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Mission Continues Global Impulses for the 21St Century Claudia Wahr̈ Isch-Oblau University of Edinburgh, Ir [email protected]

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Mission Continues Global Impulses for the 21St Century Claudia Wahr̈ Isch-Oblau University of Edinburgh, Ir Wahrisch-Oblauc@Csl.Edu Concordia Seminary - Saint Louis Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary Edinburgh Centenary Series Resources for Ministry 1-1-2010 Mission Continues Global Impulses for the 21st Century Claudia Wahr̈ isch-Oblau University of Edinburgh, [email protected] Fidon Mwombeki University of Edinburgh, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholar.csl.edu/edinburghcentenary Part of the Missions and World Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Wahr̈ isch-Oblau, Claudia and Mwombeki, Fidon, "Mission Continues Global Impulses for the 21st Century" (2010). Edinburgh Centenary Series. Book 13. http://scholar.csl.edu/edinburghcentenary/13 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Resources for Ministry at Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. It has been accepted for inclusion in Edinburgh Centenary Series by an authorized administrator of Scholarly Resources from Concordia Seminary. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REGNUM EDINBURGH 2010 SERIES Mission Continues Global Impulses for the 21st Century REGNUM EDINBURGH 2010 SERIES Series Preface The Centenary of the World Missionary Conference, held in Edinburgh 1910, is a suggestive moment for many people seeking direction for Christian mission in the 21st century. Several different constituencies within world Christianity are holding significant events around 2010. Since 2005 an international group has worked collaboratively to develop an intercontinental and multi- denominational project, now known as Edinburgh 2010, and based at New College, University of Edinburgh. This initiative brings together representatives of twenty different global Christian bodies, representing all major Christian denominations and confessions and many different strands of mission and church life, to prepare for the Centenary. Essential to the work of the Edinburgh 1910 Conference, and of abiding value, were the findings of the eight think-tanks or ‘commissions’. These inspired the idea of a new round of collaborative reflection on Christian mission – but now focused on nine themes identified as being key to mission in the 21st century. The study process is polycentric, open-ended, and as inclusive as possible of the different genders, regions of the world, and theological and confessional perspectives in today’s church. The titles of the Edinburgh 2010 Series are divided into two categories: (1) the three official titles of Edinburgh 2010, and (2) publications of various study groups, including the Edinburgh 2010 main study groups, transversal, regional and different confessional study groups. These publications reflect the ethos of Edinburgh 2010 and will make a significant contribution to its study process. It should be clear that material published in this series will inevitably reflect a diverse range of views and positions. These will not necessarily represent those of the series’ editors or of the Edinburgh 2010 General Council, but in publishing them the leadership of Edinburgh 2010 hope to encourage conversation between Christians and collaboration in mission. All the series volumes are commended for study and reflection in both churches and academies. Series Editors Daryl Balia Edinburgh 2010, Edinburgh, UK Tony Gray Bound Biographies, Bicester, UK Knud Jorgensen Areopagos Foundation, Norway Kirsteen Kim Edinburgh 2010, Edinburgh, UK Wonsuk Ma Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford, UK A full listing of titles in this series appears at the end of this book REGNUM EDINBURGH 2010 SERIES Mission Continues Global Impulses for the 21st Century Edited by Claudia Währisch-Oblau and Fidon Mwombeki Copyright © Claudia Währisch-Oblau and Fidon Mwombeki 2010 First published 2010 by Regnum Books International Regnum is an imprint of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies St. Philip and St. James Church Woodstock Road Oxford, OX2 6HR, UK www.ocms.ac.uk/regnum 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The rights of Claudia Währisch-Oblau and Fidon Mwombeki to be identified as the Editors of this Work have been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a license permitting restricted copying. In the UK such licenses are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978-1-870345-82-8 Typeset by South View Lodge Publishing Services Ltd Printed and bound in Great Britain for Regnum Books International by TJ International Contents Foreword viii Preface xi Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 Claudia Währisch-Oblau And Fidon Mwombeki Part One: Foundations of Mission 5 Theological Foundations of Mission 7 Jerry Pillay Theological Foundation of Mission: An Asian Perspective 18 Mangisi Simorangkir A Biblical Perspective on Mission Amidst Unsustainable 28 Livelihoods in Africa Faustin Mahali Response by Roberta Rominger 36 UEM – For the Growth of the Church and the Transformation of the World: On the Dynamics in Theology and Organization of an Ecumenical Missionary Communion 38 Wilhelm Richebächer The Theology of Blessing in Missionary Preaching 51 Fidon Mwombeki Response by Sören Asmus 60 Part Two: Mission Spirituality 63 The Holy Spirit and Mission in the Church Today: The Acts of the Apostles Reconsidered 65 Priscille Djomhoué Mission Spirituality 73 Roberta Rominger Toward a Liturgical Approach to Re-Routing Missions: Resistance Missiology and Liturgics in The Philippine Setting 82 Ferdinand A. Anno Part Three: The Charismatic Challenge 93 The Challenges of Charismatic Movements to the Mainline Historical Churches in Africa 95 Abednego Keshomshahara Healing in Relation to Ministry and Evangelism 107 Kingsley Weerasinghe Responses by Mangisi Simorangkir and Chediel Sendoro 113 Part Four: Mission and JPIC 115 Our Common Mission: To Protect Human Dignity by Promoting Human Rights and the Rule of Law 117 Jochen Motte Response by Victor Aguilan 123 Christ, Creation and Community: Biblical Witness and Praxis 124 Yak-Hwee Tan Response by Faustin Mahali 135 Peacemaking an Essential Element of Church Mission: A United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) Perspective 136 Victor R. Aguilan Part Five: Mission and Culture (A) In the European Context 149 The Church and Religious Seekers in a Pluralistic Society – The German Case 151 Sören Asmus From a Mediaeval and Modern to a Post-Modern Theology 160 Reiner Knieling Local Church Development – An Instrument of Change for Missionary Churches 168 Jutta Beldermann “Whoever Can Speak Will Always Find Their Way”: Experiences of an African Missionary in Germany 179 Jean-Gottfried Mutombo Mission and Church Unity: Migrant Churches in Germany as a Challenge to the Landeskirchen 186 Claudia Währisch-Oblau Response by Abednego Keshomshahara 196 (B) In Asia 197 Crossing the Boundaries: Retelling the Story of my Journey into Christianity 199 Anwar Tjen Response by Jutta Beldermann 206 (B) In Africa 209 Health and Healing: The Maasai Prophet Isaia Orishi Ole Ndokote and his Evangelistic Mission in Kenya and Tanzania 211 Christel Kiel Response by Ferdinand Anno 219 Reconciliation and Avenging Spirits 223 Reinhard Veller Responses by Christel Kiel and Victor Aguilan 231 Part Six: Mission and Other Religions 233 Straightway Chapel – A Charismatic Theology of Mission to Muslims in Ghana? 235 Andreas Heuser Missionary Outreach in Zanzibar: An All-Night Toil Without a Catch? 245 Chediel E. Sendoro Mission in a Multi-Religious Society: The Mission Concept of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia 255 Erick Johnson Barus Index 265 Contributors 268 INTRODUCTION Claudia Währisch-Oblau and Fidon Mwombeki In May 2009, 35 theologians from Asia, Africa and Europe met in Wuppertal, Germany, for a consultation on mission theology organized by the United Evangelical Mission: Communion of 35 Churches in Three Continents (www.vemission.org/en.) The aim was to participate in the 100th anniversary of the Edinburgh conference through a study process, and therefore reflect on the challenges for mission in the 21st century. We decided not to invite renowned experts, but to have an open invitation through a call for papers, so that even practicing mission experts not yet well- known would have an opportunity to share their expertise. From the 60 paper proposals received 25 were invited for the consultation, together with a small number of mission practitioners who did not present papers. Invitations were also sent to theologians from the member churches of the Council for World Mission (CWM) and the Communauté Evangélique d’Action Apostolique (Cevaa), partner organizations of UEM that are also communities of churches in mission. We decided not to predetermine a theme or motto for the consultation but to allow various themes on mission to emerge from the papers themselves and thus to allow wide-ranging discussions. Indeed the papers were varied; each drew strong reactions, lively and even controversial debates. We were able to discover common concerns transcending very different contexts. The collection of papers in this book has been taken from the papers delivered at the Wuppertal consultation. In some cases, short responses by one or two of the consultation participants were added to
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