Towards Responsible Relationships in Mission (original) (raw)

International Review of Mission, 1997

Abstract

This issue of the International Review of Mission presents the report of a major consultation organized by Unit II on Churches in Mission of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Bangalore, India in May 1996. The purpose of the consultation was to bring together the results of the work of the unit during a period of more than three decades on promoting responsible relationships in mission. The lead essay in this issue is by John Brown, who sums up years of development of ecumenical missionary thought and practice of several churches around the world. It is an invaluable contribution. The quest for responsible relationships in mission, both locally and globally, arises out of two inter-related aspects of the life and vision of the churches. It is an outcome of both a practical desire for co-operation in mission for greater effectiveness, and of an ecumenical understanding of mission essentially as witness to God's ultimate purpose: uniting all people and all things to one another and to God's self in Christ Jesus. The practical quest for meaningful cooperation and responsible partnership in mission lies at the very birth of the modern ecumenical movement. Almost every conference on world mission and evangelism has called for ways and structures for mission that will tangibly witness to the purpose of God in uniting all human beings to God and to one another in Christ. It is worthwhile to hear again what the San Antonio conference in 1989 states on this vital concern. It first noted that "for more than a quarter of a century the quest for new models to express genuine partnership has been on the agenda of the WCC. Many excellent ideas have been expressed but not a great deal has happened." Then it moved on to state: As we search for models to incarnate our vision of renewed missionary relations, we affirm some guiding principles which could inspire attempts at practical application: * commitment to acting together wherever a common approach is required; * priority to relations from church to church rather than from church to missionary agency to agency; * promotion of global vision of mission in which the fullness of the reign of God is proclaimed and genuinely experienced; * transparency in relations and in the sharing of responsibilities; and * promotion of power-sharing and genuine reciprocity in all decision making. It continued to assert, "We are looking for models which reflect the guiding principles outlined above, for example, transformation of a missionary society through the transfer of power and funds to a common governing body in which all the partners - in both north and south - can share on a footing of real equality." I have quoted extensively from San Antonio for it sums up the sort of concerns that have guided an aspect of the work of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, and at present the Unit II of the WCC. In fact, since the early 1970s a full time staff person had been appointed with the primary responsibility of encouraging churches and mission agencies in the promotion of authentic styles of partnership in mission. Much has happened. Changes, even radical structural alteration, have taken place in many churches in their practice of mission. There is reason for rejoicing. Many churches in the south have themselves become missionary churches. Some of them have developed elaborate structures for mission; several mission agencies in Korea and India, for example, send out missionaries in large numbers. We recognize that churches around the world are responding in new ways to their missionary calling. New forms of missionary obedience is discerned. We cannot but thank God for this development. But this very development also intensifies the challenge for responsible mission and renders it all the more urgent and critical. For in many instances, these agencies from the south, as many more from the north, have not been sensitive to the presence or the concerns of the local churches in the places to which they go to work. …

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