WITNESS OF THE LOCAL CONGREGATIONS – IMPULSES FROM SALVADOR

Abstract

The Conference on World Mission Evangelism (CWME) held at Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, 1996, could be considered the gateway for a new missiology, and an open invitation for an ecumenical missionary journey. The CWME unequivocally demonstrated faith in Jesus Christ the Hope, and sought the cooperative missionary efforts of all local congregations to share Jesus, the hope for the hopeless in the midst of diverse cultures, ideologies and faiths. The following are some reflections upon the implications of the Salvador conference for the life and witness of local worshipping communities. Worship and liturgical renewal Worship, liturgy, sacraments, have played a crucial role in the life of the Christian community. The services at Salvador clearly demonstrated that neither language nor denomination is a hindrance to worshipping God. In particular, using symbols like stones, water, fruit, flowers, bread, bringing street children to the altar and the experiences of the slaves into the opened our eyes to the realities of life and made services more meaningful. Doctrines controlled by hierarchy are the stumbling block for Christian Again the CWME is a witness for this. Services of holy communion were not held during the conference, probably because of doctrinal differences and the wish, therefore, not to hurt certain denominations. Each denomination held its own communion services, though the Anglican Church extended an invitation to all. However, the services at Salvador witnessed to the world of fragmentation and individualism that corporate worship is still central to the life of the congregation. significant and true to the one hope to which Christians are called if every Christian congregation were to extend an invitation to all people to join unconditionally in the Lord's supper/holy communion/eucharist/holy mass/holy qurbana! Cultural arrogance or multicultural richness? The CWME, with one accord, called upon the local congregation to celebrate multicultural richness and arrest cultural arrogance. In her keynote address, Musimbi R.A. Kanyaro said, Culture calls us to accept diversity, while the gospel calls us to affirm unity. The time is ripe for Christians everywhere to apologize to local communities for the disrespect shown to local culture, values, and people. To apologize should not only make us true Christians but also should serve to bring us closer to all members of God's family with a sense of toleration and true appreciation of one another's views. Two of the beautiful experiences that the delegates had at Salvador were the sharing of thoughts without inhibition and listening to one another with respect for the other's point of view. For example, How do we discern the Holy Spirit? was a question in our Bible study. The responses were very diverse. Some said that the presence of the Spirit is only within the fellowship of the Christian community. Others, coming from Indigenous experiences, insisted that the Spirit is discerned in the spiritualities of their people. Not all the delegates were comfortable with some personal testimonies; the new and strange was unsettling for many. Therefore, local congregations should explore all possibilities of enabling both culture and gospel to encounter each other so that the may celebrate the values of the gospel in a culturally meaningful way and allow for the free expression of experiences and spiritualities different from their own. Each congregation needs to understand the work of the Holy Spirit. The local congregation is the only movement that can credibly challenge certain cultural prejudices through the gospel message and open the eyes of the people to certain ages-long discriminatory practices. Again, it is the function of the local congregation to use the particular local culture to disseminate the gospel effectively. Many times our buildings are kept closed, though we believe that the church is where people are. …