Young Church Research Articles

TELLING THE STORY: THE ROLE OF INFORMATION‐SHARING IN URBAN AND INDUSTRIAL MISSION

I This age of global telecommunication and information exchange has set a unique challenge and opportunity to the churches: how can they use the global information network in telling the story of peoples' struggles for their dignity and rights? What role can information exchange play in strengthening the churches' work for justice in the world? What follows is the story of the role that information exchange has played in one area of the churches' ministry: the work of urban-industrial mission in the latter part of this century. In 1961, the World Council of Churches (WCC) held its Third Assembly in New Delhi, India - the first such gathering to take place in the developing world. Within this context, the New Delhi Assembly focused on issues facing the churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America. One concern to receive major attention was the impact of rapid social change - particularly in terms of growth in the urban and industrial sectors - on the countries of the developing world. Assembly delegates from the industrialized West shared this concern. When the WCC's Division of World Mission and Evangelism (DWME) met in Mexico City in 1963, the churches' response to worldwide urbanization and industrialization was given high priority. A central theme there was Churches and the Cities,(1) and one of the actions taken was the decision to create an Office for Urban and Industrial Mission within the Division of World Mission and Evangelism.(2) Paul Loeffler, a missionary from Germany working in India, was called to be the first secretary of that office.(3) In July 1965, under Loeffler, the DWME set up an Advisory Group on Urban and Industrial Mission (AGUIM), whose tasks included providing assistance and guidance for strengthening and developing urban and industrial projects, and promoting ecumenical study and dialogue about the goals, presuppositions and methods of urban-industrial work as it was being undertaken in different parts of the world.(4) From the time of its creation, the Advisory Group concentrated on the concerns of the churches in the developing world. These younger churches were facing dramatic changes: the rural people they had been serving were now crowding into burgeoning cities, while migrants were becoming the new industrial class that was being formed in the growing industrial sector. The Advisory Group saw its immediate task in terms of encouraging the direction of urban industrial mission. During its early meetings the AGUIM set itself an agenda with the aim of developing: (1) sound presuppositions on which to build urban industrial ministry; (2) a coherent interpretation of the work of the Advisory Group on Urban Industrial Mission; (3) a wider strategy based on the activities of the various isolated urban industrial ministries in the regions; (4) the discussion of long-term common issues involved in urban industrial mission work; (5) a means for exchange of information and inter-communication between those engaged in different projects around the world.(5) It was the last of these - the exchange of information and the expediting of communication among those engaged in urban industrial mission - that received the Group's increasing attention. II The groundwork had already been laid at the First Asian Conference on Industrial Evangelism(6) held in June 1958 in Manila, Philippines. This was the first major regional meeting to give consideration to urban industrial mission work in the developing world. Delegates from fifteen Asian countries reported on their churches' efforts to develop ministries in workers' communities in their particular contexts. Thus, communication and the exchange of information between those engaged in urban industrial mission became a top priority at the Manila conference. The Second Industrial Mission Conference for those engaged in urban industrial mission in Asia was held in Kyoto, Japan, in May 1966, bringing together over 60 delegates and observers from sixteen countries in the Asian region. …

THE AFRICAN FACTOR IN CHRISTIAN MISSION TO AFRICA: A STUDY OF MORAVIAN AND BASEL MISSION INITIATIVES IN GHANA

One of the most stimulating developments in Christian mission studies during the last decade or so is the gradual shift of emphasis from Western, Eurocentric interpretation and initiative to an emphasis which takes African participation seriously. Missiologists and students of mission history are becoming increasingly aware of this. Lamin Sanneh has pointed out quite clearly that Christianity cannot be explained simply as subject to the history of Western imperialism.(1) The fact is that the only effective way to analyze the historical transmission of Christianity under Western agency is to subordinate it to its assimilation and adaptation under African agency.(2) The benefit of such methodology is to study local Christian history on its own terms, to free the agents to tell their own story from their own perspective. Too often the story is told only from the perspective of mission records in North Atlantic archives.(3) Unfortunately, a failure to view historical Christian missions as the consequence of the Missio Dei has resulted in Western mission being presented as no more than propagation of a European ethnocentric commodity.(4) It should therefore come as no surprise that the contributions of the indigenous people of in Christian mission to their own continent have been treated on the periphery of mission history. However, a study of missionary activity in West in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries shows that Africans and the African diaspora made their mark in the effort. Side by side with missionaries from the United States, Great Britain and the West Indies were the Africans in the back to Africa movement. No doubt some may have embarked on romantic expeditions for recreating the lost glory of Africa, but most of them were simply obeying the call to go into all the world and make disciples. Liberated slaves of African origin were often anxious and willing to carry their new religion to their native home.(5) This is amply underlined by the leading role played by those who were brought as settlers to West from Nova Scotia, Britain and the United State of America. That some of these returning Josephs were not willing to stay in the comfort of Pharaoh's Egypt but were prepared to return to live in and to spread the Christian faith, must be seen as a substantial factor in the success of Christian mission to in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. How did this factor in mission come about? What course did it take? Was it seen at the time as an exercise of mission in intra-cultural perspective? This essay seeks to answer some of these questions and to do so by describing the efforts of the Basel Missionary Society to recruit black West Indian Moravians in the 1840s to engage in mission work in Ghana (then the Gold Coast). The intention is to offer some suggestions about the foundation of horizontal mission which is proving so effective in the mission efforts of the younger churches in today. THE MORAVIANS, THE BASEL MISSION AND MISSIONARY INTEREST IN GHANA Both the Moravians and the Basel Mission - two missionary bodies of German pietistic tradition - suffered considerable disappointments in their initial endeavours to evangelize West during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Moravians, who operated from Herrnhut, in Saxony, Germany, under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf, tried to take Christianity to the indigenous people of Ghana by using Africans - but they were unsuccessful. As early as 1735, Frederick Pedersen Svane, a Ga young man from Christiansborg in Ghana, who had graduated in the arts and philosophy from the University of Copenhagen, found a friend in the Moravian Carl Adolph von Plessen.(6) Svane had felt a strong desire to return as an independent missionary to his native land and people. With the support of his friend von Plessen, and no doubt backed by the blessing and goodwill of the Moravian Brethren, Svane sailed to Christiansborg with his Danish wife. …

SOME QUESTIONS ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS IN MISSION

Historical Over the last four centuries, European-based Roman Catholic missionary orders have followed the European colonial expansion into Africa, the Americas, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific, establishing missions, evangelizing the local people and teaching western cultural values. From the end of the eighteenth century, western European and North American, together with the smaller Australian and New Zealand Anglican and Protestant missionary societies and church mission boards, sent missionaries into the same areas, establishing churches, hospitals and health-care programmes, schools and colleges and rural development programmes. The selection of mission areas usually, but not always, accompanied or followed colonial expansion. The particular location of missions was determined more or less unilaterally by the mission boards and societies involved. In the country where mission was being carried out comity arrangements were often developed, dividing the region into areas that were allocated to particular missions so as to cover the whole area, and minimize competition between the various agencies. In some places mission agencies collaborated in establishing united theological colleges, tertiary colleges and large hospitals. By and large, indigenous people in any place became Methodist, Lutheran or Baptist, etc., because that was the church having been allocated for its missionary enterprise to the area in which they lived. Over the two hundred years there have been massive migrations of people within regions because of industrialization and urbanization, wars and ethnic or tribal conflicts, and climatic change. As people have moved, they have taken with them their denominational allegiance and established churches of different denominational tradition side by side. In 1910, representatives of the various missionary sending churches and societies, together with a very few representatives of the new, younger churches, came together in Edinburgh, Scotland to reflect on the missionary calling and enterprise. That meeting was characterized by supreme confidence that the missionary enterprise could succeed in winning the whole world for Christ within a generation. It generated new missionary energy and vigor throughout the Christian world. However there was also some serious questioning of several aspects of the missionary movement. In particular, the few representatives of the Indian and Chinese churches who were present raised questions about: * Relationships between missionaries and indigenous church leaders - issues of power, equality and authority. * Relationships between the mission structure and the indigenous church structure - should these remain separate or be integrated? Who has the right to make decisions about policy, style and application of resources? * Relationships between the missions and between the churches they were establishing - the unity of the church of Jesus Christ, and the multiplicity of missions and the competition between them as countersigns of the gospel of Christ, and a hindrance to evangelization. Since 1910 there have been eleven mission conferences drawing together mission agencies and representatives of the newer/younger/third world churches to discuss issues of relationships, theology, strategy, etc. These later conferences have been characterized by the participation of a progressively increasing proportion of representatives of the ever-growing churches of the south/third world, and by the participation of the Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church and its missionary orders. Another development to which I shall need to return has been a parallel decrease in the proportion of the Protestant and Pentecostal missions and churches that are participating in this dialogue on international mission. For a time the Evangelical churches and missions ran a series of mission conferences parallel to the ecumenical conferences. …

Christian Ethics, Culture Ethics, and the Younger Churches

Christian Ethics, Culture Ethics, and the Younger Churches

Appendix I: TOWARD A WORLD MISSION TRIBUNAL

International Review of MissionVolume 86, Issue 342 p. 289-300 Appendix I: TOWARD A WORLD MISSION TRIBUNAL Cobbie Palm, Cobbie Palm Cobbie Palm is a minister of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, with responsibility for the Ecumenical and International Relations Desk.Search for more papers by this author Cobbie Palm, Cobbie Palm Cobbie Palm is a minister of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines, with responsibility for the Ecumenical and International Relations Desk.Search for more papers by this author First published: 25 March 2009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1997.tb00036.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 onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume86, Issue342July 1997Pages 289-300 RelatedInformation

Anti-Judaism and Early Christian Identity: A Critique of the Scholarly Consensus

Against the scholarly consensus that assumes early Christians were involved in a rivalry for converts with contemporary Jews, this book shows that the target of patristic writers was rather a symbolic Judaism, and their aim was to define theologically the young church's identity. In identifying and categorizing the hypotheses put forward by modern scholars to defend their view of a Jewish-Christian conflict, this book demonstrates how current theories have generated faulty notions about the perceptions and motivations of ancient Christians and Jews. Beyond its relevance to students of the early church, this book addresses the broader question of Christian responsibility for modern anti-Semitism. It shows how the focus on a supposedly social rivalry, obscures the depth and disquieting nature of the connections between early anti-Judaism and Christian identity.

CHRIST'S MISSION AND HUMAN SOCIETIES

Culture has always had an important part to play in missionary activities, especially in the communication of the gospel. Missionary concern above all has been about how to overcome cultural obstacles in order to pass on the gospel of Jesus Christ. That concern has led missionary organizations to study the cultures of the peoples to be evangelized - especially the languages in which the gospel is to be preached. Here culture is seen as a barrier to be crossed, as a tool to be used in communication, as systems, structures and ways of life to be evangelized. This attitude towards culture changed somewhat at the beginning of this century when the churches that were a product of missionary activity began to reflect both on their ecclesial identity and on their missionary responsibilities. It was claimed that culture is a legitimate life context, fit to receive and live out the gospel. At the same time western Christianity, because it has been linked with the culture of the missionary bodies, is sometimes regarded in certain young churches as a restraining force on local life and on the spread of the gospel. Culture came to be viewed more positively still when it went beyond the role of instrument for communicating the gospel and means for expressing the faith for instance in liturgy - to become the essential locus for the theological reflection of above all the African, Asian and Pacific churches. These churches are now asking the churches of Europe and North America to analyze in their own theology the relation that has existed for centuries between culture and the gospel. Finally, in the context of this reflection, it is important to note the significant studies that have a bearing on the place of Semitic and Greek cultures in the biblical writings. The attitude towards culture has culminated in our own day, in question as to its place in creation and in God's providence. Is culture a purely human enterprise or is it created by God? The position that asks such a question is diametrically opposed to the demonizing of culture, for so long in the past - and even still at present - considered by some as a hindrance to evangelism, a region of darkness from which people have to be set free, or at best a more or less acceptable setting for life that the gospel must imperatively improve and reform. And created culture? We can frame this question differently as a positive statement: God is the source and fulfilment of culture. Culture cannot in fact be regarded as a direct creation of God's in the absolute sense of his causing a creature to exist ex nihilo and without human participation. But is the source of culture in the sense that it is he who creates the rudiments that make it what it is, gives it direction, makes it an object of mission entrusted to the human race and bestows on it the promise of his aid. Culture is the means by which a group of human beings organizes itself in relation to the space and time in which it lives. For Christian theology, creation in the Bible signifies the gift of a framework for life that offers the world. Above all, the biblical meaning of creation is an affirmation that has given to human beings all that is necessary for their life, their salvation and their mission. But while the order of creation in Genesis I points to the preparation of a context for human life, nevertheless it affirms that remains master of space and time, since this context is prior to the human race. Creation belongs to and human beings cannot arrogate to themselves the right to make of it what they will. Genesis 1:26-31 indicates the direction gives to human life and all human activities. The two passages, God said, Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness . . . . So created humankind in his image, in the image of he created them; male and female he created them, are determinative in this regard. Culture, through which all individuals express their identity and enter into relations with their fellow human beings and with nature, is closely linked with this direction has given to human nature. …

EVANGELIZATION AS DIALOGUE: A CARIBBEAN PERSPECTIVE

International Review of MissionVolume 83, Issue 330 p. 429-436 EVANGELIZATION AS DIALOGUE: A CARIBBEAN PERSPECTIVE William W. Watty, William W. Watty William W. Watty is president of the Conference of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas and a former president of the United Theological College of the West Indies.Search for more papers by this author William W. Watty, William W. Watty William W. Watty is president of the Conference of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas and a former president of the United Theological College of the West Indies.Search for more papers by this author First published: July 1994 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1758-6631.1994.tb03415.xCitations: 1 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 Citing Literature Volume83, Issue330July 1994Pages 429-436 RelatedInformation

NORTH‐SOUTH PARTNERSHIPS — THE EVANGELICAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN SOUTH AFRICA AND THE DÉPARTEMENT MISSIONNAIRE IN LAUSANNE

Phases north-south relations Discussion about how north are to relate to south (and vice versa) is far from finished. Formerly, discussion appeared form of debates about autonomous younger In this regard, names of Henry Venn and Rufus Anderson, both of whom were influential Protestant missions nineteenth century, are significant. The two men coined what later became known as i.e., self-support, self-government and self-propagation. The selves formula, proposed both as goals and tests of autonomy, initiated heated debates about north-south ecumenical relations. From 1971, debate shifted gears when a Kenyan by name of John Gatu proposed a moratorium on missionaries to Africa. Various solutions to older church-younger church problems have been proposed and experimented with. The Evangelical Presbyterian Church South Africa (EPCSA) -- Departement missionnaire (DM) relationship is one such experiment. North-south church relations may, for sake of simplification be divided into three distinguishable phases (Bosch & Saayman 1987:123). During first phase, all decisions relating to church life were taken country of sending church. The second phase is characterized by a situation where the missionary is no longer one who knows everything.... No longer is younger church merely an object.... Now older and younger churches(1) address each other first and second person terms (Bosch & Saayman 1987:124). Negotiations become prime mode of mutual interactions. The third phase is time in which younger take initiative whether older like it or (Bosch & Saayman 1987:124). In many African countries, third phase seems to be triggered off by political independence or advent of nationalism. According to Bosch and Saayman, this phase is most traumatic terms of heightened tensions between older and younger churches. I want to use this simplified scheme of phases suggested by Bosch and Saayman as a lens through which to review partnership relations of EPCSA and her partners over years. Although Bosch and Saayman attached time frames to phases, I shall not subscribe to these as they are not entirely compatible with EPCSA-DM relations. In South Africa this debate has national as well as international overtones. The north is both distant and local. Such a situation is due to gross internal imbalances created by apartheid over many years. Some South African engaged missionary activity both inside country and also some neighbouring states. As a result some black mission churches are fruit of internal churches' missionary work, while others derive from north-to-south missionary awakening that began during nineteenth century. The EPCSA belongs to latter group. Phases EPCSA's relations with The EPCSA's relations with Protestant are now a hundred and twenty odd years old.(2) This church was initially known as Swiss Mission South Africa, after its founding missionary society -- La Mission Suisse dans l'Afrique du Sud.(3) Later (in 1962) it became Tsonga Presbyterian Church, and 1982, it became known as Evangelical Presbyterian Church South Africa. These changes name are fairly indicative of changing relations between EPCSA and her partners north; they also illustrate changes EPCSA's self-understanding as it gradually took control of its own life. Phase one DM-EPCSA relations -- missionary control For EPCSA, this phase began 1875 with establishing of church, extending through period when church existed as Swiss Mission South Africa, that is, eighty-five odd years (1875-1962). …

Uitdagings vir die Ned Geref Kerk in Suidelike Afrika met Malawi en Zambië as illustrasiegebiede

Challenges for the Dutch Reformed Church in Southern Africa with Malawi and Zambia as illustration areas What will be the challenges for the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa if in the coming decades its isolation from Africa could be ended because of political developments in a post-apartheid era? The Dutch Reformed Church planted indigenous churches in many African Countries like Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique and Namibia. The role of the church in Africa will be determined by its relations with these younger churches. The challenges in the fields of evangelism, church ministry, the youth and in the socioeconomic and political areas are illustrated specifically in the cases of Malawi and Zambia.

Bhai-Tika and “Tij Braka”: A Case Study in the Contextualization of Two Nepali Festivals

Contextualization is a vital issue to the young church in Nepal. Rejection of all cultural forms associated with Hinduism may undercut positive values actually compatible with a Christian worldview, whereas uncritical acceptance may lead to syncretism. An examination of two Hindu festivals, and how some Nepali Christians are beginning to rethink their participation in the celebrations, reveals two forms of contextualization. During Tij Braka, a festival for women, alternate participation in a parallel event has emerged, utilizing compatible forms and giving corrective Bible teaching. At Bhai-Tika, a time of sister-brother worship, the example of one young man demonstrates contextualized participation in the actual event.

An Old Mission and a Young Church Lutheran Work in Kenya From Scandinavian and Kenyan Viewpoints1

An Old Mission and a Young Church Lutheran Work in Kenya From Scandinavian and Kenyan Viewpoints1

Designing Leadership Education

Many leadership crises troubling both established and younger churches arise from inappropriate educational programs. Several basic curricular questions focus our attention on both leadership development needs and the design of leadership development curricula. Leadership theory, theology, anthropology, communication theory, curriculum theory, and development theory combine to help build perspectives for cross-cultural leadership development. Both the educational structures and processes as well as the content combine to shape the outcomes of educational programs. Curricula, then, which contextually balance the advantages of formal, nonformal, and informal education promise to be significantly more effective in terms of the purpose for theological education than traditional approaches.

Being Catholic and Being American

The story of Catholicism in the United States can best be understood in light of the struggle to be both Catholic and American. This question of being both Catholic and American is currently raised with great urgency in these days because of recent tensions between the Vatican and the Catholic Church in the United States.History shows that Rome has always been suspicious and fearful that the American Catholic Church would become too American and in the process lose what is essential to its Roman Catholicism. Jay Dolan points out two historical periods in which attempts were made to incorporate more American approaches and understandings into the life of the church, but these attempts were ultimately unsuccessful.In the late eighteenth century, the young Catholic Church in the United States attempted to appropriate many American ideas into its life. Recall that at this time the Catholic Church was a very small minority church. Dolan refers to this movement as a Republican Catholicism and links this understanding with the leading figure in the early American church, John Carroll. Carroll, before he was elected by the clergy as the first bishop in the United States in 1789, had asked Rome to grant to the church in the United States that ecclesiastical liberty which the temper of the age and of the people requires.

Tribal Movements in America: A Contemporary Theological Horizon

It has often been argued, correctly I believe, that the mission field is the most creative laboratory for liturgical and catechetical development. The purpose of this article is to carry forward the growing awareness of the challenge emanating from the 'young churches' to the creativity of all the theological disciplines as practiced by the traditional churches. Christian scholars have, of course, long since entered into dialogues with other 'world religions' , and more recently with traditional 'primal' religions. However, with the thorough historical and phenomenological work of scholar-missionaries like Bengt Sundkler, David Barrett and Harold Turner, a new and critical sub-heading has been added to the dialogue. I refer to those movements now commonly called New Religious Movements in primal societies. In this phenomenon, the 'mainline' theologian finds himself or herself not only challenged by a tribal reality, but sees that' self' reflected back in the form of an exported Christianity now absorbed by and adapted to a particularized world view. This is no longer an exotic form of merely missiological interest, to be reserved as an academic curio. The mere existence of over five thousand 'independent churches' in Africa, the new syncretisms of tribal religion and Christianity prominent in five continents make the topic a priority for systematic and pastoral theologians both in the university and in the field. One would not presume, in this short space, to pursue the idea that the phenomenon extends into our own modem EuroAmerican religious scene in many forms!

The ‘Weakness of Conscience’ in the Reformed Movement in the Netherlands: The Attitude of the Dutch Reformation to the use of Violence Between 1562 and 1574

The most important cause of the French civil war, starting in 1562, was religion. Of course, there were other motives too, especially the resistance of nobles to the centralization of power in Paris, but it was the struggle for freedom of religion which gave this war such a destructive character. The young Calvinist churches provided their warriors with all the mental and spiritual support they needed. In their opinion it was a struggle for the sake of God; it was a just war. Asmagistratus inferioresthe nobles had the right, even the duty, to control and eventually to oppose the higher authority of the king. With arguments borrowed from the old testament and natural law they even defended the right of violent resistance to the government. Theological support came also from Geneva, especially from Theodore Beza. Without the Calvinist reformation there would not have been such a violent civil war, such a revolt, at that moment in the history of France.

Stewardship in Younger Churches: Observations and Caveats from an African Perspective

In a world of growing scarcity and need, the issue of Christian stewardship increasingly surfaces as a global missiological concern. We would like to see this subject debated in the pages of our journal. Therefore, we are happy to present this review of some of the inherent problems, though admittedly from a Western perspective. We earnestly hope that our Asian, African and Latin American missiologists will share with us their insights as they view the broader stewardship questions in their own contexts.

"Some Reflections on the Development of Younger Churches"

"Some Reflections on the Development of Younger Churches"

The Limits of Indigenization in Theology

How should the younger churches “do” theology? While Professor Taber maintains that they, not we, must answer this question, he sets forth some areas in which we have both over-indigenized and under-indigenized our theology in the West; then he expresses hope that the churches of the East and the South can not only avoid these pit-falls, but teach us in the process. He hopes, for example, that their efforts will be truly pastoral, preferring to speak to real needs within the community as they arise, rather than dealing technically or systematically with western time-encrusted categories. While concerned that the Gospel be conceptually understandable within each culture, he is equally concerned that the Gospel speak to each culture — including our own. He concludes with a delineation of 7 suggested “criteria” which he sees as universally normative for Christian theology.

The Documentation of Mission in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

We may be drowning in paper. And recycling the flood may save a lot of trees. But first let's selectively cull out for preservation the documents on which future analyses can be based. So pleads the author in this paper she presented to the Association of the Professors of Mission at Dubuque, Iowa, last June. Our neglect of both yesterday's and today's documentation arises in large part from practical/financial factors. But in the end, solutions depend on how much we care — not only about our own history, but also the research which emerging scholars of the younger churches are already undertaking.