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A few years ago, I had the privilege to travel to Iona, a tiny island located in the Inner Hebrides of western Scotland. For Christian history, it is important for being the place where sixth-century Celtic monks led by the Irish abbot Columba (521-597) established a monastery and also missionary base for evangelizing the Pictish people of the Scottish highlands. While preparing to go and study the mission history of the region, I asked my former doctoral supervisor about the best study resources on the island—things like libraries, study centers, and museums. Informing me that nothing quite that formal existed at Iona, he suggested that the most valuable study experience was to visit the island in December or January, stand outside and feel the cold North Atlantic air and wind, and imagine the sacrifice and service of the monks who went about their ministry in this environment. In many ways, that is what this book is about. We too want to stand in that cold place and walk in the shoes of Celtic and other missionary monks who sacrificed greatly to make the gospel known to the ends of the earth in their day. We want to grasp what it meant to pursue both a monastic and a missionary calling. Why is a book on missionary monks relevant for Christians today, especially for students of mission history and mission practitioners? As we journey through the pages of mission history—especially from about AD 500 to 1500—it’s impossible to do so without stumbling over quite a few missionary monks. In fact, I would argue that if we don’t have monks in this period, then we really have little to talk about in the way of Christian mission. So grasping the story of mission requires getting to know missionary monks. My intent in this work is to guide the reader through an introduction to the history of missionary monks and movements beginning in the fourth century and spanning to the middle of the seventeenth century. I want to tell the story of missionary monks—to meet them, learn about their contexts of service, consider their approaches to mission, discuss their challenges and victories, and grasp how they thought and theologized about mission. After narrating their stories, I will invite the reader to reflect on what can be learned from their experiences, including which of their strategies might be appropriated today in mission . . . In short, we will stand on the cold shores of Iona (and other places), consider what mission meant to them, and reflect on what their legacy means for us. Learn more about Missionary Monks here. In chapter 9 of Controversies in Mission, veteran missiologist and anthropologist Miriam Adeney offers a moving reflection on Christian mission in the age of global migration--particularly illegal immigration. She writes: Today, eleven million people live in this land illegally. According to the law, they have no right to be here because they lack residency documents. Nevertheless, more continue to slip across our borders, including tens of thousands of children, who pushed up from Central America in 2014. This mobile population represents one of the great issues of our time. What is justice in relation to these people? What is mercy? How do we balance safeguarding our communities, upholding the law, and loving our neighbors? Furthermore, when we encounter migrants who are believers, how do we partner together in the new arenas of cross-cultural mission and ministry that are opening? These questions echo not only in America but worldwide as diasporas ebb and flow across many nations. This paper focuses on the federal Northwest Detention Center, a 1500-bed facility south of Seattle housing people scheduled for deportation. The detainees range from hardened criminals to those who have overstayed their student or work visas to others who lack complete papers simply because of irregularities in their journeys. For example, they may have no birth certificate because they were born in the middle of a war, and their non-English-speaking parents did not explain this. Whatever the reason, when the gates clang shut, the words over the entry to Dante’s inferno reverberate: “Abandon hope, all you who enter here.” Suddenly a man loses his income, his long term goals, and maybe even his spouse and children. Most detainees do not have attorneys. If they do not speak English, they may not understand what is happening. Most likely they will be dumped back in the land of their ancestors with or without money, or language, or family or friends. If that country has political or religious prejudices, they may undergo torture. Dante’s warnings ring loud. Yet a surprising and fruitful ministry with international reverberations has developed in the detention center. This paper briefly narrates that story. Several missiological themes appear:
Each of these themes deserves to be studied at much more length. Hopefully future research will continue this. Visit HERE to learn more about Controversies in Mission. Recently, I had the opportunity to read James K.A. Smith’s new book You are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit. Beginning with the words of Jesus in Jn 1:38 (“what do you want”), Smith’s thesis is built on the claim that humans are driven by their loves more than by what they know or even claim to believe. Put another way, we are what we love (p. 7). Building off Augustine’s famous introduction in Confessions (“our hearts are restless [God] until they find their rest in you”), Smith adds that “Jesus’ command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his” (p. 2). Again, authentic discipleship is demonstrated through what we love and cherish. Smith offers a deep well of wisdom in this book about God the Creator as well as human flourishing. I was particularly moved by his insights on worship. We are immersed in a broken world that promises a “good life” (material, erotic) and it’s easy to be accustomed to the world’s promises and rhythms —what Smith calls “secular liturgies” (p. 38). Because of this, he adds “we need to regularly calibrate our hearts, turning them to be directed toward the creator” (p. 20). He continues: “Christian worship . . . is essentially a counterformation to those rival liturgies we are often immersed in, cultural practices that covertly capture our loves and longings, miscalibrating them, orienting us to rival versions of the good life. This is why worship is the heart of discipleship” (p. 25). This is why regular connection with other believers in corporate worship is essential. Two things struck me about Smith’s teaching on worship. First, true worship is God-centered and actually God-led. He writes: “God is both the subject and object of our worship . . . the Triune God is both the audience and agent of worship: worship is to and for God, and God is active in worship in the Word and the Sacraments (p. 70). So “worship isn’t just something we do; it is where God does something to us” (p. 77). Citing Hughes Oliphant Old, he concludes, “The worship of the church is a matter of divine activity rather than human creativity” (p. 72). Second, in light of this God-centeredness, Smith challenges a one-sided view in worship in which believers function as the performers. He writes, “When we tacitly assume that we are the primary actors in worship, then we also assume that worship is basically an expressive endeavor” (p. 74). This leads us to continually strive for innovation so that our worship experience remains “fresh.” He continues: “Novelty is how we try to maintain the fresh sincerity of worship that is fundamentally understood as expressive (p. 75).” Pointing to a related problem, he adds, “too often we look for the Spirit in the extraordinary when God has promised to be present in the ordinary” (p. 67). Smith offers a final, helpful admonition: “In order to foster a Christian imagination, we don’t need to invent, we need to remember (p. 181). From this, he advocates historic Christian worship practices—a liturgy that includes a call to worship, confession, hearing the Scriptures, communing with the Lord at his table, and then being sent from worship on mission (pp. 96-99). He wants the church to remember its inherited worship traditions and forms in light of the temptation to constantly recreate itself. Perhaps “there can be a certain virtue to ‘going through the motions’” (p. 152). In chapter 7 of Controversies in Mission, missiologist Ken Nehrbass evaluates how US Americans are perceived in general and particularly in the work of global mission. In the abstract of his chapter, he writes: Even as the United States wields substantial cultural influence in this era of globalization, US Americans are controversial figures. US Americans who sojourn overseas are even more controversial. Expatriates from any country are often received with ambivalence, whether they are migrant workers, refugees, or successful business owners, but among controversial Others, the US American missionary is especially provocative, as the United States of America represents “Gospel and gold, ointment and gun, oppressor and oppressed” (Conn 1984, 55). Opposing images of missionaries from the United States are portrayed in major motion pictures and best-selling novels, and they are coupled with the ubiquitous metaphor of the “Ugly American” (who is presumably NOT from Canada). Evening news broadcasts of flag-burnings and protesters holding signs that read (in Arabic) “Death to America” (Al Jazeera 2013) further reify the notion of anti-western and especially anti-American sentiment. Such negativity is prevalent to different degrees across the globe- sometimes reflexively in the form of “western self-loathing.” However, the United States continues to receive a fairly high international approval rating in polls. And in the midst of this ambivalence about the West and the United States in particular, the country which sends out the largest number of missionaries is still the United States (see Steffan 2013). In what ways do missionaries from the United States experience this phenomenon of anti-American sentiment? How do international stakeholders in Christian mission perceive US Americans and especially missionaries from the United States? Is the “ugly American” any more of a reality than “the ugly Canadian” (or the ugly German, Russian or Pakistani, etc.?) Are images of the US missionaries in film and news broadcasts congruent with the experiences of missionaries abroad? And how do international perceptions of US Americans affect mission strategies? Since an understanding of international opinions of US Americans in the 21st century can help shape how we design mission strategies for the future, this chapter examines the pervasiveness and lived reality of anti-American sentiment in the setting of missionary work. To accomplish this, I interviewed 19 participants (US Americans and internationals) who have resided outside of the United States for at least two years to gain insight regarding the broad spectrum of international perceptions of US Americans. I then analyzed this data in order to develop a theory that explains the impact of anti-western sentiment on missionary work. Visit HERE to learn more about this chapter and the book. In chapter 3 of Controversies in Mission, Jerry Ireland discusses the tension of evangelism and social action in mission by appealing to the great twentieth-century evangelical thinker Carl F.H. Henry. He writes: The question of how evangelism and social concern relate to one another in the mission of the church has long occupied theologians, pastors, and missiologists. As Carl F. H. Henry once observed, “Perhaps no problem has distressed the modern churches more than determining the legitimacy of claims made upon Christian loyalties by champions of personal evangelism on the one hand and by those who call the church to social involvement on the other. These tensions now vex the church as never before in recent history” (Henry 1972, 3). The evangelical divide over this issue, though not entirely recent, became especially sharpened by the divisions that emerged from the fundamentalist-modernist controversy that peaked in the early decades of the twentieth century. Fundamentalism responded to the human-centered social agenda of liberal theology by mostly withdrawing from cultural engagement and social action. Rather than developing a more biblically balanced response to social issues, fundamentalism instead tended to truncate the gospel’s temporal relevance in favor of an exclusive focus on eternal matters (Henry 2003, 6; Marsden 1987, 4). . . I am deeply convinced that Henry ought to be heard again by a new generation of thinkers and practitioners searching for solid biblical footing. In particular, I am persuaded that Carl Henry’s regenerational model of evangelism and social concern—the focus of this essay—holds forth great promise for an evangelical consensus on an important issue that continues to divide the body of Christ. Learn more about this topic and the book HERE. On Wednesday at the Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting at San Antonio, I'll present a paper entitled, "Explaining the Trinity to Muslims and Jews in Medieval Christian Mission: Lessons from the Life of Cyril." Because the paper will be published in the January edition of the International Bulletin of Missionary Research, I'm unable to post the full text here, but the abstract below offers a taste of the presentation.
Cyril (ca. 826-869), along with his brother Methodius (815-885), is remembered in Christian and mission history for laboring to develop a Slavonic alphabet, which gave Slavic peoples Scripture, liturgical manuals, and a written language in which to express and grow their culture. What is less emphasized, however, and the focus of this paper, was Cyril’s prior mission work among Arab Muslims in Samarra (modern Iraq) as well as among the Khazars—which included both Jews and Muslims—in what is now southern Russia. Responding to the Byzantine emperor’s call to go to the Arabs, Cyril replied, “I will gladly go forth for our Christian creed.” Later, the emperor described Cyril’s mission to the Khazars in these terms: “Go forth, philosopher, to these people, speak to them and explain to them the Holy Trinity. In this paper, I will analyze how Cyril the philosopher presented the gospel, Christ, and the Trinity and responded to the queries of these Medieval Muslim and Jewish thinkers. What characterized Cyril’s approach to mission? Finally, what principles might be recovered for presenting historic Christian doctrine in mission today particularly in Muslim contexts? Recently, Rochelle Cathcart Scheuermann and I co-edited the Evangelical Missiological Society's annual monograph entitled Controversies in Mission. In the overview of the book, we write: Crossing social, cultural, and religious barriers and making disciples of all nations has probably never been without some level of controversy. This book is an attempt to hit the pause button on this rapid-paced world and to refllect on how we do mission, especially in light of the new layers of complexity that globalization brings. While the contributors engage in new aspects of mission and cultural encounter unique to the twenty-first century, the underlying issues of each chapter are age-old topics that have reared their heads at various times throughout history: priorities in mission, power struggles, perspectives on cultural others, and contextualization. With that in mind, our aims are twofold: (1) to carefully consider issues causing tension and contention within current mission thought, practice and strategy and then (2) to engage in serious but charitable dialogue for the sake of God’s mission and the salvation of all peoples. A friend urged us to develop a course syllabus and discussion questions for each chapter of the book, which can be downloaded HERE. These are intended for an upper under graduate or seminary level course. Learn more about the book Controversies in Mission HERE. I will be presenting the following paper at the annual Evangelical Missiological Society meeting in Dallas (Oct 15). My abstract reads: Critical observers of mission history remark that following the sixteenth-century Reformation in Europe, one reason for the initial inaction of Reformed Protestants in global mission was the lack of missionary sending structures. Roman Catholics on the other hand possessed a number of sending structures—most notably the monastic orders (e.g., Franciscans, Augustinians, Dominicans, Cistercians, and Jesuits) that were formed in the medieval period for the purpose of sending witnesses to the world. So how did mission sending happen and what structures were in place in the early and medieval church prior to the rise of monastic missionary orders? In this paper, I will argue that the church itself was the key organism and catalyst for mission sending. In doing so, I will offer an alternative conclusion to Ralph Winter’s (cf. Winter 1999, 220-229) popularly accepted notion of two structures of redemption in mission history—modalities (e.g., churches) and sodalities (e.g., monastic movements)—and argue that the church was the sole means of mission sending. To make the case, I will highlight the representative examples of five missionary-monk-bishops who served between the fourth and eighth centuries: Basil of Caesarea (fourth-century Asia Minor), Patrick (fifth-century Ireland), Augustine of Canterbury (sixth- and seventh-century England), Alopen (seventh-century China), and Boniface (eighth-century Germany). In the opening chapter of Controversies in Mission, Bob Priest discusses the apostle Paul and mission controversy and offers the following reflections that not only offer shape to this book but critical questions for mission practitioners to ponder. As part of his conclusion, Priest writes: The apostle Paul exemplified an incredible ability to make cultural adjustments. However, it is also true that he called on believers to resist other social influences. That is, the adjustments he calls for are not without accompanying concerns for faithful orthodoxy and orthopraxy. In the remainder of this book, authors are engaging difficult issues. These matters are truly difficult. The following are a few implications of what we have considered that should be kept in mind as one approaches these discussions. 1. The simple missionary activity of transmitting the gospel across cultural and ethnic divides triggers profound difficulties and questions that are not easy to resolve. Thus, missiology is a field that naturally raises deeply difficult issues. 2. Christians who are not bicultural and who lack cultural or missiological training, but who nonetheless attempt ministry across cultural and religious lines will naturally and ethnocentrically tend, like the Judaizers before them, to treat cultural elements from their own culture as normative for others. This is a problem. 3. When Christian missionaries are ethnocentric, and also operate from positions of socio-economic strength, this becomes doubly problematic. It is vital that our missiological reflection be attentive to dimensions of power and neocolonialism. 4. In most mission settings, there has already been a long history of missionary engagement often exemplifying the same patterns the Apostle Paul critiqued. That is, such history has often involved both ethnocentrism and power dynamics. Sometimes missionaries demanded that converts adopt new names from missionary host countries. Sometimes they required Hindu converts to eat beef or Muslim converts to eat pork, or insisted that the church use musical aesthetics birthed in Europe or North America, for example. This prior history has often contributed to problematic Christian patterns and identities, posing profound difficulties for new or potential believers, and for those attempting to encourage a reframing of missional engagement in more Pauline ways. 5. When missionaries and missiologists wish to make adjustments that will reduce inappropriate barriers to the gospel, they are fully in the train and lineage of Paul, and should not simply be labeled postmodern relativists. 6. However, this does not mean that every adjustment is a good one. Critical judgment, both theological and missiological, needs to be brought to bear on the issues involved. Healthy forms of contextualization must be pursued. However, inappropriate syncretism must be guarded against. 7. The best people to exercise critical review of such new proposals should be Christians who are missiologically trained, and who are not culturally and linguistically distant from the settings where the issues at stake are located. 8. However, we do need forums for engaging the issues, just as the Jerusalem Council provided. Missiology conferences, and peer-reviewed publications such as this one, are ideal venues comprising an ideal community for testing and evaluating the ideas involved. That is, a community of those who are deeply knowledgeable about the cultural, linguistic, and religious contexts in view, as well as of Bible and theology, and who have advanced missiological training, are ideally positioned to help the body of Christ consider the issues. This book provides one such forum for us to examine and evaluate the issues at stake, as we endeavor faithfully and appropriately to follow in the missionary lineage of Paul. I had the privilege to co-edit (with Rochelle Cathcart Scheuermann) the 2016 Evangelical Missiological Society Monograph entitled, Controversies in Mission: Theology, People, and Practice of Mission in the 21st Century. Controversies was the theme of the 2015 EMS annual meeting and this volume comprises the key papers presented at that conference. Below is a brief overview of the book with the table of contents: Crossing social, cultural, and religious barriers and making disciples of all nations has probably never been without some level of controversy. This book is an attempt to hit the pause button on this rapid-paced world and to refllect on how we do mission, especially in light of the new layers of complexity that globalization brings. While the contributors engage in new aspects of mission and cultural encounter unique to the twenty-first century, the underlying issues of each chapter are age-old topics that have reared their heads at various times throughout history: priorities in mission, power struggles, perspectives on cultural others, and contextualization. With that in mind, our aims are twofold: (1) to carefully consider issues causing tension and contention within current mission thought, practice and strategy and then (2) to engage in serious but charitable dialogue for the sake of God’s mission and the salvation of all peoples. Introduction, Rochelle Cathcart Scheuermann Part One Biblical Perspectives and Theology of Mission Chapter 1 Controversy on Paul’s First Missionary Journey, Robert J. Priest Chapter 2 The Case for Prioritism, Christopher R. Little Chapter 3 Carl F. H. Henry’s Regenerational Model of Evangelism and Social Concern and the Promise of an Evangelical Consensus, Jerry M. Ireland Chapter 4 Reconsidering the Formative Role of Ethics within Missiological Practice, Greg Mathias Part Two The People of Mission Chapter 5 Power Play in the Korean American Church, Eunice Hong Chapter 6 Submission or Cooperation?, David R. Dunaetz Chapter 7 The Controversial Image of the US American in Missions, Kenneth R. Nehrbass Chapter 8 A Continuing Role for Western Bible Translators?, Dave Beine Chapter 9 Up From The Pit—Immigration, Deportation,Pain, and Hope, Miriam Adeney Part Three The Practice of Mission Chapter 10 The Necessity for Retaining Father and Son Terminology in Scripture Translations for Muslims, Mark Hausfeld, Ben Aker, Jim Bennett, Jim Hernando, Tommy Hodum, Wave Nunnally, Adam Simnowitz Chapter 11 The World Evangelical Alliance Global Review Panel Report: A Sympathetic Dissenting Opinion, Kevin Higgins Chapter 12 Consequences of the Divine Terms Controversy in Bible Translation, Mark Naylor Chapter 13 Teaching Bible Interpretation in Intercultural Contexts, Larry W. Caldwell Part Four Historical and Future Perspectives Chapter 14 Saving the Future of Evangelical Missions, David J. Hesselgrave |
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