Concept Of Missio Dei Research Articles

Understanding challenges and prospects of partnership in Christian missions in Nigerian Baptist convention

Partnership in Christian missions is of great importance because of its necessity for the effectiveness of all missions engagements. Partnership in missions has a biblical basis, and it is theologically correct. The concept of Missio Dei demonstrates the Triune God as the owner of Christian missions. Likewise, as a body of Christ, the church must work together to achieve God’s purpose. The church can utilise each member’s gifts and virtues through partnership to glorify God. Christian missions will not be tedious with practical knowledge of partnership in missions. This paper provided vital information related to partnerships in the Nigerian Baptist Convention missions. A partnership creates an avenue for effective and holistic missions. The researcher used the descriptive research method and discovered that some challenges, such as misunderstanding, selfishness, miss-appropriateness of resources and information gap, are sometimes part of the partnership.Contribution: Apart from the challenges, partnership in missions has many prospects amid technological advancement and globalisation if the appropriate partnership models, credible partnership principles and accurate theological perspectives are inculcated. This will result in more converts, planting churches, making disciples and raising more Christian leaders.

Missio Dei as the Main Project: Project Management Model for Mission of God

The emergence of the concept of Missio Dei (Mission of God) from the perspective of the International Missionary Council (IMC) arguably demonstrated that the role of the Triune God in his own mission was undeservedly marginalized for decades, if not centuries preceding 1952. Over the past decades there has been a sustained research activity conceptualizing Missio Dei, and at the same time renewing missiological interest in other Christian missions. However, to the author’s awareness, there has been very little or no effort to introduce or use known project models that can be utilized to show coherence or collaboration of missions towards the project of fulfilling the objective of Missio Dei. Through a desk-top literature review, this paper proposes the use of a project management model to properly conceptualize the location of Missio Dei as a main project that includes other network of missions as sub-projects within its framework. The Triune God is here identified as Project managers while human participants are seen as project stakeholders. Christian missions include Missio Christos, Missio Spiritus, Missio Hominum and Missio Ecclesiae as sub-projects. The proposed model will demonstrate the coordination and collaboration of missions in the broader context of Missio Dei and further assist with a proper understanding of roles that each mission is, or should play, in achieving the objective of Missio Dei. While efforts are being made here to propose a project management model for Missio Dei, further research is needed to determine whether this proposal will yield an in-depth understanding of Missio Dei as a missiological paradigm in conjunction with the role of other missions.

A Critical Analysis of the Concept of Missio Dei. Suggestions for a Trinitarian Understanding

Abstract This paper investigates the concept of missio Dei at Willingen and beyond, and identifies its most remarkable feature which regards God as the initiator and subject of mission, thereby redefining missio ecclesiae with three striking characteristics: first, all places of the world including both the immediate neighborhood and the uttermost parts of the earths; second, all spheres of life such as society, politics, economy and culture; and finally, all events of the time such as catastrophes in the history. In so doing, this paper clearly discovers that missio Dei is here approached primarily in a differentiation from or a sharp contrast to missio ecclesiae from the start, and that, for that reason, the concept of missio Dei at Willingen and beyond has not been fully trinitarian, though it often mentions the triune God. And it also discovers that it goes further either toward an emphasis on culture on the one hand, or toward that on the world on the other hand. Such being the case, this paper suggests that it is necessary to consider the implications of the doctrine of the Trinity for mission more fully to reconfigure the concept of missio Dei. Due to some limits, this paper does not deal with this issue full-fledgedly, but intends to suggest a couple of guidelines for doing so. First, we need to approach missio Dei quite differently, that is, primarily not in relation to missio ecclesiae but in relation to processio Dei, that is, the procession of the triune God. Second, noting that, since the early church, missio Dei has been understood primarily in relation to processio Dei, we need to keep in mind that we could not discuss missio more fully without dealing with processio, and vice versa. If we have these two guidelines in mind, the concept of missio Dei would be much more abundant and fruitful. Further studies on some particular implications of the doctrine of the Trinity for mission need to be done in missiology and also theology in general in the near future.

A Reflection on Nominal Christians in Contemporary England

This article attends to the religious landscape in contemporary England, particularly those who display some Christian beliefs and practices loosely, while their church attendance is slight, occasional or non-existent. In Western society and churches, they are predominantly characterised as “nominal Christians.” From a missiological perspective, I examine the adequacy of this characterisation, drawing upon my empirical findings of non-diasporic Korean missionaries’ engagement with the phenomenon of interest. Firstly, I show how nominalism is addressed in the two major sociological approaches that attempt to characterise the religious trend in the contemporary Western culture, namely, secularization theories and de-institutionalization theories. Secondly, I present empirical findings of Korean missionaries’ reflection on nominalism in the light of such a sociological debate. Finally, I examine the missiological implication of their reflection for nominalism in reference to the concept of missio Dei. I argue that Korean missionaries’ accounts disclose what I call “religious nominals” who have some valid elements of Christian faith in an increasingly deinstitutionalized ecclesial context. They represent a distinctive religious constituency among whom God carries out the redemptive work of Christ, the manner of which is as yet to be explored. This disclosure invites us to review our understanding of nominalism with a serious theological exploration of such a redemptive intervention of God. This exploration also invites further reflection on our current discourse of missional church in this particular theological context.

Reverse Mission? Missio Dei and the Spread of African Pentecostalism in the West

Abstract Although mission is no longer a linear stream that flows from North to South, rarely are Southern missionaries in the West construed as participants in God’s mission. Using the concept of missio Dei, this article contests the claim that Southern missionaries in the West are engaged in reverse mission. Beginning with a brief overview of the missio Dei concept, it discusses the meaning, uses and limitations of the various models of reverse mission. Assessing the spread of African Pentecostalism in the West, it contends that mission cannot be reversed if it is of God. The article concludes that mission is a continuum of what God has done in Christ for the oikos throughout the ages, to which humans are privileged participants.

The roots of missio Dei in the Reformation, and its implications for theological education

Theological debates on the use and meaning of the concept of missio Dei as a term in Reformed theology emphasise the need for more in-depth theological reflection on the Reformed roots of this term. Consideration of the covenant of redemption ( pactum salutis ) as the point of departure may provide a solid foundation for a biblical theological understanding and the use of missio Dei in Reformed theology. Such an approach will emphasise a kingdom missional vision for Reformed churches. Such an approach may provide valid biblical, theological and doctrinal contours for theological education for the equipping of disciples of Christ, which will be enabled to equip disciples in pastoral training.

Towards a theology of sports chaplaincy

ABSTRACT Existing literature on the work of sports chaplains focuses primarily on practitioner accounts of chaplaincy within elite sports settings. While these narratives provide useful descriptions of personal experience and practical application, they are largely devoid of theological grounding. This paper seeks to address this imbalance by putting forward a theology of sports chaplaincy that emphasises the missional nature of this ministry. We begin by contextualising mission within the doctrine of the Trinity. We then move to an exploration of the incarnational nature of chaplaincy. In line with the work of established missiological scholars, the concept of missio Dei is located as one possible way of understanding the mission and role of the chaplain in post-Christendom in western industrial society. The paper concludes by identifying sports chaplains as key missiological agents within the context of both amateur and elite sport.

The even Greater Commission: Relating the Great Commission to the missio Dei, and human agency to divine activity, in mission

This article proposes a means to reconcile and properly order two of the dominant missiological concepts of the past century: the so-called “Great Commission” of Matthew 28:18–20, and the concept of missio Dei. By doing so, the article seeks to offer a more robustly trinitarian basis for mission which references the Great Commission, and a means to better nuance and understand the relationship between divine and human agency in mission. To make these arguments, the article offers a theological primer on and critique of the two missiological concepts, then contends that the Great Commission should be understood as a second-order, rather than a first-order, frame of reference for mission, located within the wider trinitarian framework of the “even greater” co-missions of the Son and Spirit. The article then draws on the theology of Karl Barth to affirm that the church, insofar as its actions correspond to God’s own activity in the Spirit, can be regarded as the locus of human co-activity in the pneumatological missio of God. With further reference to Barth, the article proposes that properly ordering and relating the Great Commission and the missio Dei allows for a cooperative, if asymmetrical, co-missional account of the relation between God’s agency and human action in mission. While primarily drawing on the resources of systematic theology, the article concludes with some preliminary implications for mission theology and practice.

Beginning at the beginning: Reading missio Dei from the start of the Bible

While Missiological hermeneutics have pointed to the missio Dei concept as key to the entire Biblical narrative, these readings have described God’s mission activity as commencing after the entrance of sin, rather than at the beginning of the Bible. This article argues that a mission hermeneutic ought to begin with the Bible’s opening chapters, where humanity’s vocation in the narratives of Genesis 1 and 2 need not be treated as a separate “creation mandate,” but as involvement in the missio Dei. Iranaeus’ theology provides a precedent for thinking that God’s perfecting work was still at an early stage when sin entered creation; and G. K. Beale’s reading of Eden as a garden sanctuary to be expanded gives at least one exegetical avenue for seeing the creation narratives as continuous with the mission entrusted to Abraham’s descendants. Missio Dei participation, then, is inherent to humanity, and sin’s origins can be framed as a refusal to embrace it.

God’s Mission Challenges from the Otherness

This article raises relevant aspects of the dialogue missiology regarding Abya Yala religions and cultures. It is based on the concept of missio Dei as critical to the Christian missionary experience in Latin America, and discusses some historical examples, including Bartolomé de Las Casas, José de Acosta, Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala and Jorge Benci, in order to arrive at the proposals for inculturation and interculturality, as the present day challenges to innovative missionary action. It declares respect and love for the ‘other’ as the starting point for a journey responding to the passion of the God of Life for humanity and dignity of all peoples and cultures. It tries to rewrite mission theology as a ‘decolonizing’ task, at a time and in a world dominated by Western culture. This requires a difficult, but essential, ‘intercultural decentering’ (Josef Estermann), which is both a rupture and a personal, philosophical, theological and pastoral conversion in this direction. Examples derived from ‘critical Pentecostal’ theology can help us in this intent.

The Church as Mission in Its Very Life

Introductory RemarksIs there a relation between Church and mission? And if there is, how are mission and Church related? Does the Church have a mission or even several missions? Or is the Church essentially mission? Is it mission in its very life? These are the core questions of the following study text that constitutes the contribution of the Working Group on Mission and Ecclesiology of CWME, from which the new Mission Statement's chapter on the Church drew. To address these questions means to embark on a twofold agenda: It means to approach mission from the angle of the life of and the reflection on the Church, and it also means to tackle ecumenical ecclesiology from a mission perspective.The present text grew out of further reflections on the study paper on theme 8 of the Edinburgh 2010 study process “Towards Common Witness to Christ Today: Mission and Visible Unity of the Church” (published in IRM 99.1 [2010] 86–106). The insights gathered in the following paper are part of an ongoing process that seeks to take into account the constantly changing contexts of mission and Church. Already on the face of it, the macro‐context shows two opposing trends: on the one hand, an increasing secularization of society, and at the same time, on the other, the emerging of new and rapidly growing religious movements. The present text limits itself to stating and briefly analyzing some factors of the continuously changing ecclesial landscape that is created by these trends of the macro‐context. This approach presumes that the Church is not merely a free‐floating, ultra‐mundane entity. It is of an “incarnational” nature. It exists in the midst of differing particular contexts in this world. The methodological option of starting from the contemporary contexts and challenges to world Christianity today and of evaluating the impacts they have on contemporary mission offers a fresh view on long‐debated issues in missiology and ecclesiology.In its search for solutions to these contemporary challenges, the text argues that theologically it is impossible to separate Church and mission. The missio Dei concept, which affirms the priority of the triune God's sending activity, continues to provide the fundamental basis for both, an ecumenical missiology and an ecclesiology from a mission point of view. “The missionary intention of God is the raison d'être of the Church,” the text states in no. 32. This Church (with a capital C) is the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church we confess in the creed. The Church can also be called “apostolic” in the sense that Christians are “sent”, since they are invited by God to become “part‐takers” in God's mission (nos. 24 and 26). The second chapter is therefore called “Common Witness: That the World May Believe”. It addresses the insight that a lack of unity is detrimental to the witness and mission of the Church. This insight, which is already highlighted in John 17:21, was prophetically spelled out for the modern ecumenical movement by the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh. From an ecclesiological point of view, the core question is how our confessional churches embody this one Church or how they are otherwise related to it. From a mission point of view, the witness of the one Church of Jesus Christ in the world needs to be a common witness despite the divisions and fractions that split the Church and hinder mission. This common witness stipulates criteria of discernment. And a mission‐centred ecclesiology has to ask: What structures and features in our churches further our common witness to God's mission? What features and structures hinder it? When answering these questions, the role of the Holy Spirit in mediating between unity and diversity needs to be taken into account. At the same time, the goal of full visible unity is reaffirmed by asking, How does unity become visible? Is this only and exclusively possible by common structures, or can it also, and perhaps more genuinely, be achieved by common service and witness to the mission of God?The third and last chapter addresses “Visions and Hopes” in the light of God's mission of healing, reconciliation and hope. Hope pervades the new missionary spirituality. Hope also motivates conversion as turning together to God. This new concentration on the aspect of hope accounts for the fact that, in view of the constantly changing ecclesial landscape and the flowing contexts of mission, it is impossible to name just one overall solution that would last at least for some of the coming decades. But “hope” stands for the confidence that, with the help of God for the Church, there will never be a lack of ingenious solutions in the time to come and that God's vineyard will never be without workers who will happily join in the common witness to God's mission. Annemarie C. MAYER

God's Mission as Word Event in an Age of World Christianity: An Asian Linguistic‐Transcultural Model

AbstractChristian community lives according to the Word of God, inspiring the church to be in ecumenical fellowship and to be amenable to the act of God's speech in an age of world Christianity. The Word of God is able to be translated transculturally in different times and places, while keeping the transversal, irregular horizon of God's discourse. In view of the rise of world Christianity much has been said about the indigenization of the Christian narrative that challenges the western concept of missio Dei. To renew God's mission in an East Asian configuration, a linguistic‐transcultural model is proposed for a public theology of mission that promotes the full humanity of those on the underside of history and acknowledges religious outsiders. A public mission of God's narrative takes seriously the project of interculturation and emancipation in the post‐western Christian era.

Missio Dei: Some Implications for the Church

During the early twentieth century, Protestant mission theology gradually became more church-centric. At the IMC Willingen conference in 1952, the missio Dei concept (although not the actual term) emerged. This shifted the Protestant understanding of the source of mission from an ecclesio- or anthropocentric source to a theocentric source, the Triune Godhead. This was a major (and contested) theological advance. This article explores some of the implications of missio Dei theology for the church. Problems and developments with the concept are examined in the conclusion.

Mission‐Shaped Liturgy

title given to this presentation, Mission-shaped liturgy, is further elaborated by the questions attached to it: 'What liturgy, what languages, and what music?' 'What new forms of ritual/symbols/expression can touch our contemporaries, especially the youngsters?' My reading assumes a tension between this title and the interpreting questions. These questions seem to imply an understanding according to which mission-shaped liturgy is one that is shaped primarily by the context, in other words by the needs and expectations of our contemporaries. tension is between this below and a above approach. My conviction is that the question of mission-shaped liturgy should begin by asking, 'What and whose mission?' main thesis of this paper is that mission-shaped liturgy is liturgy in the service of shaping and nurturing a missional people. Before exploring this thesis, however, the biases and limitations that derive from my context of being a pastor in the Reformed Church in Hungary (RCH) should be reviewed. RCH often refers to itself as being the church of the word (of God). In the church's worship services, the majority of pastors and members consider the proclamation of God's word to be central, and the liturgy as secondary. This situation has had two consequences. First, in the worship services preaching has become almost everything; the service seems to stand or fall on the quality of the sermon. Second, an unhealthy emphasis on the role of the pastor and clericalism has developed in the RCH churches. Janos Pasztor points out, The whole worship service is built on the person, thinking and theology of the minister. (1) Both the centrality of God's word in liturgy and the critique of an unhealthy clericalism are shared by the author of this paper. Another recent characteristic of the RCH is a strong desire to create a uniformed liturgy for the RCH and the Hungarian Reformed churches beyond the boarders of Hungary, in the Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Slovakia. This situation is, of course, the consequence of the peace treaty in Trianon after the first world war. A common hymnbook has already been published. In the opinion of the present author, these efforts at uniformity are misguided since they do not take seriously the plurality of contexts in which Hungarian Reformed churches are called to be witnesses of Christ. I am privileged to be a pastor in an urban, housing estate church that was started about sixteen years ago. Gazdagret Reformed Church, while keeping the basic elements of RCH liturgy, has been through some liturgical changes in the last couple of years. It is especially perceptible in the liturgy of the Lord's Supper, and the blended use of old and contemporary songs led by a group of musicians in the services. These rather minor developments count as significant changes in the context of the RCH. It also should be added that our church has been experiencing significant growth parallel to these changes. Having outlined the ecclesial context in which this paper was born, the church as God's missional people now needs to be discussed. This discussion will lead to an adequate understanding of the church's liturgy as it is related to mission. Then some aspects of mission-shaped liturgy will be examined. church as God's missional people Earlier, it was stated that the primary question of a mission-shaped liturgy should be, 'What is mission and whose is the mission that is to shape the church's liturgy?' concept of missio Dei needs to be emphasized at this point. A trinitarian understanding of mission developed along the lines of the Father sending the Son, and the Father and Son sending the Holy Spirit. This is foundational. God is the missionary God; the church takes part in God's mission as it is sent by God into the world. crucial text for this understanding, cited by Lesslie Newbigin several times, is John 20:21: As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. …

MISSIO DEI TODAY: ON THE IDENTITY OF CHRISTIAN MISSION

We have gathered to reflect on the significance of the Willingen Conference of 1952 for our today. Willingen did not understand itself to be an end in itself, It was conceived as a milestone (1) on the road towards an in-depth understanding of that, in turn, would lead to a renewed endeavour establish faithful obedience among the nations. The concept of missio Dei was only used in passing at the conference, and it was only later, through the publication of G. Vicedom (2), that it came to sum up the new approach and me sage of the conference so precisely. Willingen 1952 was the first time that was so comprehensively anchored in the doctrine of God. That was source of relief, to start with, since had again fallen into crisis after the second world war, albeit proclaimed the great event of the 20th century the first world conference in Edinburgh. Expectations began to crumble. At Whitby, in 1947, we hoped that the most testing days of the Christian at least for our generation, lay behind us ... But here at Willingen clouds and thick darkness surround the city, and we know with complete certainty that the most testing days of the Christian in our generation lie just ahead. (3) Vast, promising fields were closed (e.g. China) under the Cross characterized the mood that was marked no long by hope but by concern, if not depression. Anchoring in God was relief. Die Sach' ist dein, Herr Jesu Christ (The cause is yours, Lord Jesus Christ), had always been a popular hymn in missionary circles, but now this line took on a new theological dimension. God, the triune God, was seen to the initiator, missionary and fulfiller of mission. Since, however, the question of missio hominum was only touched upon at the conference the differences visible beforehand persisted, and to this day still lurk in the background theology debate. On the one hand, there is the rejection of church-oriented by J. Chr Hoekendijk, who saw the church as an appendix of God's coming into the world, the actual missio Dei (4). On the other hand, one can typically quote Freytag, who so esteemed the of the church that it became the sign the last days, and the very meaning of world history. (5) Even if the two positions indicate extremes, they are still operative below the surface today, and may be discerned even in the magazines put out by different associations. The magazines of church-run societies primarily deal with social problems in the countries of the churches overseas. The evangelical magazine however, focus on the personal experience of faith and conversion, and refer to the relevant social environment at most when their missionaries come under pressure from other religions. The Hamburg-based Association of Protestant Churches and Missions in Germany (EMW) uses a compromise definition: Of course is an invitation to believe, and to talk about the meaning of life. It is the working for liberation, human rights and human dignity. Mission is the struggle against racism and economic exploitation, and works for reconciliation and justice. Mission is connected with the debt issue and about establishing a reconciled global community. (6) Even if K. Schafer clearly states that for him evangelism is the heart of mission, and the different accents in understanding depend on the respective situations, he, too, still cannot escape the criticism levelled at Hoekendijk and his approach, viz. that of expanding the concept of to the point where it becomes imprecise and meaningless. The criteria of differentiation are lacking. Why does the commitment to a more just world come under mission when it applies to Latin America (a commitment shared with the trades unions) but not when it applies to Germany? Where is the criterion for classifying anti-globalization activists as engaging in missionary activity in one instance, and not in another? …

MISSIO DEI: THE UNDERSTANDING AND MISUNDERSTANDING OF A THEOLOGICAL CONCEPT IN EUROPEAN CHURCHES AND MISSIOLOGY

1. Introduction I feel honoured to have been asked to give a lecture at this mission congress that is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the world mission conference here in Willingen. There is certainly ample reason to celebrate. We celebrate not only the Willingen Conference of fifty years ago, but we also want to remember the dramatic developments in missiology during the second half of the last century that in many ways began in Willingen. The development that found its most extreme form in the 1960s and early 70s (1) involved a change from a more anthropocentric of mission to a more theocentric, and from a more ecclesiocentric perspective to a more cosmocentric. In the latter perspective, the world, both in its socio-political and religious dimensions, is at the centre of attention. The theocentric perspective was, of course, not new in the 20th century. It can already be found in Martin Luther's thinking about mission. The American Lutheran missiologist, James A. Scherer says, For Luther, mission is always pre-eminently the work of the triune God--missio Dei--and its goal and outcome is the coming of the kingdom of God. Luther sees the church, along with God's word and every baptized believer, as crucial divine instruments for mission. Yet, nowhere does the reformer make the church the starting point or the final goal of mission, as 19th-century missiology tended to do. It is always God's own mission that dominates Luther's thought, and the coming of the kingdom of God represents its final culmination. (2) Here, already, we encounter the three concepts that form a dynamic triangle in post-war missiological thought: missio Dei, the kingdom of God and the church. Much of the discussion is centred on how they relate, and the answers given diverge strongly. Before looking at the concept of missio Dei and the of it in a historical perspective, I may be allowed two comments on my theme. Firstly, missiology is a global ecumenical discipline. Some of the most important milestones of missiology in the 20th century were the great mission conferences that for the most part were global in scope. Hence, to restrict the discussion of missio Dei to European churches and missiology seems somewhat arbitrary. I shall, however, for the most part limit my comments to European missiologists, but I cannot promise not to have the larger picture in mind. Secondly, the words understanding and misunderstanding assume that something more than a historical perspective is required. In some sense, there is a right and a wrong one. This implies a normative perspective, and I will in this article present some normative positions. I would like to characterize them as Lutheran and evangelical. (3) 2. The origin and content of the concept missio Dei The term missio Dei has a long history that goes back to Augustine and relates to the doctrine of the Trinity, but this is not our main concern here. It is the use of the phrase in missiology that is our topic. Although one of the main reasons for the fame of the Willingen conference is the introduction of the concept of missio Dei, I have not been able to find the term in the documents from the conference itself. (4) It seems that it was Karl Hartenstein who, in his report from Willingen, coined the phrase when he spoke of mission as participation in the sending of the Son, in the missio Dei, with an inclusive aim of establishing the lordship of Christ over the whole redeemed creation. (5) To quote Hartenstein more fully, Mission is not just the conversion of the individual, nor just obedience to the word of the Lord, nor just the obligation to gather the church. It is the taking part in the sending of the Son, the missio Dei, with the holistic aim of establishing Christ's rule over all redeemed creation. (6) In my estimation, however, the emphasis in Willingen on a trinitarian basis of mission is even more important than the somewhat ambiguous phrase missio Dei. …

SERMON PREACHED ON 18 AUGUST 2002 AT THE WILLINGEN MISSION FESTIVAL

International Review of MissionVolume 92, Issue 367 p. 473-477 SERMON PREACHED ON 18 AUGUST 2002 AT THE WILLINGEN MISSION FESTIVAL Konrad Raiser, Konrad Raiser Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser is the general secretary of the World Council of Churches.Search for more papers by this author Konrad Raiser, Konrad Raiser Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser is the general secretary of the World Council of Churches.Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 March 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.2003.tb00422.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume92, Issue367October 2003Pages 473-477 RelatedInformation

MISSIO DEI: THE BASIS OF MISSION THEOLOGY OR A WRONG PATH?1

1. What is mission? The conflict surrounding the main concept Mission is at one and the same time an essential but contentious theological issue. This is because it deals with the truth of the Christian faith in the face of other claims to truth. This fact will become clear straight away as we review two doctrinal statements that represent, respectively, a traditional view of missionary theology and a more recent view (or paradigm): If Christendom could breathe ... then it would experience ... both the need to breathe in and the ability to breathe out as being the grace of God without which it would not be able to live ... The Bible often speaks of the Spirit of God as of a wind or a breath of air, that can be breathed in, with which the Church has to be filled in order to be spiritually alive. The Church has to go forwards on the basis of this spiritual breath in order to continually renew itself as the Church. The Church does this mainly through its ... worship ... Indeed ... if the Church wants to stay alive it also has to be able to breathe out. It has to go out beyond itself, if it wants to remain the Church of Jesus Christ. It cannot exist as the Church moved by his Spirit, if it is not, or does not become again, a missionary Church. (2) This is how Eberhard Jungel described the nature and priority of mission at the synod of the Evangelical Church of Germany (EKD) in Leipzig in 1999. The central concept in this interpretation is that mission is the sign of the life of a church which is sure of its source in the Spirit of God, and is, for this very reason, ready to open itself up to and turn towards strangers. During Jungel's address many of those in the EKD who had been turned off mission gained renewed faith in the subject. (3) However, the main concept behind his words has long been a matter for argument in the worldwide debate on mission. Fourteen years ago, the Indian theologian, Stanley J. Samartha explained the task of mission thus: In a pluralistic religious world Christians and their neighbours from other religious backgrounds are called to take part in God's continuing mission to the world. Mission means continuing God's work through the Spirit, to mend what is broken in the whole of creation, to overcome the destruction of humankind and to heal the rift between God, nature and humanity. (4) In contrast to Jungel's definition, this describes mission as a work of God that is common to all religions. Each religion has a share in it but only in common with others that are, as it were, equally called. According to Samartha, the church no longer has the explicit role of mediator of the Christian faith to humanity beyond itself. Therefore, the debate about the correct central concept of mission is still in full swing. However, one thing has been symptomatic of mission theology over the last fifty years: both sides, those who support the first concept and those who support the second, trace their arguments back to the fifty-year-old mission theology concept of missio Dei (5) (God's mission) and yet draw different and in part opposing conclusions. It seems that everyone reads into and out of this container definition (6) whatever he or she needs at the time. Is such a term of any use at all, if it does not help us to establish a clear single interpretation of the central concept? Should we give up this formula altogether or, as is increasingly being called for, give up using it for the time being. (7) Fortunately, as theologians we have a great deal of practice in dealing with terms that have several meanings. We know that we do not understand a term that has acquired a whole host of different interpretations (or derived meanings) until we have learnt its original meaning and established for ourselves why, in different circumstances, this original meaning is not shared by all specialists. …

SALVADOR AMONG THE WORLD MISSION CONFERENCES OF THIS CENTURY

International Review of MissionVolume 86, Issue 340-341 p. 19-26 SALVADOR AMONG THE WORLD MISSION CONFERENCES OF THIS CENTURY Jacques Matthey, Jacques Matthey Jacques Matthey, from Switzerland, is general secretary of the Missionary Department of the Protestant Churches in French-speaking Switzerland, located in Lausanne.Search for more papers by this author Jacques Matthey, Jacques Matthey Jacques Matthey, from Switzerland, is general secretary of the Missionary Department of the Protestant Churches in French-speaking Switzerland, located in Lausanne.Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 March 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1997.tb00005.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume86, Issue340-341January‐April 1997Pages 19-26 RelatedInformation

DROPPING THE S

Dropping the s from the title of the International Review of Mission(s) was the implementation of the missio Dei concept in IRM. Source: IRM 58:2 (1969): 1-5. With this issue of the IRM we change the name of the oldest ecumenical journal in existence from International Review of Missions International Review of Mission. Authority for this decision was granted by the divisional committee of the Division of World Mission and Evangelism in its meeting at Odense, Denmark, in November 1968. This brings the title of the IRM into line with the designation of the division itself, with the thinking of the 1963 Mexico City meeting of the Commission of World Mission and Evangelism which gave wide currency the concept of Mission in Six Continents, and with the broad consensus of missionary thinking of most of the member churches of the World Council of Churches. We hope that the change from in the plural in the singular will make the IRM more palatable Asian, African and Latin American readers, for many of whom the old title must have been uncomfortably reminiscent of an era in which their continents were the only targets of the inexorable thrust of one-way from north south, and an era in which was primarily the business of professional, dedicated expatriate Christians from the north rather than the primary business of all Christians, in every country in every continent. We hope too that the change will also make the IRM more palatable for many of our traditional subscribers in Europe and North America, many of whom must be troubled by the contradiction between what has until now been printed on the cover as the name of the journal and what is published inside as the content of the growing consensus that the is one for the church wherever it may be. For some time now the IRM has been publishing articles that reflect this conviction about the of the Church the whole inhabited earth, and we do not do justice the growing conviction about that transcendent, universal, excitingly diverse and amazingly unique by the host of outdated images which are perpetuated by the old title. Missions in the plural have a certain justification in the diplomatic, political, and economic spheres of international relations where their nature, scope and authority are defined by the interests of both those who initiate and those who receive them, but the of the Church is singular in that it issues from the One Triune God and His intention for the salvation of all men. His commission the Church is one, even though the ministries given the Church for this mission, and the given responses of particular churches in particular situations the commission, are manifold. The various studies and programmes initiated by the Division of World Mission and Evangelism in the past few years since integration into the life of the World Council of Churches, also reflect this concern for the one of the Church in six continents rather than the traditional concern for from three continents the other three. These include: the study of the theology of mission, the study of churches in missionary situations, the missionary structure of the congregation, urban-industrial mission, joint action for mission, the Christian encounter with men of other faiths, and now the study of missionary participation in human institutions. All of these studies and programmes already undertaken make imperative the recovery within every congregation of the missionary dynamic which will enable Christians, as individuals and as communities, break out of their walls of self-concern witness the love of Christ within every level of the institutions which govern their activities, in their neighbourhoods, in the market-place, in the home, as well as the ends of the earth. It is that last phrase to the ends of the earth that troubles many for whom the shift from missions mission raises the question of missionary priorities. …