Missional Community?

Community as the Goal (and Therefore Means) of Mission

"Mission is God acting through the church-community." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer


(1) The starting point for any faithful understanding of the nature and mission of the church is an understanding of the nature and mission of the God who has created the church and sent it into the world. This "theocentric" focus on missions, often referred to as Missio Dei (the Mission, or Sending, of God), has risen in influence over the last fifty years.


(2) It has relocated the emphasis on the origins of mission from being one of many tasks given to the church to being the singular motivation that drives every action of God in the world. The reason that the church is to be a missional people is that its God is a missional God, the three Persons of the Trinity sending and being sent into the world to announce and enact God's Reign of shalom and agape.


(3) Therefore, if we are to understand what it means for the church of Jesus Christ to be sent into the world, we must know what it says about the character of the Triune God that the Head of that church - Jesus Christ, God the Son - and the Breath that fills, animates, and empowers that church - God the Holy Spirit- are sent by God the Father into the world.



Are we a missional community, that reflects the Triune God's character? Do we understand the meaning of sending and being sent? Are we passionate for mission, just as God is?

More coming problems in Global North?

Canadian Anglicans Elect Leader

By CHARMAINE NORONHA
The Associated Press
Friday, June 22, 2007; 6:25 PM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/
2007/06/22/AR2007062201417_pf.html

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- A liberal-leaning bishop who has expressed support in the past for full acceptance of gays and lesbians was elected Friday to lead the Anglican Church of Canada.

Bishop Fred Hiltz of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island was chosen on the fifth ballot by clergy and lay people at the church's national meeting. Among the three other nominees for the post was Edmonton Bishop Victoria Matthews, who would have been the church's first woman leader.

The vote came one day before the assembly, called the General Synod, is to decide whether to allow Anglican priests to bless same-sex couples _ a step short of performing same-sex marriage, which is legal in Canada.

Chris Ambidge, president of the Toronto chapter of gay advocacy group Integrity, said Hiltz "has long been an advocate of opening church doors to all people" and that his election signals to gays and lesbians "that they are welcomed and affirmed in their church."

The leader of the Anglican church, called a primate, does not directly set such policy for the church; that is the role of the General Synod.

Still, the Rev. Canon Charlie Masters, head of the conservative Canadian group Anglican Essentials, said the election of Hiltz raised "fears" about the future of the denomination.

"He is the first bishop who has publicly given his support to same-sex marriage so there are concerns of his position," Masters said.

Hiltz, 53, will succeed Archbishop Andrew Hutchison, who is retiring at the end of this meeting.

Hiltz, who is married to Lynne Samways and has a son, refused to discuss his personal views after the election, but he said he worries that a vote in favor of same-sex blessings could lead some theologically conservatives to break away from the church.

"I will do all I can to encourage people to stay in the church and remain respectful at table and in conversations," Hiltz said.

The vote comes at a time when divisions over the Bible and homosexuality are tearing at the world Anglican Communion, a 77 million-member fellowship of churches that trace their roots back hundreds of years to the Church of England.

Most of the world's Anglicans are theological conservatives who believe gay relationships violate Scripture. More liberal Anglicans emphasize social justice teachings in the Bible, leading them to support full acceptance of same-sex couples.

Even before this week's Canadian meeting, the world Anglican Communion was already in an uproar over the U.S. Episcopal Church's 2003 consecration of the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire.

The Episcopal Church is the Anglican body in the United States. Anglican leaders have given the U.S. denomination until Sept. 30 to unequivocally pledge not to consecrate another openly gay bishop or authorize official prayers for same-sex couples. If Episcopalians fail to agree to the demands, they risk losing their full membership in the communion.

Separately, the Anglican Church of Canada came under fire in 2002, after Bishop Michael Ingham of the Diocese of New Westminster in British Columbia allowed parishes in his region to bless gay couples. In 2004, the Diocese of Niagara voted to follow suit, but its bishop has barred the ceremonies for now.

Growing Global South leading Waning West?

This is a great report by Alan Cooperman of Washington Post about the Anglican situation in USA and how the African and South East Asian churches are helping them. It is interesting to note that the Global South churches, which were started by the Global North (Western), are now assuming leadership over the North churches. Is this a sign of more things to come from the Global South?

More US Episcopalians Look Abroad Amid Rift
Overseas Prelates Lead 200 to 250 Congregations

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2007/06/16/AR2007061600985_pf.html

By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 17, 2007; A03


The Anglican archbishop of Rwanda was first, then his counterpart in Nigeria. Now Kenya's Anglican archbishop is taking a group of U.S. churches under his authority, and Uganda's archbishop may be next.

African and, to a lesser extent, Southeast Asian and Latin American prelates are racing to appoint American bishops and to assume jurisdiction over congregations that are leaving the Episcopal Church, particularly since its consecration of a gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003.

So far, the heads, or primates, of Anglican provinces overseas have taken under their wings 200 to 250 of the more than 7,000 congregations in the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of Anglicanism. Among their gains are some large and wealthy congregations -- including several in Northern Virginia -- that bring international prestige and a steady stream of donations.

The foreign influx is a consequence of the rift in the 2.3 million-member U.S. church, and explanations of what it's really all about depend on what side of that divide you're on, said the Rev. Ian T. Douglas, a professor of world mission and global Christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.

"It can either be read as the next step in a grand plan to replace the Episcopal Church, or it can be read as a splintering of the conservatives and a competition for who is going to be the real leader of disaffected U.S. congregations," he said. Bishop Martyn Minns, former rector of Truro Church in Fairfax City, who left the Episcopal Church and was installed last month as a Nigerian bishop, denied that the African prelates are competing for leadership, prestige or donations. He said they are working together to help Americans who want to remain faithful to the church's traditional teachings. "There's lots of work for all of us," he said.

"This is not just one province sticking its nose in. It's the Global South collectively saying 'We've got to do something' because of the crisis in the U.S. church."

But a spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, James Naughton, said the proliferation of "offshore" churches "makes it clear how difficult it is going to be for the conservatives to unite, because each of these primates wants a piece of the action, and none is willing to subjugate himself to another."

Rwanda's Archbishop Emmanuel Kolini and the archbishop of Southeast Asia, Moses Tay, were the first to establish a missionary branch in the United States. In 2000, they jointly consecrated two former Episcopal priests as bishops and formed the Anglican Mission in the Americas, or AMIA. It has grown at the rate of one church every three weeks and now numbers about 120 congregations, with five bishops.

Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola followed suit last year, forming the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, or CANA. It is led by Minns and has about 40 congregations in 13 states.

Last week, Kenya's Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi announced plans to consecrate a former Episcopal priest in Texas, Bill Atwood, as a suffragan, or assistant, bishop of his Nairobi diocese. Atwood said in a telephone interview that after the Aug. 30 installation ceremony in Kenya he will look after about 35 U.S. churches.

In addition, three other foreign archbishops -- Henry Orombi of Uganda, Drexel Gomes of the West Indies and Greg Venables of the Southern Cone (a region that includes Argentina and Bolivia -- have taken small numbers of U.S. congregations under their auspices. Orombi is "very seriously and prayerfully" considering appointing an American bishop and setting up a missionary church in the United States, said AMIA Bishop Chuck Murphy.

Murphy recalled that when the AMIA was formed seven years ago, it came under strong criticism from Atwood, among others.

"Bill Atwood has always been a strong advocate for what was called an 'inside' strategy -- to work within the system of the Episcopal Church and within the Anglican Communion's existing structures," he said. "It is now clear to virtually everyone that the 'outside' strategy of having clergy and bishops canonically resident offshore -- that is no longer scandalous and irregular, it is now the right way forward."

Atwood responded that "any strategic differences have just been overwhelmed by the state of things in the Episcopal Church and the need to move forward together."

The difference a foreign bishop makes can vary. Some former Episcopalians describe it as an important but largely symbolic connection with a primate who shares their orthodox beliefs. "Fundamentally, we're worshiping the same way we've always worshiped. It's the Episcopal Church that has embarked on a new path," said Warren Thrasher, a longtime parishioner at Truro Church.

But Atwood said it is often more tangible. He noted that some congregations under Nzimbi's care have adopted the Kenyan version of the Anglican Book of Common Prayer. He said many ex-Episcopal congregations have been forced to give up their buildings and need help finding new properties.

"Many of the congregations have developed authentic relations with bishops overseas, and those links are very important to them," he said.

At the same time, the foreign archbishops and their newly minted American bishops are courting the wrath of the archbishop of Canterbury. The leader of the Anglican Communion, the 75 million-member family of churches descended from the Church of England, registered his disapproval of Minns's installation last month by announcing that he will not invite the CANA leader to a global meeting of all Anglican bishops next year.

Minns said he was "not surprised." He said a steady erosion of traditional Christian teachings in the United States and Europe, combined with the explosive growth of former missionary churches in developing countries, has flipped the historic pattern of missionary activity. "And frankly," he said, "the old institutional structures are having trouble coming to grips with those realities."

Can Christianity save the West?

What can save the West? That is the question being asked in a new book called Suicide of the West. And we’ll come to the question and the book but first we need to see how and why the West developed a society that enjoys a level of material wealth, political stability, health care, life expectancy, and equality and opportunity for ordinary women and men that is unmatched in the history of the world.

Whilst there are of course many factors in the rise and rise of the West, the single major distinguishing factor is Christianity. It was the Christian belief in a rational benevolent God who had created a rational universe that gave scientists the confidence to believe that its secrets could be unravelled, that there were answers. Similarly, the vast potential in the populations of Europe was released by the doctrine of the essential equality of all human beings. This belief that every ‘ordinary’ individual was created in the image of God and therefore equally and infinitely valuable to Him – whether slave or master, male or female adult or child – is absent in Islam, Hinduism and Confucianism and served to undermine the feudal system.

This combined not only with the realisation that any individual could know the truth for themselves but with the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. No one is inherently superior before God so why should I not be able to advance, make a little profit for myself and my family? And why should the Lord of the Manor simply be able to take it away from me if he feels like it? Christianity changed the intellectual climate which in turn provided a different basis for economic activity. Whilst China and India and the African kingdoms were all richer than Britain in the 13th century they certainly weren’t by the 19th.

Obviously, the West, distinctively shaped as it has been by Christianity, has nevertheless done and continues to do terrible things not only to those outside the West but to its own. Nevertheless, look around the world and ask yourself this –

To finish reading the article, please go to http://www.licc.org.uk/node/245

Anglican split?

Anglican split comes closer as US church rejects demand over gays

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2104502,00.html

Stephen Bates Religious affairs correspondent
Saturday June 16, 2007
The Guardian

The impending division of the worldwide Anglican communion came a step closer yesterday as the rift over the way the church deals with homosexuality descended into acrimony.

The US Episcopal church rejected the demands of the rest of the church, headed by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, that it should fall into line by refusing to conduct blessing services for gay couples or elect more gay bishops and allow disaffected conservative US congregations to have their own leadership.

The rejection of the demands, made by the church's archbishops in Tanzania in February, means there is little chance of the US church meeting the end of September deadline for compliance and will increase the insistence of conservative and evangelical forces in the communion that it should be forced out. The US church is a small part of the worldwide communion but its financial support underwrites much of Anglicanism's activities.

Dr Williams - currently on sabbatical in Washington - is due to meet the US bishops in New Orleans in mid-September in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the split.

Canon Gregory Cameron, deputy secretary general of the Anglican Communion, who is the church's chief mediator in the crisis, told the Guardian yesterday: "My fear is people are starting to behave less like a world communion and it is becoming more like ecclesiastical chaos."

The rejection came after a four-day meeting of the US church's executive council, in a statement insisting that the leaders of other parts of the communion could not impose deadlines and demands.

Next week Canadian Anglicans meet in synod in Winnipeg to decide whether they should authorise official blessing services for gay couples.

Christianity's center relocated to the South

What does the future hold for Christianity? Would Christianity be dead and obsolete? Would the prediction of Voltaire, the 18th century French atheist, considered one of the greatest authors of his generation and who particularly weilded a astringent pen against Christianity, in a moment of self-exaltation boasted that, “In twenty years Christianity will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear.” But Voltaire's arrogance bragging was swallowed up on his death, yet Christianity has relentlessly continued on its triumphant march, just as Jesus promised that “the gates of Hades will not overcome it” (Mt 16:18). Voltaire died, in his own words, “abandoned by God and man,” but the Church is still astoundingly to the chagrin of many and the scorn of the Jihads, “favored by God and man.” And Jenkins’ well-researched book provides solid evidences of this fact. His main argument is that the “man” who professes Christ is no longer the stereotype white Western man but rather a non-white person from the Southern Hemisphere.

Throughout his book, Jenkins compellingly contends four propositions, namely that geographically the center of gravity for Christianity has already or soon will be relocating decisively to the Southern Hemisphere. Two, demographically, the majority of Christians are now or soon will be non-white. Most will be Africans, Latin Americans and Asians. Three, theologically the 21st century church will be strongly influenced by Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism. Fourthly, the tension between Christianity and Islam will intensify, and possibly leading to war.

On his first proposition, Jenkins confidently proclaims that Christianity will not only survive, but would be thriving in the future – just that the flourishing will take place in another area and not in the traditional Western world. If Jenkins’ prediction is correct, then by the year 2050, six countries (Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Nigeria, Congo and the United States) will each have at least 100 million Christians. Sub-Saharan Africa will have superseded Europe as the principle center of Christianity. This analysis is in total contradiction to the many books which argue that secularism, pluralism, post-modernity and other anti-Christianity forces will cause the Church to become ghettoised and eventually leading to her long awaited demise. He persuasively argues against Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilization prediction that in the long run, Muhammad will win over Christ, the cresent will overshadow the cross.[1] Base on the current demographic and geographic facts, Huntington’s analysis may not be as credible as it was first thought. Jenkins forecast that by 2050, there will still be about three Christians for every two Muslims worldwide. And these Christians will not be the customary white individual from Western societies.

In addition, theologically this Southern Hemisphere Christians will be characterised by its staunch conservative faith in Scriptures and yet vibrantly demonstrated through Pentecostal-Charismatic expressions such as prophecy, visions, deliverance, healing, and ecstatic utterances. The present rapidly declining Western Christianity has become more liberal and less literal, and more rational and less Spirit-empowered. The contrasting and distinct form of Christianity between the South and North has somewhat caused the more scientific-educated Western Christians to be extremely suspicious of these supernatural forms of spirituality. Some even considered it to be demonic and part of reverting to pagan practices of animistic religions. Yet, there is no denying that South Christianity is burgeoning and impacting many communities. It is estimated that there is more than one billion Pentecostals, cutting across denominations, regions, and ethnic groups. They are likely to be among the poorest and least educated in their various populations, but they will be the ones who are enthusiastically spreading their own Pentecostal-influenced beliefs to the rest of the world.

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[1] Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996).

This is an excerpt from my book review of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (NY: Oxford University Press, 2002), by Phillip Jenkins. I believe Jenkins has already produced a second edition.

Misallocation and misdirection of resources?

"Today half of all Christians in the world, and perhaps 70 percent of all Evangelicals, live in these traditional 'mission fields', but we continue to invest 90% of our recruiting, training, and funding to send Western missionaries to pretty much those same fields."

Source: Chuck Bennett, "The problem with success," EMQ, January 1996, p. 20.

Murray, president of Columbia International University in South Carolina and former general director of The Evangelical Alliance Mission, says about 3,800 (about 5%) of the country's 70,000 graduating students in Evangelical seminaries say that they plan to become cross-cultural missionaries.

The other 95% are planning to minister in North America - which is home to only 5 percent of the world's population, and which is the most evangelized.

Source: "We asked ...," World Pulse, 4 August 1995, 3.

Where are we investing our limited church resources? To the unsaved or to the already over-evangelized and already converted?

Where are the frontier and pioneer missionaries?
Where are the non-Western missionaries and leaders?

If we really believe that mission is the heart beat of God and His main priority, where are we investing our resources?