| Christian Mission |
Website Links For Mission |
Information AboutChristian Mission |
|
A Christian mission has been widely defined, since the Lausanne Congress of 1974 , as that which is designed "to form a viable indigenous Church -planting movement." This definition is motivated by Theological analyses of the acts required to enhance God 's reputation (his "glory" or "honor" in the Christian vernacular). The definition is claimed to summarize the acts of Jesus ' ministry, which is taken as a model for all ministries. The motivation is said to be God's will, plainly stated throughout the Bible , including the Old Testament (see below). The movement must "plant" (start) churches because the process of forming Godly Disciple s is necessarily social. "Church" should be understood in the widest sense, as an organization of believers. It is not a building. Many churches start by meeting in houses. Discipling is required to grow the number of believers to the largest extent, and maximize their quality and therefore the acceptability of their worship to God and non-Christians. "Viable" means that it is self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. This is the famous "three-self" formula invented by Henry Venn of the London Church Missionary Society in the 19th Century . "Indigenous" means that fully native members of the culture have all the needed abilities and accept all the required duties. Only indigenes can fully adapt the Gospel to their culture, maximizing both natural, high-quality Worship and the number of people that can be reached in that culture. It must be a "movement," because special organization is required for the task of planting churches. This movement naturally forms cross-cultural missions, when persons who understand and accept church-planting duties go to people outside their culture, as Christ commanded in the Great Commission ( Matthew 28:18-20). Thus the cycle repeats. However, Christian missions can more broadly mean any activity in which Christians are involved for world Evangelization . In addition to theological doctrine, many missionaries promote Economic Development , Literacy , Education , Health Care and Orphanage s, believing these causes advance the glory of God. Christian doctrines (such as the "Doctrine of Love" professed by many missions) may permit the provision of aid without requiring religious conversion. HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN MISSIONS See also Timeline Of Christian Missions . According to the documents of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, the Biblical authority for missions begins quite early in is blessed so that through him and his descendants, all the "peoples" of the world would be blessed. Others point to God's wish, often expressed in the Bible, that all peoples of the earth would worship Him. Therefore, Christian missions go where worship is not, in order to bring worship to God. In this view, the early historical 67) as well as the nature of the Temple (its outer court was "the court of the gentiles"). Several teachers including John R. W. Stott believe that a prominent prophecy in the Old Testament often unfolds continually and is certainly manifested in three situations, an immediate historical situation following the prophecy, a church-based intermediate situation, and an eschatological, end-of-time situation. Of course, Gen. 12:1-3 is such a prominent passage. The first, and most famous Missionary was St. Paul . He contextualized the Gospel for the Greek and Roman cultures, permitting it to leave its Hebrew and Jewish context. This cultural fluidity was then, as it is now, a source of friction between he and some members of the sending church. In such Contextualization , the object is to take the essential seed of the Gospel, and plant it in the soil of the foreign culture, so that every practice not essential to the Gospel is indigenous. This permits the indigenous church to grow more rapidly by reducing cultural barriers to acceptance. In the early Christian era, most missions were by Monk s. Monasteries followed disciplines and supported missions, libraries and practical research, all of which were perceived as works to reduce human misery and suffering, thus enhancing the reputation of God. For example, Nestorian communities evangelized much of N. Africa before Muhammad . Cistercian s evangelized much of Northern Europe, as well as developing most of European agriculture's classic techniques. |
|
|