The Church in the Contemporary Ecumenical-Missional Moment:Together towards Lifein Dialogue withThe Cape Town CommitmentandEvangelii Gaudium

Abstract

Abstract The doctrine of church has always been important to developments in mission and ecumenism--a fact that has been true since birth of modern ecumenical movement and is no less so today. This article compares three recent documents--the WCC's Together towards Life (2013), Lausanne Movement's Cape Town Commitment (2011), and Pope Francis' exhortation Evangelii Gaudium (2014)--in light of rise of a prominent new way of expressing role of church in mission of Christ (missio Dei). This theological development has significantly impacted mission and ecumenical thinking and practice in recent decades, requiring us to consider church's relationship to mission in a new and important way. The article reveals various aspects of missio Dei theology at work in all three of these documents, and finally looks at visionary leadership of Pope Francis in calling Catholic Church to a joyful expression of gospel of Christ through both words and deeds. EG does not so much address doctrine of church as it assumes it. Its concern is far more pastoral: How do we more effectively and powerfully communicate gospel in our time?' ********** If there is one thing that can be said regarding evangelical Christianity it has to be this: If you get three evangelicals in same room you will likely have four different views of church. wag told me story, when I was teaching and preaching in Wales (UK) some years ago, of some missionaries who came upon a remote and almost abandoned Welsh village. They were surprised to discover three well-kept chapels. But there were only two single men who remained in village. When missionaries asked what prompted these two Welshmen to keep open all three chapels, answer expressed something of evangelical dilemma clearly. Well, one of chapels is for me and other is for my neighbour. The third is for one we will need if one of us separates from chapel he attends. While Roman Catholics generally have an idea about what church is, and is not, evangelicals debate and divide over a plethora of doctrines and practices that define and guide life of their churches. Such ecclesiology is often implied but rarely articulated. While serious evangelical theologians have worked out meaning and practice of church, at least within their various Protestant traditions, most members of evangelical churches have acted out their beliefs without statements and clear doctrines. Rare is occasion, at least in my experience, where I meet an evangelical who has strong views about specific characteristics of church. Bruce Hindmarsh, professor of spiritual theology at highly regarded evangelical school Regent College (Vancouver, Canada), expresses what I have in mind: One might even suggest, given history of schism among evangelicals, that 'evangelical ecclesiology' is an oxymoron, like an 'honest thief or 'airline food.' (1) Hindmarsh says this is very odd given the way evangelicals have proclaimed and appreciated spiritual unity of all those who are truly 'born again' while at same time have so often separated from one another in practice. (2) He rightly argues that this was not always case. This has been my experience of evangelical Protestantism as an insider for well more than half a century. The pleasant surprise, at least for me, is that an increasing number of evangelicals have become highly engaged in global concerns for Christian unity in mission last five years. Though ecumenism has always occupied a small place within evangelicalism, a new generation of leaders is asking, Why must we continue to divide church? It seems abundantly clear that Evangelicals are now speaking about mission and evangelism in language that is remarkably similar to that of other (non-Evangelical) Christians. I call this a missional- ecumenical convergence. …