“Seeking the Absentee”: A European Perspective on Evangelism in the Wake of a Feral God

Abstract Europe's religious “demise” is well reported and often lamented in missionary circles. This article aims to offer a contrary perspective using the common approach of evangelism: “double listening”. The task is to listen to our culture and our text in conversation and to discover what the text is saying afresh to our needs and values. It is, however, largely expected that this double listening will yield itself to the means by which Christ can change and counter culture. But what if our double listening reveals the deafness of evangelism to the voice of Christ in our culture? This paper aims to explore the widespread religious experience in Europe of God's absence, and how it prompts us to re‐examine the stories of Jesus and the rhetoric we use to describe Europe's religious life. It contends that much evangelism in Europe is too inhospitable or unsophisticated to see this absence as anything other than something we should rush to fill with the latest model of our reliable 24/7 god. However, it might be leading us to acknowledge something about the life of faith that Jesus seems to offer in much of his teaching. Europe's resistance to organized religion is painful to experience, but it might be inviting us into a fresh conversion to what God is doing beyond our walls. If so, evangelism will have to learn a fresh humility as well as to provide the fresh energy to discover and partner God there.     

Learning about Spirituality Together with “Seekers”

The present era, often referred to as post‐secular, has in many places seen a resurgence in spirituality. Nevertheless, the contemporary quest for spirituality is unique in the sense that many people do not expect to have their spiritual needs fulfilled within the structures of organized religion, starting on a journey of their own explorations instead. Sociologists of religion, therefore, tend to employ the “dwellers” and “seekers” paradigm to account for this phenomenon. This paper will explore this phenomenon in the context of the Czech Republic, whose citizens are frequently characterized as distrustful toward institutional religiosity, through the lens of the recent World Council of Churches' affirmation on mission and evangelism, Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes (TTL). For our purpose, the statement's emphasis on both “transformative spirituality” and “mission from the margins” will be of central importance. Using the notion of transformative spirituality as the energy engendered by the Spirit for the transformation of life and creation, it will be suggested that “seekers” can be agents in God's mission of liberation, reconciliation, and transformation, despite their inability or unwillingness to identify themselves with the church as institution. Keeping in mind ethical considerations, the paper will not seek to make a case for a forced “christening” of the seekers. Rather, it will argue that they can become partners in missio Dei, thus giving the notion of “mission from the margins” a new, contextually relevant dimension.     

Experience from the Mission to Cuba: Related to Together towards Life

The mission that God has given is one of proclamation, liturgy, deaconry, education, and stewardship. This is why it is necessary to develop new models for mission based on national work, where we review our biblical and theological discourse, our ecclesiology, the structures that limit our missionary activity, the models of theological education, our traditions and creation of liturgy, and our conceptual models and practice in ministry. Considering this, the World Council of Churches' document Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes offers interesting guidelines for teaching and practicing mission, which the author analyzes in the ecumenical Cuban context, and in particular in that of the Evangelical Theological Seminary of Matanzas, Cuba.     

Making Disciples: Pope Francis’ Paradigm for Mission

This article examines Chapter Three of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, specifically his explanation of the meaning of the mission of God to proclaim the gospel throughout the world of which the church is custodian. Chapter Three addresses the issue of evangelizing in the context of the contemporary world. In a subtle but clear way, it paints a contrast between previous approaches to evangelization with their shortcomings and the call for fresh ones, or a “new evangelization.” In the physical centre of the document, Chapter Three of Evangelii Gaudium ties together the discussion on the contemporary challenges facing mission in the first two chapters, and the practical needs of the undertaking in the last two. It emphasizes the necessity of comprehensive “inculturation” with reference to everything pertaining to evangelization. Finally, it offers guidelines about preaching an effective homily, an important dimension of ongoing catechesis and church transformation.     

Missiological Framework in Africa

This article has three parts. First, it deals with the understanding of mission in the context of Namibia. Second, it offers a profile of African spirituality and its politico‐socio‐economic implications, or with the missionary orthopraxis, in light of the African parable of the awakening giant. And third, it focuses on the African missional church and its missionary praxis. The paper argues that the triune God creates the church and sustains it through the gifts of word and sacrament by the power of the Spirit. Such a missional church understands its participation in God's mission (missio Dei) as contextual by addressing faithfully the challenges in a comprehensive and holistic way.     

TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF BOUNDARY

Awareness of boundary, both physical and mental, is seen as the beginning of perception. In any account of the world, therefore, boundary must be a ubiquitous component. In sharp contrast, accounts of God within the Christian tradition commonly have proceeded by the affirmation that God is above and beyond boundary as infinite, timeless, and simple. To overcome this “problem of transcendence,” of how such a God can relate to such a world, an eight‐term grammar of boundary is developed to demonstrate how God as Trinity can properly be held to be without boundary yet constitute the ground of a bounded world. This leads to a way of granting theological significance to the origin and development of life. Life is seen to exist in dynamic, intentional relationships between context (“outside”) and intext (“inside”) across permeable boundaries through which an exchange of resources and information takes place for the sake of self‐continuation. Comprehending life's distinctive utilization of boundary in terms of the grammar developed here enables life to be seen not only as a vestige of the Trinity but also, precisely because of this, as a sign and parable of redemption.     

A Life with Roots: Narrative Pastoral Care and Communities of Identity in the Parable of the “Good Soil”

This article interprets the parable traditionally known as the parable of the sower by arguing that it is actually a parable focusing on good soil. It analyzes the parable??s placement next to Gospel narratives in which Jesus redefines his kin network and maintains that the good soil metaphor suggests ideal conditions of growth in which persons surround themselves with consciously chosen communities of support that help them to live out God??s purposes in their lives. Using Michael White??s re-membering conversations, I indicate how pastoral caregivers and psychotherapists can help persons use their previous mentorship relationships as a source of support and motivation. Finally, I argue, using Donald Capps??s psychological reconstructions based on historical Jesus scholarship, that Jesus?? emphasis on his new relationships in the Kingdom of God is best understood in relationship to his struggles with father absence.     

“The Dearest Freshness Deep Down Things”: Environmental Justice and Mission in Ecumenical Perspective

The ecumenical movement has produced many documents on issues of the environment and justice, but many churches do not know how to translate these documents into concrete actions. In this study I argue that social issues such as poverty and injustice cannot be separated from human responses toward the whole of creation. The ecumenical churches need to revitalize their mission and, as such, the churches need to revision their doctrines that centre on the human being by instead placing creation at the centre. Thus, nature is not just a background to the drama of redemption from sin, but that which God loves and preserves. This article elaborates this thesis in three main parts: the integrality of the problem of injustice and human responses toward all of creation, how churches should revision some major doctrines to be more sensitive to the environment, and how churches translate these documents into actions in their own contexts.     

While We Wait: The Foolishness of Scarcity,the “Devalued Other,” and Pedagogies of “Becoming”

This article considers how Christian women leaders might, in the absence of global economic equality for women, reframe theological dialogue that affirms the work and worth of the “devalued other” – 21st‐century women living in economic insecurity – and to declare that Jesus' eschatological hope is in the feminization of abundance. The article engages the parable of the wise and foolish virgins as a messianic requirement to deconstruct the barriers that keep the devalued other from seeing her full potential and to challenge the foolishness of scarcity that has taken hold of the daughters of privilege. It seeks to engage an African feminist hermeneutic as the primary methodology and to craft an emerging pedagogy of “becoming” that speaks to the cosmic shift to strengthen the agency of women as we await the coming Parousia.     

Evangelism from the Margins: Experiences of the Ironic in Evangelism in Cardiff,UK

This article arises from a presentation to the CWM/WCC Consultation, Explorations in Evangelism which took place in Sydney from 5 to 13 September 2015. There I shared the street art evangelism of my own congregation. However, in this article I want to explore how this street art evangelism is pointing us to the need for an appreciation of the ironic nature of evangelism, and consider evangelism from the margins. I explore this here as an aspect of the liberation missiology of the WCC's new ecumenical affirmation of mission: Together towards Life. But also show how it describes the historical roots of evangelism in the early church and captures the possibilities of evangelism now in a post‐Christian context like the UK. The article explores ideas and artwork as they invite an ironic appreciation of the countercultural nature of Christ's call to life, a call that questions the empires of Caesar and the church.     

A Eucharistic Understanding of “Fresh Expressions”

Fresh expressions of church are a growing and important example of emerging missional churches. They can be viewed theologically through the lens of eucharistic ecclesiology. This is because they mirror the theological logic of the eucharist – its nature as a gift, the dispersal of this gift, the appropriate sharing of the gift (appropriate to the context and the tradition), the eucharistic action of handing over the gift, the incorporation of worshippers into the whole church by means of the gift, the dying‐and‐rising transformation the gift makes possible, and the return gift to God in thanksgiving. The birth of these new Christian communities gives discipleship a eucharistic shape. The implication is that just as the eucharist is central to the church's life, so should be these new communities.     

Personal Value and the “Song of the Sea”

The author draws a contrast between certain pagan hymns of victory and the biblical hymn of victory recorded in Exodus 15: 1b–18. The author notes that in the Exodus hymn, Yahweh, God of Israel, fulfills the role that is assigned by the pagan hymns to a terrestrial king. This shift in emphasis from the human to the divine carries with it a new view of the human creature, which asserts that human beings beholden to this God owe no absolute obedience to any ruler or any state. The biblical hymn, then, praises not simply God but the absolute dignity of all human beings.     

“Blessed Are You Who Are Poor”: The Poor in Together towards Life,The Cape Town Commitment,and Evangelii Gaudium

The present article explores the issue of the poor in three recent major documents on mission and evangelism/evangelization – Together towards Life (TTL), The Cape Town Commitment (CCT), and Evangelii Gaudium (EG) – arguing that they have several commonalities, as well as differences, with regard to mission and the poor. In convergence, they acknowledge a central place of the poor in Christian mission; address personal and structural aspects of poverty; and perceive the poor in close relation to other disadvantaged groups. But they diverge in emphases: TTL focuses on the role of the Spirit of God in empowering the poor/marginalized, acknowledges the agency of the poor/marginalized, and sees them in close relation to the earth/creation in their cry for justice; CTC introduces the issue of poverty in the framework of the spiritual warfare discourse, addresses the challenging topic of the prosperity gospel, and reasons biblically for the cause of the poor; and EG critiques contemporary socio‐economic realities, emphasizes that the church as a whole must champion the poor, and warns against peace efforts becoming a pretext for neglecting the poor. This article argues that a “synoptic” reading of the three documents on the topic allows us to benefit from the rich ecclesial and theological traditions behind the texts, and can engender more appropriate responses for both missiology and mission on this important issue.     

Dialectical Theology as Theology of Mission: Investigating the Origins of Karl Barth's Break with Liberalism

Based on a thorough investigation of Karl Barth's early writings, this article proposes a new interpretation of dialectical theology as fundamentally concerned with the issue of mission. Documents from 1914 and 1915 show that the turning point in Barth's thinking about mission – and about Christian theology in general – occurred, at least in part, in response to a largely forgotten manifesto published in September 1914. This manifesto appealed to Protestants around the world to support Germany's cause in the war on the grounds that they would be supporting the work of the Great Commission. Barth's reaction to this document sheds light on the missionary nature of dialectical theology, which pursues an understanding of God and God‐talk that does not conflate the mission of the church with the diffusion of culture.     

The Church as Mission in Its Very Life

Is 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 1 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     

Lesslie Newbigin and Edinburgh’s Common Call

In a world where pluralism is the norm, interfaith encounter and dialogue are essential parts of the Christian experience. Lesslie Newbigin reflected extensively on a theological understanding of the Christian encounter with those of other faiths, emphasizing the importance of both a humble orientation toward God and others and a firm commitment to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. This juxtaposition of humble witness and firm faith in interfaith encounter is also reflected in the Edinburgh 2010 mission conference’s Common Call. This article will explore Newbigin’s reflections on interfaith dialogue and consider their implications for the future of the ecumenical movement.     

Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscapes

The Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) has, since the WCC Porto Alegre Assembly in 2006, been working toward and contributing to the construction of a new ecumenical mission affirmation. The new statement will be presented to the WCC 10th assembly at Busan, Republic of Korea, in 2013. Since the integration of the International Missionary Council (IMC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) in New Delhi in 1961, there has been only one official WCC position statement on mission and evangelism which was approved by the central committee in 1982, Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation. This new mission affirmation was unanimously approved by the WCC central committee on 5 September 2012 at its meeting on the island of Crete, Greece. It is the aim of this new ecumenical discernment to seek vision, concepts and directions for a renewed understanding and practice of mission and evangelism in changing landscapes. It seeks a broad appeal, even wider than WCC member churches and affiliated mission bodies, so that we can commit ourselves together to fullness of life for all, led by the God of Life!     

‘A Garland in Place of Ashes’:1Transformative Spirituality and Mission in the Post‐Modern and Secular Contexts

In this paper I aim to explore not what is the so‐called ‘post‐modern and secular context’ but how the church responds to it, which is predominantly to blame it for ‘decline’. Yet it may not be decline, it may be something else altogether. I am reflecting on a western/UK context, but within this are theological assumptions that characterize the wider church. So, having made some remarks on how to approach decline I will then explore some transformations of spirituality and mission that are responses to the post‐modern and secular context. Underlying this is an attitude to ‘spirituality’ which is not about how we worship or our experience of the ‘ethereal’ but is about our ‘capacity for life’. But, I want to maintain that nothing new or transformative can emerge until the church stops resenting and despairing of the context and change we are experiencing. Further, I am not convinced the church in the UK or the West is able to adapt to the strangeness of this new context and will seek always to bring it back under church control. But, I will then offer a post‐modern image for transformative spirituality and mission that could leave its mark on the church.     

“Behold,I Make All Things New”

The theme of the 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala in 1968 was “Behold, I make all things new.” God's great promise in Revelation precisely reflected the fears and hopes of the turbulent 1960s. This promise is realized in the experience of faith, and in this certainty, Christianity goes out to meet the great future of God in the world. The connection between this promised future and the advent of the new creation experienced by Christians was captured in Uppsala by the concept of “anticipation.” This article traces the impetus of the impulse of the Uppsala assembly through the World Student Conference in Finland in 1968 and the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism in Bangkok in 1973–73.     

Together toward Life

The Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (CWME) has since 2006, after the WCC Porto Alegre Assembly, been working and contributing toward the construction of the new ecumenical mission affirmation. The new statement will be presented to the WCC 10th Assembly at Busan, Korea, in 2013. Since the integration of the International Missionary Council (IMC) and the World Council of Churches (WCC) in New Delhi, 1961, there has been only one official WCC position statement on mission and evangelism, which was approved by the central committee in 1982, “Mission and Evangelism: An Ecumenical Affirmation.” It is the aim of this ecumenical discernment to seek vision, concepts and directions for a renewed understanding and practise of mission and evangelism in changing landscapes. It seeks a broad appeal, even wider than WCC member churches and affiliated mission bodies, so that we can commit ourselves together to fullness of life for all, led by the God of Life!