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An African church leader recently laid before the World and U.S. National Councils of Churches a proposal that there be a moratorium on sending and receiving money and missionary personnel. John Gatu, general secretary of the Presbyterian Church in East Africa, said that their continuing sense of dependence on and domination by foreign church groups …
Article
Since the early 1960’s I have served as a missionary in four Latin American countries, and during that time I have become increasingly concerned about burgeoning missionary activity that is reminiscent of 19th century attitudes and borders on adventurism. Some of those involved in the trend among denominations to send more and more full-time missionaries …
Continue reading “Anachronism and Adventurism: Recent Mission Trends”
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The statement on mission made by the World Council of Churches in 1982. This included lengthy discussion with churches from all over the world.
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Introduction One of the ironies of virtually all religious traditions is that the power which draws and holds members together in religious community seems to be matched by an equal and opposite compulsion to exclude non-members. In the case of Christianity it is obvious that the checkered history of the universal Church has led many …
Continue reading “Baptism in the Indian Context — An Event of Separation or Human Solidarity?”
Article
We sat on benches made of wood planks laid over gallon paint cans. A single light bulb dangled from a thin wire in the middle of the room. Our Lady of Guadalupe gazed from a worn and yellowed picture on the opposite wall. My first experience in a Christian base community was with believers living …
Continue reading “Blending Salt and Spice, Joining Wisdom and Prophecy”
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Four arguments are presented for why the Pentecostal movement can be understood as a sign of the power of God’s Spirit moving in the church.
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A discussion of models of mission that have emerged in the modern period as the Church responds to the challenges of other faiths and socio-political realties in India. These models include Church Discipleship, Proclamation, Liberation, and Dialogue.
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Pietism in Germany, the evangelical efforts of the Wesleys and Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards as one of the leaders of the great awakening – these cultivated the fertile soil for the modern Protestant missionary movement.
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An analysis of the phenomenon of globalisation and the facing of some issues that are pertinent in facing its challenges. The author provides a model of Christian response, namely liberative solidarity, that is rooted in the experience and spirituality of the poor.
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In India there is an awakening among the poor in all the religions to their dignity and selfhood which has been suppressed by age-old traditions and culture. They are demanding a critical review of the fundamentals of their faiths from the perspective of liberation.
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Chilean Pentecostalism is different from worldwide Pentecostalism. This chapter describes Chile’s unique contribution.
Book Chapter
In the beginning, there was a separation between church and mission giving a disastrous consequence to both. In the beginning, the mission was considered to be from East to West; there were problems relating to the trinity; their were problems relating to the younger churches. The growth of mission was dependent up the solution of these and other problems
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When mission is directed towards the organization of the poor or when it has resulted in creating a new consciousness among the oppressed about their rights, then in India it is accused as being anti-national. We have two choices: to take seriously the subversive character of mission and face its consequence, or to carry on with activities — charitable, developmental, and others — which will not cause any tremor in the existing system of things.
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It was not the aim of the early protestant missionary movement, but it was ecumenical, hence the mission of the church and the unity of the church were recognized as belonging together but not until after some tension between the two.
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In order to evolve an alternate form of development which is wholistic and more humane, we need to listen to the experiences of the indigenous and tribal people — their communitarian life and their bond with the earth. But, by and large, our churches are mere spectators, incapable of responding to their needs.
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Pentecostalism is efficient in supporting individuals in situations of extreme privation or family crisis. It also helps the poor by offering a mutual support network and the subjective experiences of power and dignity and of belonging to a community.
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Mission discovered the church between 1919 and 1960, but the next twenty years saw the church discovering the world as the locus of its life and mission. The missionary movement was very slow in recognizing the importance of the secular world in its thinking, but thanks to great theologians such as Bonhoffer and others it became clear that the church’s nature and function needed to be rethought in relation to God’s concern for the whole world.
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The religions of India should see the relevance of the new secular framework that is emerging. It is based on certain values which they all together can affirm — the values of justice, equality and participation.
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A review of the history of Pentecostalism in Latin America, it’s use of mass media, it’s involvement in politics, it’s contrast with traditional Protestantism and the future of both
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There is tension between the terms “Ecumenical” and “Evangelical.” These terms have become symbols of opposed positions and divisons: the former term refers to those who would transform society, the latter, those who would emphasize evangelism and personal conversion.
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Mainline churches must abandon our historic triumphalism, assume our minority position with dignity and, without abandoning our principles, learn to establish relationships of mutual respect with both ancient and new spiritualities that proclaim values not wholly alien to the Reign of God.
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We need a spirituality that is inclusive rather than exclusive, active as well as receptive, oriented to the coming of God’s Kingdom of righteousness and freedom throughout the world. We need a spirituality of liberation that will open us increasingly to a life of solidarity with others, especially with the poor.
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The church-centric view of mission versus the Kingdom of God: A review of the tension not only between mission and church, but between mission; church and society.
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The Church is called to strengthen the secular/civil base of politics, to deepen its commitment to the poor and marginalised, ensuring justice for all, especially the weaker sections, to give a prophetic criticism against the government when it perpetuates violence and oppression, to join with others in evolving a paradigm of development that is ecologically sound.
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A discussion concerning the necessity of finding a way of reconciling Christian theism with the truth of Aristotle and the world of Muslim scholars concerning scholasticism, and the continuing problem that develops where the dynamic interactions between the Gospel and cultures inevitable raise the question of syncretism.
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1. The connection between economic exploitation and environmental degradation is seen clearly in the deforestation issue. 2. Unjust treatment of the planet by humans is one of the principal causes of the ecological crisis. 3. The uneven distribution, control and use of natural resources are serious justice issues. 4. The fast depletion of the natural (non-renewable) resources today raises the question of our responsibility to future generations.
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Mission is now understood in a holistic sense. It is participation in the transforming and liberative work of God in God’s creation. How can theological education help the church’s participation in God’s mission?
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Dear Chairman, friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, I feel privileged to be invited with the Rev. Wu Ai-en to attend this meeting. First of all I would like to apologize for my late arrival due to problems in obtaining a visa . I would particularly like to thank the chairman for giving me this …
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Introduction The church comprises a community of Christian believers called to bear witness to the fact that racial and ethnic differences are transcended in Christ. On the other hand the church in any particular locality has to be thoroughly in solidarity with its neighbourhood in terms of its national and cultural contexts. The implications for …
Continue reading “Christian Council of Asia: Partnership in Mission”
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When at the age of 18 I approached a Methodist church in the Gambia with a request for baptism, thus signaling my conversion to Christianity from Islam, the resident senior minister, an English missionary, responded by inviting me to reconsider my decision. And, while I was at it, he said, I should also consider joining …
Continue reading “Christian Missions and the Western Guilt Complex”
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The twenty first century! It sounds more and more real each passing day. It comes ever closer each passing month. It is almost within our reach. The countdown has already begun. The soothsayers are gazing into their crystal balls for signs of the imminent future. The self-styled doomsday prophets are issuing warnings about the end …
Continue reading “Christian Theology: Towards an Asian Reconstruction”
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It is easy to be bullish on the growth of the church in Africa. On a continent where barely a million people were Christians at the turn of the century, there will be, if current trends continue, as many as 350 million Christians by the end of the century — equal to the number in …
Continue reading “Christians and Their Ancestors: A Dilemma of African Theology”
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1 The notion that we are in a ‘post’ era – post-modern, post-industrial, post-ideological, post-confessional and many more – is one way of giving a name to the profound changes that have taken place in our world. The 1960s and 1970s were permeated by optimistic expectations that were soon frustrated. One could mention, for example, …
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Proselytism is one of the major interchurch problems in Christian Church history. In ecumenical dialogue it is one of the issues that repeatedly has drawn the attention of congresses, seminars, committees. Even though there is ecumenical consensus that proselytism is unacceptable and the churches should renounce it, in the last years discussion of the theme …
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Introduction: Locating Conversion “Introspection about their own location in society has not been too common among Indian historians. Our historiographical essays tend to become bibliographies, surveys of trends or movements within the academic guild. They turn around debates about assumptions, methods, ideological positions. …” Although there are studies focusing on conversion as a dislocation, …
Article
A two-week tour makes a northerner an expert on Africa. Sometimes these northerners know more about Africa and our needs than we ourselves. That’s how Africans chide European and American visitors. Despite this warning, I will risk outlining the major issues confronting churches in Africa, on the basis of my stay at the Mindolo Ecumenical …
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In no area of church life is the contemporary confrontation between mainline liberals and the increasingly powerful evangelicals more troublesome than in overseas mission. Missiologist David I. Bosch suggests that the international mission movement today is in "a crisis more radical and extensive than anything the church has ever faced in [its] history." He analyzes …
Continue reading “Crisis in Overseas Mission: Shall We Leave It to the Independents?”
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(ENTIRE BOOK) An historical study of the ecumenical discussions on mission as expressed in the conferences and assemblies of the International Missionary Council and the World Council of Churches.
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The missionary movement has arrived at maturity, and there is urgent need that the churches as well as the missionaries take account of it. It is not that we are wiser than our fathers, but that developments of recent times have revealed the true nature of the forces which play upon the life of man. …
Book Chapter
Although Rev. Dr. K. C. Abraham writes to and for the people of India, his message has meaning for all Christians and other justice seeking people who are committed to creating a global village that protects the rights of the poor and provides space for the affirmation of their dignity.
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For many socially responsible seminarians in the late 1970s, liberation theology was the only show in town, the only show in a culture that seemed unwilling even to consider the social challenges of the gospel. Those of us who were uneasy with the simplistic and politically rote conclusions to which liberation theology gave rise had …
Continue reading “From ‘Liberation’ to ‘Exile’: A New Image for Church Mission”
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Church History has generally been defined by a Western perspective. What European Christians have thought and done has been considered superior to what Christians elsewhere have thought and done. Chronology has generally been subservient to biography, and biography has been subservient to dogma and theory, especially when the dogma and theory confirm the idea of …
Continue reading “Global Christianity and the Re-education of the West”
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Christians throughout history may be justly accused of many failures, but it appears neglecting evangelism is not one of them. Observers of Christian growth have been suggesting over the last few decades that the faith is experiencing a significant migratory moment, not unlike the first explosive venture outside the tribe of the Jews into the …
Continue reading “Global Gospel: Christianity is Alive and Well in the Southern Hemisphere”
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“Today, salvation has come to this household. For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:9-10). Jesus says these words to the rich man, Zacchaeus. But we find the message repeatedly in the Bible that God seeks and saves. The missional adventure these words inspire prompts me to wonder: What …
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The Nation of Qatar, roughly the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island, is the world’s leading producer of natural gas and has the highest per capita income of any country in the Arab world. A few decades ago it was a tribal society with an economy based largely on fishing, pearl harvesting and camel and …
Article
Even before the arrival of the Europeans to the continent they named America, religious diversity was a reality here. The religious ways of peoples indigenous to this part of the world were themselves varied and alive, and the European newcomers brought with them the religious traditions[1] of Europe. True, in some cases the immigrants set …
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(ENTIRE BOOK) The Pentecostal challenge to historic churches in Latin America, prepared by 17 historians, theologians and sociologists of religion from the region.
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An Indonesian Contribution for Discussion I. How to Understand Mission Generally in our Christian tradition we can observe different understanding of mission. First: traditional understanding, which is seemingly closer to the literal meaning of the word, i.e., proclamation of the Biblical good news (=euanggelion), witnessing, soul-winning, bringing people to Christ, propagation of Christian …
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Two types of contemporary Christian lay-people and religious are, along with theologians, concerned with problems arising out of today’s encounter among religions. One type represents the average practicing Christian, largely uninformed about the content of the several world faiths; the other, a more inquiring Christian sincerely interested in seeing some sort of rapprochement among believers …
Continue reading “Interreligious Encounter and the Problem of Salvation”
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The perspective on mission is still a point of debate. There is need for a careful assessment of the style and purpose of mission in the emerging context of a pluriform society. The praxis of mission is closely related to the discovery of who Christ is among us and who he is for.
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Benjamin Gutiérez, a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), was a mission worker in Ecuador and Mexico. For the last 22 years he has been responsible for Presbyterian Church (USA) relationships with Latin America and the Caribbean, and since 1988, he has been area coordinator for South America. This introductory chapter appeared in In the …
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(ENTIRE BOOK) Traditional patterns of mission fail to see the emerging needs and challenges of the Third World — endemic poverty, marginalisation, ecological destruction, and globalisation.. The author suggests new paradigms to do theology and to formulate response in mission in the face of these grave realities. He shows that commitment to life affirming values and structures are integral to obedience to Christ, who lived "in solidarity" with the oppressed humanity.
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A. Introduction Mission theory is an important, yet neglected sphere in the Modern Missionary Movement. Intentional reflection on the “foundation, motives and aim, and the nature of mission” has not been an integral component of modern missions.1 Now, at the turn of the twenty-first century, we are aware of the need to navigate a complex …
Continue reading “Listen to the Voices: Re-Examining the Creation of Mission Goals”
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Although the study of Christian mission or missiology has begun to appear in theological academia more than a century ago,[1] this field of study did not become an established discipline for a long time. Even today, the field has not been given its due recognition in many institutions around the world. Differences in the …
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In December 1938 nearly 500 delegates from around the world gathered at Madras Christian College in Tambaram, South India, for the third world conference of the International Missionary Council. To attend, some delegates steamed for two months across seas that were soon to be closed by World War II. The IMC had planned to hold …
Continue reading “Mission and Dialogue: 50 Years After Tambaram”
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The woman sitting next to me on a five-hour bus ride from Puebla to Oaxaca, Mexico, opened her Bible to the "Segunda Epístola de San Pedro Apóstol" — 2 Peter. The "1" of the first chapter was circled and various verses were underlined. This was a well-used Bible. I asked, "¿Es cristiana?" She nodded and …
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I want to call the title of this lecture “Mission of the Korean Church.” We live in a time when the missionary role of the Korean church is important. In the history of missionary movements, I think, the status and role of the Korean church has entered an important phase. Many churches in the world …
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Book Review: Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture, by Lamin Sanneh. Orbis, 310 pp., $17.95 paperback. Whether they approve or disapprove, both Christian theologians and secular historians tend to understand missions as the exporting of Western Christianity to the Third World. Lamin Sanneh, professor of missions and world Christianity at Yale Divinity School, …
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It is my proud privilege to represent the Indian Church, the CHURCH OF NORTH INDIA at this historic International Consultation on WORLD MISSION AND THE ROLE OF KOREAN CHURCHES, and I am very grateful to the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Korea and all functionaries and members of the extraordinary committee responsible for the …
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While by no means the last word on the subject, Lesslie Newbigin has made a bold and major step forward in the debate on Christianity, pluralism and Western self-understanding. This work should be welcomed as a precise formulation of problems that continue to perplex and trouble the West. The book is divided into two parts. …
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The good news was headlined in an October 1976 news release: “Increased Church Giving Reported by National Council of Churches.” The average member in 42 denominations gave a record $137.09 to the church in 1975. The bad news was tucked away three paragraphs down: when adjusted to 1976 dollars (to compensate for inflation) the average …
Continue reading “Pluralism and Consensus: Why Mainline Church Mission Budgets Are in Trouble”
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This book is a study of the great missionary conferences covering the period of the first world missionary conference at Edinburgh 1910 to the last ecumenical conference at Salvador 1996. This is an important period in which significant developments in mission theology took place.
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My goal is to help people know that we are all theologians. So this is not an academic presentation, per se. I want to say some things about what I think prophecy might be in a progressive church and in a troubled world. I want to say what I don’t think it is, as well …
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India is not a nation but a complex secular civilization. Its demography tells part of its impressive story. The 687.6 million Hindus of innumerable sects, 101.6 million Muslims (making India the third largest Muslim-populated country), 19.6 million Christians, 6.3 million Buddhists, 3.3 million Jams and 3.1 million people of other persuasions (according to the 1991 …
Book Chapter
Select Bibliography Anderson, Wilhelm, Towards a Theology of Missions, London, SCM Press, 1955. Ariarajah, Wesley. S, Gospel and Culture: An On going Discussion Within the Ecumenical Movement, Geneva, WCC, 1994. Baker, Archibald. C., Christian Missions and a New World Culture, New York, Willett, Clark and Company, 1934. Bangkok Assembly 1963: Minutes and Report of the …
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After hurricane Mitch devastated Central America in 1998, hundreds of volunteer mission teams descended on Nicaragua and Honduras. Many came from churches in the United States. At times the region’s threadbare airports were filled with herds of North Americans wearing T-shirts with slogans like “Jesus for Honduras,” “Mission to Nicaragua 2000” and “Christ Loves Central …
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In their long struggle for equality, India’s dalits, or “untouchables,” have often exchanged their Hinduism for Islam, Christianity, Sikhism or Buddhism, believing that they will better their lives by doing so. They have been persuaded that Hinduism, with its varna ashramas (caste distinctions), has been solely responsible for all their ills. But when they switch …
Continue reading “Still Untouchable: The Politics of Religious Conversion”
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In 1986 India’s department of education issued a remarkable document that acknowledged, among other things, that “India’s political and social life is passing through a phase which poses the danger of erosion [of] long-accepted values. Not only are the young ignorant of, and often contemptuous of, ancient Hindu visions of life, but the ‘modern’ values …
Continue reading “Teaching Values in South India: An Experiment in Education”
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When the Church of South India was formed shortly after World War II out of the various mainline denominational churches established by Western missionaries in the previous century, the entire ecclesiastical world celebrated. Here, quite possibly, was the beginning of the reunification of the fragmented body of Christ. The Western Protestant experience, which included church …
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Our meeting here could be an historic event. It could be the beginning of a different kind of self-reflection by schools of theology, and of a process of thoughtful self-transformation. Such a development among schools of theology could encourage similar changes in churches and even in universities. Of course, our gathering is …
Article
Thank you for this chance to preach here in the ICU church. I have watched this school with great interest from a distance through the years. It has struggled in a unique way to understand the role of a Christian university specifically in Japan. Although I cannot speak with much confidence about what that …
Continue reading “The Christian Mission in a Pluralistic World”
Article
The Church’s Governance–Deficiency Syndrome The first thing Christianity did in Africa was to make people surrender their sovereignty to church hierarchies and governments. African dictators did not learn any lessons in democracy from the way churches were established, like fiefdoms. Christianity brought to Africa nothing of the modernization, democracy and industrial revolution that the missionaries …
Article
The editor of The Christian Century has given me an undeserved privilege in asking me to contribute some reflections on “How My Mind Has Changed” in the course of the past decade. I wish to apply “change of mind” here to mean theological growth, and not necessarily a rejection of or turnaround from ideas that …
Continue reading “The Encounter of Christian Faith and African Religion”
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BOOK REVIEWS: Tongues of Fire: The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America. By David Martin. Blackwell, 352 pp., $29.95. Is Latin America Turning Protestant? The Politics of Evangelical Growth. By David Stoll. University of California Press, 399 pp., $24.95. Crisis in Latin America: An Evangelical Perspective. By Emilio A. Núñez C. and William D. Taylor. …
Continue reading “The Evangelical Groundswell in Latin America”
Article
A former missionary to Sierra Leone and Nigeria, Andrew Walls taught for many years at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland. He is founder-director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World at the University of Edinburgh, and founding editor of the Journal of Religion in Africa. He recently wrote The …
Continue reading “The Expansion of Christianity: An Interview with Andrew Walls”
Article
The great missionary era of the church is over. An equality among Christian communities is beginning to replace the dependency and inequity of the past. That is a welcome change. Still, there is something poignant about the shifting of eras, and a small event may signal the shape of a much larger history. Several years …
Continue reading “The Fading of an Era: The Last Missionaries in the Punjab”
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The new policy of China’s Communist Party toward religion is everywhere visible to the foreign visitor. After being closed during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) , Buddhist and Taoist temples are being opened and restored, and tourists are allowed — indeed, strongly encouraged — to visit them, especially the more spectacular ones. Monks are coming back …
Continue reading “The Protestant Church in the People’s Republic of China”
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To travel in China for the first time in 25 years, as I did last summer, is a profoundly moving experience. One returns to America with an altered vision. Our various crises are grim enough — but so were China’s in the late 1940s. Signs in New York’s subways shock: "Dial 911 for Rape" and …
Continue reading “The Secular Vision of a New Humanity in People’s China”
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The Christian Century for December 22, 1976, carried a discerning article by Mark Juergensmeyer on “The Fading of an Era,” in which he vividly described the departure of the “last evangelistic missionary couple” from the Punjab state of north India and saw that departure as signifying the end of the “great missionary era of the …
Continue reading “The Summons to a New Era in World Mission”
Article
Globalization is a term frequently encountered in theological circles these days. It arises from the recognition that the world is shrinking, and that tomorrow’s clergy and communities of faith will encounter a new dimension of pluralism. Cross-cultural experiences of a radical kind are increasingly a part of our everyday experience. Globalization is in this sense …
Continue reading “The Theological Challenge of Globalization”
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What challenges do the Pentecostals they represent for Brazilian Protestants? What lessons may be learned from the success of this movement? Might these lessons help us to discover where main line Protestants “missed the boat” of history?
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World mission is the relation between the church and the world. Mission denotes what God sends his people into the world to do, and of primary importance within this mission of sacrificial service is ‘evangelism’, the sharing with others of God’s good news about Jesus. Mission is also the loving service which God sends his …
Article
The term ‘world mission’ is of rather recent origin. It is used to refer to both local and global mission, i.e., every place where the church meets the world. There are two prevalent attitudes to world mission today. Both are inadequate. One attitude is to give up on world mission altogether, saying that the era …
