Earlier this month I attended the Asian Pacific Baptist Fellowship meeting in Singapore. Much of my time was spent in dialogue around missional practices and how they are being lived out in Asia.

One presenter, Dr. F. Hrangkhuma of India, began his presentation with the following introduction:

“After almost two millenniums of Christian missions starting from Jerusalem, the majority of people in today’s world still do not name Jesus as their Lord and savior. Asia, the birth place of Jesus and where Christianity has its beginning, still post the greatest need of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many people groups are still to be reached with the Gospel. For example, the gospel reached India in the first century, China around 635 AD, Japan in 1549, and most of the Asia Pacific countries received the Gospel in the 19^th Century. Some areas received the Gospel in the early parts of the 20^th century. But as a whole the entire Christian population in Asia is about 3% only. Has something gone wrong? Why, especially the people of Asia, are so hard to convince that Jesus Christ is the only Savior? Has something gone wrong with our missionary communication? Or is it not God’s intention to save all? Or is God’s intention only to preach the good news to every nation before the end for a witness (Mt. 24:14)? and leave the rest to God? What constitutes successful Christian mission? We need to ask relevant missional questions for every age and every situation. What is the nature and characteristics of our age in our particular context? How should we share and communicate the Gospel of the Kingdom most effectively to people today?”

Follow this introduction a discussion to the posed questions began with a listing of lessons learned (positive and negative) from the Western Missionary Movement of the last two centuries: Negatives included:

• The missionaries had a superiority complex
• They took a dim view of the “pagan” religions
• They failed to differentiate between Christianity and western cultures
• They exported denominationalism along with the gospel
• They failed to indigenize Christianity
• They were guilty of short sighted paternalism
• They were unwise in their use of western funds
• They were too closely identified with the colonial system

Positives included:

• The missionaries loved the people
• They developed a genuine appreciation for the indigenous cultures
• They learned the indigenous language and reduced many of them into written form for the first time
• They translated the Scriptures
• They provided modern scientific education for the people of the Third World
• They were the first to believe in the potential of the ‘natives”
• They opened hospitals, clinics and medical schools
• They introduced social and political reforms
• They formed a bridge between the West and the East
• They planted the church in nearly every country in the world

 Two Mission Principles were identified and discussed. One is contextualization or inculturation. These terms, though having different origins, were treated as synonymous. Contextualization/inculturation is the outcome of the interaction between the Gospel and human culture. For the benefitual and meaningful interaction between Christianity with human culture, Gospel presentation or transmission must be meaningful to the people in their own cultural context. For this to occur the communicators must use symbols that are familiar and understandable by the receptors. The outcome of a meaningful communication and sharing of the Gospel is the birth of the church, a formation of the people of God in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit. And if this church is to be dynamic and maturing, it should continue to meaningfully interact with the entire context in which the church exists and functions. The second is the concept of holism in mission. God’s mission is holistic in nature and our participation can not but be holistic as well. In holistic mission, evangelism, social and ecological concerns are integral parts of the totality of mission and even depend on each other. In other words, saving souls, discipling and church planting are parts of the whole that consciously include social and ecological transformation.

If the purpose of mission is the spread of the Kingdom of God on earth, where its righteousness and values leaven the nations and God’s will is done increasingly among believers and among the nations of the world, then there are lessons (positive and negative) which must be learned from the past. There is also the need to make every effort that missions is done will with a focus on the proper result. When this is done the signs of the kingdom will be seen in the increase of justice, equality, and peace among the nations as well as the maintenance of the integrity of the creation.

Harry Rowland