The Asian Vision of Mission Today (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Mission of the Church in Asia and Beyond
Dave Johnson-The Mission of the Church in Asia and Beyond, 2023
In this edition, we will take a broad, up-to-date look at the mission of the Church in Asia and beyond as it relates to worship, care for its members, ministerial training and engagement, and ministry to the world. The complexity of encountering our swiftly changing world with the timeless claims of Jesus Christ is reflected in the fact that Christianity is more global than it has ever been. This then requires engagement with a multitude of other cultures, global and local religions, and a host of other matters, including the rapid, technology-driven changes impacting our Global Village. Monte Lee Rice leads this edition with a discussion on Pentecostal worship, with a slightly different twist on a theology of one of Pentecostalism's traditionally strong foci, the altar. Noting Pentecostalism's tendency to focus more on doing than reflecting, he notes that little has been done to develop a theology of the altar. Rice's twist here is to see the altar call as a "foundational liturgical rite," a description that would likely have been frowned upon by early Pentecostals, but Rice makes a good case for his point of view. He posits the altar call in the Azusa Street Revival's salvation theology discourse as not only "effecting charismatic experience, but also fostering social inclusiveness" in responding to God together. He goes on to argue that at the altar, believers offer themselves as a sacrifice to God for use in his Kingdom to bring his hope to a hurting world. In doing so, he contends, "we discharge the priestly work (leitourgia) of invoking Holy Spirit outpouring on our offerings of thanksgiving to Christ, who commissions us for God's saving purpose." Jemon Subang's article brings into focus the mission of the church as a corporate body, seeking to edify and build up its members. The specific issue for Subang is the controversy over whether churches should continue online services in the post-pandemic era. While there are some undeniable advantages to online worship, such as ministering to those who are ill and unable to come or those who have never heard the gospel or for some other reason would not consider attending a church, there are also some significant drawbacks. This is what Subang
2004
Abstract: This essay seeks to investigate the mission theology of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences (FABC) as presented in its official documents during the past three decades of its existence and evaluate its implications. In its official documents, the FABC has proceeded on the basis that the Asian milieu, with its rich diversity and plurality of religions, cultures and philosophical worldviews require a distinctively Asian approach to the proclamation of the Gospel that is sensitive to such diversity and pluralism.
The rapid growth of communication facilities and a wider practice of travelling to other countries for pleasure and learning, have contributed to the acceptance of the idea that humanity can survive only if we accept the concept of peaceful coexistence. With the arrival of pluralism on the International scene, now the Christian and other religious missions are faced with the urgent need for rediscovering the meaning of “mission” in the context of a stable awareness of a pluralistic world-view. Necessarily in a religiously pluralistic society such as exists in India today the relevance of the Gospel is realised in the course of dialogues between Christians and people of other faith and ideologies. The situational context demands that we should redefine “missions” for making it more relevant and meaningful.
Global Missiology English, 2011
In the religiously pluralism came with globalization in our modern time. Following the trend of our time, there seems to be a search for a "theology of religions" by way of "paradigm shift:-from Christo-centrism to Theo-centrism. According the "Frankfurt Statement" which reflected Karl Barth's theology and its position, all religions are the attempt of human sin to rob God's revelation and salvation, and are unfaithful as godless, human affairs. 1 Therefore religious pluralists criticize Barthian Christo-centrism. If we consider this, Barth's Christo-centric revelation idea means that there is an essential self assertion of Christianity, just as other religions have their own doctrines and the self assertions. And the revelation of Christ includes exclusiveness of salvation. However, this understanding has a weak point, i.e. Christianity shows no interest in other religions. Consequently, the problem of exclusiveness and universalism (in Christianity in general and in Barthian theology in particular) is to be solved. I. CONTROVERSY OVER THE THEOLOGY OF RELIGION To solve this problem, some scholars advocate a theo-centrism. G. Rosenkranz, J. Hick, U. Schoen and P. F. Knitter are its representative scholars. 2 A Japanese religious philosopher who changed to the position of religious pluralism is Yagi Seiichi. 3 But the theo-centralism served to dissolve the identity of Christ into relativism and to shake the Trinitarian structure by the relativizing of Christ. On the other hand, Knitter insists that a dialog between religions should be based on personal religious experiences and a steadfast demand for truth. But it is particularity limited by relativism.
"Toronto offers remarkable opportunities to supply retroductive warrants regarding the world Christian revitalization, particularly in the case of Asian reality and those otherwise ignored as non-persons, as sinners, victims, or followers of alien religions. Retroductively generated arguments regarding world Christian revitalization presented here stem from two in-depth case studies presented earlier in this volume. The first is the Rahab Project, which focuses on the largely Chinese migrant women used as workers in massage parlors throughout Toronto. The second is the Jesus Network, which opens the Christian story to members of the largest, most densely populated, and largely Muslim, South and Central Asian migrant community in Toronto. Both cases are about Asian migrants, both are easily and readily overlooked on the economic, social, and religious scene in Toronto, and yet both represent a critical dimension of reality with which world Christian revitalization must contend."
Theological Themes of Asian Christianity for the Inmediate Future
While Christianity has been in Asia for the most part of the last five centuries, it was only in the last five or so decades that we have come to appreciate more positively the contribution of what is now known as Asian Christianity. Prior to that the Christian face in Asia was more in the image of European Christianity as colonial churches did no more than replicate the beliefs and practices of the churches of their colonial masters. The last 50 years, however, have seen a proliferation of new thinking emerging from Asia, giving rise to a variety of contextual interpretations of theology, especially those which resonate more amicably with the peoples, cultures, and religions of Asia. To that end the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) has played a major role in spearheading the reflections. Premised on the supposition that theology is a dynamic and ongoing reflective process, which is always in critical correlation and conversation with the realities and issues of the contexts and the times, we cannot but surmise that there is still much to be done in the task of developing an Asian Christian tradition that speaks to not only the minds but also the hearts and souls of Christians and their neighbors in Asia. Under the generic rubric of " where do we go next? " this brief article will identify three major themes (and the related sub-themes within each of them) that F r o m A s i a n E A T W O T A u s t r a l i a With its mind set on the new EATWOT leadership quinquen-nium, this reflection from Australia takes the floor, inviting all other regions to participate in the dance / dialogue / debate. Yours are welcomen.
Sedos Bulletin, 2014
AsIPA was developed after the Fifth General Assembly of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences in 1990 in Bandung, Indonesia. Concrete efforts started in 1991. The Asian Bishops favoured a vision of the Church along the lines of Vatican II: as “People of God”, and a “Pilgrim Church”, and this has developed to become a Church of Communion; being aware that communion and mission are intrinsically connected to one another. As Gerard Kelly puts it, these “interpenetrate and mutually imply each other, to the point that communion represents both the source and the fruit of mission. Communion gives rise to mission and mission is accomplished in communion”