Father, once again, we together bow before you and acknowledge you as the Lord, acknowledge Jesus, the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, as the risen one, the Lord above, all Lords, the King above all Kings, the only Creator and Redeemer of the world. We acknowledge you, Holy Spirit, as the one who created, has redeemed, has sealed us, as it work, convicting the world of sin and a righteousness, and honoring and glorifying the son and the Father. Thank you that as we, labor each day, as we live each day in this world, we can know that it's your commitment, oh great, try you God, to redeem this world that turned its back on you and yet you are making it right. And we are happy this day to belong to your people to have been compelled by your Spirit, by the wonders and sweetness of the gospel to come to you, to, with others, so many others in the body of Christ to be a part of your people. As we seek to navigate our way before your word, as led by your Spirit, encouraged and challenged by each other, we ask for your continued guidance and help, help us in our families, in our apartments, in our neighborhoods, to seek justice and mercy. We'll comely before you. Help us as we pray about and speak with others about and think about wider issues in the world, to know that you are the Lord, to know that you are the compassionate one, and to entrust ourselves and others to you. Oh God, as we meet again today, we look to you to guide us and lead us further, equipping us for the sake of the gospel. And we don't ask this just in a perfunctory way, but we truly ask it from our hearts in Jesus' name. All right, we are today moving to topic 34 contemporary realities and believe it or not, we are pretty much on schedule, right on schedule in this class. Last time we were assembled, I kind of ram through a lot of things and I hope that didn't overwhelm you too much, but I needed to do that so that we could consolidate, consolidate, integrate some things together as best we can heading into the home stretch of this particular course. And so today, first and primarily, we'll be looking at contemporary realities. And first of all, thinking of those in the wake of the modern mission's movement, and in saying the modern mission's movement, again, I want us to think in a 500-year block, if you think in a 200-year block, that's certainly fine. And as you know, much of the literature really points to the last 200 years, and that's fine. And that's where things certainly intensify, especially including Protestants, and as is not mentioned enough, what's happened with Orthodox churches as well, especially Russian Orthodoxy. So in the wake of the modern mission's movement, where are we, what sorts of things do we have, and what sorts of categories within which do we operate and think and address particular concrete matters in our local churches, as individuals, etc. One is that we have these various distinctions, and they come up at different times and they have their own particular place, and they're still very meaningful for us. First, and perhaps foremost, for those of us who are evangelicals at least, is the liberal evangelical distinction with which we operate, or liberal conservative. And this continues to define our official church relations. It describes our local church cooperative efforts often. It describes how we will speak with family members. It will define often how we advise people coming to us for church affiliation, etc. And you will know that this particular broad category is coming out of the early to mid-20th century, and the fundamentalist controversies that we're taking place really, if you can want to go back to the 19th century, and what's happening with your the formulations of all sorts of interesting theologies, Schleiermacher, Richel and others in Germany, what's happening in Britain, and otherwise in response to that, the rise of scientific explanations of the universe of scientific attempts to approach the Bible as any other book, and all of that leads to what happens in this country in the 20th century, between those who want to hang on to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, Virgin birth, Second Coming, etc., and those who see that know those perhaps are historically conditioned in their formulations. We just need to capture the same essence of the Christian faith, whatever we think about historic scientific Bible matters, and those sorts of things. And so these categories very much remain with us today, and they are very much connected to the modern missions movement. And that comes out in the second category, which is similar to the first one, namely the ecumenical and separatist Lausanne movements. Almost overlapping with the liberal evangelical categories. Let me first take you to a site that describes for us aspects of the Lausanne movement. Now you read about some of these meetings and categories of the Lausanne movement in your Escobar, certainly one of the Escobar essays that you read talked about these. And Lausanne Switzerland is where there was an early important meeting in 1974, that has become the kind of the descriptive term of the Lausanne movement. And the official names the Lausanne Committee for World of Angelization in various meetings that have taken place. The Lausanne movement, the city and Switzerland were here, historic meeting of the church, took place in 1974. And this was where the first international Congress on World of Angelization was held. And that was in the wake of a meeting that Billy Graham and others helped pull together in Berlin in 1966. The reason for those meetings, the reason for those meetings, well you notice the purpose of the committee as it was drawn together, the further the evangelization of the world by building bridges of understanding and cooperation on Christian leaders everywhere to mobilize the whole church to proclaim the whole gospel to the whole world. Just stick with that. There's a lot in that phrase of the purpose of Lausanne movement. 1960s, within the wider dynamic of the wider church of Jesus Christ, all sorts of things are happening. We're going to look in a second here at some of the background specifically of the World Council of Churches. The Lausanne movement comes into being organizationally as a reaction to what's happening within the World Council of Churches. The World Council of Churches comes about as a direct result of the worldwide international modern missions movement. And almost directly out of Edinburgh in 1910. There's the missionary conference in Edinburgh in 1910, there have been a few others before that in New York and London, et cetera. But out of that, John Armott goes around the globe and others, old him is another important name. They go and they set up these national Christian councils in various countries in the world prior to World War I to help coordinate evangelistic efforts. But this is putting it generally but this is fairly accurate I think in describing the dynamics of what happened. World War I happens and that kind of shatters European Western confidence. This is partially reviewed I hope and to help us consolidate and integrate where we are. World War I kind of shatters the Western confidence in the Western world in general, in the Western world's relationship with the rest of the world and related to that is the inexorable seemingly spread of the Christian faith. And so after World War I you have questions arising about what about these other faiths in the world? And as you have meetings taking place in the wake of Edinburgh in the 1920s and 1930s you have serious questions coming up. What about these millions of Hindus and Buddhists that we are meeting and seeing that have credible societies and age-old philosophies? They're not going away. Are they condemned if they're outside the Christian church? Etc. Etc. And you have struggles within the Church. Then you have World War II. And after World War II that further shatters European confidence. And once you get into the 1950s and 1960s you're having all sorts of quote radical movements in the Church that for example we ran through very quickly in some of your readings from Verkyle and your reader about some of the important messiologist for example Hookendick who was one of the Dutch messiologists a name if you go back and see him alongside of Bavink and Kramer one of the names in there. He was one who was calling for for example a radical secularization of the Church. So the Church organizationally needs to lose itself and find God in the world and that I forget if we actually made this distinction but it's an important one whereas the understanding had been God reaches and works in the world through his Church. What you see happening is a reversal of these to the idea that God is working directly in the world in all sorts of movements, sociopolitical movements. The classic case that seemed to come up and rub a lot of people wrong was where a guerrilla independence movement is essential in South America and the Church meets God when it gets involved in the world and so you had support of certain political economic movements directly and evangelicals are they don't have the name yet that category of evangelicals as it formulated yet. Carl Henry in the late 40s and 50s is one of the early ones who helps to formulate it. People begin to be alone by these sorts of things and so it's no coincidence that it's 1966 when you have this congress in Berlin and then the organization formally of the laws on movement in 1974 and then the subsequent meetings that have continued in the laws on movement amongst evangelicals, Manila 89 etc. Okay I hope that comes together and so the purpose of the laws on committee is to further the evangelization of the world. There's that phrase that really came up in the student volunteer movement back at the end of the 19th century early 20th century. I building bridges of understanding cooperation among Christian leaders everywhere and to mobilize the whole church to become the whole gospel to the whole world. You see in those last phrases a recognition among evangelicals now that yes we are a worldwide body of Christ and yes we need to hear for example leaders from Latin America who are telling us that we must not have an overspiritualized truncated gospel it takes a whole gospel preached by the whole church to the whole world. So you see the evangelical movement taking shape and taking on those characteristics. The laws on movement is in reaction to the ecumenical movement which takes shape within the world council of churches or WCC and oftentimes in literature you'll see mention of WCC and some of your readings you will have heard mention of some of the various WCC worldwide gatherings. Nairobi, Delhi all sorts of places, Mexico City and really that takes place that initial meeting in 1948 that's a picture over there on the right side of there were six presidents elected at the first assembly which is held in Amsterdam and the ecumenical movement really becomes an attempt to seek organizational union of the various churches of Christendom and the primary flashpoints are between Roman Catholic and Protestant but the Orthodox are involved as well. And so all of these statements that you hear about occasionally for example where Lutherans and Catholics go back and realize that okay we can agree on justification by faith and then there's all the discussion about that those sorts of documents are coming out of this ecumenical organizational movement and attempts at coming together 1948 is the key date let me um I don't know how way you can make that out but this seeks to trace the highlights of the 20th century ecumenical movement where you have Edinburgh 1910 and then you have three branches or three streams you have life and work committee faith and order and the International Missionary Council and these two faith and order life work actually don't begin organization until the 1920s is the IMC that begins in 1910 and it's really once you get to 1948 or faith and order life and work come together to form the WCC then the IMC comes in and at New Delhi in 1961 and you have these the larger stream with another previous Royal Council of Christian education which comes in in the 1970s and this is the broader ecumenical movement and it's very succumbly that have been held okay and so the larger mainline denominations would be a part of this the PCA is not most evangelical denominations will be not and oftentimes when there is talk of organizationally affiliating or cooperating with some group whatever that might be one of the first questions that people ask is do they have associations with the WCC if they do no good just to let you see again something that'll clear it all up for you the IMC this is of the the Royal Council of Church beginning in 1910 faith and order remember those two those streams you saw life and work they come together and merge and it's in 1948 where the WCC starts and then in 1961 the International Missionary Council comes into the WCC and that's where it all kind of comes back together yes well for evangelicals you go back and read what people like McGaverin winter and others were saying at the time and they're saying that you know the questions concerning the uniqueness of Jesus Christ the inerrancy of the Bible these are basic questions here and so that's when they break off and form a separate organization and I'm not sure how I'm going to answer your question but the separate organization is leads to a focused efforts over here and then these guys are just doing what they're doing over here now the main way that there has been some cross-pollination has been through academic circles and through missionary cooperation you've had varieties of academic organizations set up in various places of the world and in Latin America you have contrasting academic associations same in Africa some will be especially evangelical Biancato is one name I mentioned recently he was from East Africa he returned to East Africa he did his studies in Dallas seminary and he went back in the 1970s he said all this talk in the WCC about African theology is liberal it's dangerous they're wrong it's wrong he wrote this very influential book called the theological pitfalls of African theology and he took on the heavyweights like Edo and John B.D. and said these guys are flirting with the devil and so you've had in various categories separate workings evangelicals over here ecumenicals over here but where there has been some cooperation has been in academic circles I'm going this in a few days for example to a meeting of professors of missions it's called in this part of the country and there'll be all sorts of people there and what you can find in various disciplines is you have things in common where yes you have those differences but those don't prevent you from having a great deal in common so the cooperation is taken back and taken place some in academic circle some and also an actual ministry situations where you cooperate so that's a vague standard I don't know how to answer it yeah that's an excellent question I don't know the answer to it what about the national associates of you we're talking about the United States organization or NE national associates of evangelicals possibly cooperating in some form of fashion with the WCC by allowing its member organizations churches also to be affiliated with the WCC and if so is that some sort of a sign of movement I honestly don't know the answer to that I do know that in the PCA we don't have those sorts of affiliations I know from my experience in Japan that the president church in Japan wrestled over its involvement in organization in the wider evangelical group and to have any affiliation with the wider ecumenical groups officially is anathema on local levels in academics the cooperation takes place but officially so that's a good question I don't know the answer yes loaded questions is it is it blanket is it is it bad to kind of have a blanket condemnation of the WCC or at least kind of a blanket bar on cooperation what those sorts of things mean for organizations for denominations for public postures and what those means for what those things mean in person the person contact local congregation local congregation cooperation what does that mean why why didn't the circle more and ask the question this way just to go at it what about the situation where in your local school district and now this can come up here your local school district like I heard happened in one local school district here in St. Louis several weeks ago where the local school board is wanting to implement certain value teachings and instruction with respect to homosexuality which is unacceptable from a biblical Christian standpoint should you align yourself with some ecumenical Christians who would concur and perhaps the question becomes more point conservative Roman Catholic which Roman Catholic while often ecumenical still has its own firm identity especially in a city like St. Louis or what about the Islamic community or about the conservative Jewish community anyone who kind of will align together in a coalition if you will on this public issue of morality those are not easy questions and there's been a great deal of cooperation in this country between evangelicals or Roman Catholics on abortion criminally and many people have questioned that because of the basic theological differences that continue to exist and it's not an easy answer to give I certainly just I see the Lord not abandoning what he's doing in all sorts of groups what that means in particular instances in particular situations oftentimes takes the judgment on how you perceive what the object is with the long range implications are etc and so a blanket thing we won't listen to these people if I said that was my position that would betray how much I actually learn from all sorts of circles and I wouldn't want to that would not be fair me to say that yes sir there's just to repeat that for the purposes of the tape you this paradigm points to how many in within the WCC I don't know that across the board but there was there was affiliation in connection with supporting liberation movements and the connection with liberation theology that was coming out of Latin America etc. Affiliating with expressly communist ideology in the 60s 70s and 80s and so on the one hand not just evangelicals but especially evangelicals were reacting to that and also that in WCC gatherings there were ecumenical worship practices where all sorts of peoples and religious traditions aborigines of various sorts preeminently were included in the name of tolerance and an acceptance of diversity and from a Christian standpoint how in the world could you do that and so understandably then they were the types of reactions against that all right so these are the continuing realities within which we're living and they're it's connected with the modern missions movement right in the wake of the modern missions movement you i hope you can see that because some of these things are coming up due to the the western church getting involved in the rest of the world questions that are arising out of the west and the non-west scientific enlightenment related questions in the west not unrelated to questions about what about all these all these other religions and what about this economic political disparity within the cold war we're seeing after World War II and these independence movements shouldn't the church be concerned about the oppression of the peoples of Asia and Africa that the west is imposed and should not we be from the name of the kingdom of God and and for the full scope of the gospel support these independence movements and through all that confusing sort of situation the WCC evangelicals each in their respective ways address that okay and we're still in that situation thirdly you have of course various denominations and their stepchildren and wherever you go in the world for the most part you will find the same sorts of denominations that you will find perhaps where geographically and historically those denominations originated and so you are in Nigeria for example and you have all sorts you have various Methodist various Presbyterians various Baptist 7th Adventist and then many others same way in Ethiopia of same way in Japan go to Mexico etc and that's the reality of what you what you have and oftentimes what you have to is because of those comedy agreements COM not COM EDY but COM ITY areas will have been particularly given to the Presbyterians to be responsible you certainly see that in Mexico you certainly see that in Korea other places where this is strong Presbyterian territory this is strong Methodist territory etc and obviously for example in Africa former French colonies are going to be stronger Roman Catholic former British colonies are going to be strong Anglican evangelicals have come in and former German colonies have strong Lutheran Presidents etc the NRMs we talked about briefly the new religious movements where you had African independent churches African indigenous churches African initiated churches for example that in reaction to the foreignness perhaps of these churches brought in went off on their own way and start new churches and that's that's basically a worldwide phenomenon and I would encourage you to think too and I think we probably talked about this that it's not just outside the west that that's the case that we talked about one way to look at AIC is not just as African independent churches but American independent churches when you see churches that break off and do their own thing in the western part of the world are not they exhibiting the desire to be properly contextualized meet the current needs of people and the way to do that is not to be associated with a particular domination often and to orient yourself to X whatever the need for the situation might be yes my thinking about community churches or my thinking about cults I was thinking about the former but I hesitate to use that phrase because I don't want to brand in any sort of negative way I'm seeking to be descriptive of what's happening on the landscape so those NRMs you have mission churches then you have the whole category as well the difference we mentioned about the western Christian world and the non-western world and whereas the Lausanne movement and certainly even prior to the Lausanne movement the WCC have sought to be truly worldwide and you look at where the WCC has held their meetings for example they literally have been all over the world and look at Lausanne it meets first in Switzerland yeah but then it meets in Manila 89 etc seeking to be worldwide there still is a difference in many ways between the broad categories of western and non-western as we've talked about depending on kind of where we are in our missions thinking our instincts wherever we live in the world will be that missions means why people go into the rest of the world oftentimes the money flow is still one way oftentimes the theological influence is one way and you look at which books are translated from what languages into what languages for example for whose consumption by the way I would plead with you who have translation capabilities or networks to facilitate that to help the translation of materials from non-western languages into western languages which has happened some but I submit to you needs to happen more and I have a couple of projects now and getting help from some others on since the Japanese is one of my languages to help those of us who speak English and don't have access to that world to to have that translation work also I would encourage some of you to think about and this is daunting but to learn new languages not just for the sake of going to and evangelizing in those languages but in learning what the church is saying there and those of us in the English-speaking Christian world I think are all the more deprived of hearing for example theological articulations in Korea because my larger than no Korean anymore all the more impoverished because of that and so how to recognize that gap then the macro gap of first world third world if you will and all those stats that we hear which are true of the increasing affluent gap between the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere that just seems to be compounded and how to address that macro structural sort of a way we've read some things along those lines but that means personally for us how to deal with that except in this world another difference that I haven't mentioned here but it should be I suppose listed is the difference if you will between the Pentecostals and Charismatics and the Non Pentecostals and Non Charismatics because of the incredible growth of Pentecostal churches around the world and in many places Pentecostals and Evangelicals are seeking to come together and Charismatic expressions of Christianity finds expression within various other groups whether it be Roman Catholicism or various mainline churches that distinction is still there too and one to be recognized if for no other reason to recognize the strong presence of Pentecostalism and Charismatic Christianity throughout the world and a theological viability and output that is increasingly coming from those circles in academic circles kind of deal with things intellectually and academically all right those are some of the categories that we have in the wake of the modern missions moving we also have various evangelical missions talking here about mission organizations we have of course a myriad of us based evangelical missions and once you go on the internet for example or once you look at some of the literature the magazines that come out there are all sorts of evangelical missions some of which have long history some of which have short histories some of which are very very specific in reaching particular types of people doing particular work I mean reaching taxi cab drivers in Bangkok are reaching that you know semen or certainly those that are associated with radio missions who transform radio for example Bible translation wick of classic church planting at the forefront of so many evangelical missions world vision and others associated with relief and development denominational issue of organizations mission to the world international board of missions with the son of Baptist evangelical free et cetera many many many us based evangelical missions the US Center for World Mission is one that's come up before and needs to be acknowledged for its influence in a great deal of evangelical missions thinking here is their website at the uscwm.org I'm noting that Ralph Winner's wife Roberta Winner has gone to be with the Lord recently but the Mission Frontiers magazine which I pass on to you the perspectives course coming out of US Center for World Mission the whole adoptive people program the Joshua Project the Caleb Project all those things that your church will be involved with either by not being involved with or actively utilizing those sorts of resources is something of which you need to be aware and there again focus is reaching the unreached peoples of the world and that is the final frontier of missions and that you know that three era scheme of the modern missions with that's coming out of the US centers analysis and I noted to you that it was a helpful sort of a scheme but we need to qualify that you know I share the perspective that it's rather presumptuous to call anything the final frontier of missions we'd like to see a more comprehensive understanding of world mission but the US Center tremendous influence and does a great amount of service to the water body of Christ organizations as well like this will be ones of which you will know or if you don't you need to know for the resources ACMC advancing churches and missions commitment they have all sorts of resources to encourage churches in putting on missions conferences how to set up a missions budget these sorts of things my perspective on ACMC would be that like probably most US-based evangelical missions organizations it would be more in a modern missions movement mode than the next multiple or multi-directional worldwide mode which I don't want to draw a hard line of distinction there but there are some differences as we have discussed between being between being western-based and worldwide-based why how you understand yourselves corporally in terms of your identity etc this would be much more along the lines of going from here to there and how to accomplish that doesn't have to be that way and they don't want to be confined that way but it seems to me as I look at their material that's where they're going to be and so this is an organization that provides a lot of resources for people need to acknowledge also for example Korea-based evangelical missions this one that I'm hoping will come up is actually for Korean churches in North America the Korea World Missions Council in North America and you can read either a heading that you wish on that but this is a listing of a variety of churches and people responsible who throughout this North American network are cooperating ascending out evangelical missionaries you can see Pennsylvania, California, Kentucky, Texas, Washington, Florida, New York, Virginia etc etc etc etc and you will know that most anywhere you go in the world there will be Korean churches certainly any place in North America they're going to be Korean churches and if I have my statistics right when you talk about where the Korean church is that sends out Korean missionaries to other parts of the world about 10% of that Korean church is going to be in North America you have the Korean church in Korea and then you have the Korean churches in North America and as someone pointed out to me when you think about and as you will know Korean Korean American Christian brothers, sisters and churches and the issues that they face with regard to generational changes this is true of all immigrants but you'll know that they will have a very strong awareness of where they fit generationally I'm a first generation immigrant I'm a second generation I'm a 1.5 generation or a 1.7 generation because that makes tremendous differences in how the churches themselves function here I mean go for example to the Korean Presbyterian Church of St. Louis that meets on Manchester Road in Kirkwood they have the Korean language church and the English language division and these are going to be pretty much all the college students over here and I meet those people and look at them and they are more American than I am it's really kind of interesting but as someone pointed out when you have people who are by culture than bilingual like that they have some unique capabilities of being cross cultural missionaries in comparison to originally monocultural people and the Korean and this is bad to over generalize but the zeal the fervor combined with the sense of being an oppressed people combined with the sense of being especially called people along with talking about Korean Americans now having English capability which in the wider world today is the single lingua franca in comparison to any other single language in terms of trade language and negotiating language they are uniquely equipped to serve as missionaries in various parts of the world here is the Korean World Missions Association which is out of Korea as you can see and all sorts of world congresses and huge meetings held in Korea on a regular basis thousands and thousands of leaders will meet there and the church in Korea really does have a strong sense of God's calling of being his special agents to reach the world for Christ very strong sense of calling as the Korean Church manifest in all the the huge number of organizations and this gives some background to the in English to the Korea World Mission Association talks about the church in Korea being established in the late 1800s who is that American missionary from China who came over and helped see the free self movement really implemented John Navius that's right any via us well done Navius met that that's right that's right that was that three so for me to that Henry Van and Rufus Anderson helped articulate now that's exactly right I'm glad that you're helping me remember that things are so easy around here it's unbelievable and so anyway this is seeking to foster cooperation amongst churches in Korea in various places around the world but note that there are evangelical missions based in various places in the world various organizations in Nigeria churches in Nigeria sending out missionaries to other parts of Nigeria etc. Similarly in Ethiopia India Brazil Japan most anywhere some of these will be organizations that began in the West some will be organizations that began in Tanzania just depends but the evangelical missions movement now we're going to have a speaker by the way coming to campus soon who was the director of the University equivalent in Anglophone Africa and he will help us see the wider implications of for a wide Christian movement including evangelical movement so based all over the place similarly another category that we have in the wake of the modern missions movement today is our own respective cultural groups and just to recognize that you can list others I mean our own respective nationalities these help define who we are as the Lord's people and to recognize that as a worldwide church of Jesus Christ is just a part of realizing who it is that we are and the categories that we have all right you have any further questions about the we could talk about more but these to me struck me as one is it a particularly pertinent yes is the question now as missionaries go from North America to other parts of the world are they more aligned with mission organizations strictly or also our churches directly involved I think definitely the latter direct is definitely the case that certainly within the last 10 to 15 years local congregations and everybody if you will has gotten involved in terms more involved in terms of awareness and actually participating and going and the most obvious manifestation is that is the huge growth of short-term missionaries going on one week to week some long sorts of trips absolutely what is that helping the churches here become more global and what do I think about that
my first and overriding thought about that is that it's reality and if that's what's happening and has been happening and that overrides any attempt at evaluating that for me anyway there clearly are positive benefits the heightened awareness of the rest of the world that comes the actual good that people do the transformation that comes and people's lives who go the cooperative relationships between Christians and other various parts of the world that emerge out of those sorts of trips some of the downsides that people use in throwing rocks at short-term mission trips are you know the expense of it the damage that people can cause going in and not being aware of what's happening and committing all sorts of cultural mistakes and whatnot the continued imperialism of it some people want to point towards that sort of a thing some people say oh it's just you know they're just expensive glorified vacations for people to me it's reality there's a great deal of positive and let's encourage that while continuing to cultivate the need to be a multi-polar multi-directional church in our cross-cultural missions efforts it's a good question and one that comes up a lot and for those of you who end up in local church missions committees these sorts of decisions that you make are going to be critical and oftentimes there will be heated discussions and what I hope this course has at least the gun to do is give you a framework for evaluating where we are historically what the issues are at least to approach certain issues of do you support non-north American indigenous missionaries or North American missionaries that question that comes up what about these short-term trips and to put those within the framework of where we are in history and what the issues are and not simply absolutize the problem in and of itself and kind of lock horns with the pros and cons only apart from the historical setting for example I think short-term trips are going to continue for example so long as of the American military and American economy are as strong as they are relative to the rest of the world I think is just inevitable and again that's not a value statement that's just simply a descriptive statement all right in terms of our historical understandings and explanations of how things have come about you read in shank his chapter 13 pages 166 to 176 chapter entitled mission and transition 1970 to 1994 and what he basically talks about here is as the modern missions movement has continued to evolve you've had a correlative three stages of understanding of world history one a Eurocentric understanding and then in world war two you have a bipolar geopolitical understanding within the cold war and now what you need to have is a polycentric understanding of world history and to understand indeed the worldwide Christian movement in general and the worldwide Christian missionary movement in particular to have that polycentric historical understanding is very very important personally I agree dangers that being associated with politically correct thought and postmodern thought not with standing to me it only makes sense in order to allow God to be God and to give full recognition to how he's been working around the world to have a worldwide understanding of history and of Christian history and that causes some changes that doesn't mean that you change history deliberately but it does mean some alterations in some ways that some of us at least have been taught yes I give an example I'm not sure for example what to make and I'll say this at risk at being misunderstood I'm not sure what to make of classic Christian schools personally I think there's a great value in in helping you know kids know Latin great classical European history but in my impression maybe or I'm mentioning a number if those schools have as part of their purpose to kind of re anchor kids in a Christian worldview by anchoring them in the classic world of language and literature I think that's moving backwards if that's what it's about now again I don't I may not have on my impressions right or whatever but that would be one example to me that at least I would want to ask the question about what's happening there how world history classes are taught in high school when I studied world history when I was in high school way back few years ago you know you took a glance at oh yeah China history is very long oh yes Russian is very long whether you basically looked at what happened in the western world through Europe and that was world history but that's not the world and so those sorts of things and again that's a risk in saying that at offending some people who rightly hold dear western values I don't mean to disparage western values per se I just want to embrace the full scope of what God has been doing so those are some examples sure sure I wish I knew Latin and Greek better than I do sure um you know the whole thing about history to become so important because having the sense to know someone else's history is so very important as is so closely connected with with genuine respect integration topic 35 further integrating some of these things with where we are and where we're moving shank and his chapter the future of mission page 18619 makes some particular reflections and clues he calls them one the modern mystery movement has ended and a new epoch and Christian mission is unfolding he doesn't want to be misunderstood here to say that Christian mission is ending but the mode of the modern mystery movement in particular as he has been describing it in the book namely of being out of the modern western world to the rest of the world and all that associated with European Christian and etc that world is over and so we have a new era and what Christian mission is all about I question a little bit what he says in the middle of 187 the last paragraph before he makes his second point when he says we stand at the junction between two eras indeed we are moving in L-Luck doubly I'm not sure I understand this mystery with that word because I don't know what it means I can essentially into the post-modern period without knowing quite what to name it in one sense fair enough but I find that we often give too much credit to postmodernism for us worldwide effect in the in Ethiopia for example it's been a while since you've been there a little bit but for average young person Ethiopian is postmodernism of major influence so how to in Ethiopia for many rural people postmodernism per say would not be a major influence but in urban settings due to the worldwide connected nature of the worldwide urban world which is increasingly growing there is that influence how to allow postmodernism in its all of its confusing sort of constructs and categories be informative to us then without allowing it to be an all in all descriptive category for all of the world seems to me to be important to remember small point see the second point that he makes Christian faith is inherently expansionist and it's linked to the goal of history Christian faith should not just simply be domesticated and come all the way at home in places it's going to be ever expanding and growing thirdly recovering a vision of Jesus Christ as God incarnate who became Savior and Lord will be linked to the renewal of faith of Christian faith and genuine renewal issue and fresh missionary witness fair enough number four faithful mission is always in vital relationship with a sociopolitical realm now because of some of the issues that we talked about how for evangelicals due to some of these sorts of realities we have at times shyed away from sociopolitical realities this can raise some questions rightly so for us but as we also saw it's never the case that anyone is living outside of sociopolitical realities in some form or fashion as we have an emphasis on the gospel of the kingdom of Jesus Christ we can't run away from those and to think that we can is going to be naive church of the future will be a minority church in most parts of the world and that is is the case and increasingly in this part of the world we are discovering that about ourselves out to and every age of church must struggle to remain open to the fullness of the gospel to rehear or fresh the scriptures and a seventh point is led to that the world is a singular similar force and then point number eight and one ninety the greatest integrity and vitality of faith today appears to be found in those churches that have suffered and known martyrdom firsthand
and it's hard to argue at that last point as you rub shoulders with those who have experienced what they have in Sudan for those who went through what they did in early 20th century Korea for people who now are undergoing fleeing for their lives in parts of Indonesia, Southern Philippines, etc. Some of you will know Christians who lived through the 1970s and Uganda under the amine I mean just the incredible revival that that brought there and the influence that that had on people like Jack Miller and Harvey Conn thus much of the impetus for the sunshed movement you can trace that not necessarily in the direct line but a very close relationship of what was happening in Uganda and all of the Christians there experience together with folks who are related to them from North America. Yes well my response connects to the two points I've listed here how about if we tackled it that way to know where where we are in history within wider history we're at the beginning of the 20th century after the Cold War and those of us who live in the United States born and raised here living this particular setting a varied setting but to know that the Christian church as we are today we have we have not always been in this situation history has not always been what it is today and to to know where where we are suffering I'm touching on the second one here to where we are suffering persecution where we are suffering in poverty where we are suffering in political oppression and then where we have public freedom where we have a fluence where we have resources and how that should drive us as Thorouye Chiefs of Church of Jesus Christ to cooperate to learn from each other to gain stimulus from each other you know I don't hear for example I don't hear my friends in Uganda saying man you guys really should not be well off that's bad more than and I've heard my friends in Uganda say you know that gives us on the one hand something to shoot for consider to blessing and to in so far as God enables us to share those blessings together us in our experience of trial and tribulation under ediamine and what the joy we know in our poverty and for you the blessings you have and the technical know how you have in running businesses and having electronic resources and having money let's thank the Lord and move ahead together and so I don't hear the need to for those of us who are in relative comfort if you will I don't hear the need to feel guilty coming from brother and sisters in Christ who are in different situations but I have heard at times warnings that you know let's not think that simply it's those of us who are in situations of poverty who are the only ones who are having to battle sin and struggle you know the struggle in the entrabments as we know no of comfort and a fluence you know the balance of enjoying the good gifts of God of thanking God for a good meal of enjoying an incredible baseball game some of you watched last night can you all believe that happened whatever it might be if you if you want to know after someone was can have a conference about that all those sorts of things enjoying the good gifts of God a while balancing that with inequities et cetera and temptations struggle that will never be able to leave I think and so to remember that who are we as the church you know who is the church in St. Louis we're made up of all sorts of different people to think that it's kind of just us right here or whatever that's losing side of the glory and magnificence and the challenge of who we are as the church of Jesus Christ in St. Louis in various parts of the world together one point of integration I think for many of us is going to come theologically and an intellectual sort of a way how to see if we can finish this and give some tips or pointers chapter two of for example I just want to selected other Westminster confession of faith just to put it in a personal way I have vowed that this is the system of doctrine which I believe or I sincerely receive and adopt this as a system of doctrine of the scriptures teach taken of public personal vow okay so when I read of God and of the Trinity there's about one only living in true God who is infinite and being in perfection a most pure spirit invisible without body parts or passions immutable immense eternally incomprehensible almighty must wise must holy must free most absolute working on things according to the council was only mutable and must righteous will for his own glory etc how to believe that embrace that glory in that while feeling the the what contrasting tone that this relatively precise language would have with other legitimate articulations of the nature of God again not that they would contradict each other but if anything else the tone would be different this was articulated in a particular setting and so when they said here that God is without passions that's in reference apparently to some specific philosophical construct of Spinoza is the meaning of that term it doesn't mean that God is not passionate I hope because God is very passionate and so how to recognize those contextual particularities to embrace this is true but not perhaps the all in all and nuance and tone nothing else is going to be part of articulating and integrating if you will the worldwide multi-form expression of the Christian faith in our local communities the need that we had in here to spell out the orthosolutus God elects God calls God brings God regenerates grants repentance he grants faith that's true I believe that that's what the scriptures teach and yet at the same time that might be the case that in some settings that don't have the same sort of need if you will to kind of scientifically delineate the precise order which those things happen would they need the same sort of articulation of confession of faith to work through that particular issue is going to be part of what it means in contextualizing and allowing for difference while holding passionately to what we confess to be true yes that's a good question that's a good question this is this is biblical but you don't see I don't think the Bible in this sort of a systematic way laying it out together and therefore as covenant seminary seeks to embody being exegetically driven not as opposed to but in comparison to systematically driven how settings will systematize if you will the exegetical outworking of how the God of the Bible comes to them and shows himself to them might not spell out in exact to the same systematic delineation that we're here that's a tricky sort of a proposition and not wanting to call into question as well the truthfulness of this but the form and the precise I'll stick with the word tone the precise tone in this sort of a way might not be fully appropriate as I'm saying yeah what about the rigidity of it compared to compassion I should have continued I didn't for time say when you continue most loving gracious merciful on suffering a button in goodness and truth forgiving iniquity transgression of sin etc well it's a delineation of of God in a way that is appropriate and true and yet what that's going to meet in other settings maybe could be a more fluid situation than we would want to to grant that's an excellent point how we read that and therefore I mean for them to think if it's not and it shouldn't be for us dry and rigid right okay we'll finish it out next Tuesday thank you