Churches in Ecumenical Transition

This is a brief introduction to the contribution of the Ecumencial Network for Multicultural Ministry (ENFORMM) to the new WCC affirmation on mission and evangelism, which was specifically commissioned by CWME in 2009 and will be fed into the new WCC affirmation on mission evangelism. Recognizing the critical significance of the emerging multicultural and migrant churches to mission and ministry in the twenty‐first century, CWME is keen that the new mission statement adequately reflects that important development. Clearly, the ministry and ecclesiology of migrant/multicultural churches are integral to the future mission and existence of the Christian church. “Cultural diversity as a fact of human existence”: This text assumes that cultural diversity is a fact of human societies, and migration is a fact of human existence. Throughout human history, societies have always enjoyed varied degrees of cultural pluralism largely because migration is a natural human predisposition. Migration is by no means limited to movements from South to North. People movements from South to South and North to South have equal importance and impact. With increased migration come increased cross‐cultural encounters and their attendant complexities. The paper highlights the unfortunate but pervasive and widespread misconception that migrants as such constitute the root cause of social tension and problems. The paper argues that “people movement around the globe (migration) not only calls for reframing the rhetoric on migration, it also calls for reframing the debate on mission.” “Cultural diversity as a fact of Christian communal life – migration‐shaped early church”:

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Towards and Beyond Edinburgh 2010: A Historical Survey of Ecumenical Missiological Developments since 1910

This article provides a brief history of mission theology of the global church since Edinburgh 1910, highlighting the seismological shifts and major developments in missiological thinking and praxis over the years and through various world mission conferences, specifically from the perspective of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME). It argues that, as we prepare ourselves to celebrate the centenary mission conference in Edinburgh in June 2010, mission theology has moved from its early stage of colonial, Eurocentric expressions to post‐colonial and polyphonic articulations of missiology. For the CWME, though, the missiological journey continues even beyond 2010. This article argues that, amongst many important missiological themes that CWME needs to address within the overarching theme of “Ecumenism in Mission”, the themes CWME has identified as its major focus for the coming years – viz. ecclesiology and mission, mission as healing, and mission as contestation – are of crucial pertinence. In the changing global Christian landscape where the centre of gravity of Christianity has moved to the global South, and in a context where new forms of being ecclesial communities are tried out, “The Nature and Mission of the Church” needs to take a “from below” approach, going beyond the traditional frameworks of mainline churches. Mission as healing would provide a comprehensive and more integral perspective to the salvific purpose of God for this world, especially as “healing” is a common strand within many religious, ecclesial and spiritual traditions, offering a dialogical perspective. Mission as contestation is equally significant in today's world where the gospel imperative of confronting satanic forces that express themselves in the form of globalization, neo‐imperialism, patriarchy, racism, casteism and eco‐violence is of cardinal importance.     

A Reflection on the Growth and Decline of the Korean Protestant Church

This article examines the reasons for the growth and decline of the Korean Protestant Church during the following five periods:

• In the early period of settlement (1884–1909), growth originated from the emancipation motif, modern values, the Christian's moral life, the Revival experience, Bible study, and the prayer culture. The Korean church did not polarize evangelism and social action.
• During Japanese domination (1910–1945), growth came from the respect of the people toward the church. The church served the nation, consoled and healed the minds of the people, and gave brave witness of their faith in God. However, political persecution, economic devastation, socialist influences, and finally the coercion of the Shinto shrine worship to the church blocked church growth.
• During the recovery time (1945–1960), the social anomie after the nation's liberation and the Korean War ironically became a seedbed for church growth. However, the church improperly made her image pro‐government and pro‐America.
• During the time of industrialization and urbanization (1960–1995), Korean Protestantism achieved great growth and the highest percentage. Most of the Korean Protestant churches in cities, taking advantage of the mass rural–city migration, were actively involved in evangelism and church planting. University mission organizations and military missions were most active. Yet, they did not do well in terms of holistic evangelism. On the other hand, the National Council of Churches in Korea (NCCK), the Urban Rural Mission (URM,) the minjung churches and others carried out social mission work.
• After the time of urbanization (1995–2005), church membership began to decrease. The Protestant church‐planting policy in city areas became inappropriate. In addition, the church's political conservatism fell out of favour with the young generation.

     

The World Council of Churches and Pentecostals

This article recalls the history of the relationships between the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Pentecostal churches from the early years of the WCC until today. One of the greatest challenges currently facing the WCC is the shift in focus of Christianity to the South and the East, a phenomenon to which emerging Pentecostal and charismatic churches and communities are contributing. Alongside global cultural trends in the context of globalization, Pentecostal and charismatic piety and spirituality are increasingly affecting the older churches as well. While some see this negatively, many see it as an expression of adaptation to new challenges necessary for the survival of these churches. The article shows how the changing ecclesial context led to the WCC to explore new avenues for building relationships such as a Joint Consultative Group and the Global Christian Forum.     

Emerging Migrant Churches in the Netherlands: Missiological challenges and mission frontiers

Abstract Emerging migrant churches in the Netherlands are a visible sign of a changed society. These changes demand rethinking of missiological challenges and “mission frontiers”. In this process sentiments of the Dutch population towards immigrants need to be addressed. Since the murders of right‐wing politician Pim Fortuyn and film producer Theo van Gogh, existing tensions in society and feelings of fear can neither be neglected nor downplayed. Referring to three examples of newly emerged multicultural churches, the author comments on how these communities shape their church and mission. He argues that migrant churches are missional by definition in their focus on internal, external or common mission. In discussing the response to migrant's theologies, he argues that true dialogue is often precluded by reductionist tendencies. More opportunities for theological training of the leadership of migrant churches, on their own terms, are mentioned as an important challenge. Defining one's own Christian identity anew in the changed context is seen as vital for true dialogue and connectedness.     

Chinese Churches and the Ecumenical Movement from an Asian Perspective

The involvement of Chinese churches and Chinese Christians with the ecumenical movement preceded the establishment of the World Council of Churches in 1948. Recurring themes in the encounter have been de‐colonization and indigenization, church unity and post‐denominationalism, and Asian regional ecumenism. There was also a determination among Chinese church leaders to reconfigure mission and relations between churches in the West and those in Asia. These concerns have their origins in the chequered history of Christian missions and their association with imperialism in the last century.     

Martin Bucer and Church Renewal in Europe

Abstract

Owing to his many personal contacts and tireless activity as a letter writer, Bucer presided over an extensive network of correspondents and ideas in Europe. However, Bucer differs from other great Reformation figures in so far as he considered his connections with the churches in Europe to be a theological mission. Each of these churches was expected to live in community with the others and to inform them of successes, failures and difficulties, thereby sharing or receiving inspiration for the work of Church renewal. At the centre of Bucer's efforts stands the proclamation of the lordship of Christ. The discursive nature of this theology enabled Bucer to tolerate great religious diversity. This flexibility ended where a church—such as the Roman church—or the political power—such as Emperor Charles V after the collapse of the Schmalkaldic League—dictated a single form of Christian belief. In this instance Bucer, in the name of the lordship of Christ, issued a summons to spiritual and religious resistance.     

Toward a Eucharistic Missiology

The Orthodox churches were drawn into contemporary missiological discussions primarily through the modern ecumenical movement. Since there are fundamental differences of approach between the East and the West on this matter, particularly because the Western concept and method of mission is perceived to be still carrying, rather imperceptibly, the old imperial‐colonial baggage, the Orthodox are always ill at ease in these discussions dominated by the Western Protestant churches. The Orthodox theologians have, however, made huge efforts within the framework of the World Council of Churches to enunciate their vision of the missionary nature of the church from patristic and liturgical perspectives. This article pleads for a shifting of paradigm from an anthropocentric and possessive mode of mission to non‐possessive hospitality, eucharistic (thanksgiving) intercessory care for creation, and self‐giving inner pilgrimage to the source of light that enlightens all. Mission as gift and not simply as task would be essential for the shaping of a new human civilization. What is needed is a change of human civilizational paradigm and not simply some aspects of the conventional Christian mission models. In Asia, we had the Buddhist mission before Christ and the East Syrian Christian mission in the first millennium, which gave us some alternate models of doing peaceful and non‐acquisitive mission.     

A Mission of Unity and a Unity of Mission: A Look at the Work of the Church Unity Commission

This article examines the notion and meaning of mission in United and Uniting churches; asks whether union fosters mission and, more specifically, whether United churches practise mission reflecting a commitment to unity; and finally considers some of the challenges facing the Church Unity Commission (CUC) in moving forward. It makes the claim that the CUC is not succeeding in using its strengths because it is failing to be a united witness in the world, and suggests that church unity should begin at the local level if it is to be more effective. Hence international, national, and regional structures and organizations should mobilize, empower, and enable local church communities for more effective mission and church unity. In order to succeed in the latter area, the mission should be not church, but Christ. The paper concludes that the CUC's task is to collectively and correctly read the signs of the times and faithfully proclaim, in word and deed, that God reigns supreme over our world.     

Heaven and Health: How Black,Latino, and Korean Christians View the Relationship Between Faith and Health

Religious congregations have increasingly been viewed as potential access points to health care in underserved communities. Such a perspective stems from a robust literature identifying the unique civic role that churches potentially play in African American and Latino communities. Yet, research on congregational health promotion has often not considered how congregants view the connections between religious faith, physical health, and the church community. In order to further interrogate how congregants view the church’s role in health promotion, we compare views on the relationship between faith and health for two groups that are overrepresented in American Christianity and underrepresented in medical careers (African Americans and Latinos) with a group that is similarly religious but comparatively well-represented in medical professions (Korean Americans). Drawing on data from focus groups with 19 pastors representing 18 different congregations and 28 interviews with church members, we find that churches across all three groups promote initiatives to care for the physical health of their members. Nonetheless, notable differences exist in how each group frames the interface between religious faith and physical health. African Americans and Latinos highlighted the role of faith in providing physical healing while Korean Americans saw the support of the religious community as the main benefit of their faith. Distrust of medicine was primarily articulated by members of African American churches. The results offer important implications for the future potential and nature of health initiatives in racial minority communities.     

Testing the Promise of the Churches: Income Inequality in the Opportunity to Learn Civic Skills in Christian Congregations

Political researchers point to church activities as a major avenue for lower–class individuals to learn the civic skills necessary for many forms of political participation, the skills that higher–status individuals learn through education and occupation. This article tests this theory through multilevel analyses of the effects of both individual income and average congregational income on three measures of participation in church activities and organizations that offer participants the opportunity to learn and exercise civic skills. The results show that churches are only slightly stratified when it comes to members' participation in charity, public policy, or social justice organizations within the church, suggesting that they offer some promise to teach civic skills to the lower–income members. Nevertheless, churches are moderately stratified in terms of members' participation in administration, finance, or buildings organizations within the church, and strongly stratified in organizations in general within the church, suggesting that higher–income members receive the majority of civic–skill practice and training in Christian congregations in the United States.     

Urban American Indian Youth Spirituality and Religion: A Latent Class Analysis

This article explores the interconnected spiritual, religious, and cultural worlds of the majority of American Indian (AI) youth who live in urban areas: their patterns of involvement in religion and Native spirituality and associated well‐being. Latent class analysis of data from 205 AI middle school students identified five distinctive classes using survey measures of religious affiliation, attendance at services, adherence to Christian and traditional spiritual beliefs, Native spirituality, and Native cultural practices. Two classes were Christian groups: one attending Christian churches and following Christian beliefs but uninvolved with Native beliefs, spirituality, or cultural practices; and a nominal Christian group affiliated with but not attending church and unattached to belief systems. Two groups followed Native beliefs and spiritual practices, one affiliated with the Native American Church and another unaffiliated with any church. The fifth, nonreligious group, had no religious affiliation, followed neither Christian nor traditional beliefs, and was uninvolved in Native spirituality and cultural practices. The two groups embracing AI spirituality reported better academic performance, more reservation contact, higher AI enculturation, and stronger bicultural orientations.     

Healing Together

As part of the World Council of Churches’ pilgrimage of justice and peace, the Just Community of Wo/Men organized the “Walking Her-Story” activity as a gender response. These have remained pilgrim team visits that focus on listening to the stories of wo/men young and old and particularly addressing gender injustice specifically as expressed in sexual and gender-based violence. This article focuses on the process triggered by such stories in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and South Sudan that became the midwife that gave birth to Healing Together – an ecumenical resource for faith- and community-based counselling of those psychosocially wounded by injustice and violence. Rooted in the understanding of mission as healing and wholeness, the stories listened to became a cry for healing and wholeness. The process and product benefited from the richness of my being an ethicist of care nurtured by my ubuntu (communitarian) ethical background, trained in Healing of Memories’ facilitation and as a student of Franklian logotherapy. I worked with survivors of injustice and violence, post-traumatic stress disorder healing facilitators, and church leaders through the council of churches in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan.     

Social relationships in the local church. A comparison of networks in the rural and urban church

Social network theory is a useful tool in charting the relationships which exist between the members of any social group. Any local church consists of people gathered together, and centred round a special interest which is the worship of God and the expression of the Christian faith. The social interaction which occurs within the church community has this special focus, but it creates social relationships which are open to analysis by social network theory. To examine the effectiveness of the theory’s application two contrasting local churches were chosen as case histories to demonstrate ways in which network analysis could illuminate relationships within their constituencies. One local church was in a suburban situation and the other in a rural location. The aim of the study is threefold: to indicate how social network theory can provide a contrast in the churches’ structures as human groups; to indicate the quality and the outcomes of social relationships; and to explore how the application of the theory to other local churches can be useful for mission and outreach in their own neighbourhood communities.     

“Theology of Presence” in African Christianity: A Transforming Missiological Factor for Women in Contemporary Pentecostal Churches in Africa

Following the independence of many African countries, Christianity has been gaining freedom through indigenizing the church. Christian churches in Africa are self‐indigenizing, self‐innovating, and self‐criticizing their practices and theologies. However, women in African churches remain in an uncomfortable zone. African, biblical, and missionary cultures have been named as sources of discrimination of women in the church. This paper deploys a “theology of presence” to claim that contemporary Pentecostal Christianity (CPC) in Africa, with some continuity in African worldview and biblical cultures, has touched upon and answered women's complex and challenging questions that for a long time have been denied by Christian missionaries. The paper shows how theology of presence, in the “witnessing” and “healing” practised by CPC, has been transforming the missiological factor for women. The paper suggests learning from other models for transformation than policies and gender mainstreaming tools, since these have had little impact. The paper recommends research on hermeneutical reading of the Bible and providing more innovative skills to help women break the silence of being violated.     

“It’s only ‘madness’ that I know”: analysis of how mental illness is conceptualised by congregants of selected Charismatic churches in Ghana

In Ghana, many individuals employ traditional and faith healing for treating illnesses. Although attitudes and knowledge of laypeople on mental illness have been explored, little is known about Christians’ knowledge and how the church influences such knowledge. The present study explored knowledge on definition, types and symptoms of mental illness, church teachings on mental illness and the influence of such teachings on the mental well-being of 86 congregants of six Charismatic churches in Ghana. Through in-depth interviews, focus group discussions and observations, we found that knowledge surrounded psychotic disorders with a few citing other DSM/ICD categories. Regarding church teachings, some churches provided education and spiritual healing, and others emphasised non-existence of, and immunity from, mental illness. Findings showed the “double-edged” role of religion in enhancing and hindering congregants’ mental well-being. The paper concludes with an argument for psycho-education on mental illness and collaboration between churches and mental health practitioners.     

A Black Theological Response to Race-Based Medicine: Reconciliation in Minority Communities

The harm race-based medicine inflicts on minority bodies through race-based experimentation and the false solutions a race-based drug ensues within minority communities provokes concern. Such areas analyze the minority patient in a physical proxy. Though the mind and body are important entities, we cannot forget about the spirit. Healing is not just a physical practice; it includes spiritual practice. Efficient medicine includes the holistic elements of the mind, body, and spirit. Therefore, the spiritual discipline of black theology can be used as a tool to mend the harms of race-based medicine. It can be an avenue of research to further particular concerns for justice in medical care . Such theology contributes to the discussion of race-based medicine indicating the need for the voice, participation, and interdependence of minorities. Black theology can be used as a tool of healing and empowerment for health equity and awareness by exploring black theology’s response to race-based medicine, analyzing race in biblical literature, using biblical literature as a tool for minority patient empowerment, building on past and current black church health advocacy with personal leadership in health advocacy.

     

Community and Christianity in the Black Church

The authors explore the experience of Christian religion for many African Americans. In response to racial discrimination and prejudice within churches, African Americans developed a Christian tradition with distinct meanings, beliefs and practices. This tradition provides a foundation for social activism within the church, community and American society, as well as community among church members. The recent Black church burnings are discussed with respect to the more traditional Christian African American view of religion. Implications for incorporating the religious traditions of Christian African Americans into counseling practice are explored. (The authors use the term Black church or African American church as a surrogate for Christian African American church throughout the article. The terms Black and African American will also be used interchangeably).     

Postcolonial philosophy of religion

The issue of leadership is one that spans many organisations. While management literature has examined this topic in depth, little comment has been made regarding the legitimacy of traditional business leadership theories, developed primarily in the United States, for use in a values-based organisation such as the organised church. The unique spiritual nature of Christian organisations is in some ways at odds with the assumptions of traditional leadership models. That said, many churches in the United States and churches outside the United States, but influenced by US institutional structures, are desperately seeking improvement in both pastoral and organisational effectiveness. This research examines traditional treatment of leadership and identifies implications of traditional and more recent theories of leadership for pastoral leaders and Christian laypeople.     

The World Council of Churches and churches in China: partnerships and diaconia

ABSTRACT

Between 1956 and 1991, Chinese church leaders, and Protestant churches active from the formation of the World Council of Churches, experienced a dramatic break in their relations with the international ecumenical movement. This paper will focus on the ecumenical relations between the WCC and the churches in China after 1978, when reforms and the opening up of the country under Deng Xiaoping provided new opportunities for the renewal of ties. The China Christian Council resumed its official ties with WCC in 1991 but between 1978 and 1991, new expressions and new modes of ecumenical relations had already emerged. Central to these ties were the upholding of the Three-Self Principles and the practice of the ‘ecumenical sharing of resources’ influenced by the outcome of the WCC’s El Escorial meeting (1987). These ‘post-colonial’ partnerships contributed substantially to making Christianity better appreciated in China and were important channels for the practice of ecumenism in a rapidly transforming China.