mission & evangelism:
International Review of Mission
IRM July 2003 - Editorial - by Jacques Matthey
Come, Holy Spirit, heal and reconcile. This will be the theme of the next World Council of Churches (WCC) world mission conference in Athens, Greece, from 12-19 May 2005. In its meeting in April this year, the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) responded thus to the wish expressed during the last WCC central committee to give more emphasis to the role of the Holy Spirit in mission, reconciliation and healing. The subtheme of the conference remains as previously approved: Called in Christ to be reconciling and healing communities. The dialectic relation between the theme's invocation to the Spirit and the subtheme's missional calling provides a fascinating theological matrix for reflecting on the differences and similarities between the purpose and dynamics of God’s own overall mission (missio Dei) and the church’s specific mission to participate in it.1
This issue of IRM has no specific thematic emphasis. There is no intentional relation between the papers and their approaches to mission perspectives and challenges. However, the various articles pursue reflections regularly addressed in IRM, such as pneumatology, relations with other religions, gospel and cultures, and partnership.
Bearing in mind the theme of the forthcoming Athens conference, Amos Yong’s article fits well as an introductory paper to a reflection on the reconciling and healing role of the Holy Spirit in mission. The article particularly emphasizes the Spirit’s power to enable unity in diversity or plurality, within and without Christianity. Professor Yong wrote his paper long before the theme of the next CWME conference was chosen. However, as the editor of IRM, I am more than grateful to be able to publish Professor Yong's text now. His argumentation, written from an open Pentecostal perspective, shows how a thorough pneumatology allows for a creative approach to mission, as well as to an encounter with people of other faiths.
Conversion surely holds an outstanding position among the controversial issues in ecumenical mission theology. Brian Stanley discusses critical approaches to conversion, then moves on to describe what is implied in the processes of the reception of the gospel, and of translation. He bases his observations on specific analyses of New Testament texts. Brian Stanley insists in particular on the way missionaries themselves are changed in the process of sharing the gospel, and how people who receive the gospel are empowered by the Spirit to reinterpret biblical stories as a force for liberation.
A third missiological paper by Joon-Sik Park compares two contrasting approaches to the nature and purpose, or mission, of the church, viz. those defended by H. Richard Niebuhr on the one hand, and John Yoder on the other. Both approaches stand for many others in their understanding of the church’s role in society. Park discusses what these two ecclesiologies and the dialogue between them can contribute to missiology today, and ends his paper with an attempt to hold the two views together by referring to Lesslie Newbigin and his approach to “election”.
Dave Hazle reflects on developments in practical theology in recent decades. These developments have been marked by the demise of authoritarian teaching, a move to practical reasoning, concern with application rather than universal explanations, and the blossoming of contextual theologies. The author shows how these developments influence missiology.
Other papers deal with specific questions related to the practice of mission in past and present times. Nicholas Omenka analyses the different influences of Protestant and Catholic missionary education on the formation of political elites in Eastern Nigeria. He discusses in detail how different education policies, with their emphases on primary or secondary education, affected the link between mission and the rise of nationalism.
Two papers by "insiders" deal with the debate on partnership and relationships in mission within the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion. Colin Marsh examines the influence of two basic approaches to mission, viz. the “sending” and the “sharing” paradigms, on the philosophy and practical involvement of a mission society such as the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (USPG). He emphasizes how such a society depends on the status of discussion within the Church of England. In his paper, Philip Thomas observes the debate from the point of view of his ministry in a local congregation and diocese that maintain relationships with congregations in other cultural contexts. He describes four learning modes that affect partnership experiences, viz. “declaratory”, “developmental”, “dialogical” and “double swing” modes. He pleads for an openness by churches truly to learn from their partnership relations.
Ken Ross’s paper summarizes a collective process that redefined the priorities of the Church of Scotland’s Board of World Mission in order to respond to the most recent developments in church, society and world. Ken Ross defines the major strategic approaches that led to commitments by the Board, until 2010, in five areas, viz. the sharing of the good news, reconciliation, ministry among the poor and most excluded, HIV/AIDS and local involvement in global mission.
Without leaving the link with missionary practice, Hinne Wagenaar’s paper leads us on to an interpretation of the Pentecost event against his understanding of the message behind the story of the tower of Babel. Hinne Wagenaar analyses both texts, and relates them to the debate about the past language and cultural policies of Western missions. He also, and this is one of the original elements of his paper, relates the texts to the present language policy of African mainline mission churches.
I am pleased to publish Bernard Thorogood's meditation on his missionary journey, as a way for IRM to honour the important work Bernard has done throughout his life-long involvement in mission. Bernard's latest contribution to the missionary debate reflects his apprehension at the risks brought about by the new fundamentalisms that insist on enmity between Christianity and Islam, and sounds like the appeal of wisdom in the midst of violence. He urges us to move beyond tolerance to mutual respect, to acknowledge God’s mystery behind what we think to know, and to refuse to let ourselves be driven towards “armed camps of faith”.
The late Bishop John V. Taylor was one of the most elaborate and creative ecumenical missiologists of the last century, whose insights relied upon a theology and experience deeply rooted in the presence and creative power of the Holy Spirit. Words cannot encompass what the ecumenical movement and its mission stream owe to Bishop Taylor. Two fine presentations written by David Wood honour John's life and work, and bring this IRM to a close. One paper deals with JVT’s impressive theological legacy; the other recounts the process that led David Wood to write a biography of John Taylor. This second text makes the link with the usual book review section and bibliography.
The October issue of IRM will be fully dedicated to papers presented last year at an anniversary consultation to commemorate the landmark Willingen meeting of the International Missionary Council (IMC) in 1952. Fifty years on, again in Willingen, Germany, and on the initiative of the local Church of Kurhessen Waldeck, missiologists tried to evaluate what the missio Dei theology, which developed after and on the basis of the 1952 world mission conference, had brought to the ecumenical movement in general and to missiology in particular.
Jacques MATTHEY
NOTE
1. The WCC has issued official invitation letters to its member churches, to the affiliated bodies linked with the conference, and to churches or mission organizations related to the wider constituency of the work of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism. While the title, date and venue of the conference have been fixed only recently, the document prepared earlier still remains valid as a basis for the preparatory work. The document can be found in IRM No. 363, October 2002, pp. 604-611. For more information, please write to the CWME conference office, WCC, 150 route de Ferney, P.O. Box 2100, CH-1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland, or e-mail us at: WCC Contact. A special webpage on the forthcoming world mission conference will shortly be posted on the WCC website at www.wcc-coe.org