic version of the databehind the World ChristianEncyclopedia and World ChristianTrends, makes massive amounts ofinformation easily accessible online.Users can log onto a website hosted byG o r d o n - C o n w e l l ,<www.globalchristianity.org>, for dataand numerous summary tables, and canalso download information into Excel tocreate graphs or charts, or into wordprocessing and desktop publishingprograms, with the proper attribution.

About the World Christian Database

The World Christian Database transformscurrent religious statistics into a real-timeanalysis tool that takes just minutes toperform even detailed research. Thiscomprehensive database brings togethera fully updated and cohesive religiousdataset with a world-class database

Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, USA,has launched a new Center for the Study ofGlobal Christianity and unveiled a web versionof the World Christian Database (WCD)by Todd Johnson

architecture. The result is a simple, yetpowerful database tool that enablesusers to customize reports and downloaddata for in use in charts, tables, andgraphs.

Find data on:

World religions34,000 denominations13,000 ethnolinguistic peoples7,000 cities3,000 provinces238 countries

Clear, Comprehensive, Customized.

The World Christian Database (WCD) isbased on the 2,600-page award-winningWorld Christian Encyclopedia andWorld Christian Trends, first publishedin 1982 and revised in 2001. Thisextensive work on world religion is nowcompletely updated and integrated intothe WCD online database. Designed forboth the casual user and research scholar,information is readily available onreligious activities, growth rates,religious literature, worker activity, anddemographic statistics. Additionalsecular data is incorporated onpopulation, health, education, andcommunications.

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Supported by Top Scholars

A full-time staff is dedicated to updatingand maintaining the World ChristianDatabase. New information fromthousands of sources is reviewed on aweekly basis to continually refine andimprove the WCD. Most importantly, thestaff at WCD derives much of theirinformation from multiple cross-correlated sources and presents their finalstatistics such that they conform to datadefinitions and are consistent with relatedinformation throughout the database.This cohesive database enables users toquickly correlate variables or compareentity groups across multiple fields withoutspending hours to confirm consistency ofmeasurement across data sources.

Detailed religious & demographicstatistics including:

• Population (for 2000, 2025, 2050 ,... )

• Demographics (birth rate, adult %,life expectancy)

• Heath (HIV rates, access to water,mortality, …)

• Education (% literacy, schools,universities, …)

• Communication,( scripture access,religious freedom)

• Christian personnel & evangelism rates• Status of missions work• And more!!!

Easy to Use

The World Christian Database features asimple keyword search to find informationquickly. Information is convenientlydisplayed by category allowing the userto drill down to detailed information attheir leisure. For those that prefer tobrowse, several pre-formatted directoriesguide users through the information oncountry, peoples, religions, anddenominations. Sophisticated users cancustomize their searches using advancedField and Criteria sorting routines. Thisenables users to find and organize exactlythe data they need and format it the waythey want.

The World Christian Database (WCD)represents the core data from the WorldChristian Encyclopedia (WCE) andWorld Christian Trends (WCT). TheWCD includes detailed information on34,000 Christian denominations and onreligions in every country of the world.Extensive data are available on 238countries and 13,000 ethnolinguisticpeoples, as well as data on 7,000 citiesand 3,000 provinces. Statistics in theWCD represent a significant update ofthe data published in WCE/WCT in 2001.WCD is an initiative of the Center for theStudy of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

Todd M. Johnson is the director of the Center for the Study of GlobalChristianity at Gordon – Conwell Theological Seminary, SouthHamilton, Massachussets. He can be contacted [email protected] or [email protected]

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reviewWang Mingdao’s Stand for the Persecuted Church inChina, Thomas Alan HarveyGrand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2002, 190 pages, ISBN1-58743-0592-2

Lit-up ornaments, Christmas trees, and lilting Christmasmusic greet visitors to any hotel in any large city inChina. In fact, the selection of the piped music as diverseas “Joy to the World”, to the surprising inclusion of“Thine Is The Glory” delights one’s auditory senses.Visitors can be excused to think there is a normalcy ofChristianity in China, and that Christmas is celebrated.Elsewhere on university campuses, Bible studies areflourishing and authorities choose to look the other way.At the very same time, the harassment of large groupsof house churches continues throughout China. Howdoes one make sense of this paradox?

Students and servants who are assisting the Church inChina have benefited from a fresh body of literaturethat has bloomed from both within China and thediaspora mainland Chinese, as well as those who areChina watchers.1 Similarly, books on Christianity andthe Church in China have also gained space onbookshelves.2 However, what is lacking are definitivebooks from a historical perspective. With two “lost”decades in China due to the Cultural Revolution thatonly ended in 1976, the Church has similarly lostpersonnel and voice. It is difficult for students andservants of the contemporary Church in China to grapplewith complex issues. For example:

1. How do we understand the divide between the “Three-Self Patriotic Movement” churches and the housechurches without getting emotionally entangled indraining arguments?

by Rev. Samuel E. Chiang

Acquainted with Grief

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2. Are there theological templateswhereby one can appreciate God’s handon His Bride in China? Can we avoidimposing a theological lens or templateonto a healthy preserving indigenousChurch?

3. How do we assess the long-term needsin China and make an enduringcontribution to Kingdom partnerships?

Consistent with church history of the lasttwo millennia, God has provided gifts tolocal churches, communities, cities, andcountries in every generation with Hischosen vessels, and God has providedto China, among others, Mr. WangMingdao.

Wang Mingdao is no stranger to theinternational arena. Over the last sixdecades, much has been written abouthim by the Christian body, encompassingboth Chinese and non-Chinese fromvarious ecclesiological backgrounds.Thus, here is yet another book on WangMingdao. What contribution would itbring to the Church in China, and theevangelical body at large? Would thisbe a timely or timeless book? Would theauthor, Thomas Alan Harvey, assiststudents and servants to the Church inChina in grappling with the complexissues? Would this be a revisionistapproach in looking at the Church, orwould the author respect the hand of Godand His chosen path for the indigenousChurch? Finally, how would the authornavigate the perilous attempts made bymany to reconcile the Three-Self PatrioticMovement Churches to those of thehouse churches?

Church leaders in China can generally citethe year, month, and sometimes to thedate (and hour) in which Christianityarrived in their village. They can recountthe miracles or the spiritual encounterwhich brought about repentance. Butthis birthing of the indigenous Churchhas a deeper history. Thomas Harveybrilliantly pulls together strands ofpolitical upheaval, social instability, andthe religious fabric of a century ago so asto provide the milieu, and the culturalshapers of Mr. Wang Mingdao.

During the early 20th century when theidea of “state-nation” and nationalitybegan to take shape in the minds ofChinese leaders, they saw powerfulmodels: Britain, France, Germany, Russia,and the United States. Or, in contrast,they also saw these great powers withwhich China compared unfavorably. Byinterweaving these elements in makingsense of Mr. Wang’s life, in the first twochapters the larger milieu of the birthingof China is vital, especially within thecontext of role of the foreign missionaryand the emerging theology.

The author does not plunge the readerinto a deep theological morass, and doeswell to disarm the reader from thinkingthat this is a book giving a theologicaltemplate of the kingdom “now”, or“deferred”. Furthermore, tempting as itmay be to apply the Anglican triangle(Scripture, Tradition, Reasoning), or theWesleyan quadrilateral (Scripture,Tradition, Reasoning, and Experience), orother lenses, the audience is drawn intothe story of Mr. Wang Mingdao bywillingly laying aside one’s theological

84


lenses and simply ask us to read the story.One instructive side note to whatevangelicals are relearning in recent years,is that holistic or “integral” living is vitalto the demonstration of the Gospel, andthis has always been at the root ofChinese society. The wholeness of thesocial/religious fabric has been severedin the West, but in Chinese society it is“one” piece.

Harvey does an extremely good job ofpresenting the root of the issue betweenthe Three-Self Patriotic Movement andthe house churches. With clarity,chapters three and four deal with Wang’sposition that Scripture is the inspiredWord of God. Interestingly, this issuecontinues even today. An article byBishop Ting in the recent officialpublication of Tien Feng3, already hasraised not only eye-brows overseas, butalso among official churches in China.Many church leaders in China (of theofficial church) have repudiated theofficial line of “theological constructionof society”, and continue to embrace“justification by faith”, and the authorityof the Word of God.

The issues Mr. Wang Mingdao stood forhave not gone and will not go away incontemporary China. Interestingly, in thetension filled review of the body ofliterature on Mr. Wang Mingdao, theauthor is tough on the now deceased, butmuch appreciated, Leslie Lyall. One canbe excused in thinking that the authormight have overplayed his hand bypassing comments on one of the greatmissionary statesmen for China in the lastcentury. However, the author is equally

hard, if not harder, by skillfully andsharply dissecting Philip Wickeri’sunwavering position in supporting thegovernment. Mr. Wickeri, still alive, willfind himself in an untenable position.

The author does not lead his readers tohis own conclusions on key positions(though it is not difficult to guess); but,he does seek out parallel contemporarychurch history to further enlighten thereader as to what the evangelicalresponse ought to be. Hence, in chapterseven he presents the Barmen Declarationand its parallel to the Church in China.This is masterful! This puts into contextMr. Wang Mingdao’s stand, providing asound understanding to the foundationof the indigenous Church in China.

Like many ambitious authors, Harveytries to reconcile differences, or at leastbring some potential future functions forthe Three-Self Patriotic Movement intothe evangelical theological arena. Thisis a distraction. The author could alsohave interacted more with a book byStephen Wang (of no relation to WangMingdao)4, who put together the postprison diaries of Mr. Wang Mingdao.

Books on Mr. Wang Mingdao, continueto challenge and inspire. This one is nodifferent. It causes us to deeplycontemplate the nature of the Christianwalk, the authority of the Bible, and themartyrs who have stood for Christ.

Thomas Harvey has made a significantscholarly contribution to the knowledgeof the Church history of China (the notesand bibliography are rich). I believe there

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will be further reprints of this book, andat that time, the author may wish toconsider editorial changes, with a full

(Endnotes)1 Some examples of this body of literature ranges from the reissued “ To Change China: Western

Advisers in China 1620-1960" by Jonathan Spance, to “China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul

of the Rising Power” by Sheryl Wudunn and Nicholas D. Kristof; “ Wild Swans: The Three

Daughters of China” by Jung Chang; “ The Good Women of China: Hidden Voices” by Xinran.2 As an example, a d elightful book that is having an influential effect among the intellectuals

within China —” Song of a Wanderer: Beckoned by Eternity”, by Li Cheng.3 Tian Feng Magazine, Issue No. 249, September 1, 2003, pages 4—7, 20 —23.4 Wang, Stephen C.H. Wang Ming Dao: Yu Si Shi Nian (The last Forty Years). Scarborough,

Ontario.: Canada Gospel Publishing House. 1997.

inclusion of the Barmen Declaration.Furthermore, this book should also betranslated into Chinese.

Rev. Samuel E. Chiang serves with Trans World Radio as the InternationalDirector for Planning, Strategies and Partnerships. He has been workingwith the Church in China since 1991. He and his family currently lives inHong Kong. He has written and published variously on God’s work in China.He can be contacted at [email protected].

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review

By Bryant L. Myers, World Vision, 2003.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, between fullcolour graphs and pictures, this book’s 87 pages andgraphics have generated 72000 words. But they are allworth it!

We are profoundly grateful to Bryant Myers, the veteranglobal missiologist with World Vision USA, for thisthoughtful and total re-envisioning of the 1996 “TheNew Context of World Mission” (also published byMARC, World Vision). But this one not only updatesus, but it walks us much further into the complex worldof human and spiritual needs. In Myers own words,

“This is a book about God’s call for us to embrace andlove a good and tragic world. Images, glimpses andpatterns are presented in an effort to stretch us beyondthe world as secular media and cynics too often presentit. This book attempts to portray the world in a widevariety of ways, looking at it through many differentlenses. Some of the patterns simply describe what is.Others show how the world is changing. Still otherpatterns try to provide a correction for commonperceptions of the world. The hope is that we can seethe world a little more as God sees it: As a treasureworthy of the death of God’s Son.”

We are challenged to “…think holistically,comprehensively and inclusively”. With Myerscharacteristic skill (Would that we all had suchgraphically-gifted teams!) we are introduced to a massiveyet manageable panorama of numbers and pictures,statistics and people. Some people are numbed bynumbers, but many years ago I developed the capacity

Exploring World Mission:Context and Challengesby William D. Taylor

87


to superimpose pictures of real pictureson top of the data and countlessstatistics. Try it as you read thisprovocative and accessible book.

Myers constantly superimposes imageson all the global categories presented.Many of us appreciate that he does notuse the reductionistic 10/40 Windowimage; rather, his architecture favors of amuch more accurate representation of thevast non-under-less evangelised world.It’s a complex map!. And this outlineshows up throughout the book, makingit impossible to forget the vastness of thetask before the global and missionalchurch with all of its interceding andmobilizing, screening and funding,training, sending and shepherdingstakeholders.

A unique gift that accompanies the book(at a slight extra cost) is a CD Rom with abeautiful and useful Power Pointpresentation for us to show from acomputer or projected on a screen.

A few wishes regarding the book. Itwould be nice to see a more affordableprice for our colleagues in the MajorityWorld churches and mission movements;or perhaps a Internet downloadable pdffile that preserves the integrity of thebook but makes it available worldwide.

One little item for me. I wonder when ourmissional reflective practitioners, writersand publishers will finally re-declareEurope one of the massive “least-evangelized world” blocks? It’s abouttime.

So enjoy Myers’ “Introduction” to thisthoughtful, graphics-packed newresource, one of the chapters of our fifthissue of Connections.

And if you wish to order copies of thebook for your own reading, libraries andministry, World Vision is giving us adiscount if you mention “Connections”with your order. Place your order directlyto World Vision using the contactinformation we give you.

William Taylor is the Executive Director of the Missions Commissions,World Evangelical Alliance. Born in Latin America, he and his wife, Yvonne,served there for 17 years before a move to the USA. He is the father ofthree adult GenXers born in Guatemala. He can be contacted at

[email protected].

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The WEA Missions Commission has

launched a database driven web site for

use by the entire WEA family of affili-

ates. Its purpose is to enable timely dis-

tribution of electronic books, magazines,

articles and other resources for ministry

training around the globe. Designated

Language Coordinators upload re-

sources to a management site, which ap-

pear seamlessly on the public site for free

downloading. The site currently displays

titles in Spanish, English, Dutch, and

French, and will eventually feature doz-

ens of language pages. Adding specific

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Users may search for materials by gen-

eral topic, specific title, author, or key

words, and can establish a private ac-

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The Adobe Portable Document File

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can be read with Adobe’s free,

downloadable software, Acrobat

Reader, available from

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can also be used and materials printed

for private use. The Missions Commis-

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Welcome to a new creation:the WEA Missions Commission new database-driven web site: <www.WEAresources.org>by Jon Lewis

90


reflectionThis is a book about God’s call for us to embrace andlove a good and tragic world. Images, glimpses andpatterns are presented in an effort to stretch us beyondthe world as secular media and cynics too often presentit. This book attempts to portray the world in a widevariety of ways, looking at it through many differentlenses. Some of the patterns simply describe what is.Others show how the world is changing. Still otherpatterns try to provide a correction for commonperceptions of the world. The hope is that we can seethe world a little more as God sees it: As a treasure worthyof the death of God’s Son.

The purpose of this book is to help broaden andchallenge our thinking about Christian mission. God’sworld is more than a collection of saved believers andlost souls. There is much that God loves in this worldand that reflects God’s will. There is much that Godhates.

We need to learn to think holistically, comprehensivelyand inclusively. While mission strategy necessarilyfocuses our efforts, mission research must do theopposite. We need to embrace the complexity, diversityand inconsistency of God’s world. By opening up ourminds and perceptions, the Holy Spirit gains anopportunity to show us new things and to call forimprovement in old ways.

The evangelical mission movement of the last centurywas brilliantly focused on evangelism, but was not sogood at seeing and responding to the racism, genocideand marginalization that were characteristic of that era.Christian mission was trapped in a worldview that

Exploring World Mission:An Introductionby Bryant Myers

91


focused almost solely on the spiritual andthe saving of souls, both very good andnecessary concerns of Christian mission.But we missed the emergence of evil on acolossal scale. In addition to two worldwars and a cold war that killed tens ofmillions, eight genocides took place in the20th century. Were it not for a few braveprophets from the developing world atLausanne 1974, these issues might nothave made it onto the mission agenda atall.

But this book is more than numbers andmaps. I also hope that the reader will findthis a manual for prayer. This bookdescribes the world that Jesus died for.Even as you see the sad things that makeup today’s world, remember that Jesus’response to disheartening events, suchas the impending fall of Jerusalem, wastears.

The world you are about to see is God’s.Every good and tragic person andsituation in today’s world belongs to Godand is the object of his loving concern.As you read this book, please pray. Takesome time in silence from time to time.Listen for the quiet word of the Spirit ofGod. Somewhere in these pages there maybe a word for you from God.

The good news

There is good news in God’s world,although we don’t hear much news aboutthis from the media and the “experts.”Child mortality is down over 100% since1960. Life expectancy is on the riseeverywhere except in parts of Africa,where AIDS is reversing these increases.Fertility rates have declined in all regionssince 1945, except in Africa.

There has been an increase in humandevelopment, measured by income,education and life expectancy, in all theworld’s regions since 1960. There havebeen sharp increases in primary schoolattendance and in adult literacy, especiallyamong women. Access to safe water hasincreased from 36% of the world’schildren in 1965 to 77% today. Christianmission is now global and universal.Missionaries come from everywhere andgo to everywhere. The liberalism of thechurch in the North is being corrected bythe biblical faithfulness of the church inthe South. More people are prayingstrategically than at any other time inhuman history.

At the same time, God’s world is in aperiod of rapid change. Communicationsand information technology are creatingrapid and deep-seated shifts in manyareas of life. Internet usage is increasingat a rate twenty times faster than radioand television did in their day. Science ismaking discovery after discovery.Country after country is moving awayfrom the rule of the big man or the militarytoward embryonic democracies.

The not so good news

The first decade of the 21st centuryreflects the chaotic aftermath of thebreakdown of a world order that had beenin place since the end of World War II.Sadly, early expectations that the post-cold war period would see reduced levelsof conflict and broader economicprosperity have been disappointed.Warlords exploit ethnicity and religion forpower and personal economic gain inprivate little wars, while the international

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community struggles to find a frameworkfor global leadership and peace building.

There are wars and rumors of wars. Partsof the world are suffering in chaoticvacuums as conflicts, failed governmentsand non-existent economies make peaceand rule of law impossible. Other parts ofthe world are struggling to recover fromthe economic excesses of the 1990s andare struggling with materialism.Everywhere terrorism, criminalized statesand fundamentalism are creating fear anduncertainty.

The poverty in which so many of theworld’s children live remains intractableand growing. While the percentage ofpeople living in extreme poverty—defined as less than US$1 a day—hasfallen somewhat from 1987 to 1998, thenumber of people living on less thanUS$1 a day remains unacceptably high at1.2 billion. Every day, diseases largelypreventable in the West kill 30,500children under the age of five in the lessdeveloped areas of the world. Everyoneagrees that children are our future, andyet, since children are not a politicalconstituency, children still too oftenremain invisible to governments andmany others.

Deep ironies and fundamental changesare multiplying. The fastest growinggroup of malnourished people are those1.2 billion who are eating too much of thewrong kind of food, a number that almostmatches the number of underfed andmalnourished in the developing world.The three richest people in the world haveassets exceeding the combined grossdomestic product of the 48 least-developed countries. Too many countries

pay more to debt service than they dofor public services.

The Christian church

The center of gravity of the Christianchurch has moved to the South, wheremore than 50% of today’s Christians and70% of today’s evangelicals live. LatinAmerica is the largest continent ofChristians, with dramatic shifts takingplace between historic Roman Catholicdominance and free-wheelingPentecostalism. Africa has the fastest-growing church. The churches of Asiaare experiencing significant growth and,although still a minority religion, arebecoming centers of missionary sendingand compassionate giving.

This good news of church growth hasbeen accompanied by some profoundcontradictions. The growth of the churchin Africa, Asia and Latin America, and thecontinuing strength of the church in theUnited States, has not been accompaniedby widespread changes in social,economic and political behavior reflectingthe values of the kingdom of God. On thecontrary, we see more poverty, injustice,immoral and unethical behavior,materialism and violence. Everywhere,and for every church, the critical questionis what kind of Christians are we making?

The poor and the lost are often invisibleto the Christian church. Within a bandreaching across North Africa, includingmost of the Sahel, through the MiddleEast, and into central Asia, the northernpart of the Indian subcontinent,Southeast Asia and western China, live1.6 billion people who have little chanceto hear the good news of Jesus Christ

93


unless someone goes to tell them. Eighty-five percent of the world’s poorestcountries are located in this same part ofthe world.

Driving Forces

“Driving forces” is a phrase intended toname the major forces shaping humanhistory. Driving forces cannot becontrolled or ignored, but they can beused. An effective mission strategy ororganization recognizes these forces andpositions itself so that the driving forcespush the organization toward its missionand future well-being.

The Holy Spirit of God

As Christians, we know that humanhistory is going somewhere and that ithas a purpose. The most fundamentaldriving force at work in the world is theHoly Spirit. As Christians, we believe in aking who has come and whose kingdomis both established and is yet coming. AsChristians, we are part of this kingdomand our mission is derived from our desireto be obedient to this call in our lives. Nodriving force or global trend canultimately divert God from what God haschosen to do. Yet God does not workalone in human history. There is clearevidence of an Evil One, who is also atwork in the form of conflict, pain,suffering, injustice and idolatry, onewhose mission is to demean and todestroy life.

People have changed

One of the most profound changes in thelast century is the degree to which

ordinary people changed terms of theirself-understanding. Ordinary peopletoday are more involved, less ignorantconcerning how their world works, moredemanding of their social institutionsand less easily controlled by thepowerful. This change in people’s self-understanding combines with thetechnology and communicationsrevolution in a way that sharply increasesthe power of ordinary people. The valueof local participation and ownership inministry derives its success from thisprofound change in people’s self-understanding. In Europe and NorthAmerica, there is a clear shift in valuesfrom an earlier focus on economic growthand material success in favor of valuesfocusing on maximizing well-being, suchas more say in government, protectionof free speech, more say in jobs andgreater demands for beautiful cities andcountryside, a more humane society andinclusiveness. It is deeply ironic that thisshift in values has been accompanied bydecreasing Christian commitment or ashallow gospel heavily captive to culture.

Global economy, technology andcommunications

Global communications, the technologyrevolution and success of free marketsacross the world have created a drivingforce called globalization. The world isopen for business 24 hours a day andinformation is available virtuallyanywhere at any time. Transnationalcorporations promote, and often create,economic integration as they makeinvestment decisions, move their moneyamong multiple currencies, minimize theirrisk and make money by takingadvantage of the gaps and

94


inconsistencies between nationalmarkets. The internationalization ofcapital markets means countries arelosing control of their currencies,commodity pricing and capital markets.Being large, international andtechnologically advanced is acompetitive advantage in this kind ofworld. Being small, poor ortechnologically underdeveloped leavesyou outside the field of play. The globalreach of communications and the powerof the technology revolution mean thatthe media and advertising are able tobecome more local and personal.Magazines arrive with your addressprinted on the cover, or even arrivecustom made to your e-mail address. TheInternet allows highly personalized donorrelations management, often to the pointof raising concerns for privacy. Accessto the Internet means news, knowledge,and sadly, pornography. Usingtechnology to manipulate informationand to innovate is the engine of the newglobal economy. Those who have theskill, education and intelligence to createvalue with information will be the coreworkers of tomorrow. Governance hasalso become globalized. The UnitedNations struggles to function as the focalpoint of the “international community.”Democracy is assumed to be a universalgood. Human rights are becomingnormative. Humanitarian interventionsupersedes national sovereignty.

The power of identity and the need formeaning

Everyone needs an identity that is rootedlocally. No one feels at home in a globalworld. Global communications,technology and economic integration

draw things toward a center, integratingthem into a global matrix. Identity, in theform of ethnicity or religion, is acounteracting force, working to dispersepower, making things more personal andlocal. As the poor find themselves withno place in the global economy, theattractiveness of their ethnic and religiousidentity will increase. This leads to afundamentalism expressed in ethnic andreligious violence and social turbulence.Throughout the world, there is aresurgence of interest in spiritual matters.The hunger for meaning in the humanheart remains unmet by economics ortechnology. The world no longer believesblindly in the self-sufficiency of scienceor human reason nor in the inevitabilityof human progress. Cyberspace is nothuman space and virtual reality does notprovide a substitute for the purpose andidentity that people need. People aresearching for spirituality, although in thispost-modern world, any spirituality willdo. Religious pluralism is increasinglynormative.

Vision of a better future

A vision of a better future drives peopleand institutions. For the internationalcommunity, the preferred human futureis peaceful, materially prosperous anddemocratic. Such a vision supportspeacekeeping and eradication of materialpoverty through globalization. This is thedominant agenda of most Westerngovernments, the UN system, the WorldBank, the International Monetary Fundand the World Trade Organization. Themarket system promotes the belief thatthe better human future is a product ofself-interest and limited greed. The markettolerates poverty in that poverty is

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acceptable as long as it does not affectme. Sadly, the Christian community seemsunable to proclaim a compelling visionof the best human future as being one inwhich human beings love God and theirneighbor.

Changing demographics.

The world’s population growth rate isdecreasing, yet the total population isgrowing in many countries in the South.The North is experiencing close to zeropopulation growth and is struggling tofind social policies that make sense inface of aging populations. The singlelargest human migration in the 20thcentury has been the one from thecountryside to the cities—47 percent ofthe world’s population is now urban andthis growth is primarily in Third Worldcities. While the West, China and Japanare graying, much of the rest of the worldis young. One-third of the world’spopulation is under the age of 15, and 85percent of these young people live in theThird World. These children need an

education, a place in society and a way tobecome productive. Without this, theseyoung people will be a powerful force forviolence and social unrest. A newgeneration or cohort group of teens andyoung people in their early twenties hasemerged and, for the first time in history,it is global. These young people areconnected by MTV, the Internet and aglobal youth culture. There are 2 billionyoung people in this population cohort.Several scenario-planning groups arguethat the global young person is a newdriving force in the making. We’ve justlooked at six drivers that are shapingGod’s world. Five of them are largelyhuman inventions and, thus, flawed anddistorted by sin. Then there is the HolySpirit of God, who nonetheless faithfullyand unchangingly moves human historytoward its ultimate culmination. Ourmission call is to join God’s Spirit and giveourselves to the emergence of God’skingdom in a world that seemsunwelcoming and bent on going its ownway.

Let’s take a look at this world.

Editors note: This Introduction to Bryant Myer’s excellent book is made with theauthor’s permission. Note the review of the book and how to order it at the end ofthis issue of “Connections”.

Dr. Bryant L. Myers is a vice president for World Vision, and author of“Reflections” in the MARC Newsletter. He also wrote The New Contextof World Mission (MARC), Walking with the Poor (Orbis Books) and isone of the editors of the four part MARC series Serving with the Poor:Case Studies in Holistic Mission. He is an adjunct professor at FullerTheological Seminary and Eastern University and serves on the board ofthe Viva Network. He can be contacted at [email protected].

Contemporary discussions

about globalisation tend to

emphasise its political and

economic aspects. But the social

and cultural changes

globalisation is causing are

pervasive, often unexamined,

and, for that reason, all the more

influential. It is also sometimes

(wrongly) assumed that

globalisation is simply about the

export of Western values and

products worldwide. This bookconsiders in detail the keydrivers of globalisa-tion, itscontemporary shape, and theimplications for world mission.It also looks at the impact ofglobalisation on differentcontemporary issues affectingmission, such as ethnicity, theenvironment, and global health,as well as globalisation’s effecton more traditional “missionary”questions of the world religions,contextualization, theology, andthe church.

“This book is a sign of hope and a promiseof what a carefully planned experience ofglobal dialogue may mean for the future ofevangelical mission work and missiologicalreflection. The authors’ diversity explainsthe rich variety of styles, sources, andexamples used in their writing aboutglobalization as the new context of missionin the world today. However, at the sametime you will find a common thread ofcommitment to biblical truth and a passionfor its communication and application.”

-Samuel Escobar

To Order:Please specify “WEA Missions Commission stock” when ordering.

From North America:1-800-MISSIONOutside the North America: 1-706-554-1594 Fax: 1-706-554-7444Internet: www.WCLBooks.comEmail: [email protected]: Gabriel Resources / WCLPO Box 1047 Waynesboro, GA 30830

WCL451-7 William CareyLibrary, 2003 Retail: $16.99$12.72 each or Wholesale:$10.17* (3 or more of thistitle). Prices do not includeshipping costs and are subjectto changewithout notice.Checks must be US dollarsdrawn on US bank.

Documents

From the Editors · 2010-08-17 · From the Editors Mission and Missions, Going ‘Glocal’, Holism and Other Terms…. Dealing with Missions Jargon, K. Rajendran From the Heart