CONTENTS THEME: the Whole Church E

ERT cover 34-1 5/11/09 14:31 Page 1

CONTENTS THEME: The Whole Church E

‘The Whole Church’ A Statement of the Lausanne Theology Work- V ing Group A N

page 4 G E

‘The Whole Church’—Brief Biblical Survey L I C

CHRIS WRIGHT A

page 14 L R

Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission E V I

CHARLES (CHUCK) VAN ENGEN E page 29 W The Whole Church as a Transformed and Transforming Society O F

DEWI HUGHES T H

page 44 E Ethnicity and the People of God O L MILTON ACOSTA O G

page 58 Y

Case Studies: V ‘Unwanted Sectarians’: Spirit, Migration and Mission in an African-led Mega-Size O Articles and book reviews reflecting L

Church in Eastern Europe U

M global evangelical theology for the purpose J. KWABENA ASAMOAH-GYADU page 71 E

New Faces of the Church: An Indian Case Study 3 of discerning the obedience of faith AUL OSHUA HAKIARAJ 4 P J B page 79 , Lessons from My Daughter: Reflections of Church and Ethics N O J.DANIEL SALINAS page 84 1

Way of Hope in Cambodia , J STEPHAN J. BAUMAN page 88 a n

A Neopentecostal Experience of Aimara People u a

ARCELO ARGAS r M V page 92 y 2 0 1 0

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ABSTRACTS/INDEXING This journal is abstracted in Religious and Theological Abstracts, 121 South College Street (P.O. Box 215), Myerstown, PA 17067, USA, and in the Christian Periodical Index, P.O. Box 4, Cedarville, OH NEW INTERNATIONAL BIBLICAL COMMENTARY 45314, USA. The New International Biblical Commentary, based on the NIV translation, offers the best It is also indexed in the ATLA Religion Database, published by the American Theological Library of contemporary scholarship in a format that both general readers and serious students Association, 300 S. Wacker Dr., Suite 2100, Chicago, IL 60606 USA, E-mail: [email protected], Web: can use with profit. www.atla.com/ NEW TITLES: MICROFORM This journal is available on Microform from UMI, 300 North Zeeb Road, P.O. Box 1346, Ann Arbor, Exodus (NIBC) MI 48106-1346, USA. Phone: (313)761-4700 James K. Bruckner ‘James K. Bruckner has produced an excellent commentary on the book of Exodus. It is clearly Subscriptions 2010 written, suitable for both student and scholar, and judiciously makes use of the best and most up-to-date resources for the study of this crucial biblical book.’ Institutions and Libraries Individuals Terence Fretheim, Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary USA & Elsewhere USA & Elsewhere Period ‘A commentary that does justice to the theological message of the Exodus story while at the UK Canada Overseas UK Canada Overseas same time engaging in a close and critical reading of the text . . . He has encompassed the One Year: breadth of recent scholarship on Exodus and rendered a commentary that is both readable and hard copy £55.00 $100.00 £60.00 £37.00 $67.00 £40.00 wise.’ electronic version £55.00 $100.00 £60.00 £37.00 $67.00 £40.00 Bruce Birch, Professor of Old Testament, Wesley Theological Seminary joint subscription £67.00 $120.00 £72.00 £44.00 $80.00 £48.00 James K. Bruckner is Professor of Old Testament at North Park Theological Seminary, Chocago. Two/Three Years, per year 978-1-56563-212-7 / 216 x 140mm / 366pp / £12.99 hard copy £50.00 $90.00 £54.00 £33.00 $60.00 £36.00 electronic version £50.00 $90.00 £54.00 £33.00 $60.00 £36.00 Jeremiah & Lamentations (NIBC) joint subscription £60.00 $108.00 £65.00 £40.00 $72.00 £44.00 Tremper Longman III All subscriptions to: ‘Longman has added another fine commentary to his credit with this volume in the NIBC series. Paternoster Periodicals, c/o AlphaGraphics, 6 Angel Row, Nottingham NG1 6HL UK The complexity and sheer volume of Jeremiah-Lamentations are well known, but Longman’s Tel: UK 0800 597 5980; Fax: 0115 852 3601 presentation controls the material admirably, while also producing an extremely accessible, Tel Overseas: +44 (0)115 852 3614; Fax +44 (0)115 852 3601 manageable commentary.’ Email [email protected] Subscriptions can be ordered online at: Peter Enns, Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Hermeneutics, Westminster Theological www.paternosterperiodicals.com (USA and Canada subscribers only) Seminary www.paternosterperiodicals.co.uk (UK and all other international locations) Tremper Longman III is Robert H. Gundry Professor of Biblical Studies at Westmont College, Special Offer California. He is the author of numerous books on the Old Testament. All orders placed via our websites will receive a 5% discount off the total price. Rates displayed on the websites will reflect this discount 978-1-85364-735-2 / 216 x 140mm / 430pp / £12.99

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EDITOR: JUSTIN THACKER

Volume 34 • Number 1 • January 2010 Articles and book reviews reflecting global evangelical theology for the purpose of discerning the obedience of faith

Published by

for WORLD EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE Theological Commission ISSN: 0144-8153 Volume 34 No. 1 January 2010

Editor Justin Thacker

Committee The Executive Committee of the WEA Theological Commission Dr Justin Thacker, Chairman

Editorial Policy The articles in the Evangelical Review of Theology reflect the opinions of the authors and reviewers and do not necessarily represent those of the Editor or the Publisher.

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Typeset by Toucan Design, 25 Southernhay East, Exeter EX1 1NS and Printed in Great Britain for Paternoster Periodicals, PO Box 300, Carlisle, Cumbria CA3 0QS by AlphaGraphics, 6 Angel Row, Nottingham NG1 6HL ERT (2010) 34:1, 3 Editorial: ‘The Whole Church’—Reflections of the Lausanne Theology Working Group THE LAUSANNE Theology Working Rather, we were asking—what do we Group hosted a consultation in mean by the phrase ‘The Whole Panama, 26-30 January, 2009. 25 peo- Church’—in relation to all that we ple from around the world convened, understand to be the identity, role and and worked together around 4 plenary functions of the church within the mis- papers and 18 case studies, which pro- sion of God for the sake of the world? vided us with a very wide variety of per- When the phrase was first used, it is spectives on what God is doing through possible that ‘the whole church’ was his church in the world. intended simply to mean, ‘all Chris- Each morning we studied 1 Peter tians’. The main point of Lausanne’s call together, drawing on its rich teaching was to insist that evangelization was the on what it means to be God’s church in task of the whole church (all Christians), the world. We found this constantly not just of the clergy or professional mis- integrated with our wider discussions. sionaries. However, the expression The topic, ‘The Whole Church’ is raises a variety of questions about the the second in a series of consultations wholeness of the church in relation to its on the theological significance of the mission. ‘Whole’ has qualitative signifi- three phrases of the Lausanne cance as well as quantitative. So we Covenant, ‘The whole church taking the framed the papers, case-studies, and dis- whole gospel to the whole world’. The cussion sessions in our consultation first consultation took place in Febru- around six broad themes which are ary 2008 in Chiang Mai on ‘The Whole reflected in the papers that follow: Gospel’, and the third will take place in 1. The whole church in the whole Bible February 2010 in Beirut. The findings 2. The whole church as a transformed of the first consultation were published and transforming society in the January 2009 edition of the 3. The whole church as a people com- Evangelical Review of Theology. The mitted to wholeness (in the midst of findings of the second are published in multiple brokenness and divisions this edition, and the third and final vol- in the world and within the church) ume will be published in October 2010. 4. The whole church called to be a Together, they comprise part of the blessing to all nations—even (espe- contribution of the Theology Working cially) in contexts of exile and Group to the preparation for Lausanne migration III Congress, Cape Town 2010. 5. The whole church and mission Since our focus was strongly on the strategies Lausanne phrase, our angle of 6. The whole church in its bewildering approach to all that we tackled was diversity (from mega church to hid- missional. That is to say, we were not den believers) attempting to discuss or define an Chris Wright, Chair Lausanne exhaustive systematic ecclesiology. Theology Working Group ERT (2010) 34:1, 4-13 ‘The Whole Church’: Statement of the Lausanne Theology Working Group

KEY WORDS: Church, Gospel, Though our discussions around all World, Mission, Apostolic, Holy, the papers and case studies ranged Catholic very widely, we found it helpful to arrange our reflections and findings around the four great terms used to Introduction describe the church in the Nicene Creed, since it became clear that each ‘Salvation belongs to our God’ one of them has strong missional sig- ‘You will be my people’ ‘The earth is the Lord’s’ nificance: one holy catholic The starting point for our ecclesiology ‘We believe in , , apostolic must be the same as for our theology of and church…’ mission and for our understanding of We also found it encouraging that a the world. Mission, the church, and the more recent statement of faith includes world all belong to God. The concept of mission strongly in its effort to define missio Dei reminds us that our mission the nature and purpose of the church. flows from the mission of God, for sal- The church stands in continuity vation belongs to God. Similarly, the with God’s people in the Old concept of ecclesia Dei reminds us that Testament, called through the church derives its identity and pur- Abraham to be a light to the pose from the God who called us and nations, shaped and taught through created us as a people for himself. the law and the prophets to be a community of holiness, compassion and justice, and redeemed through Mission is God’s. The church the cross and resurrection of Jesus is God’s. The world is God’s. Christ. The church exists to wor- Our doctrine of God, in all its Trinitar- ship and glorify God for all eternity ian richness, must govern our ecclesi- and is commissioned by Christ and ology. The opening of 1 Peter reminds empowered by the Holy Spirit to us of our identity in relation to the participate in the transforming mis- work of God the Father, Son and Holy sion of God within history. Spirit. The rest of the epistle makes it (from the new Tearfund Statement clear that what we do as a church flows of Faith, adopted in 2007). integrally and inseparably from who we are as church. Being and doing cannot be torn apart. We are called to be who A. One we are, and to live out what we are. We give thanks that the one church is A Statement of the Lausanne Theology Working Group 5

God’s church and not our own, and from those who are most different hence finds its identity and purpose in from ourselves. the one God and King who called it into 2. We give thanks that the one church being and reigns over it as Lord. Bibli- that God has called into being in cally, the church is one in relation to the Christ is drawn from every nation, one living God (for he alone is its cre- tribe, people and language, with ator, redeemer and Lord, sustaining, the result that no single ethnic sanctifying and indwelling it by his one identity can any longer claim to be Spirit); one in relation to Christ (for it ‘God’s chosen people’. God’s elec- includes all who are in Christ); one tion of Old Testament Israel was throughout history (for it includes all for the sake of the eventual cre- whom God has called to himself in all ation of this multi-national commu- ages, before and after the incarnation); nity of God’s people, and the Old and one in all the biblical pictures of it Testament itself envisages and (there is, e.g., only one household of anticipates it. We observed again God; only one bride of Christ; only one how prominently 1 Peter applies vine; only one priesthood and temple; terms and truths that were used in only one flock; only one body—the the Old Testament to describe body of Christ). All of these truths we Israel to the multi-ethnic communi- found illustrated again in 1 Peter. ty of those in Christ. It is vital that 1. Yet we confess that often we under- we strongly affirm, therefore, that stand church according to our own while there are multiple ethnicities limited perspectives. We easily within the one church by God’s clear approve of the congregation or tra- intention, no single ethnic group dition in which we participate, but holds privileged place in God’s econo- fail to recognize the wider reality of my of salvation or God’s eschatologi- God’s church in many different cul- cal purpose. For this reason, we tures and forms, including those strongly believe that the separate that are strange and even disturb- and privileged place given to ing to us. We repent of this and Jewish people today or to the mod- seek to cultivate the spirit of ern Israeli state in certain forms of Barnabas who, when confronted in dispensationalism or Christian Antioch with a new and cosmopoli- Zionism, should be challenged, tan manifestation of following inasmuch as they deny the essen- Jesus, ‘when he saw the grace of tial oneness of the people of God in God, he was glad’ (Acts 11:23). We Christ. urge Lausanne to go on being a forum 3. We confess that ethnocentrism still where all kinds and ways of being the manifests itself in the global church in mission can be recognized, church, tempting us to consider our embraced and affirmed, not without own cultural, national, or tribal mutual critique and accountability, identity as superior to others. This but certainly without instant rejec- fundamentally denies the oneness tion and condemnation of what is of the church in Christ, and should unfamiliar. We have most to learn be challenged with renunciation 6 The Whole Church

and repentance, since it is the root as fundamentally false and damag- of so much conflict even among ing, or at best questionable. There Christians. are doubtless more. 4. We rejoice in the phenomenal • Being and doing. The Bible calls growth of the church in the majori- us to live out who we are. ty world of the global south, and for • Word and deed. Both are essen- that reason we understand the tial parts of Christian life and intention of the statement that the witness, as our study of 1 Peter ‘centre of gravity’ of world repeatedly showed (especially 1 Christianity has shifted to the Pet. 3). As Newbigin put it, the south. However, we strongly dis- church by its life and actions is courage the further use of this to be the hermeneutic, or the term, for two reasons. First, plausibility structure of the Christianity has no centre but Jesus gospel. We will be heard Christ. We are defined by no geo- because of our deeds as well as graphical centre, but only by our our words. allegiance to the Lordship of • Evangelism and social action (or Christ, and he is Lord of all the any form of Christian ‘action’). earth. The ‘centre’, therefore, is We believe that the struggle to wherever he is worshipped and articulate the relationship obeyed. Secondly, any talk of a cen- between these two was made tre (other than Christ) undermines necessary in the second half of the fact that Christianity, even the 20th century because of the since the book of Acts, has always mistaken separation of them been fundamentally polycentric. that had taken place in the first Anywhere on earth can be a centre, half. That is why we say we need and any centre can rapidly become to go back behind this dichoto- peripheral. The global nature of the my. In our view, they are both church as ‘one throughout the whole integral to biblical mission—in wide world’ subverts the language of the sense that while they may be a centre—whether geographical, conceptually distinguished, they numerical, or missionary. Mission is cannot be separated. The rela- from everywhere to everywhere. tion between them is intrinsic 5. The church as ‘one’ also speaks of and organic, as much as the integration. Repeatedly in our con- relationship, say, between sultation we found ourselves long- breathing and drinking in the ing to move beyond the dichotomies human body. It makes little that so often and sadly divide us. Or sense to speak of either having rather, in most cases, to move back priority or primacy. Both are behind them to an evangelical integral parts of what it means understanding of the church in to be alive! Without either, there which such dichotomies are seen as is death. We therefore urge invalid in principle. These are some Lausanne to affirm an integral dichotomies we need to recognize understanding of mission that A Statement of the Lausanne Theology Working Group 7

inseparably includes both, rather and a task. It is a status and a than continuing chicken-and-egg responsibility. It is ontological and debates about how they relate. ethical. The church is the commu- • Church and para-church: We won- nity of those whom God has set der if there is more argument apart for himself, and ‘made holy’ about this distinction among (Lev. 22:32; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:2). mission agencies and church But it is also the community called bodies than exists in the mind of to ‘be holy’, in every aspect of life God, or in biblical concepts. on earth (Lev. 18:3-5; 19:2; 1 Pet. While recognizing that there are 1:15-16). Sanctification (like salva- valid pragmatic or functional tion), thus has a past, present and distinctions that may be made future tense. Once again we affirm for the sake of good order and the integration of being and doing. administration, we need to We are to live what we are. In this affirm the biblical truth that respect, holiness is also essentially ‘where two or three are gath- missional, for it describes an identity ered’ in the name of Christ, he is and a life that is grounded in the char- there, and the church is there— acter and mission of God. one, holy, catholic and apostolic. 2. So, we give thanks that God has 6. The oneness of the church must called us, redeemed us and sancti- also be seen as an integral part of fied us to be holy in his sight. We the plan of God for the whole cre- observed in our study of 1 Peter ation. It has a prophetic and escha- (where we find the strongest New tological dimension. Paul sees the Testament echo of the Old oneness of the church as the prophetic Testament command to ‘be holy, sign of that reconciled unity that will for God is holy’), that there is a one day be true for all humanity and very powerful emphasis on ‘doing all creation in Christ (Eph. 1:10, 22- good’ (the phrase, or equivalent 23; Col. 1:15-20). Our concern for ‘doing right’, occurs 10 times in the unity of the church (and all the this one letter). And this manifesta- practical, ethical, ecumenical etc. tion of practical holiness—even by implications of that), must there- suffering believers, or believers in fore be seen as also intrinsic to our oppressive contexts (such as slaves understanding of what we mean by or wives of unbelieving masters or ‘the whole church’ in its mission. It husbands)—was expected to be is significant that Peter includes evangelistically fruitful. Holy living, the command to ‘live in harmony through doing good, is integrated with one another’ (1 Pet. 3:8) with- with ‘giving an answer to everyone in a chapter that refers to positive who asks you to give the reason of witness to unbelievers. the hope that you have’. In 1 Pet. 4:8-11, speaking the word of God is B. Holy integrated with serving, loving, 1. The holiness of God’s people is offering hospitality, and all as a both a fact and a duty. It is a given ministry of God’s grace, in God’s 8 The Whole Church

strength, for God’s glory. In other and ideologies that militate against words, holiness is integral to mission. biblical holiness (which demands Good evangelism happens when distinctiveness from the world Christians do good things as the fruit around). Among these (but not of holiness. The integration of word exhaustively), we identified the fol- and deed is powerfully visible in lowing forms of idolatry that evan- this scripture. gelical Christians often participate 3. Yet we confess our failure in mani- in, or find ways of condoning: festing such missional holiness in • Consumerism or materialistic at least the following ways: greed (when we exalt prosperity • We have failed to include the over generosity); fact and the demand of holiness • Nationalism or patriotism (when as an integral part of our mis- we prioritize our own nation’s sional outreach, when we put interests and agenda above the exclusive emphasis on evange- seeking first the kingdom of lism and give insufficient atten- God); tion to making disciples. • Violence (when we forget Jesus’ Repeatedly ‘the Great warnings about the sword and Commission’ is understood only his commendation of peace-mak- as an evangelistic mandate, ing); when the explicit command is to • Ethnic pride (when we let the ‘make disciples’, and the prima- blood of ethnic identity be thick- ry means is by ‘teaching them to er than the water of baptism in observe all that I have com- Christ); manded you’—i.e. practical obe- • Selfishness (when we ignore dience to the teaching of Jesus. international and structural • We tolerate within the church a injustice that creates and per- whole range of unholy, ungodly, petuates poverty, or put short unChristlike behaviours, with- term convenience above the out recognizing that they pollute needs of future generations); our ecclesiology and undermine • Gender injustice (when we privi- our mission. There are many lege male over female, and varieties of such unholiness ignore the oppression of women across different cultures, but within and outside the church). they need to be recognized and In all such matters, we see the need addressed in humility. for the church itself to seek repen- 4. We give thanks that God’s work of tance, forgiveness and reconciliation, sanctification applies to every area and to pray for a more prophetic and of life, including (for example) our missional holiness of life and witness. care of creation, use of money, gen- 5. To speak of the holiness of the der relationships, our ethnic identi- church is to speak of the eternal ty and political choices. Yet we con- purpose for which God has created fess that we have allowed our- it—namely to be his people, for his selves to be captivated by idolatries glory, for all eternity in the new A Statement of the Lausanne Theology Working Group 9

creation; and also it is to speak of from all generations of human his- the historical purpose of the tory who will populate the new cre- church, which is called to partici- ation); and universal in the eyes of pate as God’s holy (distinct) people God (for the Lord knows those who in God’s mission within history for are his, whether they are visible to the redemption of humanity and us or not). creation. 2. We give thanks for the rich diversi- However, we confess that we ty that God has built into the whole often reduce that teleological church. Such diversity frequently understanding of the church (that stretches us beyond our relatively the church exists for the eternal narrow experience or understand- and historical purposes of God for ing of church, but it is a vital bibli- his whole creation), into an instru- cal part of the church’s catholicity. mental understanding of the Yet we confess that often we fail church, as if churches exist only to to recognize the full contribution serve an agenda that is all too often that is brought to the church by all imposed upon them by other agen- those whom God has called to cies. belong to it. In our consultation we Of course every church ought to particularly considered the follow- understand and live out its essen- ing, whose contribution may be tially missional identity as God’s undervalued, diminished, over- holy people in the world. But we looked, or even prevented: want to stress that the church exists for God, and should not be • women; used as a convenient local fran- • persons with disabilities (or ‘dif- chise for the delivery of external ferently-abled’); strategies, objectives and targets. • immigrants; • indigenous or primal cultures; C. Catholic • ‘insider movements’. 1. The word ‘catholic’ in the creed Case studies concerning these speaks of the universal church, or groups or movements stimulated the church ‘as a whole’. It is an our reflection and some will be pub- appropriate word to have in mind lished later. when we use the Lausanne expres- When such groups are allowed sion ‘The whole church’, for (or forced) to remain voiceless or ‘wholeness’ is intrinsic to catholic- invisible, then we lose the whole- ity. ness of God’s church. We rejoice to affirm the biblical In so many ways, we fail to truths that the church of God is uni- appreciate the catholicity of the versal in its membership (for it is church by intentionally or unwit- open to people from any and every tingly excluding from our con- nation); universal in its extent (for it sciousness those whom God him- knows no geographical boundary); self has included within his church. universal in time and eternity (for it To this extent, our failure to appreci- includes all God’s people drawn ate and act upon the full catholicity of 10 The Whole Church

the church damages and diminishes with its most vocal and visible lead- the effectiveness of our mission. ers. Such a mindset is very danger- 3. We rejoice in the biblical teaching ous for those who are elevated and that God has given a great variety celebrated in that way, and very of differing gifts and callings and disabling for the rest of God’s peo- ministries to his universal church, ple. Commitment to catholicity for the benefit of all and for the includes commitment to the priest- equipping of God’s people for min- hood of all believers, and priesthood istry and mission (1 Pet. 4:10-11). is fundamentally missional, since it We need to embrace this teaching involves bringing God to the world more positively and avoid our ten- and bringing the world to God. And dency to elevate one form of gifting that is a task for the whole church (1 above another, or to relegate some Pet. 2:9-12) forms of calling or ministry to sec- We also need to remind our- ondary levels of importance— selves constantly that the biblical whether to God, or to God’s mis- prescription and pattern for leaders sion through the church. within God’s people is not one of Since the Spirit of God, the one power and prominence, but of who gives and empowers all gifts Christlike servanthood and humili- and ministries within the church, ty (this point is most strongly has been poured out on God’s ser- emphasized in 1 Pet. 5:1-4). The vants, ‘both men and women’ (Acts Bible in both testaments warns us that 2:18), we affirm that ministry gifting leaders who wield or seek power and and calling are not defined by gender, wealth radically undermine and per- or by ethnicity, wealth, or social sta- vert the mission of the church. tus. Since the whole church is called Evangelical leaders are not at all to mission, the whole church is gifted immune to this temptation; many in for mission—though in many fact fall into it, bring the church diverse ways under the sovereign into disrepute, and disgrace to the distribution of God’s Spirit. name of Christ. 4. We give thanks for the many out- 5. We speak and write as evangelicals standing and very visible leaders within that historic tradition and its God has given to the church, in our particular manifestation in the generation as in the past. Yet we Lausanne movement. However, in confess that we may be guilty of so affirming the catholicity of the honouring them that we have failed church, we gladly recognize that to recognize the full contribution of God’s people include many follow- the multitudes of those servants of ers of the Lord Jesus Christ within God who remain unknown and other traditions. For that reason, uncelebrated on earth. In this we we pray for the renewal of older his- need to repent of our seduction by toric branches of the world church, the idolatry of secular celebrity cul- particularly Roman Catholic and ture. We must not fall into the Orthodox, through the power of God’s temptation of equating the church Holy Spirit, and through the reform- A Statement of the Lausanne Theology Working Group 11

ing and missional power of the Bible appreciate the desire that lies at work within them. behind the growing use of the D. Apostolic phrase ‘missional church’, the phrase is essentially tautologous. 1. We rejoice in the apostolic nature What else can the church be but of the church, and affirm the bibli- missional without ceasing to be cal meaning of this: a) that the church? Indeed, history (including church is founded on the historic contemporary history in some parts apostles of Jesus Christ, whose of the world, including Europe) authorized witness to Christ, in would suggest that churches that word, deed and in the writings of are not missional will eventually the New Testament, along with cease to exist. their acceptance of the authority of 3. We rejoice in the zeal of many dif- the Old Testament scriptures, con- ferent strategies of evangelism that stitute the primary authoritative have arisen within God’s church— and final source of our ecclesiology; not least under the umbrella of the b) that we are called to be faithful Lausanne movement. We affirm to the teaching of the apostles, by and admire the commitment and our submission to the authority of energy of those who call the Scripture; and c) that we are to church’s attention to those peoples carry forward the mission of the and places where the name of Jesus apostles in bearing witness to Christ has never been heard yet, God’s saving work in Christ. The and who seek to mobilize effective word ‘apostolic’, therefore, can vari- ways of reaching them with the ously refer to gospel. Such motivation and effort • our historical roots, is wholly in tune with the church’s • our doctrinal faithfulness, and apostolicity, for it reflects the heart • our missional mandate. of the apostle Paul himself, and it The apostolic nature of the takes seriously the purpose of God church is thus once again an inte- that people of ‘every tribe and lan- gration of being and doing, of iden- guage and nation’, ‘to the ends of tity and mission. The church exists the earth’, will one day be gathered as the community of faith in fellow- as God’s people, worshipping the ship with the apostles; and we are Lord Jesus Christ, in the new cre- called to live as those who are ation. The apostolic church has to be ‘sent’ in mission as the apostles the evangelizing church. were sent by the risen Christ. 4. However, as part of our reflection 2. To define the church as ‘apostolic’ on the meaning of ‘the whole is another way of saying that the church taking the whole gospel to church is missional by definition. It the whole world’, we are concerned cannot be otherwise and be church. that it is possible to be driven by Mission is not something we add to strategies of evangelism that lack ade- our concept of church, but is intrinsic quate biblical ecclesiology, or that to it. For this reason, while we have implied but unexpressed ecclesi- 12 The Whole Church

ologies that are biblically defective. It in churches evangelized genera- is a criticism often levelled at evan- tions ago and the need for re-evangelicals that we lack clear and gelism. To the extent that this may robust ecclesiology, and it is not be due to a failure of in-depth disci- without justification. pling (which is in fact simple dis- Examples of such defective obedience to the Great ecclesiologies could be described Commission), we should be prepared as: to anticipate that haste-driven evangelism in the present without rigorous • Container church: If the govern- discipling will generate repeated nom- ing objective of evangelism is thought to be getting the maxi- inalism in future generations. A mum number of people into robust biblical ecclesiology is essen- heaven, then the church tial to healthy and effective mission becomes the container where with long-lasting results. By contrast, converts are stored until they to try to be apostolic in missionary get there. The glorious nature zeal without commitment to holy dis- and purpose of the church in cipleship, is to tear asunder two of the itself, in God’s plans, gets little most essential marks of the church. attention. 5. Massive migration of many peo- • Harvest church: If the governing ples, for all kinds of reasons, is one objective of evangelism is to get of the most notable features of our the maximum number of contemporary world. We recognize sheaves into the barn before the that God is using such migrations harvest ends, then haste is of of peoples around the globe as the the essence. This sometimes agents and means of his mission. goes along with reading the We recognize (in line with Jeremiah Great Commission as an ‘unfin- 29, where the exiles of Judah were ished task’ to which we can told to seek the welfare of Babylon bring closure if only we work and pray for it—i.e. to carry on harder and faster to ‘achieve’ it. their Abrahamic mandate of being a • Lifeboat church: If the governing blessing), that migration may be a objective is to save souls from a form of ‘sending’—which, whether sinking world heading for immi- voluntary or enforced, may be one nent obliteration, then the way in which God in his providence church becomes a lifeboat, and constitutes the apostolicity of the there is no rationale, motivation church. But we do not underesti- (or time) for engagement with mate the profound suffering that the world itself—culturally, such migration entails. socially or ecologically. And we confess that the These are caricatures, no doubt, church’s attitude to such immi- but once again history shows us grant populations has not always that haste breeds shallowness. We been characterized by love, and all readily lament the fact of wide- that we have failed to recognize the spread contemporary nominalism way in which God is using these A Statement of the Lausanne Theology Working Group 13

movements to achieve his purpos- reflect on the church’s identity and es. We need to see biblical patterns at calling, its very reason for existence— work in the way such migration move- in history and for eternity. And as we ments, and the opportunities they pre- do so, we quickly discern those places sent for the gospel, represent mission where the church is far from ‘whole’ from the margins, mission out of and we call for recognition, repentance weakness, and a radical subverting of and reformation—beginning with our- the whole concept of ‘centre’ and selves as those entrusted with theo- ‘periphery’. logical leadership in the church of 6. From our study of 1 Peter, we real- today. At the same time, we would not ized that the issue of persecution wish to give the impression that only a and suffering of the church called perfect church can participate in God’s for much more attention than we mission. If that were so, there would were able to give it. Biblically there have been no mission throughout the is no doubt that it is an essential whole history of God’s people—Old element of the church standing in and New Testament and beyond! We the tradition of the apostles. are ‘jars of clay’, in Paul’s imagery (2 Cor. 4:7), and many of us are very Conclusion cracked pots indeed. Yet God chooses So we concluded that every word in the to use us in the service of his glorious classic creedal definition of the church gospel. We commit ourselves to seek has intrinsic missional significance: wholeness where we see brokenness, one, holy, catholic and apostolic. To but at the same time to urge the church speak of the ‘whole church’ is a lot as a whole to live out the missional more challenging than thinking merely identity for which it has been created of ‘all Christians’, but demands that we and redeemed.

‘But God Raised Him from the Dead’ The Theology of Jesus’ Resurrection in Luke-Acts Kevin L. Anderson In this book, the first full-scale study of the resurrection of Jesus in Luke-Acts, Anderson situates Luke’s perspective on resurrection amongst Jewish and Hellenistic conceptions of the afterlife, and within the complex of Luke’s theology, christology, ecclesiology, and eschatology. He argues that the resurrection of Jesus constitutes the focus of the Lukan message of salvation. ‘This is a definitive treatment of the topic.’ I. Howard Marshall Kevin L. Anderson is an Assistant Professor of Bible and Theology at Asbury College, Wilmore, Kentucky.

978-1-84227-339-5 / 229 x 152mm / 374pp / £24.99 Paternoster, 9 Holdom Avenue, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK1 1QR, UK ERT (2010) 34:1, 14-28 The Whole Church—A Brief Biblical Survey 1

Christopher J.H. Wright

KEYWORDS: Community, Election, ment story in the light of Israel in the People of God, Church, Covenant Old Testament. That means going back to Abraham. But then we shall discover that we can’t understand Abraham I The Origin of the Church either unless we set him in the context If we think of the church as the com- of all that happened before him. So all munity of people who confess Jesus of in all, it really would be best to start at Nazareth as Lord and Saviour, and who the very beginning—not with the birth seek to live as his followers in the of the church, but with the birth of the power of the Holy Spirit, then the his- world. We need to look briefly at Gene- torical origin of that community, sis 1-11. defined in relation to Jesus Christ, The Bible begins with the story of must be traced back to the day of Pen- creation. The universe we inhabit is the tecost in the New Testament. How- creation of the one, living, personal ever, Christians believe that the church God, who made it ‘good’. He created us is a community that has been called in his own image, to rule over the earth into existence by God, a people consti- on his behalf, with spiritual and moral tuted by God for God’s own purpose in responsibilities: to love and obey God, to love and serve one another, and to the world. And the roots of that calling enjoy and care for the rest of creation. and constitution go much further back However, with the entrance of sin and than Pentecost. If we want to under- evil into human life, all of these dimen- stand what happened in the Gospel and sions of our existence have been frac- Acts, we have to set this New Testa- tured and distorted. We chose to rebel against our creator, and substitute our own moral autonomy for his authority. 1 This is adapted from my article in Alister We live with all manner of personal and McGrath, The New Lion Handbook, Christian social sin—fear, anger, violence, injus- Belief (Oxford: Lion, 2006), pp. 208-259. tice, oppression and corruption. And

Rev Dr Christopher J.H. Wright (PhD, Cambridge) taught at Union Biblical Seminary, India, 1983-88 and then All Nations Christian College, UK, where he was Principal, 1993-2001. He is now the International Director of the Langham Partnership International, and is the author of Old Testament Ethics for the People of God (2004), and The Mission of God (2006) The Whole Church – Brief Biblical Survey 15 we exploit, pollute and destroy the the new creation. This is the commu- earth he told us to care for. The climax nity that begins with one man and his of this sad catalogue of human sin wife (Abraham and Sarah), becomes a comes with the story of the tower of family, then a nation, and then a vast Babel in Genesis 11. To prevent a uni- throng from every nation and lan- fied humanity acting in total arro- guage. This is the church in its fully gance, God divides human languages biblical perspective. with the resultant confusion of com- What can we learn about this communication. But the further result is munity from the account of its earliest that by the end of this part of the bibli- beginning in the call of Abraham? cal story, we find a humanity that is Three things stand out in the promise fractured, divided, and scattered over and narratives of Genesis, three things the face of the earth that is under God’s that should be essential marks of the curse. Is there any hope for the people of God in any era: blessing, faith world—specifically for the nations of and obedience. humanity? God’s answer to the question posed by Genesis 1-11 is the story contained A Community of Blessing in the rest of the Bible, from Genesis 12 Blessing was God’s first word, as he to Revelation 22. It is the story of successively blessed his own acts of God’s work of redemption within his- creation in Genesis 1. After the flood, tory. It centres on the cross and resur- God blessed Noah and made a covenant rection of Jesus Christ. And it comes to with all life on earth. But repeated sin its climactic finale in the return of and failure seemed to reinforce only Christ and his reign over the new cre- the language and reality of God’s ation. The remarkable thing is that this curse. Where can blessing be found? whole Bible story begins and ends with God’s answer is to call Abraham and to the nations of humanity. In Genesis 11 promise to bless him and his descen- they were united in arrogance, only to dants. So this new community stem- be scattered under judgement. In Rev- ming from Abraham will be the recipi- elation 7:9 they will be gathered as ‘a ents of God’s blessing. There is a fresh great multitude that no-one could start here, for humanity and creation. count, from every nation, tribe, people But blessing is not just passively and language.’ This final picture of the received. Abraham is also mandated to nations in Revelation, however, is ‘be a blessing’ (Gen. 12:2). The actually a portrait of the church—the covenant promise God makes to him is multinational community of God’s that all nations on earth will find bless- redeemed humanity. And its multina- ing through him. It will take the rest of tional nature goes back to the promise the Bible to show how this can be ful- God made to Abraham, that through filled, but it does mark out this com- him all nations on earth would be munity as those who both experience blessed (Gen. 12:3). God’s blessing and are the means of So the church, considered as the passing it on to others. Blessing community of God’s people throughout received and blessing shared, is part of history, fills the gap between Babel and the essence of the church. 16 Christopher J. H. Wright

A Community of Faith. II The people of God in the ‘Abraham believed God, and it was Old Testament credited to him as righteousness’, says If the church as the biblical people of Paul (Gal. 3:6), echoing Genesis 15:6. God began with Abraham, then we Hebrews also strongly highlights Abra- need to give some attention to the Old ham as a man of faith (Heb. 11:8-19), Testament part of its story. We need to having earlier said that ‘without faith it see how some of the things that Israel is impossible to please God’ (Heb. believed about themselves in their rela- 11:6). So the community that stems tionship with God and the world are from Abraham must be marked as a strongly reflected in what the Christian people who trust in the promise of God, church believes about its own exis- rather than trusting in their capacity to tence and mission in the world. So we build their own future security (as they shall list some of the key concepts in tried at Babel). This is why one com- the Old Testament that governed mon name for Christians is particularly Israel’s sense of identity, and in each appropriate—they are simply ‘believ- case see how the New Testament ers’. shows that the church has inherited the same self-understanding. A Community of Obedience. Because of his faith, Abraham obeyed Election God; he got up and left his homeland at God’s command. And when he faced The foundation of Israel’s faith was the supreme test of sacrificing the son that God had chosen them as his own who embodied all God had promised people. They were the seed of Abraham him, he was willing to obey even then, whom God had chosen and called. They though God intervened to stop him. So were not a nation who had chosen to at the climax of that narrative, God re- worship this particular god. Rather, confirms his promise to bless all this God had chosen them as his par- nations because of Abraham’s obedi- ticular people. They would not exist at ence (Gen. 22:15-18). So Hebrews 11 all apart from that divine choice and and James 2:20-24 set Abraham’s obe- calling. Two things need to be said dience alongside his faith as proof of immediately. his authentic relationship with God. First, the Israelites were not to The church, then, in tracing its imagine that their election by God roots back to God’s call and promise to owed anything to their own numerical Abraham, finds here some of its key greatness or moral superiority. Far identity marks (we shall see more from it, they were a tiny nation, and no later). It is the community that not only more righteous than other nations. The experiences God’s rich blessing but roots of election lie exclusively in the also is commissioned to be the means love and grace of God and for reasons of blessing to others. It is the commu- known only to him (Deut. 7:7-10). nity that lives by faith in the promise of Second, they had been chosen, not God, and proves that faith by practical primarily for their own benefit but for and sometimes sacrificial obedience. the sake of the rest of the nations. The Whole Church – Brief Biblical Survey 17

Blessing Abraham and his descen- ethics, and inspired hope at both dants was God’s intended means of national and personal levels for God’s bringing blessing to all nations whom future deliverance. The memory of exo- Genesis 11 has shown to be in such a dus was kept alive in the annual disastrous state. Election, then, is not Passover celebration. Israel was a peo- primarily a privilege but a responsibil- ple who knew their history. And ity. It means being chosen for a task, through their history they knew their being a chosen instrument by which God as Redeemer. God will fulfil his mission of universal The New Testament explicitly sees blessing. the cross of Christ through the lens of ‘You’, said Peter in his letter to the the exodus (Lk. 9:31). For on the cross scattered groups of early Christians, God achieved the redemption of the ‘are a chosen people’ (1 Pet. 2:9). The world, the defeat of the forces of evil, church stands in organic continuity and the liberation of his people. The with Israel as the elect people of God. Christian church therefore looks back But the same two vital points apply to to Calvary as much as Israel did to the the New Testament church as to Old exodus. For Christ, our Passover lamb Testament Israel. Such election is has been sacrificed for us (1 Cor. 5:7). entirely by God’s grace, not based on Christians too are people of memory anything in us that made us ‘choice- and hope, both of which are focused in worthy’. And election is fundamentally their central feast, the eucharist or missional in purpose. We are chosen, Lord’s Supper. So the church stands in not so that we alone might enjoy salva- organic continuity with Old Testament tion, but so that we should be the Israel as the people whom God has means of God’s salvation reaching oth- redeemed. ers—as Peter went on to point out in the following verses. The church exists Covenant in the world as the community that God has chosen and called in order to serve Another dominant concept in Israel’s God’s mission to bring the nations from theology was their covenant relation- the situation described in Genesis 4-11 ship with God. This too goes back to to that portrayed in Revelation 7. Abraham. Covenant involves a promise or commitment on the part of God, and a required response on the part of the Redemption one with whom the covenant is made. Israel knew themselves to be a people God promised Abraham to bless him, whom God had redeemed. They looked make him a great nation, and to bless back to the great historical deliverance all nations through his descendants. of their ancestors from slavery in Abraham’s response was faith and obe- Egypt and saw it as the proof of the dience. God extended this covenant to love, justice, power and incomparable the whole nation of Israel at Mount greatness of their God. The language of Sinai after the exodus. In the same con- exodus (redemption, deliverance, text, God makes known his personal mighty acts of justice) filled the wor- name, Yahweh. This name was forever ship of Israel, motivated their law and associated in Israel’s mind with the 18 Christopher J. H. Wright exodus (in which Yahweh proved his of the commonest postures of the redemptive power), and with Sinai (at church in the book of Acts—gathered which Yahweh revealed his character, for worship, prayer, and scriptural covenant and law to Israel). So Israel teaching, just as the Jews did. And it is understood themselves to be uniquely presupposed in all Paul’s letters that the covenant community of Yahweh the churches to which he wrote were God. He was committed to them in sav- fundamentally communities that knew ing grace, historical protection and how to worship God, even if their blessing, and long-term purpose for the enthusiasm to do so could itself pre- world. They were to be committed to sent problems. And as we shall see, him in sole loyalty and ethical obedi- worshipping God is of the very essence ence. of the church, and will be so eternally. Here again there is organic continuity between the testaments. For the Struggle church is the people of the new covenant, foretold in the Old Testa- Old Testament Israel had high ideals, ment and inaugurated by Christ drawn from their covenant relationship through his death and resurrection. So with God, but there was nothing ideal- the church is a community in commit- istic about their historical existence. It ted relationship with God. He is com- is vital to remember that all the truths mitted to those who are united to mentioned above were lived out in the Christ through faith in his blood, and struggle of being an all-too-human they are committed to him in exclusive society in the midst of the world of worship and ethical obedience. nations just as fallen and sinful as Israel itself. So the Old Testament hon- estly and painfully records Israel’s ter- Worship rible failures alongside all the remark- Jesus, it has been said, came to a peo- able affirmations of their faith and ple who knew how to pray. The people aspirations. They sinned and they suf- of Israel were committed to worship fered. They failed internally and they the one living God, and the rich her- were attacked externally. Their history itage of that is to be found, of course, in is a long catalogue of struggle between the book of Psalms. The language of those who brought the word of God to adoration, praise, thanksgiving, them and those who were determined appeal, lament, and protest was well to resist the will and ways of their God. developed in the worshipping life of And in all of this too we see the Israel. So much so that Deuteronomy church as in a mirror. In the para- could ask what other nation had their graphs that follow we must survey gods near them the way the LORD was many aspects of the Bible’s teaching close to Israel when they prayed to him about what the church is and is meant (Deut. 4:7). to be. But we must not lose sight of the Naturally, therefore, the Christian fact that, although the church is ulti- church that sprang from the womb of mately God’s own creation, draws its Old Testament Israel began as a wor- identity and mission from God, and will shipping community. Indeed this is one accomplish God’s purpose, the church The Whole Church – Brief Biblical Survey 19 is also a community of sinners—for- the church described? Clearly, the per- given sinners, sure, but fallen sinners son of Jesus Christ becomes the central still. and defining presence, to which all In all these ways, then, and many descriptions of his followers relate. more, the church stands in organic con- First of all, Jesus comes as the fulfil- tinuity with Old Testament Israel. Of ment of the promise of God in the Old course there are differences. However, Testament, so the followers of Jesus the unity of God’s people in the Bible is are those who live in the light of that a far more important theological truth fulfilment. than the different periods of their historical existence. Throughout the ‘The time is fulfilled’ whole Bible, the people of God are In the earliest recorded preaching of those who are chosen and called by Jesus (Mk. 1:15), we hear the note of God to serve his purpose of blessing fulfilment that dominates the Gospels. the nations. They are those who have Throughout the Old Testament period experienced the redeeming grace and and beyond, the people of Israel grew power of God in history, ultimately in expectation that their God would accomplished through Christ on the bring about a new state of affairs in cross. They are those who stand in human history and they looked forward committed covenant relationship with to that future with hope. God, enjoying the security of his That hope is now fulfilled, said the promise and responding in exclusive New Testament writers, through what loyalty and ethical obedience. They are was inaugurated in the life, death and those who are set apart by him and for resurrection of Jesus. As Messiah him to be, and to live as, a distinct and (God’s anointed one), Jesus embodied holy community within the surround- Israel in his own person—taking their ing world. They are those who live to destiny and fulfilling their mission. In worship the living God eternally, and his life and teaching he inaugurated yet also live within all the ambiguities the kingdom of God, demonstrating the of historical life on this sinful planet power of God’s reign in word and deed. and are as yet far from perfect. In all In his death he took upon himself the these things, the church stands in con- judgement of God against sin, not just tinuity with Old Testament Israel, for on behalf of his own people Israel, but as Paul puts it, we are sharers in the for the whole world. In his resurrec- same promise, the same inheritance tion, God fulfilled his promise to and the same good news (Eph. 3:6). In redeem Israel. As Paul put it, ‘what Christ Jesus, we belong to the same God promised our fathers he has ful- olive tree (Rom. 11:17-24; see below). filled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus’ (Acts 13:32). Before his ascension, he commissioned his fol- III The People of God in the lowers to carry forward the Abrahamic New Testament mission of Israel, now focused on the When we come, then, to the New Tes- name of Christ himself, to bring the tament, in what new ways do we find blessings of repentance and forgive- 20 Christopher J. H. Wright ness to all nations (Lk. 24:46-47). And teaching of a dead leader. To be a dis- to empower them for this, the risen ciple is to be in a constant relationship Christ sent the Holy Spirit, whose out- with Jesus; or rather, it is to experience pouring had been prophesied as a sign the truth of the last promise he made to of God’s new age of salvation and his disciples, ‘I am with you always’ blessing (Isa. 32:15-20; Joel 2:28-32). (Mt. 28:20). The outpouring of the Spirit of God Second, disciples are those who obey at Pentecost demonstrated that the Jesus. It is a matter of personal loyalty, new era of fulfilment had begun. The in which we take all Jesus said with crucifixion, resurrection and ascension great seriousness, and submit to his of Jesus of Nazareth had accomplished authority. That means submission of what God had promised. Those who mind, heart and will to Jesus Christ. were responding in repentance and Third, disciples are commissioned faith could now belong to the restored and sent out by Jesus, in his name (which Israel in Christ, whether they were means, with his authority), to make Jews like his first followers, or Gentiles disciples of the nations. That is, disci- from the nations who were also now pleship is a self-replicating mission. invited to belong to this new commu- Jesus had a special group of twelve nity. disciples, eleven of whom later became As the community of those who known as apostles. But the Gospels have responded to God’s action in also speak of a wider group of disci- Jesus Christ, then, the church is ples, ordinary followers of Jesus. And described in the New Testament by although the word ‘disciple’ itself is several simple terms. These are terms not greatly used in the New Testament that were used even before the term after the Gospels, it is clear that the ‘Christian’ was invented, and they church is always a community of disci- remain perennially true as descriptions ples, the followers of Jesus who live of all members of the church, for they with his presence, submit to his teach- are all related to Jesus. ing, and carry forward his mission.

Disciples Witnesses The original nucleus of the Christian ‘You are my witnesses’, said Jesus to church in the New Testament was the his disciples, after his resurrection and group of disciples of Jesus. ‘Disciples’, before his ascension (Lk. 24:48; Acts means learners—those who are the 1:8). Almost certainly Jesus was echo- followers and adherents of a teacher or ing the same words that God had spo- master. From the Gospels we learn ken to Israel in Isaiah (43:10-12). that there were three main aspects to Israel was supposed to be the people being disciples of Jesus, all of which who bore witness among the surround- are still marks of belonging to his ing nations to the reality of their God, church. Yahweh. The nations would come to First, disciples are those whom know who is really God from the testi- Jesus has called to himself, to be with mony of those to whom he has him. This is not just following the entrusted the task of witnessing to The Whole Church – Brief Biblical Survey 21 their own historical experience of him. and who died and rose again for our Similarly, Jesus is entrusting the salvation. The church, then, is essen- truth about himself to those who had tially a community of disciples of witnessed him. Originally, of course, Christ, witnesses to Christ, and believ- the words were spoken to the original ers in Christ. apostles, who had personally witnessed the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus (Acts 3:15). But IV Pictures of the Church by extension, all Christians are called The church is much more than just a to bear witness to what they have expe- collection of individuals who claim to rienced of the saving love of God in be disciples of, witnesses to, and Christ. The church is the guardian of believers in Jesus Christ. The church as that apostolic witness. Sometimes the a whole is a significant entity. It is a his- cost of bearing that witness is high, as torical reality in the world, with its the earliest Christians found, and spiritual roots going right back to countless others down the centuries Abraham. The Bible provides many have also proved. The word ‘martyr’ metaphors to convey different aspects originally meant simple ‘witness’. But of this reality. Most of them are found since that witness so often ended in in the Old Testament as ways of death at the hands of those who describing Israel, and are then rejected the word of witness, it extended in the New Testament to acquired the added meaning of one who those who are in Christ. One metaphor, gives his or her life rather than com- however, the concept of the church as promise their testimony. a body, or as the body of Christ, is unique to the New Testament. Believers The next common description of the A household or family earliest Christians (before they got Old Testament Israel was a kinship- that name) in the book of Acts is structured society, divided into tribes, ‘believers’. This too goes back to the clans and households. The basic unit in Gospels, of course, because Jesus so this arrangement was the ‘father’s frequently called for faith, along with house’ or beth-ab. This was the repentance. Faith is the key to entering extended family, of three or even four the kingdom of God, and to receiving generations, including married sons its blessings, including forgiveness, and their children, household servants, healing, and eternal life. Faith too, like agricultural workers and even resident discipleship and witness, is entirely foreigners practising their trade. This directed to the person of Jesus himself. robust organism also provided the indi- It is not just a matter of believing cer- vidual Israelite with vital support. The tain propositions, though it does household was the place in which the include believing the claims of Christ. individual found personal identity and Rather it means an act of personal inclusion (personal names always trust in God, focussed on Jesus as the included the father’s house, as well as one who has fulfilled God’s promises clan and tribal names). It was the place 22 Christopher J. H. Wright of security, since the household had its together was not so much single eth- inherited portion of the land. And it nicity as covenant loyalty to the one was the place of spiritual nurture and God—Yahweh. So they were above all teaching in the law of God. Already in ‘the people of Yahweh’. But that title Old Testament times, the whole nation could be expanded. The Old Testament of Israel could be metaphorically envisaged people of other nations com- described as a household: ‘House of ing to be included in the people of Yah- Israel’ or ‘House of Yahweh’, picturing weh (Is. 19:24-25; Ps. 87; Zech. 2:11 the whole people as an extended fam- etc.)—and that is exactly what the ily belonging to God. New Testament says has happened It is not surprising that the early through the mission of the church. Christians adopted similar language to So the church is a people, or rather speak of the church community. Paul it is the people of the biblical God, calls it ‘the household of God’ (1 Tim. through faith in Christ. But it is also a 3:15). ‘We are his house’, says the multi-national people, in which mem- writer to the Hebrews (3:6). Applying bership is open to all, Jew and Gentile, this metaphor was undoubtedly made male and female, slave and free (Gal. even easier by the fact that the first 3:28). So the language that had first Christians met in homes, and the sense applied to Israel is now extended to of being an extended family must have people of all nations. ‘You,’ says Peter, been strong. As in the Old Testament, ‘are a people belonging to God…once the church as a household was the you were not a people, but now you are place of identity (in Christ), inclusion (in the people of God’ (1 Pet. 2:9-10). As a the fellowship of sisters and brothers), worldwide community of peoples, the security (in an eternal inheritance), nur- church fulfils the promise of God to ture and teaching (in the scriptures and Abraham and anticipates the ultimate teaching of the apostles). For those gathering of God’s people in the new who had been severed from their nat- creation (Rev. 7:9, 21:3). ural family connections because of loyalty to Christ, the church as a new fam- A bride ily in all these senses was of great importance, and still is. The relationship between Yahweh and his people, being one of love, could be portrayed in terms of the marriage A people covenant. Hosea seems to have been Old Testament Israel most often the first to make that comparison. The referred to themselves as a people metaphor could also be used negatively (‘am), which is flavoured more by com- to accuse Israel of being an unfaithful munity than by ethnicity. In fact, bride (Hos. 2; Jer. 2:1-2; Ezek. 16). although the core of Israel was the eth- Nevertheless, it is clear that God wants nically related community descended a people who are united to him in from the twelve tribes of the sons of mutual loving devotion as husband and Jacob/Israel, in reality it was a very wife ideally should be. mixed society (cf. Ex. 12:37; Josh. 9; In the New Testament the church is Lev. 19:33-34). What held Israel portrayed as the Bride of Christ. On the The Whole Church – Brief Biblical Survey 23 one hand, the metaphor highlights in such a way that the nations are Christ’s love for the church, and espe- drawn to praise God for themselves. cially his self-giving, sacrificial care for Priesthood is a missional concept, for his Bride. On the other hand, it speaks it puts the church between God and the of the beauty and adornment of the world with the task of bringing the two Bride, who will one day be perfect and together in Christ—making God without blemish for her divine husband known to the nations, and calling the (Eph. 5:25-27; Rev. 21:2). In both nations to repentance and faith in God directions, the picture is one of love, and to the sacrifice of the cross. This commitment, and beauty—and cele- double direction of movement seems to bration (Rev. 19:9). have been in Paul’s mind when he spoke of his own missionary work as a A priesthood ‘priestly duty’ in Romans 15:16. ‘You will be for me a priestly kingdom,’ said God to Israel at Mount Sinai (Ex. A temple 19:6). Priests stood in the middle The temple in Jerusalem was one of the between God and the rest of the people. central pillars of Israel’s faith and They operated as mediator in both identity. It had a double significance. directions. On the one hand they taught First of all, the temple (like the the law of God to the people. On the tabernacle before it) was regarded as other hand they brought the people’s the place of God’s dwelling. Israel sacrifices to God. Through the priests, knew, of course, that the creator of the God came to the people. Through the universe did not actually live in any lit- priests, the people came to God. And it tle house they had built, nor did he was also the job of the priests to bless need to (1 Kgs. 8:27; 2 Sam. 7:1-7 But the people in the name of Yahweh nevertheless, this temple was the (Num. 6:22-27). Then, by analogy, God place that God had chosen to make his tells Israel that they will stand in a name dwell (1 Kgs. 8:29), and where similar position between him and the his glory would be tangibly felt. rest of the nations of the earth. Through Israel, God will become I will keep my covenant with you… known to the nations (Is. 42:1-7; 49:1- I will put my dwelling-place among 6). And through Israel God will ulti- you, and I will not abhor you. I will mately draw the nations to himself (Is. walk among you and be your God, 2:1-5; 60:1-3; Jer. 3:17). Israel’s priest- and you will be my people (Lev. hood among the nations would fulfil 26:9-12). the Abrahamic role of blessing them. Secondly, the temple was a place That priestly identity of Old Testa- where Israelites would come to meet ment Israel is now inherited by those with God (as the tabernacle had been who are in Christ (1 Pet. 2:9-12). So as called a ‘tent of meeting’. God was God’s priesthood, the church consists everywhere, but the temple provided a of those who are to declare the praises ‘direction’ for their prayer (1 Kgs. 8), of God and what he has done. And as a and pilgrimage to the temple in holy priesthood, Christians are to live Jerusalem became a significant and 24 Christopher J. H. Wright joyful (though never obligatory). their bodies in any way they like, Psalms 120-134 are songs for such pil- especially not for sexual immorali- grimage, and they express the joy (in ty for ‘your body is a temple of the the midst of struggles too), of knowing, Holy Spirit’. This is the only indi- meeting, trusting, and worshipping vidual application of the concept. God in Zion—the place where the tem- • In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17, Paul ple stood and where God’s people cele- extends the picture to include the brated his presence—provided they local Christians in Corinth as, col- did so with moral integrity (Pss. 15, 24; lectively, God’s temple. Similarly, Isa. 1:10-17; Jer. 7:1-15). in 2 Corinthians 6:16, Paul warns Since Jesus, as the Lord’s anointed the Corinthians that they must not messiah and king, had fulfilled God’s take part in things that were con- purpose for Israel, this had major nected with pagan temples, ‘for we implications for the physical temple. are the temple of the living God’. Jesus himself took over its double role. • In Ephesians 2:21-22 Paul is Jesus is the person (no longer the addressing Gentile believers. He place) in whom God’s presence is has been explaining how they have among us (Immanuel), and Jesus is the now been united with believing person through whom people must Jews into one single community now come to meet God in worship (Jn. through the death of Christ. He 4:2-26). So, the writer to the Hebrews uses temple imagery to describe points out that by coming to Christ, how all Christians, Jews and Christians have already come to Mount Gentiles, are being built together Zion (i.e to the temple), just as in him into a temple for God to dwell in by they have an altar, the perfect sacri- his Spirit. fice, and God’s great High Priest (Heb. The temple image as applied to the 12:22). church implies that there is only one Paul goes further and sees the church—the people of the one living church itself as the temple of God. Not God, who has only one dwelling place, in the sense of a physical building through his one Spirit. There was only (Christians did not start building one temple in Old Testament Israel. ‘churches’ in that sense for a long time But God had promised that it would be after the New Testament period). ‘a house of prayer for all nations’ (Is. Rather, the church is the community in 56:7). And indeed Solomon had prayed which God dwells by his Spirit, and to for it to be a place of blessing for for- which people gather to meet with eigners when it was first dedicated (1 God—the double function of the Old Kgs. 8:41-43). Now, through Christ and Testament temple. the gospel, that was a reality. The tem- Actually Paul uses the temple ple of God is now truly the multi- imagery at three distinct levels: the national community of believers from individual Christian, the local church, all nations. and the whole church, but all with the basic idea of a dwelling place for God. • In 1 Corinthians 6:19 Paul warns A vine and an olive tree Christians that they cannot use Two pictures of the people of God are The Whole Church – Brief Biblical Survey 25 drawn from horticulture. Both in the continuity between Old Testament Old and New Testaments, they are Israel and the church, and the unity of compared to a vine and an olive tree. believing Jews and Gentiles in the one Jesus uses the first and Paul the sec- new people of God. There is only one ond. olive tree—only one covenant people In John 15, Jesus says he is the true of God throughout both testaments and vine. Doubtless he is referring to the all of history. And there also remains fact that in the Old Testament, Israel is the opportunity for branches that have likened to a vine that the Lord God had been cut off to be grafted in again, if planted in his own land (Ps. 80). Unfor- they turn in repentance and faith to tunately, God’s expectations from his God through Christ. vine were rudely disappointed. Isaiah pictures God looking for a harvest of A flock good grapes from his people to reward his loving investment in them, but Another picture of the church that is instead of justice, finds bloodshed, and found in both testaments is also drawn instead of righteousness, cries of the from the world of agriculture—a flock oppressed (Isa. 5:1-7; cf. Ezek. 15). of sheep. It is, perhaps, a rather pas- Jesus similarly is concerned about sive and not very flattering image, but the fruitfulness of his followers. Abid- it is used in two significant ways, ing in Christ is the only way to fruitful- depending on who is pictured as the ness as God’s people. shepherd or shepherds. In Romans 11:13-36, Paul com- God as Shepherd. ‘We are his peo- pares Israel to an olive tree (cf. Jer. ple, the sheep of his pasture’ (Ps. 11:16; Hos. 14:6). Paul, however, 100:3). The main point of this builds a whole theology around the metaphor was to highlight God’s prov- horticultural practice of stripping idential and tender care for his people, some branches off a tree and grafting as a shepherd cares for his flock. Indi- in others—in order to rejuvenate the viduals could take comfort from this original tree and increase its fruit-bear- (Ps. 23), but the whole nation could ing. Paul sees an analogy to the way envisage itself being led by their divine Gentiles are being grafted into the orig- Shepherd (Is. 40:11). inal covenant people of God, Israel, Leaders as shepherds. It was com- while some of those original people mon to speak of kings as shepherds of were being cut off because they failed their people. Care, provision, guidance to respond to what God had now done and protection was what was expected in Jesus Christ. of them—in theory at least. In reality, It is important to note that God’s in Israel, the complaint was that their response to the failure of many Jews to ‘shepherds’ more often exploited the believe in Jesus was not to chop down sheep than cared for them. So Ezekiel the olive tree and plant a completely vigorously condemns such shepherds new one. Some branches may be (meaning the kings of Israel), and says lopped off, and other branches wonder- that God himself will take on again the fully grafted in, but the roots and the job of shepherding his own flock (Ezek. trunk remain. Paul thus confirms the 34). 26 Christopher J. H. Wright

It is against this background that body. There are many physical Jesus claimed to be the good, or model, parts of a body, but they all cohere shepherd in John 10. This was not just within the one body; they all assist a promise of tender care (like Ps. 23). one another; they all experience joy It was a bold claim to be the true king or pain together; and they all con- of Israel, indeed to be the divine king tribute to the healthy functioning of himself, as promised by Ezekiel. Not the body as a single organism. His surprisingly, it led to a violent reaction main point in this context is that (Jn. 10). But Jesus went on to describe God has arranged things in this his followers (i.e. the embryonic way for the good of the whole. So church) as his own known sheep and no single part should think that it is then pointed forward to the inclusion of so important that it has no need of others, within a single flock under a any other part of the body; and no single shepherd (Jn 10:16—echoing single part should consider itself Ezek. 37:22-24). less important than some other As a natural extension, those who more prominent part. Paul’s point are called to leadership within the in relation to the church is that all church are portrayed as shepherds the spiritual gifts God has distrib- also. Peter calls them under-shepherds uted among different members of of the Chief Shepherd, who is Jesus. the church are actually given for Christian leaders are to work with love, the benefit of the whole. So, in without greed, with servant hearts, Romans 12:4-8, using the same and as good examples to the rest of the comparison, he urges those with flock (1 Pet. 5:1-4). Paul adds the addi- different gifts to use them whole- tional duty of defending the flock from heartedly and with humility. There ravaging wolves—his matching is diversity within the church, but it metaphor for false teachers who seek exists within the fundamental unity to devour the sheep (Acts. 20:28). that we all belong by baptism to the one Christ and share the one Spirit. A body The church, then, like the human Finally we come to the one major pic- body, is an organic unity with func- ture of the church that is unique to the tional diversity. New Testament, and indeed, unique to • Christ as the head. The main Paul—that is, the church as a body, or emphasis in 1 Corinthians 12 and specifically as the body of Christ. Romans 12 on the ‘horizontal’ rela- We may note four key points that tionships within the body. But in emerge from Paul’s rich development Colossians and Ephesians, Paul of this picture of the church. develops the picture in a more ‘ver- • Unity and diversity of members. tical’ direction by speaking of Paul first uses the human body Christ as the head, in such a way simply as very effective simile. In 1 that the church relates to Christ Corinthians 12:12-30, he likens the just as the rest of the human body believers within the church to the is related to the head. There seem different members of the human to be three elements to this picture. The Whole Church – Brief Biblical Survey 27

First, in both letters Paul puts Ephesians 2:14-18 he describes this description of Christ as the how God has brought both together head of his body, the church, in the by uniting the two in a single new same context as Christ’s sovereign- humanity through the cross and by ty over the whole of creation (Col. presenting them both together to 1:15-18; Eph. 1:19-22). The impli- God. He uses body language again, cation is that Christ exercises saying that Christ’s intention was Lordship and control over the ‘in this one body to reconcile both church. This, however, as Paul of them to God through the cross, stresses elsewhere, is a headship by which he put to death their hos- that is exercised in tender love and tility’ (v. 16). ‘This one body’ here servanthood, with self-sacrificial, clearly means the church of believ- self-giving care (Eph. 5:23-30). ing and reconciled Jews and Second, in Ephesians 1:23, Paul Gentiles in Christ. This was so speaks of Christ ‘filling the church’ important to Paul that he seems to as his body (just as he fills the have coined a new Greek word to whole of creation). This may mean describe it in Ephesians 3:6, where something like our human con- he says that Gentiles constitute a sciousness, in the way our minds ‘co-body’ (syssoma) with Israel, as are conscious of our bodies—as if well as being co-heirs and co-shar- the mind ‘fills’ the body with its ers in the promise in Christ Jesus. presence and direction. Likewise, The church in this sense is a new Christ is everywhere present and and unprecedented reality in histo- active within his church. ry—nothing less than a new Third, just as a body grows as a humanity. A new body. living organism under the direction • Appropriate behaviour. There is no of the head, so Paul describes the place among the members of the church as growing up, both ‘from’ same body for either a superiority and ‘into’ Christ (Col. 2:19; Eph. complex (rejecting others as less 4:12-14). So the body metaphor is important than oneself), or an infe- useful for Paul’s passion for matu- riority complex (rejecting oneself rity among his churches. As a body as of no importance in comparison cannot grow if it is severed from its with others). This is the message of head, neither can the church grow 1 Corinthians 12: 14-26. Paul takes if it does not remain vitally con- the metaphor in an even more posi- nected to Christ. tive direction to speak about • Reconciliation of Jew and Gentile. Christian behaviour within the The most fundamental division in church. In Ephesians 4:15-16, 23, his world was that between Jews Christians should speak the truth and Gentiles. And it was central to in love with one another, because Paul’s understanding of the gospel they are to be growing up in love as and of the church that God had dis- a whole body under Christ and ‘we solved that barrier through the are all members of one body’. death of Jesus the Messiah. So, in So, we have completed our survey of 28 Christopher J. H. Wright major biblical pictures for the church were filled with very ordinary people as the people of God. We should not set with many faults and failures. By one up as dominant, at the expense of means of these metaphors and images, the others, or neglect any of them. however, God reminded them of the Also, we should not imagine that these real identity that they had, and empha- are pictures only of some idealized or sized different aspects of their rela- mystical church. These are ways in tionship with Christ and with each which the Old Testament spoke about historical Israel, and the New Testa- other. We need all of these teachings ment speaks about the actual assem- and models to inform our understand- blies of Christian believers in the early ing of what we mean by ‘The whole church. Both Israel and the church church’.

Canon and Biblical Interpretation (Scripture and Hermeneutics Vol. 7) Craig Bartholomew, Scott Hahn, Robin Parry, Christopher Seitz, & Al Wolters (editors) A key concept in current hermeneutical discussions of the Christian Scriptures is the idea of canon. It plays a pivotal role in the move from critical analysis to theological appropriation. Canon has to do with the authoritative shape in which Scripture has been received by the Church, and which must be taken seriously if it is to be read aright by people of faith. In this extraordinary collection the notion of canon is illuminated from a number of different perspectives: historical, theoretical, and exegetical. A particularly valuable feature of the volume is its interaction with the work of Brevard Childs, the pioneer of the canonical approach, and its focus on the fruitfulness of a canonical reading for a broad range of biblical material. Contributors include Brevard Childs, Scott Hahn, Tremper Longman III, Gordon McConville, Christopher Seitz, Anthony Thiselton, Jean Vanier, Gordon Wenham, Christopher Wright, and Frances Young. Craig Bartholomew is the H. Evan Runner Professor of Philosophy, Redeemer University College, Canada; Scott Hahn is Professor of Theology and Scripture at the Franciscan University of Steubenville; Robin Parry is the Editorial Director for Paternoster; Christopher Seitz is Professor of Old Testament and Theological Studies, University of St Andrews; Al Wolters is Professor of Religion and Theology/Classical Languages at Redeemer University College, Canada.

978-1-84227-071-4 / 229 x 152mm / 462pp / £19.99 Paternoster, 9 Holdom Avenue, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK1 1QR, UK ERT (2010) 34:1, 29-43 Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission1

Charles (Chuck) Van Engen

KEY WORDS: Immigrants, strangers, tinent where the history of many peo- migration, mission ples, ancient and modern, tells the stories of periodic migrations of peoples from north to south, from east to west, Introduction from rural areas to the cities, from We know that throughout history we small towns to large cities, and so have seen great movements of peoples forth. There are immigrants who have and groups from one place to another. fled very negative socio-economic and This includes the Latin American con- political situations. There are hun- dreds of thousands of people who have fled dictatorships, civil wars, and international conflicts. There are immi- 1 Paper presented to the Lausanne Theology grants who have been transported from Working Group meeting in Panama City, one place to another by force as slaves. Panama around the theme, ‘The Whole Church Called to be a Blessing to the Nations’, Many immigrants voluntarily have left January 26-30, 2009. Modified versions of this their homes seeking better living con- article appeared as: Carlos Van Engen, Per- ditions. Some immigrants have been spectivas bíblicas del inmigrante en la misión de forced to leave because of natural dis- Dios (in Jorge Maldonado y Juan Martínez, asters. And many of these immigrants edits. Vivir y Servir en el Exilio: Lecturas have contributed in remarkable ways teológicas de la experiencia latina en los esta- dos unidos. (a publication of the Latin Ameri- to the new nations to which they have can Theological Fraternity) Buenos Aires: gone, in terms, for example, of tech- Kairos, 2008, 17-34; English translation nology, science, industry, new cultural appeared as Charles Van Engen, Biblical Per- forms, the arts, education, and agricul- spectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mis- ture. The missions established by the sion, Journal of Latin American Theology: missionary orders of the Roman Christian Reflections from the Latino South (a publication of the Latin American Theological Catholic Church in California during Fraternity), vol. 2:2008, 15-38. Used by per- the nineteenth century are an example mission. of the impact that immigrants can have

Rev. Charles (Chuck) Van Engen, Ph.D., is the Arthur F. Glasser Professor of the Biblical Theology of Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary’s School of World Mission. He is the author of God’s Missionary People; The Good News of the Kingdom; God so Loves the City; Mission on the Way; Footprints of God; The Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions; and Announcing the Kingdom: The Story of God’s Mission in the Bible. 30 Charles (Chuck) Van Engen on their new environments. would seem that this perspective is In Los Angeles, where I live, we are affirmed over a long period of time in all immigrants and/or descendents of spite of the fact that in both testaments immigrants. I am an example of this one finds an even stronger emphasis on phenomenon. My grandparents emi- the role of the People of God as special grated as young people from the instruments of God’s mission to impact Netherlands to the central plains of the and bless the nations. United States, to the states of Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. My parents immi- 2. The stranger is to obey the grated from the U.S. to Chiapas, Mex- law of God ico. And I emigrated from Mexico to Los Angeles. I am an immigrant and Alongside the perspective mentioned the descendent of immigrants who in above, another viewpoint is strongly our history represent at least three cul- affirmed in Scripture: that the stranger tures and languages. who lives in the midst of the People of Israel is to obey the same norms and keep the same commandments that the Biblical perspectives Israelites were to keep.3 For example, The Bible offers us various perspec- Leviticus 24: 21-22 says, tives concerning the stranger and the Whoever kills an animal must alien. make restitution, but whoever kills a man must be put to death. You 1. The stranger as enemy are to have the same law for the There are occasions when the Bible presents the stranger as an enemy of the People of God. See, for example, Is. 9:12; Job 15:19; Ps. 69:8; Prov. 2:16; 5:10, 17, 1:7; 2:6; 5:17; Mt. 17:25,26; and Heb. 20; 6:1; 7:7; 11:15; 14:10; 20:16; 27:2, 13; 11:39. More dominant is the perspec- Eccles. 6:2; Is. 1:7; 2:6; 5:17; 61:5; 62:8; Jer. tive of the stranger and ‘the nations’ 2:25; 3:13; 5:19; 51:51; Lam. 5:2; Ezek. 7: 21; (meaning all those peoples and cul- 11:9; 16:32; 28:10; 30:12; 31:12; 44:7,9; Hos. 7:9; 8:7; Joel 3:17; Obad. 11, 12; Mat. 27:7; and tures that are not a part of the People Jn. 10:5. In John 10:5, for example, the of God) as being unclean, sinful, stranger is the foreign shepherd whose unholy, those who could cause the Peo- unknown voice the sheep do not recognize and ple of God to lose their true faith in will not heed. See also, Acts 17:21; Heb. YHWH. At times ‘the nations’ are rep- 11:39. resented as those who will take pos- 3 See, for example, Gen. 17:12, 27; Ex. 12:19- session of the land and belongings of 49; 20:10, 20; 23:12; 30:33; Lev. 16:29; the entire chapter 17; 18:26; 19:33; 20:2; 22:10, Israel as God’s punishment for the 18; 24:16, 21-22; 25:6; Num. 9:14; 15:15, 16, 2 unfaithfulness of the People of God. It 26, 30; 19:10; 35:13; Deut. 1:16; 5:14; 14:14, 17, 21, 29; 16:11,14;24:14,17; 18:43; 19:11, 22; 26:11; 27: 19; 29: 11, 22; 31:12; Josh. 8:33,35; 20:9 (with reference to the cities of 2 See, for example, Gen. 31:15; Lev. 22:12, refuge); I Kgs. 8 (the prayer of David); 2 Chr. 13, 25; Num. 1:51; 3:10, 38; 16:40; 18:4,7; 15:9; 30: 25 (the prayer of Solomon); Ps. Deut. 17:15; 31:16; 25:5; Judg. 19:12; Neh. 18:44,45; Ezek. 14:7; and Acts 2:10. Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission 31

alien and the native-born. I am the arrivals in our midst, ones who have LORD your God. come with ‘only the clothes on their back’, so to speak. So we associate the immigrant / stranger with the margin- 3. The care of the stranger who alized, the needy, with minority lives in the midst of the People groups, and those who are under-rep- of God resented in social, political, and eco- God does not only require that the nomic arenas. In the Bible there exists stranger who lives in the midst of the a clear emphasis on compassion People of Israel be treated fairly and toward, and care for, the immigrant / equitably, but God also commands that strangers as receptors of just and com- the immigrant / stranger is to receive passionate treatment on the part of the the care and compassion of the People People of God, by other folks in gen- of God. In many texts the Bible couples eral, and on the part of governments. the idea of the immigrant / stranger These biblical perspectives concerning with that of the orphan and the widow. the immigrant / strangers are well And compassion and intentional care known and important. are required, especially for the orphan, However, the Bible offers us other the widow and the stranger who lives and different perspectives of the immi- in the midst of the People of God.4 grant / strangers as partners, co- labourers, co-participants in the mission of God to the nations. In this short 4. Biblical perspectives of the essay, I will focus on the composite of instrumental role of the viewpoints that see the immigrant / immigrant in God’s mission strangers as active agents of God’s Generally speaking, we think of the mission, God’s instruments who con- immigrant / strangers as recent tribute to the creation of human history and participate in the mediation of the grace of God to the nations.5 It is not my intention to present an exhaustive 4 See, for example, Lev. 19:18; 19:33; 25; biblical theology of the immigrant / Deut. 10: 18 (reference coupled with the orphan and the widow); 14:21; 16:14; 26:12, strangers as found in the Bible, nor do 13 (reference coupled with the orphan and the I intend to present a detailed study or widow); 19:11; 27:19 (reference coupled with the orphan and the widow); Ps. 94:6 (reference coupled with the orphan and the widow); 146:9 (reference coupled with the orphan and 5 Here I follow the spirit of Paulo Freire who the widow); Prov. 3:19; Jer. 7:6; 22:3; Ezek. taught us the important transformational 22:7,29; 47:22,23; Zach 7:10; and Mal. 3:5. dynamism of conscientizing the people such The New Testament emphasizes the love of that the poor and marginalized begin to catch neighbour and of one’s enemy. See, for exam- a glimpse of the possibility that they may ple, ‘you shall love your neighbour’ in Mt 5:43; themselves be active agents of their own his- 19:19; 22:39; Mr. 12:31; Lk. 10:27; tory and creators of their own destiny. See, for Rom.12:20 (ref. Prov. 25;21, 22; Ex. 23:4; Mt. example, among other related works, Paulo 5:44; Lk. 6:27); Rom. 13:9; Gal. 5:14; 1 Tim. Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: 5:10; Heb. 13:2; James 2:8; 3 Jn. 55. Herder and Herder, 1970). 32 Charles (Chuck) Van Engen a minute examination of all the narra- This is the account of Terah. Terah tives or all the biblical passages having became the father of Abram, Nahor to do with this theme. Rather, I want to and Haran. And Haran became the offer here a wide panorama by follow- father of Lot. While his father ing a thread of the tapestry of the Bible6 Terah was still alive, Haran died in that will serve as a kind of outline sig- Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of nalling the way in which God uses the his birth….Terah took his son immigrant / strangers in God’s mission Abram, his grandson Lot son of to the nations. Haran, and his daughter-in-law This emphasis begins already with Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, Abraham whose story is the story of all and together they set out from Ur of immigrants / strangers, including our the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But own stories. when they came to Haran, they set- My father was a wandering tled there. Terah lived 205 years, Aramean, and he went down into and he died in Haran. The LORD Egypt with a few people and lived had said to Abram, ‘Leave your there and became a great nation, country, your people and your powerful and numerous. But the father’s household and go to the Egyptians mistreated us and made land I will show you. I will make us suffer, putting us to hard labour. you into a great nation and I will Then we cried out to the LORD, the bless you; I will make your name God of our fathers, and the LORD great, and you will be a blessing. I heard our voice and saw our mis- will bless those who bless you, and ery, toil and oppression. So the whoever curses you I will curse; LORD brought us out of Egypt with and all peoples on earth will be a mighty hand and an outstretched blessed through you.’ So Abram arm, with great terror and with left, as the LORD had told him; and miraculous signs and wonders. He Lot went with him. Abram was sev- brought us to this place and gave enty-five years old when he set out us this land, a land flowing with from Haran. He took his wife Sarai, milk and honey; and now I bring his nephew Lot, all the possessions the firstfruits of the soil that you, O they had accumulated and the peo- LORD, have given me (Deut. 26:5- ple they had acquired in Haran, and 10). they set out for the land of Canaan, When the Bible first introduces us and they arrived there (Gen 11: 27- to Abram, he is presented as an immi- 12:5). grant / stranger. The People of Israel recognized that an important aspect of their self-understanding, their identity as a special people, derived from being strangers, 6 In relation to reading the Bible as a tapes- sojourners, aliens, immigrants. (See, try that presents the missio Dei in narrative form, see Charles Van Engen, Mission on the for example, Job 19:15; Ps. 69:8; Eph. Way: Issues in Mission Theology (Grand 2:12; and Col. 1:21.) God himself says Rapids: Baker, 1996), 17-43. to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission 33 descendants will be strangers in a as pilgrims, immigrant people, to moti- country not their own, and they will be vate them to participate in God’s mis- enslaved and mistreated four hundred sion to the nations. For example, in years. But I will punish the nation they Exodus 22:21, God says, serve as slaves, and afterward they Do not mistreat an alien or oppress will come out with great possessions. him, for you were aliens in Egypt. You, however, will go to your fathers in In Exodus 23:9 God repeats, peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descen- Do not oppress an alien; you your- dants will come back here, for the sin selves know how it feels to be aliens, because you were aliens in of the Amorites has not yet reached its Egypt. full measure’ (Gen. 15:13-14; see also Gen 23:4; 28:4; Ex. 3:13-15; 6:2-4.). In 1 Peter 2:9-11 the writer offers Thus an integral aspect of Abra- an echo of this same motivation to be ham’s missionary call to be an instru- instruments of God’s mission to the ment of God’s mission to the nations nations, drawing his vision from implied that he and his family would be Deuteronomy. strangers, aliens, sojourners, immi- But you are a chosen people, a grants.7 Sharing this vision, Luke, for royal priesthood, a holy nation, a example, presents Jesus as a ‘stranger’ people belonging to God, that you in Jesus’ encounter with the two who may declare the praises of him who were walking to Emmaus after the pas- called you out of darkness into his sion week (Lk. 24:18). wonderful light. Once you were not Thus in what follows I will examine a people, but now you are the peo- the place of the immigrant / stranger in ple of God; once you had not relation to four of the classic cate- received mercy, but now you have gories of missiological reflection: the received mercy. Dear friends, I motivations, agents, means, and goals urge you, as aliens and strangers in of the mission of God to the nations. the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among 1. The motivations of the the pagans that, though they immigrants / strangers in the accuse you of doing wrong, they mission of God to the nations may see your good deeds and glori- There are numerous indications in the fy God on the day he visits us. Bible that demonstrate how God used In addition to participating in God’s the very history of the People of Israel mission to the nations, the People of God were to treat the stranger who lived in their midst with compassion and justice precisely because they had 7 See, for example, Gen. 12:10; 15: 13; 17:8; themselves once been strangers and 21:23,34; 23:4; 28:4; 36:7; 37:1; Ex. 6:4; 1 aliens in Egypt. Thus in Leviticus Chr. 29:15; 37:1; Job 19:18; Ps. 39:12; 69:8; 19:33-34 we read. 119:19; Obad. 11; Acts 13:17; Eph. 2:12, 19; Col. 1:21; Heb. 11:13; and 1 Pet. 1:1. When an alien lives with you in 34 Charles (Chuck) Van Engen

your land, do not mistreat him. The In Deuteronomy 23:7 Israel is com- alien living with you must be treat- manded, ed as one of your native-born. Love Do not abhor an Edomite, for he is him as yourself, for you were aliens your brother. Do not abhor an in Egypt. I am the LORD your God. Egyptian, because you lived as an Having experienced the life of the alien in his country. pilgrim and sojourner, the People of This aspect of Israel’s self-under- Israel should also care for the land standing of Israel as a pilgrim people with a special sense of stewardship had profound spiritual and existential because the land belongs to God and implications. In his prayer for the tem- not to Israel (Lev 25:23). ple that his son Solomon would build, The land must not be sold perma- David recognizes the fact that the Peo- nently, because the land is mine ple of God are immigrants and and you are but aliens and my ten- strangers (1 Chron. 29:14-15). ants. But who am I, and who are my peo- The judges were to judge the ple, that we should be able to give stranger on the same basis as the as generously as this? Everything Israelite (Deut. 1:16) and Israel was to comes from you, and we have given love the immigrant / stranger for two you only what comes from your hand. We are aliens and strangers reasons: (1) because God loves the in your sight, as were all our fore- stranger and the alien; and (2) because fathers. Our days on earth are like Israel was also a foreigner and a shadow, without hope. stranger in Egypt (Deut. 10:17-22). The psalmist also emphasizes that For the LORD your God is God of precisely because they are immigrants gods and Lord of lords, the great and strangers God will hear their cry God, mighty and awesome, who (Ps. 39:12; 119:19. See also Jer. 35:7; shows no partiality and accepts no 1 Pet. 1:1 y 2:11). bribes. He defends the cause of the How powerful could this motivation fatherless and the widow, and loves be to move our churches to participate the alien, giving him food and cloth- in the mission of God locally and glob- ing. And you are to love those who ally, participating in the movement of are aliens, for you yourselves were the Holy Spirit in mission because we aliens in Egypt. Fear the LORD too were and are immigrants / your God and serve him. Hold fast strangers? It seems to me a great to him and take your oaths in his shame—and I consider it a sinful omis- name. He is your praise; he is your sion—that many immigrants and God, who performed for you those descendents of immigrants in southern great and awesome wonders you California, for example, have forgotten saw with your own eyes. Your fore- who they are, that they themselves are fathers who went down into Egypt also immigrants / strangers, a forget- were seventy in all, and now the fulness that appears to produce an atti- LORD your God has made you as tude such that those of us who are numerous as the stars in the sky. early-arrival immigrants / strangers Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission 35 and/or descendents of early arrivals Egypt; live in the land where I tell should demonstrate little or no com- you to live. Stay in this land for a passion, nor receptivity, much less while, and I will be with you and hospitality, for the new immigrants / will bless you. For to you and your strangers who have recently arrived in descendants I will give all these our neighbourhoods and communities. lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham. I 2. The immigrants / strangers will make your descendants as as agents of God’s mission to numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, the nations and through your offspring all A second aspect of this missiological nations on earth will be blessed, and instrumental perspective of the because Abraham obeyed me and immigrants / strangers role in the mis- kept my requirements, my com- sion of God has to do with the form in mands, my decrees and my laws.’ which various personalities are pre- So Isaac stayed in Gerar. sented in the Bible as agents of God’s This biblical perspective of the mission precisely because they are immigrant / stranger as an agent of immigrants / strangers. Let me high- God’s mission acquires deeper roots light a few examples. and broader significance throughout Abraham would participate in God’s the history of Israel. We can see how mission to the nations as a response to the story of Joseph sheds light on this his call to leave his homeland and his missional viewpoint. Sold as a slave extended family clan and begin a pil- and sent to Egypt, Joseph is forced to grimage to a new land that God would become an alien, stranger, immigrant. show him. God would bless the nations Joseph lives through deceit, mistreat- through Abram precisely through his ment, false accusations, undeserved being a stranger, pilgrim, foreigner and imprisonment, and utter loneliness in immigrant. To be a stranger and an being forgotten in prison, a situation alien was such a fundamental aspect of which many of today’s immigrant / the self-understanding of Abraham’s strangers have also experienced. But family that Isaac also understood this precisely as an immigrant / stranger, quality as being an integral part of Joseph saves his family from famine, God’s vision for him, a self-portrait saves all of Egypt, and feeds all the that Isaac sees as fundamental to his peoples surrounding Egypt. Egypt being an instrument of God’s mission grows in its international influence and to the nations. Thus God tells Isaac in power because of the work of this Gen. 26:1-6. immigrant in the halls of power in Now there was a famine in the Egypt. Joseph adapts to the Egyptian land—besides the earlier famine of culture to such an extent that when his Abraham’s time—and Isaac went own brothers come asking for food they to Abimelech king of the Philistines do not recognize him. In the end, in Gerar. The LORD appeared to Joseph himself acknowledges his spe- Isaac and said, ‘Do not go down to cial role as an immigrant / stranger 36 Charles (Chuck) Van Engen when he speaks to his brothers in Gen. friend of the kings of Babylon and Per- 45:4-8; 50:19-21. sia even though he was a foreigner. Then Joseph said to his brothers, We could also mention the two ‘Come close to me.’ When they had women whom Jesus highlights in Luke done so, he said, ‘I am your brother 4 as special agents of God’s mission. Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! Both are immigrants / strangers. One And now, do not be distressed and was the widow of Seraphath (1 Kings do not be angry with yourselves for 1:8-16), the other a young Israelite girl selling me here, because it was to taken captive and serving as a slave in save lives that God sent me ahead the household of Naaman the Syrian. of you. For two years now there has As an agent of God’s mission, the little been famine in the land, and for the girl’s simple testimony brings about next five years there will not be Naaman’s healing from leprosy (2 ploughing and reaping. But God Kings 5:1-4). Precisely as foreign sent me ahead of you to preserve women God uses them in God’s mis- for you a remnant on earth and to sion to the nations. Interestingly, during the exile in save your lives by a great deliver- Babylon, the People of Israel found ance. So then, it was not you who themselves having to choose between sent me here, but God…’. Joseph two different perspectives. On the one said to them, ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I hand, they could see themselves as vic- in the place of God? You intended tims as expressed in Psalm 137:4 to harm me, but God intended it for where the Israelites—as captives in good to accomplish what is now Babylon—cry, saying, ‘How can we being done, the saving of many sing a song in a foreign land (or as for- lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will eigners in this land)?’ On the other provide for you and your children.’ hand, they could choose a self-under- And he reassured them and spoke standing as active agents of the mis- kindly to them. sion of God, even though they were Thus, even after his death Joseph’s strangers in a new nation. It is fasci- embalmed body would immigrate via a nating that during the exact same long journey through the desert back to moment in history, with reference to the land of his origins. the same persons experiencing the The Bible develops this missiologi- same exile, in the same context, God cal perspective in a significant number says to them through Jeremiah, ‘Build of narratives about persons whom God houses and settle down; plant gardens uses precisely as immigrants / and eat what they produce. Marry and strangers. We could mention Daniel have sons and daughters; find wives and his missional role in Babylon, for your sons and give your daughters another administrator who is a special in marriage, so that they too may have agent of God’s mission although ini- sons and daughters. Increase in num- tially he is an exiled prisoner, a cross- ber there; do not decrease. Also, seek cultural missionary sent against his the peace and prosperity of the city to will to a strange land. Daniel devoted which I have carried you into exile. his life to serving as counsellor and Pray to the LORD for it, because if it Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission 37 prospers, you too will prosper’ (Jer. 29: This vision is echoed in Habakkuk 1:5- 5-7). 6 where God says that he will use the This second perspective involves Chaldeans in God’s mission. Paul the Israelites seeing themselves as makes reference to this same passage being sent to Babylon by God with a from Habakkuk in his first major ser- missional purpose as agents of God’s mon in which he develops his mission mission for the well-being of the land to theology (Acts 13:41). Paul’s use of which they had been sent. Habakkuk echoes the way in which We could mention Esther, a woman Isaiah states that, due to the infidelity who as a descendent of immigrants / of Israel, God will use other nations in strangers adapts so well to her new God’s mission (Isa. 61:5). culture that she is chosen to serve in Can we imagine what God might the harem of the king of Persia. And want to do through the Hispanic/ even as an immigrant / stranger, Latino, Korean, African, Filipino, and Esther allows God to use her both to Chinese diasporas (to name a few) now save her people from being destroyed, spread all over the earth if we were to and to be the catalyst through whom all view them as agents of God’s mission Persia comes to know about the God of in the re-evangelization of North Amer- Israel. Similarly, Mordecai the Jew, an ica, Europe, the Middle East and the immigrant / stranger ends up exercis- globe? ing great influence in the realm. If we had space, we could mention 3. The immigrants / strangers David, exiled among the Philistines, an immigrant / stranger whom God uses as means of God’s mission to among them. David becomes a com- the nations panion at arms with, and counsellor to, A third aspect of this missionary and Achish, king of Gath (1. Sam. 27). instrumental perspective of the immi- Maybe this is why the New Testament grant / stranger in God’s mission has to writers seem so easily and naturally to do with the way in which immigration take note that Jesus himself was an itself is presented as a fundamental immigrant / stranger, exiled as a child method of God’s mission to the to Egypt. Luke brings this to mind once nations. There are indications in the again on the lips of the two who are Bible that on occasion God used immi- walking to Emmaus after the passion gration to fulfill certain important and resurrection of Jesus, describing aspects of God’s mission. Clearly there the one who joins them as being a is an intimate relationship between the ‘stranger’ (Lk. 24:18). agents whom God uses in God’s mis- This perspective of the immigrant / sion and the means by which God stranger as an agent of God’s mission chooses to carry out that mission. Yet appears to be so compelling that in this essay I will make a distinction Ezekiel speaks of God using foreigners (though it may at the outset appear to themselves in God’s mission of judg- be somewhat artificial) between these ment against Israel when Israel two aspects of God’s mission in order refuses to be an instrument of God’s to be able to read with new missiologi- mission to the nations (Ezek. 28:7). cal eyes the history of God’s mission as 38 Charles (Chuck) Van Engen it is portrayed in the Bible. tations in the desert. And in the case of When one thinks of immigration— Saul of Tarsus, after being encoun- that is, the phenomenon itself of being tered by Jesus on the road to Damas- a stranger/alien/foreigner—as one of cus, Saul—known later as Paul— the methods that God uses in God’s spends quite a few years in the desert mission, a number of biblical narra- rereading the Old Testament. In the tives come to mind. The first we might desert, all are strangers. And in the mention is the story of Moses. Raised desert they are shaped, formed, re- in a bi-cultural and bi-lingual environ- born to participate in God’s mission. It ment (Aramaic and Egyptian) Moses appears that at times God places peo- was still not a useful instrument for ple in situations of being immigrants / God’s mission. It was necessary for strangers with the purpose of forming Moses to spend forty years as an immi- them in preparation for their participa- grant / stranger among the Midianites, tion in God’s mission. learning how to survive in the desert, A second figure we could mention is learning how to shepherd sheep (God a woman, a widow, a Moabite, who pre- was preparing him to be able to shep- cisely because she was an immigrant / herd a large human flock in the desert), stranger was used by God to heal the and being shaped personally, emotion- bitterness of Naomi, her mother-in- ally, spiritually, and physically for the law, illustrating in her person what leadership role that would be his. God wanted to do for Israel. In the his- Moses describes himself as an immi- tory of Ruth the agent of God’s mission grant / stranger. The narration in Exo- is combined with the means of God’s dus 18:1-3 tells us, mission. Here I want to emphasize an Now Jethro, the priest of Midian aspect of the narrative of Ruth having and father-in-law of Moses, heard to do with immigration itself as a of everything God had done for means of God’s mission. Moses and for his people Israel, The entire story derives from the and how the LORD had brought way in which Boaz treats Ruth. Clearly Israel out of Egypt. After Moses the narrative is meant to be a love story had sent away his wife Zipporah, in the midst of which the bitterness of his father-in-law Jethro received Naomi (representing Israel?) is healed her and her two sons. One son was by and through the love Ruth and Boaz named Gershom, for Moses said, ‘I have for each other. But the relation- have become an alien in a foreign ship of Ruth and Boaz flows from the land…’ (See also Ex. 2:22; Acts faithfulness of Boaz as a righteous 7:29.). Israelite. He knows the Scriptures. He The theme of the desert as the knows that in Lev. 19:10 and again in womb from which mission is born rep- Lev. 23:22 God signals the way in resents a strong and consistent empha- which the People of Israel were to treat sis in the Bible. John the Baptist came the immigrants / strangers in their from the desert to begin his ministry. midst. Ruth describes herself as a As another example, in Luke 4, Jesus ‘stranger’ in Ruth 2:10. begins his ministry surviving the temp- At this, she bowed down with her Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission 39

face to the ground. She exclaimed, example. ‘Why have I found such favour in Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus your eyes that you notice me—a traveled along the border between foreigner?’ Samaria and Galilee. As he was The form in which Boaz receives her going into a village, ten men who and the compassion that Boaz shows to had leprosy met him. They stood at Ruth demonstrates that Boaz was a a distance and called out in a loud just and righteous Israelite who fol- voice, ‘Jesus, Master, have pity on lows the Levitical norms. us!’ When he saw them, he said, Do not go over your vineyard a sec- ‘Go, show yourselves to the ond time or pick up the grapes that priests.’ And as they went, they have fallen. Leave them for the were cleansed. One of them, when poor and the alien. I am the LORD he saw he was healed, came back, your God….(Lev. 19:10) praising God in a loud voice. He When you reap the harvest of your threw himself at Jesus’ feet and land, do not reap to the very edges thanked him—and he was a of your field or gather the gleanings Samaritan. Jesus asked, ‘Were not of your harvest. Leave them for the all ten cleansed? Where are the poor and the alien. I am the LORD other nine? Was no one found to your God. (Lev. 23:22) (See also return and give praise to God Deut. 24:19, 20, 21; 26:12, 13.) except this foreigner?’ Then he said to him, ‘Rise and go; your faith has Let us remember what we have made you well.’ already noted: God has a special care, compassion, and love for the stranger, There are many other examples of widow, and orphan (See, for example, this third aspect of immigration as a Ps. 94:6; 146:9.). It is precisely means of God’s mission to the nations. because Ruth is a stranger, a widow, The exile itself was a means whereby an alien, that God was able to use her God created a great diáspora out of in the environment of the faithfulness, which resulted the Septuagint, the syn- compassion and love of Boaz to bring agogues, Jewish proselytism, and a about the healing of the bitterness of network of human relationships that Naomi. The woman, the widow, the spread over the entire Roman Empire, stranger, is the means and the example contacts that Paul would later use as of the compassion of God. the pathways for his missionary jour- The New Testament offers us an neys. Later in this essay I will highlight echo. In Luke 17, when Jesus heals the the Parable of the Good Samaritan as ten lepers, only one returns to give one more illustration of the way the thanks to Jesus and praise God for stranger and alien are presented as being healed. And that one was a examples of the means of God’s mis- Samaritan, considered a stranger and sion to the nations. alien by the Jews at the time of Jesus. Could this biblical perspective of It is precisely because he was a immigration as a means of God’s mis- stranger and alien (in the eyes of the sion offer us a lens through which we Jews) that Jesus points him out as an might better understand what is hap- 40 Charles (Chuck) Van Engen pening in this century? Is it possible going to a promised land that will offer that God is using immigration itself as better conditions of life. This hope of a means to proclaim in word and deed the future as a fundamental aspect of the coming of the Kingdom of God immigration can be seen in numerous among the nations? biblical narratives. For example, when God raises up Moses to call the People 4. The immigrants / strangers of Israel to come out of Egypt, Moses as goals of God’s mission to the speaks of their going to a new land. In Exodus 6:1-8, we read, nations Then the LORD said to Moses, A fourth aspect of a missiological and ‘Now you will see what I will do to instrumental perspective of the role of Pharaoh: Because of my mighty immigrants / strangers in God’s mis- hand he will let them go; because of sion sees immigration in relation to the my mighty hand he will drive them goals of God’s mission among the out of his country.’ God also said to nations. Immigration seems to play an Moses, ‘I am the LORD. I appeared eschatological role that propels God’s to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob mission and the participation of the as God Almighty, but by my name People of God in that mission toward the LORD I did not make myself the future. This futurist vision appears known to them. I also established early in the Bible in the call of Abraham my covenant with them to give in Gen. 17:3-8. them the land of Canaan, where Abram fell facedown, and God said they lived as aliens. Moreover, I to him, ‘As for me, this is my have heard the groaning of the covenant with you: You will be the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are father of many nations. No longer enslaving, and I have remembered will you be called Abram; your my covenant. Therefore, say to the name will be Abraham, for I have Israelites: “I am the LORD, and I made you a father of many nations. will bring you out from under the I will make you very fruitful; I will yoke of the Egyptians. I will free make nations of you, and kings will you from being slaves to them, and come from you. I will establish my I will redeem you with an out- covenant as an everlasting stretched arm and with mighty acts covenant between me and you and of judgment. I will take you as my your descendants after you for the own people, and I will be your God. generations to come, to be your Then you will know that I am the God and the God of your descen- LORD your God, who brought you dants after you. The whole land of out from under the yoke of the Canaan, where you are now an Egyptians. And I will bring you to alien, I will give as an everlasting the land I swore with uplifted hand possession to you and your descen- to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to dants after you; and I will be their Jacob. I will give it to you as a pos- God.’ session. I am the LORD.”’ All immigrants think and dream of God’s mission toward the future is Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission 41 closely connected to his love of Israel eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, as a pilgrim and immigrant people. In who choose what pleases me and one of his psalms, in 1 Chr. 16:15-26, hold fast to my covenant—to them David cries out, I will give within my temple and its He remembers his covenant forev- walls a memorial and a name better er, the word he commanded, for a than sons and daughters; I will give thousand generations, the them an everlasting name that will covenant he made with Abraham, not be cut off. And foreigners who the oath he swore to Isaac. He con- bind themselves to the LORD to firmed it to Jacob as a decree, to serve him, to love the name of the Israel as an everlasting covenant: LORD, and to worship him, all who ‘To you I will give the land of keep the Sabbath without desecrat- Canaan as the portion you will ing it and who hold fast to my inherit.’ When they were but few in covenant—these I will bring to my number, few indeed, and strangers holy mountain and give them joy in in it, they wandered from nation to my house of prayer. Their burnt nation, from one kingdom to anoth- offerings and sacrifices will be er. He allowed no man to oppress accepted on my altar; for my house them; for their sake he rebuked will be called a house of prayer for kings: ‘Do not touch my anointed all nations.’ ones; do my prophets no harm.’ The writer of Hebrews associates Sing to the LORD, all the earth; this eschatological hope of the immi- proclaim his salvation day after grant / stranger with the expectation of day. Declare his glory among the the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11: nations, his marvellous deeds 13-16. ‘All these people,’ the writer among all peoples. For great is the states, ‘were still living by faith when LORD and most worthy of praise; they died. They did not receive the he is to be feared above all gods. things promised; they only saw them For all the gods of the nations are and welcomed them from a distance. idols, but the LORD made the heav- And they admitted that they were ens. aliens and strangers on earth. People This eschatological perspective of who say such things show that they are immigration includes the hope that the looking for a country of their nations will one day come to worship own….Instead, they were longing for a the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, better country—a heavenly one.’ creator of heaven and earth. This is the The vision the Bible offers us is that vision of Isaiah, for example. In Is. all immigrants / strangers are invited 56:3-7, we read the following. to the great banquet of the Lamb (Matt. Let no foreigner who has bound 22:1-14; Lk. 14:15-24). Every stranger himself to the LORD say, ‘The is invited to the table of the Lord. This LORD will surely exclude me from eschatological perspective of the immi- his people.’ And let not any eunuch grant / stranger is emphasized also in complain, ‘I am only a dry tree.’ For Revelation. Repeatedly the author of this is what the LORD says: ‘To the the Revelation announces that a great 42 Charles (Chuck) Van Engen multitude of every language, family, Conclusion tribe, and nation will gather around the The four aspects of this instrumental throne of the Lamb. (See, for example, and missiological perspective of the Rev. 1:7; 5:8; 5:13; 6:12; 10:6; 11:15; role of immigrants / strangers in God’s 14:6; 15:1; 19:6 and chapter 21.) This mission to the nations converge in the great gathering will occur as the result parable of the Good Samaritan. Luke of a great migration to the holy city. In places the parable within the narrative Revelation 21:1-2, 23-26, John in which Jesus sends the 70 on a mis- describes the event. sion. They are sent as envoys of Jesus’ Then I saw a new heaven and a mission which is thus their mission. new earth, for the first heaven and And the primary example of such a mis- the first earth had passed away, sion is the Samaritan. and there was no longer any sea. I In the parable we find the motiva- saw the Holy City, the new tion for mission in Jesus’ response to Jerusalem, coming down out of the question posed by the young noble heaven from God, prepared as a as to how the young noble is to keep bride beautifully dressed for her the law. As Jesus tells it, the ‘neigh- husband…. The city does not need bour’ in this story is not the one who the sun or the moon to shine on it, stands beside the young noble. Rather, for the glory of God gives it light, it is the one who acts neighbourly. The and the Lamb is its lamp. The ‘neighbour’ is the one who lives out the nations will walk by its light, and norms of the Older Testament in being the kings of the earth will bring ‘neighbourly’ to others. In the parable, their splendour into it. On no day the one who demonstrates such a way will its gates ever be shut, for there of life is in fact the Samaritan. The Samaritan is the ‘neighbour’. will be no night there. The glory The parable clearly presents the and honour of the nations will be Samaritan stranger/alien as the agent brought into it. of God’s mission. And the way Jesus What impact—and what changes tells the parable shows that Jesus also might there be—in our Christian wants to highlight the alien Samaritan churches and ecclesiastical institu- as the means by which Jesus can offer tions if we really believed that in the the young noble a new path of partici- final analysis, at the end of history, the pating in God’s mission. immigrants / strangers are specially Finally, the parable also focuses on invited to the Great Banquet of the the future. With the words, ‘Go and do Lamb? (See Lk. 14:15ff; Matt. 22:1ff.) likewise’, Jesus points toward a future What are the implications for our in which the young noble can fully nations and our Christian churches in receive God’s mercy. The young noble the thought that the hope of the world himself will no longer be a stranger. resides with the immigrants, aliens, And because of God’s mercy the young strangers, and foreigners in our midst? noble can also begin to create a new And what if in their future we find our reality in which immigrants / strangers own global future? are no longer excluded from his care, Biblical Perspectives on the Role of Immigrants in God’s Mission 43 his compassion, and his love. strangers. Is it possible, in this cen- I believe that when we begin to fully tury, to express the canticle that gives understand the Bible’s missiological concrete expression in real life to the and instrumental perspectives with vision of the psalmist in Psalm 146: 1, regard to the immigrant and stranger, 5-10? we may possibly gain a better grasp of, Praise the LORD….Blessed is he and live more fully into, the missionary whose help is the God of Jacob, vision expressed in 1 Peter 2. If the whose hope is in the LORD his church of Jesus Christ truly saw itself God, the Maker of heaven and as a pilgrim community whose land earth, the sea, and everything in and nation are not of this earth, then the Christian church would begin to them—the LORD, who remains understand that it is itself a community faithful forever. He upholds the of immigrants—ambassadors, yes (2 cause of the oppressed and gives Cor. 5)—but even so, immigrants. food to the hungry. The LORD sets Out of all the nations of the earth, prisoners free, the LORD gives God has chosen the Christian church to sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up be ‘a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a those who are bowed down, the people belonging to God’. Being who LORD loves the righteous. The we are, it is not acceptable for us to LORD watches over the alien and reject the call of God to participate in sustains the fatherless and the God’s mission in this world—espe- widow, but he frustrates the ways cially God’s mission because of, by of the wicked. The LORD reigns means of, with the participation of, and forever, your God, O Zion, for all on the way toward immigrants and generations. Praise the LORD.

Missional House Churches A Study of House Churches Who are Reaching Their Communities with the Gospel J. D. Payne This book is an examination of house churches in the USA that are making disciples through evangelism and church planting. It outlines the various characteristics of the house churches studied and examines how their values, methods of evangelism and leadership-development have led to growth. J.D. Payne is a national missionary with the North American Mission Board and an Assistant Professor of Evangelism and Church Planting at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

978-1934068-25-0 / 216 x 140mm / 192pp / £8.99 Paternoster, 9 Holdom Avenue, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK1 1QR, UK ERT (2010) 34:1, 44-57 The Whole Church as a Transformed and Transforming Society

Dewi Hughes

KEY WORDS: ecclesiology, trans- this proved to be a step too far and formed, church, community most mission work was carried out on denominational lines for the first half of the nineteenth century. WHEN EVANGELICALISM was defined at Following the pioneering example the international conference convened of William Carey, overseas evangeliza- in London in 1846 to establish the tion within denominational church Evangelical Alliance the definition structures was delegated to volunteer explicitly excluded an ecclesiological societies that ran the business of overseas mission—raising funds, selecting statement. The reason for this was that candidates, transporting missionaries the great evangelical revival of the to the field and overseeing their work eighteenth century had created a situ- on the field. The links denominational ation where members from most of the societies had with their sponsoring Protestant denominations that existed churches varied in strength but they all at that time could be one in heart and recognized at least some accountabil- mind as long as they ignored their dif- ity to church. fering ecclesiology. A good example of With the emergence of the interde- this non-ecclesiological unity was the nominational faith missions in the sec- formation of the London Missionary ond half of the nineteenth century a Society [LMS] in 1795. Episcopalians, very significant non-denominational Presbyterians and Independents stream became a permanent fixture formed an overseas mission to send out and eventually the predominant factor missionaries that would simply preach in evangelical mission from the West to the gospel, translate the scriptures and the majority world. This weakened fur- allow converts to organise themselves ther the link between mission and the into the sort of churches that suited church and since the great expansion them. However, for most evangelicals in their prevalence happened when

Dr Dewi Hughes taught Religious Studies at the Polytechnic of Wales [now the University of Glamorgan] from 1975-87. Having left academia to become Tearfund’s first Co-ordinator for Wales he is currently Tearfund’s Theological Advisor. His latest book is Power and Poverty: Divine and Human Rule in a World of Need, [Nottingham/Grand Rapids: Inter-Varsity Press, 2008]. The Whole Church as a Transformed and Transforming Society 45 premillennialism was sweeping the Father sent him, and that this through the evangelical community, calls for a similar deep and costly particularly in the USA, the focus penetration of the world. We need moved from forming communities of to break out of our ecclesiastical disciples to making converts. By the ghettos and permeate non- middle of the twentieth century the US Christian society. In the Church’s culture of planning, marketing and mission of sacrificial service evan- measuring had come to dominate the gelism is primary. World evange- scene and evangelism felt very much lization requires the whole Church like a business enterprise. With this as to take the whole gospel to the the dominant model the worldwide whole world. The Church is at the evangelical movement was poised to very centre of God’s cosmic pur- relegate ecclesiology even further to pose and is his appointed means of the periphery of its concerns. spreading the gospel. But a church The Lausanne Movement was born which preaches the cross must out of this manifestation of the primary itself be marked by the cross. It evangelical imperative to convert peo- becomes a stumbling block to evan- ple everywhere to faith in Jesus Christ. gelism when it betrays the gospel But at the Lausanne Congress in 1974 or lacks a living faith in God, a gen- a significant number of delegates led uine love for people, or scrupulous by majority world leaders managed to honesty in all things including pro- persuade the congress to look again at motion and finance. The church is the dominant US model and seek a the community of God’s people more adequate and more biblical model rather than an institution, and of evangelism. The result was that must not be identified with any par- repentance and social action came to ticular culture, social or political be linked with evangelism as an essen- system, or human ideology.1 tial component of Christian mission. The Lausanne Covenant as a whole marked a very important watershed in The Church as a transformed the history of twentieth century evan- society gelicalism but in this paragraph on the With the emphasis on the importance church we see a movement stumbling for evangelism that people change the towards an adequate biblical under- way they live and relate to others standing of the significance of the within and outside the Christian com- church in the mission of God. On the munity, it became very difficult to one hand there is a deeply biblical ignore the church. So, it is not surpris- appreciation of what the church is as a ing that the Lausanne Covenant has a paragraph focusing on the church: 1 The scripture references attached to this 6. The Church and Evangelism paragraph were John 17:18; 20:21; Matt. 28:19,20; Acts 1:8; 20:27; Eph. 1:9,10; 3:9-11; We affirm that Christ sends his Gal. 6:14,17; 2 Cor. 6:3,4; 2 Tim. 2:19-21; Phil. redeemed people into the world as 1:27. 46 Dewi Hughes cross-centred community at the centre linked to the quality of the individual of God’s cosmic purpose but on the and corporate lives of the members; other hand the church is seen as that ‘the local church bears a primary merely a means to an evangelistic end. responsibility for the spread of the This paragraph may have provided gospel’; that churches and denomina- what has become the Lausanne Move- tions, evangelicals in the West and the ment’s strap line—‘the whole church majority world and, where possible, taking the whole gospel to the whole evangelicals and non-evangelicals world’2—but it left the movement with- should cooperate in evangelism. out an adequate ecclesiology. As with the Covenant there are also A third of the Manila Manifesto that hints of a non-instrumental ecclesiol- was drafted at the second Lausanne ogy here and there: Congress in 1989 is devoted to ‘the Our message that Christ reconciles whole church’ because by that time alienated people to each other rings ‘the whole church taking the whole true only if we are seen to love and gospel to the whole world’ had become forgive one another, to serve others the movement’s motto. However, the in humility, and to reach out Manila Manifesto is disappointing beyond our own community in com- because the instrumental aspect of the passionate, costly ministry to the ecclesiology of the Covenant is needy. strengthened with a pervasive empha- The church is intended by God to be sis on the evangelistic action of indi- a sign of his kingdom, that is, an vidual members of the churches. Many indication of what human commu- good things are said in the Manifesto nity looks like when it comes under that still need to be said—that if every his rule of righteousness and member of the church is to fulfil their peace. As with individuals, so with calling the distinction between clergy churches, the gospel has to be and laity has to be undermined; that embodied if it is to be communicat- there is a crying need to encourage ed effectively. It is through our love women to exercise their gifts; that for one another that the invisible homes and places of work should be God reveals himself today, espe- seen as places of witness; that the cially when our fellowship is strength of the church’s witness is expressed in small groups, and when it transcends the barriers of race, rank, sex and age which divide other communities. 2 Charles van Engen pointed out at our Panama consultation that much of this strap In these paragraphs the church is line was not original to Lausanne but had been not just a means to an end but the end circulating in World Council of Churches cir- itself. The church does not just exist to cles since as early as 1951. For a discussion of fulfil some task or other but its exis- the meaning of this strap line in the WCC and tence is the fulfilment of God’s purpose evangelical context see Charles Van Engen. The Growth of the True Church: An Analysis of for humanity. This non-instrumental the Ecclesiology of Church Growth Theory (Ams- view of church means that it communi- terdam: Rodopi, 1981), pp 379-385. cates the gospel as much as by what it The Whole Church as a Transformed and Transforming Society 47 is and does as by what it says. as the bride and to the foundations of The view that the church is a ‘sign the city as the apostles of the Lamb of the kingdom’ of God and ‘an indica- suggest strongly that the glorious soci- tion of what human community looks ety that we will be one day is but a like when it comes under [God’s] rule greatly intensified version of the soci- of righteousness and peace’ reflects ety that the church is now and always more adequately the sweep of the bib- has been since the Spirit was poured lical story. The vision of the end of the out on the day of Pentecost. There is story of God’s dealings with the earth plenty of biblical evidence to indicate and its peoples in Revelation 21-22 that the society that has submitted to provides many clues to understanding the rule of Jesus has the characteris- the significance of the church in God’s tics, if only in shadow, of the glorious dealing with humanity in history. John society that it will be one day. We may saw a vision of a new heaven and a new bemoan the failings of churches but if earth devoid of disorder. Into this the church is church in any meaningful renewed creation he saw the New sense it is a foretaste of heaven. Jesus Jerusalem descending from heaven like did not say to his company of disciples a bride in all her splendour ready to that they ought to be the light of the meet the bridegroom. This holy city or world or a city on a hill that cannot be bride is actually renewed human soci- hidden. The simple fact that they had ety living fully in the presence of God gathered around Jesus and recognized as a result of which everything that has him as the Messiah, the anointed Ruler ever made human life sorrowful— sent by God, meant that they would including death—has been banished reflect something of his effulgence as for ever. In his dealing with recalci- the light of the world. The fact that they trant Israel God often declared that a were listening to his radical moral time would come when they would teaching and that in due course they obey him and then they really would be would seek to live in obedience to him his people and he would really be their in the power of the Spirit meant that God. This is the reality John sees as people outside their society would see prevailing in the end not only with the light of God’s glory in them and Israel but with all nations, who will come to praise their Father in heaven. gladly bring of their best into this holy As someone that has spent a sub- city. The crucial legacy of Israel and stantial proportion of his life trying to the Old Covenant was marked by the convince churches and individual fact that the names of the 12 tribes Christians that they should share their were over the 12 gates into the city but possessions with the poor through its foundations were the 12 apostles of Tearfund, which is a Christian relief the Lamb and the Lamb, the Lord Jesus and development agency, I have been Christ, was its glory and light. This glo- asked on a number of occasions why it rious scene is a picture of a human is that in the New Testament the society living in complete peace and emphasis is almost always on Chris- security under the authority of the ser- tians looking after their own poor. The vant king, the Lamb. answer is that Jesus is establishing a The reference to the New Jerusalem specific type of society on earth that 48 Dewi Hughes prefigures the glorious society that will about the renewal of human society in be fully revealed at his second coming. the mission and purpose of God. Begin- What happened in Jerusalem after Pen- ning with the declaration on the eve of tecost clearly points to this. If we the giving of the law at Sinai that Israel bracket all the caveats raised by wise was to be a holy nation and ending with and materialistic western theologians Peter’s reminder that the Christian what we see happening in Jerusalem community he addressed in his first let- after Pentecost is the formation of a ter was called to be a holy nation the wonderfully new way of being a soci- Bible is full of God’s heart for the cor- ety.3 Here were people from different porate renewal of humankind. Peter’s nations and classes delighting in each encouragement will suffice as conclud- other as they joined the society of Jesus ing evidence that the good news that the Messiah. They loved to be together, we call the gospel is not just about the to eat together and to share their mate- salvation of individuals but the cre- rial possessions with one another. We ation of an alternative community now know that problems were around the in the midst of this sinful world that corner and that the realism of being points to the eternal community that is imperfect would soon hit them but it to come: would be folly to lose the sense of won- But you are a chosen people, a der, security, mutual respect and com- royal priesthood, a holy nation, a munity that characterised this first people belonging to God, that you Christian society blessed by the power- may declare the praises of him who ful infusion of the Holy Spirit of God as called you out of darkness into his a result of Messiah Jesus’ exaltation.4 wonderful light. Once you were not What is also very significant about a people, but now you are the peo- this description is the powerful evan- ple of God; once you had not gelistic impact of this community that received mercy, but now you have should satisfy the most ardent advo- received mercy. Dear friends, I cate of evangelisation in the Lausanne urge you, as aliens and strangers in Movement. It was the quality of the the world, to abstain from sinful communal life of the church that desires, which war against your caused the church to enjoy ‘the favour soul. Live such good lives among of all the people’, which in turn pro- the pagans that, though they vided the platform for sharing the good accuse you of doing wrong, they news of Jesus Messiah. may see your good deeds and glori- There is so much that could be said fy God on the day he visits us. [1 Pet. 2:9-12]. The impression has often been created within the Lausanne Movement 3 For a discussion of the Jerusalem church that that the task of evangelization has not takes note of the western caveats see Dewi Hughes, Power and Poverty, Divine and Human been completed because of a lack of Rule in a World of Need (Nottingham: IVP, evangelizing zeal coupled with a lack 2008/Grand Rapids: IVP, 2009), pp. 210 ff. of planning, strategy and finance but in 4 Acts 2:44-47; 4:32-35. light of the biblical picture of the sig- The Whole Church as a Transformed and Transforming Society 49 nificance of the church the cause of all this discussion has been the failure is just as likely to be a lack of assumption of the autonomy of the holiness among the people of God. individual self—to be truly free is to be As the Lausanne Movement pre- able to make what I want of my self. pares for its third congress in Cape For a considerable proportion of the Town in 2010 it is an opportune time last 200 years the capitalist-libertarian for us to draw attention to our defective and the socialist-Marxist ideologies ecclesiology and for evangelicals to competed for ascendancy as the means grasp that there are certain biblical to deliver self-centred freedom. It now truths about the church that they must seems that the capitalist-libertarian share and celebrate. Our evangelical ideology has won the day. Under the forefathers were wrong to exclude banner of post-modernity it is now church from their minimum definition busily persuading the whole world that of evangelicalism because it is possible the essence of human freedom and self- to include some fundamental truths fulfilment is found in the ability to con- about church without betraying our sume. Kant’s noble call to reject tradi- denominational allegiance. Without tional authority in the interest of indi- this the task of evangelization will be vidual autonomy and ‘Dare to know’ profoundly hindered. has ended up as a price tag in the quin- In summing up the deliberations of tessentially post-modern western the Theology Working Group at the shopping mall! The tragedy is that all Lausanne Leaders gathering in too often western and westernized Budapest in June 2006, Chris Wright evangelicals in the majority world are said that his hope for Cape Town 2010 deeply compromised with this self-cen- was that it would ‘launch nothing less tred consumerism, which in New Tes- than a 21st Century Reformation tament language is nothing more or among evangelicals…for there are less than the idolatrous worship of scandals and abuses in the world-wide mammon/money—and all that money evangelical community that are remi- can buy. niscent of the worst features of the pre- The irrefutable evidence that this is reformation medieval church in so is the growing meanness of western Europe.’ evangelical Christians as they have One of the worst scandals is the con- become immensely richer in the last 25 sumerist captivity of the western and years. Ron Sider draws attention to westernized church. It is now over two this fact in his The Scandal of the Evan- centuries since European intellectuals gelical Conscience: Why are Christians began declaring independence from Living Just Like the Rest of the World? the traditional political and religious Sider’s thesis has been amply con- structures of Christendom that made firmed by an academic sociological ‘freedom’ one of the key concepts of study entitled Passing the Plate: Why our modern era. There has been much American Christians Don’t Give Away discussion about the precise nature of More Money. In his review of this book this freedom and the best political in Christianity Today Sider says that structures that need to be put in place ‘the level of self-centered materialism in order to secure it but at the heart of systematically described here is truly 50 Dewi Hughes staggering. The publisher should have into a new type of society under the used an earlier title that was consid- lordship of Jesus Christ. ered: Stingy Believers. The book should A very pernicious manifestation of drive us to our knees.’ The primary the consumerist spirit within evangeli- cause of this stinginess is conformity calism is the so-called prosperity to consumerism because ‘the wide- gospel. In this sacralisation of the spread consumerism and materialism American dream devotion to God is of the culture—expressed above all in seen as a deal—we risk our little on our incessant advertising—seduces God and he pays back with abundance many people into making extravagant for us to enjoy on ourselves. Even when decisions about major purchases like our giving to God is presented as giving houses and cars and smaller things to our poor brother or sister the like recreation, eating out, vacations, approach is destructive of true human etc.; and the result is that most fami- community because the needy are lies are financially pressed in spite of reduced to just a means to an end. But enormous wealth.’ The authors ‘think the most destructive manifestation of there are five primary reasons for the this teaching is the way church leaders fact that “the wealthiest national body in situations of great poverty use it to of Christian believers at any time in all exploit the poor for their own comfort. of church history end up spending most Prosperity preachers by definition of their money on themselves”’. The have to be prosperous in order to have most important is our society’s ‘insti- credibility. So, their technique is to put tutionalized mass consumerism’.5 It pressure on the poor to risk the little just happens that the evidence is avail- that they have on their ministries with able for US evangelicals but anecdotal the promise that since they would be evidence leads me to think that the giving to God by giving to them God same principle applies in the UK—the will bless them with abundance—and richer evangelicals become the more if the poor lose out they do so because consumerist and mean they become. of their lack of faith in giving. Even in the majority world those who Another scandal is the ideological work among the poor testify to the captivity of significant sections of the meanness of the rich middle class western evangelical church. The war on evangelical churches towards their terror—which for some mysterious charitable work. The pressures of con- reason to objective observers is said to sumerism can be subtle and Jesus him- include the Iraq war—prosecuted self warned us against the danger of under the leadership of the evangelical the cares of this world but conformity George W. Bush, who was voted into to the consumerist world would be far office with the support of the over- less likely if evangelization was seen whelming majority of US evangelicals, as a process of incorporating people has done, and is doing, unimaginable damage to the evangelization of the most unevangelized populations in the 5 Quotations taken from the review in world. www.christianitytoday.com/2008/006/5.11.h At the Lausanne Forum in Pattaya tml in October 2004 a group of the dele- The Whole Church as a Transformed and Transforming Society 51 gates led by Rene Padilla approached the West generally must distance itself the leadership of the forum to discuss from this destructive ideology so that the possibility that the Lausanne the kingdom of the Prince of Peace can Movement could publicly distance grow in the most unevangelized places itself from the military policy of the in our world. Bush administration. The leadership of In 1846 evangelical Christians from Lausanne, which was dominated by US many parts of the world gathered in citizens at the time, was resolute in its London in order to form a global evan- opposition to the suggestion. gelical alliance. The attempt failed The consultation that launched the because some of the delegates from the Micah Network met in Oxford, England US insisted that slavery was consistent two weeks after 9/11. In the Micah with their evangelical faith despite the Declaration on Integral Mission we overwhelming international evangeli- expressed ‘our abhorrence at this cal consensus at that time that it was atrocity’ but we also recognized ‘the not. It would be a tragedy if the US and symbolic meaning of this act of terror- other evangelical churches stood to ism. In his day Jesus interpreted the one side once again because of their butchery of Pilate against the perceived commitment to western Galileans as an opportunity to repent. imperialism at this critical point in the Could it be that this act against the history of evangelicalism. symbols of Western economic and military power is a call to repentance?’6 This suggestion caused deep offence to The church as a transforming many in the US in particular. society Myths America Lives By In his book, , As Jesus prayed for his community of Richard T. Hughes has made a strong disciples in the prayer recorded in John case that at different periods in their 17 he affirmed that because they were history Americans have adopted sto- identified with him they were not of the ries that have no foundation in truth to world. What they needed above all else justify actions that are very obviously was to be sanctified by the word of unjust. The myth of ‘manifest destiny’ truth from the Father revealed through that justified the extermination of Jesus. Just as Jesus had resolutely Native Americans is an obvious case in determined to sanctify himself by doing point. At the moment it is the myth of his Father’s will, which ultimately took the Christian or Millennial Nation that him to the cross to die for sinners, so is causing even evangelicals in Amer- he prayed that his followers would ica to believe that the use of the most sanctify themselves so that they too, as terribly destructive weapons can be justified as a Christian activity. The a community of grace, would be able to evangelical church in America and in resolutely dedicate themselves to serve God and their neighbours. But then he prays to the Father: ‘As you 6 Tim Chester [ed.], Justice, Mercy and Humil- sent me into the world I have sent them ity: Integral Mission and the Poor (Carlisle: into the world’ (Jn. 17:18, cf. 20:21). Paternoster Press, 2002), pp. 17,18. The church is both called out of the 52 Dewi Hughes world to be an alternative society ment upon every form of alienation, under the rule of Jesus but also, oppression and discrimination, and empowered by the Spirit, sent into the we should not be afraid to world to be a blessing to those who do denounce evil and injustice wherev- not belong. In the Lausanne movement er they exist. When people receive this mission of the church has been Christ they are born again into his defined as mission in word and deed— kingdom and must seek not only to ‘holistic mission’ or what is now often exhibit but also to spread its right- called ‘integral mission’. This is how eousness in the midst of an the Lausanne Covenant describes the unrighteous world. The salvation social aspect of this mission: we claim should be transforming us in the totality of our personal and 5. Christian Social Responsibility social responsibilities. Faith without works is dead. We affirm that God is both the Creator and the Judge of all men. There is little in this paragraph to We therefore should share his con- suggest that social action is a church cern for justice and reconciliation responsibility. There is some advance throughout human society and for on the Covenant in the Manila Mani- the liberation of men and women festo but again in the context of a from every kind of oppression. strong commitment to an instrumental Because men and women are made ecclesiology. Affirmation 16 states in the image of God, every person, ‘that every Christian congregation regardless of race, religion, colour, must turn itself outward to its local culture, class, sex or age, has an community in evangelistic witness and intrinsic dignity because of which compassionate service’. Paragraph 7, he or she should be respected and which is in the section on the whole served, not exploited. Here too we church, says that ‘our message that express penitence both for our Christ reconciles alienated people to neglect and for having sometimes each other rings true only if we are seen regarded evangelism and social to love and forgive one another, to serve concern as mutually exclusive. others in humility, and to reach out Although reconciliation with other beyond our own community in compas- people is not reconciliation with sionate, costly ministry to the needy’. God, nor is social action evange- Again paragraph 6, which is also in the lism, nor is political liberation sal- section on the whole church, states that vation, nevertheless we affirm that a local congregation/ church ‘might evangelism and socio-political decide to organize a visitation of their involvement are both part of our whole area, to penetrate for Christ a Christian duty. For both are neces- particular place where people assem- sary expressions of our doctrines of ble, to arrange a series of evangelistic God and man, our love for our meetings, lectures or concerts, to work neighbour and our obedience to with the poor to transform a local slum, Jesus Christ. The message of salva- or plant a new church in a neighbouring tion implies also a message of judg- district or village’. The Whole Church as a Transformed and Transforming Society 53

Churches need integrity and they lization agenda. The true church is a need to transform slums but the moti- transforming society and it is our priv- vation for either activity is not some ilege as an agency to serve its agenda. overriding evangelistic strategy. The most we can and ought to do is to Churches are not a means to evange- encourage the church to be what it is. lism but communities under the benign It is a cliché but with a strong ele- rule of Jesus the Messiah learning what ment of truth that the church is the it means to love God with all their heart only society that exists for the benefit and their neighbour as themselves. It is of non-members. Churches do need to not some programme or strategy for attend to the serious and challenging evangelization that determines the task of growing as the peace [shalom] shape of the church but the shape of the communities that they are but they are church that determines the programme probably more successful in becoming or strategy for evangelization. Neither peace communities when they seek the must social action be seen as a means peace of the societies in which they are to evangelization. The church should located. We know as the society of not ‘work with the poor to transform a Jesus that our citizenship is in heaven local slum’ as a means/method of evan- and that we are strangers and aliens in gelizing the local slum. The church this world that is organized in opposi- works to transform the local slum tion to God. We also know that this because of love—born of their experi- world will be subject to God’s judg- ence of the love of God in Jesus—for the ment. Jeremiah knew that Babylon, people in the slum that births practical which had been the rod in God’s hand action to bless them. to punish the Jews for their sin, would Those of us that have been advocat- one day itself be brought low in the pur- ing the vital importance of deeds in the pose of God. Even so in his divinely mission of the church—especially inspired letter to the exiled Jews in social action with and on behalf of the Babylon he told them to ‘seek the poor—also need to remember that an peace and prosperity of the city’ and to instrumental ecclesiology is defective. ‘pray to the Lord for it, because if it Tearfund, the evangelical Christian prospers you too will prosper’ (Jer relief and development agency that I 29:7). It is in the spirit of Jeremiah that serve as Theological Advisor, has a ten Jesus commands his disciples many year vision of seeing ‘50 million people years later to love their enemies and released from material and spiritual that Paul commanded the church in poverty through a worldwide network Rome to love their enemies before of 100,000 churches’. I rejoice that going on immediately to exhort them to Tearfund has become convinced that pray for the imperial administration churches are vital to transforming the that despite all its failings was put in lives of the poor in their societies but place in order to make sure that what we must also avoid thinking of the is good for all citizens was protected. church as a means to an end. The And, of course, they were to continue church does not exist to deliver our loving their neighbour rulers and seek- relief and development agenda any ing their blessing even when they soon more than it exists to serve an evange- started persecuting them. 54 Dewi Hughes

Rwanda and other examples of spending an enormous sum of money I could tell many stories that have con- on its buildings, from where I could vinced me that evangelicalism devel- look down into a most appalling slum oped what can only be described as and learnt that the church had done tragic defects in its theology in the nothing to reach out to the suffering twentieth century and I believe that people on their doorstep—who also many of those defects are concentrated happened to be Muslim. in the area of ecclesiology. The most Such anecdotes could easily be mul- glaring example is the terrible tragedy tiplied by many others from all over the that engulfed Rwanda. There are world to highlight the evangelical heroic tales of evangelical individuals ecclesiological malaise that the third risking their lives—and sometimes Lausanne Congress must address as a losing them—because of their refusal major priority. Successful world evan- to join in the genocide. I am yet to hear gelisation depends upon it. The picture a story of a church that stood for jus- is not totally bleak by any means tice. Then there are many other stories because there are an increasing num- that are not dramatic but witness to the ber of stories of evangelical churches being the transforming societies that same problem. I was told about a city they were meant to be. It is the voices centre Baptist church in Latin America of these churches that need to be heard that refused to let an evangelical loudly in Cape Town. These are the agency that was working with vulnera- churches that have become convinced ble girls abandoned to the streets to that their calling is to be communities use their excellent buildings because of blessing to the societies in which they were not meant for such work but they are placed. In these churches as a place to worship God. Friends transforming society is not seen as the working in the slums of India testify task of individuals in the church or of that it is very difficult to get support para-church agencies but of the church from middle class evangelical as a whole. In many cases they are churches that must be doing very well churches of the poor who choose to financially as a result of the current stand in solidarity with their fellow economic boom in their country. I have poor so that they may all be lifted up in myself visited evangelical churches in the name and power of Jesus. Together India that are located very close to they dedicate themselves to God, to slum colonies where there was no each other and to the needy outside sense of responsibility at all for the their community. The best way to catch needy people on their doorstep. I have something of their vision is through walked through a slum in an African case studies. Here are just 2:7 city with a senior evangelical pastor born and bred in that city to be told by him that he never knew that people lived in such appalling conditions in his 7 These case studies have been researched and written up by Tulo Raistrick, Tearfund’s city. I have stood in the compound of a Church and Development Advisor. These and large evangelical Baptist church in an many others can be found at http://tilz.tear- African city, which was in the process fund.org—see the box headed ‘Welcome to The Whole Church as a Transformed and Transforming Society 55

1. The Church that Mobilised— the fact that they could be used by God Trapeang Keh, Cambodia in this way. Trapeang Keh is a very poor village in The local Christians began to rural Cambodia. Up to three years ago realise that if they helped the village to it appeared a very unpromising envi- begin to work together things could ronment for church-led community change. They invited the community to transformation. The land was dry and join them for a meeting, but the vil- hard, and the water wells were dry lagers were very sceptical. They were most of the year round. Men had to go not sure they could trust these Chris- off to the cities for months at a time to tians. So the Christians then went and earn money, but often came back bro- visited every person in their home, one ken and sick. Many in the village were by one. Gradually they began to win in debt to powerful money-lenders. people’s trust, and then one day, when Like most Cambodian villages, there they called a community meeting, was little trust or co-operation almost everyone came. Helped by the between people, the legacy of the hor- two Christian facilitators, the commu- rendous Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge nity began to discuss their problems. regime during the 1970s. And the Over the next few meetings they began church itself consisted of only four to realise why they were poor, and then members, and they were persecuted they began to realise that they could do and marginalised by the rest of the something about it! community. The community began to work However, things began to change together to address some of the prob- three years ago. Two Christian com- lems. They helped dig more and better munity facilitators from FAITH project wells and they improved the irrigation began to visit the village and spent to people’s fields. No longer is the vil- time with the local Christians. They lage reliant on one unhealthy pond dur- visited for two days every fortnight, ing the dry season. With better irriga- and would stay overnight in the village. tion, they were able to start vegetable This surprised most of the villagers— gardens, and now grow crops all year visitors who ever came to their village round. The men no longer need to leave seemed only too quick to leave and for the cities. And they have formed a escape the primitive living conditions development committee to help man- that were there. Each visit, the two age all the changes taking place in the Christian facilitators would spend time village. doing bible studies, helping the Chris- But the village has experienced not tians to see how God wanted them to be just physical changes. Attitudes and agents of transformation in their com- relationships have changed too. There munity and building their confidence in is less social disruption, as men stay with their families all year round. The community discussions had encouraged men to listen to women, often for tilz’ and ‘Click here to go to the new section of this site about mobilising churches’ for many the first time, and the result is that more case studies and guidance on how to go men’s respect for women has about mobilizing churches. increased. There is less wife-beating, 56 Dewi Hughes and more sharing of the tasks that had its community. He had long negotia- always previously been left up to the tions over a four year period with a big women—gardening, water collection, donor who finally agreed that they and cooking. There is less quarrelling would provide over a million pounds to and fighting in the village, and less help the church build a community cen- alcoholism. The village is more united, tre. However, throughout these negoti- and decision-making within the village ations, the minister had not involved is fairer and more inclusive. the church members. He had assumed And, significantly, attitudes to the that they would be in favour. At the church have changed too. The Chris- final meeting before the funding was to tians themselves have grown in confi- arrive, the church was asked to sign dence to care for their neighbours and the contract. However, the church to share their faith. There is less per- members were somewhat unsure, and secution. In fact now people respect when they were told that they would be the Christians as they have shown responsible for running the centre they themselves willing to help others. And got scared, and said ‘no’. It was devas- the church has grown. All but two of tating for the minister—years of hard the households in the village now work had gone down the drain and attend the church! It is a story of what he saw as a great opportunity had remarkable, holistic transformation.8 been lost. The church too was very upset—they liked their minister and felt that they had let him down. 2. The Church that However, the church members were Rediscovered its Confidence— right to say ‘no’. The community centre An Anglican Church in East project was far too big for them. The London problem had been that the minister The church of this case study is in an hadn’t spent enough time listening to area of East London in one of the poor- their views or thinking through their est parts of the UK. There is high skills to realise it would not work. unemployment, poor health, low levels A Tearfund facilitator was invited of literacy, and large numbers of single into this situation to help the minister parents. The specific church reflects and the church think through what this situation: it is a church made up of should happen next. Their starting people with low incomes and little con- point was the failed community centre fidence. project, helping all sides to be heard The minister of the church is a and understood, and to enable healing visionary and activist, and was keen of people’s hurts to take place. They for the church to have a big impact in then began to help the church to see themselves as God saw them. The church members, low in confidence and self-esteem, began to discover that 8 For another a striking case study from Cam- they did have many gifts and skills for bodia see David Evans with Kathryn Scherer, Creating Space for Strangers: Thinking Afresh community work—not for running a about Mission and the Church (Leicester: IVP, big community centre, but for doing 2004), pp. 84-89. many other useful things instead. The Whole Church as a Transformed and Transforming Society 57

Gradually, the church members began church has become more relevant to to want to get more involved in their the community. People are now more community again, but this time in a ready to listen to their message. And more realistic way. the church has discovered that ‘small The church began a process of lis- can be beautiful’—that it is not always tening to their community. Through necessary to do big projects but that house-to-house visits they discovered small projects with love and compas- that a big worry for people was that a sion can make just as big a difference. large building renovation scheme was about to take place that would leave people without electricity for two Conclusion weeks. As most people cooked and Part 3 of Chris Wright’s Mission of God heated their homes with electricity this provides a compelling biblical and the- was quite a concern. The church ological foundation for what has been realised they could help. They realised argued in this paper. It is fitting to con- that there were people in their church clude with just one quotation from this who could cook meals, others who magnificent volume: could open up the church building so The question is, Is the church as a that people could stay in there to keep whole reflecting the wholeness of warm, others who could drop round God’s redemption? Is the church leaflets to people’s homes to let them (thinking here of the local church know that the church was offering as the organism effectively and help, others who could chat with peo- strategically placed for God’s mis- ple and make them feel welcome, and sion in any given community) others who could pray. Suddenly the aware of all that God’s mission church felt they were able to make a summons them to participate in? Is difference. the church through the combined As a result of this practical initia- engagement of all its members, tive, the church grew in confidence. applying the redemptive power of When it became apparent that the local the cross of Christ to all the effects government was corrupt and misusing of sin and evil in the surrounding public money, it seemed a natural lives, society and environment? action for the church to decide to take The ringing slogan of the a stand. They headed up a coalition of Lausanne movement is: ‘The whole community groups calling for greater church taking the whole gospel to accountability in the local government, the whole world.’ Holistic mission and for the return of squandered cannot be the responsibility of any money. one individual. But it is certainly The church has changed hugely the responsibility of the whole since the day they said ‘no’ to the com- church.9 munity centre project. They have grown in confidence and discovered 9 Christopher J. H. Wright, The Mission of God: their gifts. As a whole church they now Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative (Notting- get involved in serving the community, ham/Grand Rapids: IVP, 2006), p. 322. See not just a few isolated individuals. The Part 3 ‘The People of Mission’, pp. 189-392. ERT (2010) 34:1, 58-70 Ethnicity and The People of God

Milton Acosta

KEYWORDS: ethnocentrism, ethnicity, themselves: to bathe seven times in the race puny Jordan River when in Damascus they had such rivers as the Abana and Introduction Pharpar. His identity had been deeply offended on two unacceptable counts. There is one element of our biblical Ethnicity will be used in this article understanding and Christian speech in the sense of boundary markers that that must be revised at least within separate one group of people from popular circles of Christianity, which includes, by the way, the majority of another. It ‘refers to the social ideology Christians around the world: the iden- of human division sorted according to 2 tity of the people of God regarding race common culture’. Ethnocentrism is and ethnicity. The issues of ethnicity, therefore produced by one’s culture. In 3 culture, national identity and national- that sense, ethnocentrism is natural. ity are rather complex, and I do not Negatively, though, ethnocentrism claim to be an expert on this, but there could be defined as a ‘sociopsychologi- is at least a minimum that can be said. cal syndrome’4, characterized by a ‘ten- Using a biblical example, ethnocen- dency to discriminate against the trism is what made Naaman, the stranger, the alien, the physically dif- Aramean general, reject Elisha’s treat- ferent’; it ‘is a virtually universal phe- ment (2 Kgs. 5).1 Initially, Naaman gets angry because Elisha did not receive him as the general he was, but sent a servant with instructions for his heal- 2 J. A. Manickam, ‘Race, Racism and Ethnic- ing. He also rejects the instructions ity’, in Global Dictionary of Theology, ed. William Dyrness and Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen (Downers Grove, Illinois, USA: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 718. 1 Other authors also think ethnocentrism 3 David Matsumoto and Linda Juang, Culture plays an important role here. See Efraín Silva and Psychology (Oxford, UK: Oxford University and Roberto Fricke, ‘1 Reyes’, in 1 y 2 Reyes, Press, 2001), 61-91. 1 y 2 Crónicas, Comentario Bíblico Mundo His- 4 Daniel Druckman, ‘Ethnocentrism in the pano (El Paso, Texas: Editorial Mundo His- Inter-Nation Simulation’, The Journal of Con- pano, 2000), 211. flict Resolution 12, no. 1 (1968).

Milton Acosta, PhD. teaches Bible and theology at the Seminario Bíblico de Colombia in Medellín. His first book to be published this year is El humor en el Antiguo Testamento, Certeza Unida. (Humour in the Old Testament). He is the current Old Testament editor of the Latin American Bible Commentary (2013, General Editor, René Padilla). Ethnicity and The People of God 59 nomenon in group contacts’5, obviously ing in a very ethnocentric region of my including Christians.6 Since phenotypi- own country where I am considered a cal differences are included in some foreigner just because of my accent definitions of ethnocentrism, we could (and the whole culture behind it). What then subsume racism under ethnocen- I have discovered is that I am no less trism, understanding that each term is ethnocentric! In the words of D. Smith, a field of study in and of itself. ‘I came to realise how deeply my faith Ethnocentrism, in its most common was conditioned by culture and how lit- expression, is this general attitude by tle I really understood the strange 8 which we determine who is below us, world of the Bible.’ Ethnocentrism can who deserves to be treated completely be one of the greatest obstacles to as an equal human being and who does- Christian mission, even in situations n’t. This is so much a part of us that we where the classic concept of tribe or do not notice it. Through these invisi- ‘urban tribes’ do not apply. Smith sug- ble lenses we classify large groups of gests that ‘if the church is to obey Christ in relevant and faithful witness’ people and large sections of the in today’s context, we need mental, world’s geography.7 structural and theological changes.9 The purpose of this article is to This article is an attempt to address explore ethnicity and ethnocentrism in some of those mental and theological relation to the identity of the people of issues. God and its mission in the world. What Ethnocentrism, when mixed with I share here is a testimony of some per- pride, is one of the most difficult sins to sonal challenges that I have faced liv- overcome. But just the awareness of its presence in us gives us a new perspective on what it means to be the people 5 George Fredrickson, ‘Social Origins of of God and what we are here for: American Racism’, in Racism, ed. Martin Bul- mer and John Solomos (Oxford: Oxford Uni- … mission involves the discovery versity Press, 1999), 75. that our faith and theology have 6 Some studies from the first half of the twen- been conditioned by culture to a far tieth century claim that Christians in some greater extent than we had ever parts of the world tend to be more ethnocen- realised. Cultural conditioning is tric than atheists! See, for example, Benjamin not something that happens only to Beit-Hallahmi, ‘Atheists: A Psychological Pro- file’, in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism, other people, we too carry cultural ed. Michael Martin (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 303-04. 7 Edward Said has shown the important role 8 See David Smith, Mission after Christendom that ethnocentrism has played in the East- (London: Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd, West international relationships. Edward 2003), xii. For the sake of simplicity, we will Said, Orientalism (New York, USA: Vintage use ‘culture’ and ‘ethnicity’ as synonyms in Books, 1979). But we should not forget that this article. It could be said that ethnocen- there is also ‘Occidentalism’. See also trism is the elevation of one’s ethnic and cul- Kaushik Bagchi, ‘Ethnocentrism’, in Berkshire tural identity above that of others. For more Encyclopedia of World History, ed. William H. detailed definitions, see Manickam, ‘Race, McNeill (Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Racism and Ethnicity’. U.S.A.: Berkshire Publishing Group, 2005). 9 Smith, Mission after Christendom, 11. 60 Milton Acosta

baggage which needs to be Israel’s history as a nation, salvation declared ‘excess’ and left behind was possible not just for Israel, but for when we seek to share Christ with all sorts of people. So if there ever was others.10 a ‘peasant revolt’ it happened in Egypt This article is divided into two sec- and it was very inclusive. tions. In the first part we will deal with The problem of ‘mingling with the stories from the Old Testament where nations’ is neither in the mingling nor we see how the promise given to Abra- in the nations per se, but in ‘doing as ham comes true: people are both saved they do’ (Ps. 106:35). The same and judged by faith, not by ethnicity. Hebrew root used in Exodus 12:38 is The second part has two examples also used in this Psalm and in Ezra 9:2. from the New Testament where ethnic- The doing is clear in the Psalm, but not ity is clearly relativized. as much in Ezra. It may be that in Ezra we see the beginning of a distorted idea of purity. I The People of God in the Or maybe something else. We should Old Testament not forget that one of the big problems Many times we assume that the after the return of the exiles was Jews 11 promise given to Abram begins to be oppressing Jews (Neh.5). This shows fulfilled only when Jesus came and that it is possible to do as the nations when Paul said that there is neither do without mingling with them; which Jew nor Gentile (Gal. 3:28). But there brings us back to the spirit of the law. is a long tradition in the Old Testament What gives identity and permanence to where the promise is fulfilled. This tra- the people of God is faith and obedience dition helps us see the grace of God in to the word of God (cf. 1 Sam. 12:24). the Old Testament and it is essential for our reading of the Bible as a whole. 1.2 Rahab and Achan The book of Joshua is not an easy one 1.1 The Exodus to read these days. The way out of this We begin with the constitutive event of is not to fix the text or the theology of Israel as a people: the exodus. The bib- those who wrote it. We do need to con- lical author finds no problem in telling sider, however, that the book is neither us that there was a significant number as nationalistic as some critics have of non-Hebrews who left Egypt along thought nor as triumphalistic as some 12 with the Hebrews, ‘A mixed crowd also Christians think it is. went up with them’ (Ex. 12:38). Why is this bit of information there? The way this is expressed in Exodus is theolog- 11 Another bad example in the Bible is king Solomon, who is blamed for marrying foreign ically suggestive. The Hebrew word women; not because they were many or were used here is defined as ‘mixed people foreign, but because he inclined his heart to or race’. So from the very beginning of follow their gods (1 Kgs. 11:1-13). 12 For a fresh reading of Joshua, see K. Law- son Younger, Jr., Ancient Conquest Accounts 10 Ibid., 75. (Sheffield: Sheffield, 1990). Ethnicity and The People of God 61

Two personal and elaborate stories nunciation of one Hebrew consonant in this book deal with the issue of inclu- became at one point a matter of life and sion and exclusion. Rahab is the death. When the Israelites seemed to Canaanite prostitute who becomes part have lost track of who they were as a of Israel, along with her relatives, people,14 the way to establish identity because she understood what God was was, as it sadly is today, accent. Due to doing at that point in history with some confusing circumstances, the Israel. She became Israel (Josh 2; 6:22- Gileadites went to war against the 27). Achan, on the contrary, was an Ephraimites. Many Ephraimites died at Israelite who did not understand what the hands of the Gileadites. Apparently God was doing with Israel, by taking they were not able to distinguish one from Jericho souvenirs he was not sup- another by their height, colour or cloth- posed to take (Josh. 7). He was pun- ing but only by their accent. ished. The Canaanite woman enters Ephraimites pronounced the word for the hall of faith while Achan joins the ear of grain as ‘Sibolet’, while the hall of shame. In both cases the only Gileadites said ‘Shibolet’, apparently criterion is a combination of what they the ‘right way’.15 believed and what they did. Another The reason for including this story example in Joshua is the Gibeonites, here is that it is a bad example. Even where a whole people group becomes the people of God can forget what it is part of Israel, tricks and all (Jos. 9). that makes them a people and reduce In Acts we find parallels to the sto- their identity to the most insignificant ries of Rahab and Achan. Ananias and of all elements, accent, as if there were Saphira (Acts 5) are the Achans, while people without one. Cornelius (Acts 10) and many others are the Rahabs of the New Testament. 1.4 Ruth The latter are those who manifest right Ruth was from Moab. Moab was one of speech about God and right action in Israel’s enemies for most of Israel’s God’s name, as Vanhoozer defines the- Old Testament history. Feelings of ology.13 In all these cases we find hatred were mutual. Moab oppressed ‘insiders’ caught up in greed and ‘out- Israel for some time at the hands of siders’ as models of piety. Eglon (Judg. 3). Mesa was the Moabite king who refused to keep paying trib- 1.3 Do you have an accent? ute to Israel; Israel attacked with a It is hard to imagine that accent played any role in Israel’s history as a way of differentiating between tribes. Such is 14 Some have argued that they did not know who they were just yet. the cruel case in Judges 12: the pro- 15 S. Niditch holds that besides showing differences in accent or dialects within Israel at this time, this case testifies to ‘Israelite 13 Kevin J. Vanhoozer, The Drama of Doctrine: awareness concerning the “mixed multitude” A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian that constituted the people’. See Susan Nid- Theology (Louisville: Westminster John Knox itch, Judges (Louisville, Kentucky, USA: West- Press, 2005), 165. minster John Knox Press, 2008), 138. 62 Milton Acosta coalition of two more kings (Judah and thanks to his aides, Naaman bathes Edom) but were not able to subdue him himself in the Jordan River and is (2 Kings 3). Later Mesa celebrates his healed of his leprosy. Then he wants to liberation from Israel by his god compensate Elisha for the miracle, but Chemosh. the prophet rejects the gifts. The history of these bad relation- In the same story, Gehazi, Elisha’s ships is found in Numbers, chapters helper, is the delinquent. The story is 22-25 and 31. Here Moab does two parallel to that of Rahab and Achan. In things that seem to justify Israel’s hard this case, leprosy being the problem, feelings towards them: Balak hires a ‘Naaman the outsider is delivered from seer (Balaam) to curse Israel; later on it; Gehazi the insider is delivered to some Moabite women lead the it’.17 There is another ironic contrast in Israelites to idolatry, an issue where the story. Gehazi states, ‘As Yahweh Balaam seems to have been involved. lives, I will run after him and I will take So Moab is a different ethnic group and something from him’ (v.20). Moore has it is also Israel’s enemy. said it eloquently, ‘There is tragic irony But this is the Moab Ruth came in this oath statement, for Gehazi will from! Not only did she become Israel, get Naaman’s leprosy! It is as if Gehazi but also king David’s grandmother. has unwittingly cursed himself. Thus Why? Simply because this woman the ultimate fate of Gehazi is antici- showed her mother-in-law a godly and pated unwittingly by an opening ‘biblical’ love and adopted her mother- speech, just as was the fate of Naaman in-law’s faith and fate (Ruth 1:16-18). 18 16 in the previous sequence.’ Her ethnicity was a non-issue. Gehazi is presented here as a pragmatic man. He cannot accept Elisha’s 1.5 Naaman and Gehazi decision to reject Naaman’s gift and Naaman is the Aramean general (2 runs after the Aramean general before Kings 5) remembered by Jesus (Lk. it is too late.19 Gehazi makes up a story 4:27) as the leper healed by Elisha at a and is able to extract three pairs of time when there were many lepers in things from Naaman, who, quite will- Israel (2 Kings 7). This enemy of ingly, gives them to him: two talents of Israel, by the way, won many battles silver, two sets of clothes, and two ser- against Israel because Yahweh, the vants to carry them (v. 23). Once every- God of Israel, gave them victory over Israel. Very shocking indeed, but that is what the Bible says. Naaman initially 17 Terence Fretheim, First and Second Kings feels offended by Elisha’s lack of def- (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John erence and by the prescription to be Knox, 1999), 152. healed of his leprosy, but in the end, 18 Rick Dale Moore, God Saves: Lessons from the Elisha Stories (Sheffield: Sheffield, 1990), 81. 19 Gehazi’s greeting to Naaman, and the 16 There is no suggestion in the book of Ruth Shunammite’s greeting to Gehazi reflect how that Elimelek and his family are blamed for the word ‘shalom’ was used in conversation as going to Moab to look for food. a mere greeting without further meaning. Ethnicity and The People of God 63 thing is hidden and Naaman’s servants uses the Hebrew root for leper/leprosy dismissed, Gehazi goes back to Elisha. seven times. It is used by the narrator, In comparison with Naaman who the Israelite girl, the Aramean king, takes a couple of detours to get to the the Israelite king, Naaman, Elisha, and knowledge of Yahweh, Gehazi’s the narrator (2 Kgs. 5:1, 3, 6, 7, 11, 27 actions show how quickly and directly [2x]). As Alonso Schökel has put it, a person deviates from the path of Naaman, a magnate, has to go down righteousness. Here we find another from the king to the prophet, to a ser- contrast that Cohn has observed, ‘A vant, and later to the Jordan River.’23 subliminal contrast: “For while Naa- As a character, Naaman ‘develops from man would support his lord with his arrogance to humility’. This ‘circle’ is ‘hand’ in the ‘house’ of Rimmon, accomplished with the ‘little girl’ of Gehazi has taken from others’ hands verse 2 and the ‘little child’ of verse 14 and uses his house to betray his and with the leprosy of verse 1 and the lord.”’20 other leprosy of verse 27.24 Scholars debate what kind of wrong This is a story that exemplifies nar- Gehazi has done. For T. Fretheim his rative art as form that is put at the ser- sin is more than greed or deception:21 vice of meaning. The story is theologi- ‘Gehazi’s sin is, finally, a theological cally powerful because of its artistry. sin, for it endangers the very nature of Cohn points out what the story teaches faith and obscures the gracious work of because of its form, ‘The power of God. The effect of the judgment is that Israelite prophets (v. 8); the universal Gehazi is returned to the pre-healing reign of Yahweh (v. 15); the denigra- situation of Naaman, and he now tion of magic (v. 11); the condemnation stands in need of a Naaman-like jour- of theft (vv. 11, 20). At the same time, ney…. The insider has experienced the narrative explicitly approves of the God’s judgment; the outsider has “conversion” of Gentiles (v. 19) and received salvation. The outsider has implicitly assumes the holiness of the become an insider and the insider an land of Israel’ (v. 17).25 The only thing outsider. The boundary lines of the missing in Cohn’s list of lessons is the community of faith are less clear than role of the little girl and of Naaman’s the insiders often suggest.’22 servants as the ones who make the In brief, Naaman’s journey of faith is story possible.26 But Ngan has picked it evident in the form of the text. Alonso Schökel has observed that the story 23 Alonso Schökel, Reyes, 184. 24 Richard D. Nelson, First and Second Kings 20 Robert L. Cohn, ‘Convention and Creativ- (Atlanta: John Knox, 1987), 181. ity in the Book of Kings: The Case of the Dying 25 Cohn, ‘Convention and Creativity in the Monarch’, Catholic Biblical Quarterly 47 Book of Kings: The Case of the Dying (1985): 182. Monarch’, 183-84. 21 This has been argued by many. See, for 26 Nelson argues that the theme of ‘univer- example, Luis Alonso Schökel, Iglesias salism’ is introduced in v. 1 with Yahweh as González, Manuel, Reyes, Los Libros Sagrados the one who gives victory to Naaman and is (Madrid: Cristiandad, 1973), 188. later confirmed with his conversion. Nelson, 22 Fretheim, First and Second Kings, 155. First and Second Kings, 177. I. W. Provan adds 64 Milton Acosta up: ‘If power is the ability to effect ple, God’s name is bound to the world change, whether for good or for evil, in a way that cannot easily be dis- the servants in this story demonstrate solved.’28 through their effectiveness that they But this is, as Goldingay says, an too have power.’27 open family, a family that welcomed Jethro the Midianite, the ‘mixed crowd’, Rahab, Naaman, Ruth, Uriah Conclusion the Hittite. Some of these stories show All these stories are the chosen sam- that when a choice has to be made ples in the history of Israel that com- between ethnicity and faith in Yahweh, municate how the promise given to faith wins the day. Even ethnic Abraham came true long before Christ Israelites must ‘confess that Yahweh came. With Christ, of course, the is God, as Christians will later confess promise is democratized. What all that Jesus is Lord’ (Gen. 12:1; 17,14; these examples tell us is that Gentiles Deut. 26:16-19; Josh. 24; Rom. 4:16; do not become part of the people of God Gal. 3:7-14).29 The fact that some for the first time when Christ comes. prominent cases have been chosen to Gentiles have been part of the people of be part of Israel’s history may be an God all along on the same grounds that indication that there were many more. Abraham was justified, by faith. What we see in these stories is that Ethnicity does count in the Old Tes- Old Testament authors at some key tament. As Goldingay has said, the points in Israel’s history included faith of Israel in the Old Testament is episodes that trivialize economic, geo- ethnic. Ethnicity, however, does not graphic and ethnic boundaries as the make Israel better or worse. God chose way by which the great promise of God a family, the Hebrews who later for humanity comes true. There is a became the nation of Israel. There are sense in which from an Old Testament valid reasons for it. Choosing a family perspective, knowledge of Yahweh is brings stability to the relationship: ‘If available to all peoples. God’s election depended on human response of faith, people could escape II The People of God in the or resign from that election. But through the choosing of a certain peo- New Testament I, of course, cannot compete here (or anywhere!) with N. T. Wright’s book on that 2 Kgs. 5 is ‘yet another narrative that this issue.30 My intention in this section picks up themes from the Elijah story; the is simply to single out some stories in LORD is seen to be God, not only of Israelites, but also of foreigners (1 Kgs. 17:17-24) and is acknowledged as the only real God (1 Kgs. 28 John Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: 18:20-40).’ Paul R. House, 1, 2 Kings, vol. 8, Israel’s Faith (Downers Grove, Illinois, The New American Comentary (Nashville, TN: EEUUA: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 176-77. Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995; 29 Ibid., 177. reprint, 1999, 2001), 191. 30 N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the 27 Lai Ling Elizabeth Ngan, ‘2 Kings 5’, People of God, Christian Origins and the Ques- Review and Expositor 94 (1997): 591. tion of God V.1 (London: SPCK, 1992). Ethnicity and The People of God 65 the New Testament that help us see do that, the first Evangelist includes this struggle of inclusion-exclusion people that some would consider not so within the people of God that Chris- ‘legitimate.’32 There are five women in tians today need to pay attention to. Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1: Tamar, What we see in the Old Testament Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba and Mary.33 should not come as a surprise in the All of these women had some kind of New Testament since this is the time ‘marital irregularity’,34 and the first when the promise given to Abraham to four were not of Israelite origin. Never- bless all nations comes true in a more theless, all of them were worthy of a general fashion. But several stories in place in the genealogy of the Messiah. the New Testament show that the So Jesus counted Moabites, Hittites, promise has many obstacles to its ful- and Canaanites among his ancestors. fillment. One of them is again ethno- One author says that the emphasis centrism. It could be argued that the of this genealogy is not in the women stories selected in both Testaments themselves but in the stories that they are there for the same reason: ethno- embody.35 Maybe so, but these women centrism. We will look at two examples are their story. No women, no story. from the New Testament: Jesus’ These women, their story and the bib- genealogy and the story of the lical theology that comes out of it tell Syrophoenician woman. The second us that the inclusion of non-Israelites story we will develop in more detail. within the people of God is not a nov- elty in the New Testament. Ethnicity, 2.1 A theological genealogy like one’s past, is not a problem for God We have a tendency to pride ourselves or an impediment for anyone to have a on our ethnic and cultural back- worthy place within the history of grounds. This is something that has God’s salvation. If God’s Messiah can value in and of itself and it helps us come from such a genealogy, he can measure ourselves against other peo- also be the redeemer of all sorts of people. But it is really shocking to see the ple, even if their past is ‘question- people Matthew selected for Jesus’ able’.36 genealogy. It is rather appalling. Those who speak of Jesus as a ‘full-breed Jew’ when he talks to the Samaritan woman 32 A detailed explanation of this genealogy (supposedly a ‘half-breed’) should read can be found in Christopher J. H. Wright, Cono- ciendo a Jesús a Través Del Antiguo Testamento, their Bibles again. trans. Daniel Menezo (Barcelona: Publica- This genealogy is especially dis- ciones Andamio, 1996). turbing because here Matthew is 33 There were other more ‘worthy’ matri- establishing Jesus’ legitimacy as the archs in Jesus’ genealogy, but Matthew Messiah, someone from the lineage of excluded them. David and Abraham.31 But in order to 34 R. T. France, Matthew (Leicester, Reino Unido: InterVarsity, 1985), 74. 35 John C. Hutchison, ‘Women, Gentiles, and 31 Craig L. Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels: An the Messianic Mission in Matthew’s Geneal- Introduction and Survey (Nashville, Tenn., Esta- ogy’, Bibliotheca Sacra 158 (2001): 152. dos Unidos: Brodman and Holman, 1997), 199. 36 See Blomberg, Jesus and the Gospels, 199. 66 Milton Acosta

This seems to be an important ele- guage, but Jesus says nothing. ment in the theological agenda of the Perhaps thinking that the woman Evangelists. The reason is that ethno- was annoying Jesus, his disciples asked centrism is very hard to overcome. We him to send her away because of her need to be reminded time and again shouting.37 We do not know what they that the foundation on which the iden- thought, but they want to dismiss her. tity of the people of God rests is not There is a similar story in the Old Tes- ethnic or geographic or linguistic, but tament. As Hannah prayed earnestly to theological. This is how Matthew does God for her situation, Eli, the priest theology with a genealogy. thought she was drunk (1 Sam. 1:14- 16). Evidently, sensitivity and discern- 2.2 A theology of dogs and ment are not always the virtues that crumbs accompany God’s representatives. Finally, Jesus says something. But The following is a true story of border what Jesus does with his words is even crossing. This is a story where we see more confusing than his silence, ‘I was the problem of ethnocentrism very sent only to the lost sheep of the house clearly. The reason we’re looking at of Israel.’ Now, that is theological eth- this, let’s not forget, is that it is a seri- nocentrism at its best! In his response, ous human problem that jeopardizes Jesus seems to side with his disciples both our theology and God’s mission in and approve of their attitude. ‘Jesus is the world. a typical Jew of his time’, one might Jesus throws his disciples into a say.38 very uncomfortable situation in order This woman is perhaps the opposite to bring them out of their rigid religious of the rich young man, for whom one and cultural mould in which they have difficult answer was enough to turn lived all of their lives. He does this away from Jesus (Mt. 19:16-30). She because he wants to free them from does not give up and does not leave. this thick ethnocentric shell common Not only that, she comes closer to to all human beings. It is important to Jesus and says the most simple and note here, as in other Gospel stories, powerful words, ‘Lord, help me.’ But, and contrary to what one would expect, when we expect a ‘typical Jesus that quite frequently Jesus’ disciples are for the message of the gospel, the worst example. 37 See R. V. G. Tasker, Matthew (Leicester, In one of his few international trips, Reino Unido: InterVarsity, 1961), 150-51. Jesus went to the region known as 38 Two examples of authors who hold that Syrophoenicia, west of Galilee (Mt. Jesus behaves like a typical Jew of his time are: 15:21-28). In this trip, Jesus crossed Judith Gundry-Volf and Miroslav Volf, A Spa- several frontiers. As they arrive, a cious Heart: Essays on Identity and Belonging Canaanite woman comes out shouting, (Harrisburg, EEUUA: Trinity Press Interna- ‘Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; tional, 1997), 21, Theodore W. Jennings and Tat-Siong Benny Liew, ‘Mistaken Identities my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ but Model Faith: Rereading the Centurion, the She has gone against some cultural Chap, and the Christ in Matthew 8:5-13’, Jour- rules, has used all the appropriate lan- nal of Biblical Literature 123, no. 3 (2004): 478. Ethnicity and The People of God 67 response’ we get ‘a typical first-cen- At last Jesus gives the persistent tury-Jew response’: ‘It is not fair to woman a favourable answer. And it is take the children’s food and throw it to not only favourable; he praises her as the dogs.’ he never praised any of his own disci- To be called a ‘dog’ is not very nice, ples. In matters of faith, the disciples even if it is a ‘little dog’. In most cases earned more reprimands than anything in the Bible dogs are associated with else: ‘men of little faith’.41 To this feelings of rejection.39 In fact, in the Canaanite, Gentile, Greek woman biblical world, dogs are not pets as they Jesus says: ‘Woman, great is your are today. It is a dirty animal, a scav- faith! Let it be done for you as you enger that marauds cities around wish.’ And her daughter was healed garbage dumpsters; dogs are a symbol instantly. of impurity. If Jews considered Gen- The way the story is told shows that tiles as dogs it was because they did for Matthew the miracle itself is sec- not live according to the Torah and its ondary. His main interest is in the dia- laws of purity; a gentile is therefore rit- logue and what happens there. There is ually unclean.40 Not very kind, espe- no question that the woman’s faith and cially coming from Jesus. persistence are praise-worthy, but one But again, the woman has an has to ask why the conversation has answer for that: ‘Yes, Lord, yet even gone to such a humiliating extreme for the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from this woman. their masters’ table.’ She seems to First of all, the woman has no name. accept that Jesus was sent to the Jews, She is identified by geography and cul- that is ‘the children’, but ‘dogs’, that is, ture. In some cases namelessness in Gentiles, also eat from the crumbs that literature is a form of oppression and fall from the table. She uses the same discrimination; in this case it could be metaphor and states that Gentiles also the result of a male-dominated cul- have a part in the food, which is the ture.42 This argument is very appealing kingdom of God. Israel’s priority with today, but does not work for at least respect to Gentiles is historical, not three reasons: (1) the men in the story, social or psychological. And what Gen- except for Jesus, do not have names tiles participate of is not just crumbs. either; (2) the woman in the story is the What will Jesus do now? good example; and (3) in the New Tes-

39 There have been found cemeteries exclu- 41 It is a favourite theme of Matthew. Out of sive for dogs in the Ancient Near East, but the six cases of ‘little faith’, five are in there is no certainty as to why they were Matthew and one in Luke (Mt. 6:30; 8:26; buried in a specific place. Cp. Edwin Firmage, 14:31; 16:8; 17:20; Lk. 12:28); not counting ‘Zoology (Fauna),’ in Anchor Bible Dictionary those where their lack of faith is not men- (New York: Doubleday, 1992). tioned but evident. 40 1 Kgs. 14:11; 16:4; 21:19, 23; Psalm 59:6; 42 See, for example, Janis Jaynes Granowski, Prov. 26:11; 2 Peter 2:22; Rev. 22:15. See ‘Polemics and Praise: The Deuteronomistic Leland Ryken, and Wilhoit, James, ed., Dictio- Use of the Female Characters of the Elijah- nary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: Elisha Stories’ (Ph.D. diss., Baylor University, InterVarsity, 1998), 29. 1996). 68 Milton Acosta tament there are stories of men within order to change his opinion about out names (Lk. 7:9; Mt. 8:10; 9:18-26; gentiles. This implies that Jesus up 19:16-30), as well as stories of women until this day was a typical first-cen- with names (Mt. 28:1-10). So the argu- tury Jew and thought just like his dis- ment of the narrative about the ciples did.45 In other words, this was Syrophoenician woman, who is never the moment in his earthly ministry called ‘disciple’, is that she is more of when Jesus realized that Gentiles also a disciple than the disciples them- had access to God’s salvation. But, selves.43 what sense could this make in a Gospel Perhaps a better explanation for the where Jesus is God who has become woman’s namelessness in this case is man? He has already crossed so many that the biblical author does not want other borders, he talks to prostitutes, to turn the woman into an inaccessible Publicans, Samaritans and all kinds of hero. As it is, it is easy for the reader to people. And he even sets these people identify himself or herself with the as examples of faith. character44 and feel that he or she can There may be a better alternative to be that character. This should work this rather uncomfortable dialogue. It both with the woman’s good example is more likely that Jesus crossed the and with the disciples’ bad example. Galilean border46 to teach his disciples Secondly, there still remains the a fundamental lesson: the mission of question of why Jesus did not heal the God does not see geographic or ethnic woman’s daughter immediately at her borders like we do just as his justice first request. We might say that he does not ‘see faces’ nor ‘fear certain wanted to test the woman’s faith, as he faces’ (Dt. 1:17). Jesus brings his disci- did in other situations with the disciples out of their comfort zone in order ples. But still we need to ask why the to give them a theological tour:47 (1) the whole exchange was so humiliating for the woman. This is a complex issue for which there is no easy answer. Let us 45 This separation is also evident in Qumran. explore some possibilities. Cf. Bonnard, Mateo, 350. There is, however, the Some authors have suggested that possibility of God’s favor for those Gentiles who Jesus needed the woman’s insistence are friends of Israel (Cf. Christopher Rowland, The Open Heaven: A Study of Apocalyptic in Judaism and Early Christianity (Londres: SPCK, 43 There are other positions on this issue. 1982), 174.). But it seems like official Judaism See W. R. Telford, The Theology of the Gospel of the first century did not allow Gentiles to of Mark (Cambridge: Cambridge University enter any of the thirteen gates leading to the Press, 1999), 230-34. It must also be pointed temple. See Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, The out that even though the region is specified, Holy Land, 5a ed., Oxford Archaeology Guides there is no information about the exact loca- (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 88-89. tion. See also P. Bonnard, Mateo (Madrid: Cris- 46 Perhaps the boundaries between the dis- tiandad, 1976), 348. ciples and this woman is not economic but only 44 For a complete feminist version on this, ethnic. see Patricia Daniel, ‘Feminism’, in The Black- 47 This may have been a trip that took sev- well Companion to Postmodern Theology, ed. eral weeks. See Leon Morris, The Gospel Graham Ward, Blackwell Companions to Reli- According to Matthew (Grand Rapids, Michiga, gion (Oxford: Blackwell, 2001), 438. EEUUA: Eerdmans), 404-05. Ethnicity and The People of God 69 previous episode in Matthew had to do ‘True cross-cultural mission thus with the issue of uncleanliness; Jesus widens our perspectives and involves tells them how wrong they are in believ- the renunciation of all forms of ethno- ing that ceremonial rites are what make centrism.’50 Here, as in many other a person clean; (2) the gospel of examples in the New Testament, the Matthew begins with a genealogy that marginal (the Syrophoenician woman) includes four women who would be becomes central and the central mar- among the ‘dogs’; and (3) this gospel ginal (the Jewish disciples). And as the ends with the great commission to all examples multiply, we see that Chris- the peoples of the earth.48 So with this tianity is polycentric. encounter with the Syrophoenician woman, Jesus challenges his disciples’ prejudices and shows what it means Conclusion and what it takes to make disciples of What we say about the Jews here is not all nations: ethnical boundaries are an accusation that renders them worse harder to cross than geographical ones. people than anybody else. Ethnocen- But still, what do we make of Jesus’ trism is a human thing. What Stott harsh words to the woman? There is no says about culture could easily be way to prove this, but some authors applied to the issue of ethnicity and all have suggested that Jesus’ words are that it entails, ‘Being part of our accompanied by a wink in his eye and a upbringing and environment, it [cul- certain tone of voice. This obviously ture] is also part of ourselves, and we cannot be seen in writing, but it can be find it very difficult to stand outside it assumed. In other words, Jesus talks to and evaluate it Christianly. Yet this we her just as she would expect any Jew must learn to do. For if Jesus Christ is would do. But his purpose, just as in the to be Lord of all, our cultural heritage parables, is to surprise them with an cannot be excluded from his lordship. unexpected theological twist. The And this applies to churches as well as effect should be felt both by the disci- 51 ples that day and by readers today. individuals.’ God has no favourite cul- What he does then is to make them and ture (Rev. 21:26-27). Jesus, by the us believe for a moment that he thinks way, had a recognizable Galilean like they do and like we do. As he tran- accent (Mt. 26:74). scends cultures and nationalities, Jesus There have been periods, long peri- invites his disciples to do the same,49 ods in the history of the people of God when their behaviour does not clearly communicate what their identity and 48 Cf. Theresa Okure, ‘The Global Jesus’, in The Cambridge Companion to Jesus, ed. Markus Bockmuehl (Cambridge: Cambridge Univer- 50 Smith, Mission after Christendom, 57. sity Press, 2001). 51 John Stott, Making Christ Known: Historic 49 Bonnard, Mateo, 351.; France, Matthew, Mission Documents from the Lausanne Move- 247. Morris also holds that Jesus’ words alone ment, 1974-1989 (Grand Rapids, Michigan, sound harsh, but perhaps he said them with a EEUUA: Eerdmans, 1996), 40-41. The point is smile (just for the woman to see?). Cf. Morris, not to abandon one’s culture or to lose appre- The Gospel According to Matthew, 404-05. ciation of its good things. 70 Milton Acosta their mission is. This may happen ples from the outset, that Jesus has a when the people of God are assimilated plural ethnic background, and that to the surrounding culture or when the field trips can be very useful in devel- people of God shelter themselves from oping a more relativistic view of our the world around. There might even be own culture and appreciation for that a point when the people of God look of others. Our goal is not to stop being more like a curse to the world than like who we are ethnically and culturally, a blessing.52 but to understand what it means to be Ethnocentrism is a consequence of in Christ, to understand how our eccle- our human finitude: ‘We cannot stand siology and soteriology are impacted utterly free from our culture and our by our anthropology (Gal. 3:28). place in history.’53 But it is also a result Therefore, we are called to believe of our sinfulness. It is one thing to in word and in deed that the kingdom interpret things from our cultural and of God is multiethnic and multicul- historical point of view and it is quite tural. As we cross human borders we another to conclude that others are evidence the presence of Christ in us. If inferior or worthless. So, since ethno- culture is the podium on which we centrism is so difficult to remove com- stand to judge and despise others, pletely and since we do believe in the Christ invites us to get down, to be like ‘first principles’ of revelation, the Bible him. Let us all get out of our circle, find helps us with stories where we see at our Syrophoenician and live out the least three things: that the promise gospel. The inclusion of all people in given to Abraham is indeed for all peo- our hearts, in our theology and in our praxis is an essential element of the gospel throughout the Bible. In terms of our mission today, we need to cross 52 Stott, Cristianismo básico, p.114. borders towards those who speak 53 Kai Nielsen, ‘Richard Rorty’, in A Com- another language and towards those panion to Pragmatism, ed. John R. Shook and Joseph Margolis (Malden, Massachusets, who speak with a ‘theological’ accent. USA: Blackwell, 2006), 133. The first step might be just to talk.

Congregational Evangelism in Philippians The Centrality of an Appeal for Gospel Proclamation to the Fabric of Philippians Mark J. Keown Did Paul want his congregations to pick up the ministry of evangelism or did he envisage himself and other ‘specialist’ proclaimers continuing the ministry of the gospel? Keown argues persuasively that Paul envisaged ‘specialist proclaimers’ leading the evangelistic mission and equipping ‘general believers’ to share the gospel. Mark J. Keown is Lecturer in New Testament at Bible College of New Zealand. 978-1-84227-510-0 / 229 x 152mm / 360pp (est.) / £29.99 Paternoster, 9 Holdom Avenue, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK1 1QR, UK ERT (2010) 34:1, 71-78 ‘Unwanted Sectarians’: Spirit, Migration and Mission in an African-led Mega-Size Church in Eastern Europe

J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu

KEYWORDS: Pentecostalism, African ica. The recession of Christian pres- immigrant Christianity, Pastor ence in the former heartlands of the Sunday Adelaja, Church of the faith has, since the closing decades of Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of the 20th century, coincided with the God for all Nations, Embassy of God, accession of different types of Ukraine, evangelism, interventionist churches full of African, Caribbean, theology Asian and Latin American immigrants in those contexts. A new book on Chris- The following article was written and tianity and migration by Jehu J. accepted prior to the news that Pastor Hanciles concludes that the United Sunday Adelaja is under investigation States, for instance, would have been for fraud. Even if it transpires that moving much more rapidly toward a Pastor Sunday is guilty in some way, post-Christian status were it not for the we cannot judge the whole church, or fresh infusions of believers from the the whole work of God, on the basis Third World, particularly Africa.1 The of failings of a single leader and so the evangelical and theologically versatile following article (as is the case with all nature of Christianity in the non-west- our articles) must be read with dis- ern world means that the South to cernment. North migrations of recent times has translated into the formation of new THE PHYSICAL SIGNS of the Southern shift in Christianity’s centre of gravity 1 Jehu J. Hanciles, Beyond Christendom: Glob- from the Northern to the Southern con- alization, African Migration and the Transforma- tinents include the rise of immigrant tion of the West (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, churches in Europe and North Amer- 2009).

J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu teaches at the Trinity Theological Seminary in Ghana where he is also Dean of Graduate Studies. His areas of theological and pastoral interest include Contemporary African Christianity especially Pentecostal/Charismatic studies and Theology and Media in Africa. His most recent work, ‘Christianity, Mission and Ecumenism in Ghana’ is published by Asempa, Ghana (2009). [email protected] 72 J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu churches and Christian communities. Paradigm Shifts in Immigrant People have moved—whatever the Christianity reasons for such movements may be— The phenomenon of immigrant carrying their ‘ideas, beliefs and reli- churches is now the subject of a num- gious practices with them’.2 It is therefore not insignificant that ber of both popular and academic studies. Several others appeared ahead of at the turn of the 21st century the 4 largest Christian congregations in both Hanciles’ Beyond Christendom. Most of Western and Eastern Europe are led by the churches studied in these volumes African immigrants. Matthew have an ethnic dimension to their mem- Ashimolowo leads the 10,000 member bership. Immigrant churches have usu- strong, Kingsway International Christ- ally attracted minority groups disen- ian Center in London, UK. Enoch Ade- chanted with the dry denominational- boye’s Redeemed Christian Church of ism and racial insensibilities of historic God started in Nigeria but now has mission denominations in the host con- more than 18,000 members in Europe tinents of Europe and North America. and Sunday Adelaja leads the Church of Thus most African churches function- the Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of ing within the northern continents are God for all Nations in Kyiv, Ukraine. It not only led by Africans but are also has about 25,000 members. The three populated by Africans. The reasons for churches, as with a number of immi- this development are beyond the scope grant and particularly African-led con- of this essay but suffice it to mention gregations in Europe and North Amer- that whereas in most western contexts ica, belong to the Pentecostal/charis- Christianity is primarily a system of matic traditions. Pentecostalism and doctrinal ideas, in African lives, reli- its charismatic progenies now consti- gion constitutes systems of power tute the representative face of Third through which divine interventions in World Christianity. The movement’s everyday activities are sought and dynamism in worship, interventionist appropriated. African immigrant Chris- theologies, success in raising mega- tianity with its interventionist theolo- size congregations and enthusiasm in the midst of harsh Diaspora conditions invite reflections on the role of the Holy 4 Jacob K. Olupona and Regina Gemignani Spirit in migration and mission in the ed., African Immigrant Religions in America 21st century. As Hanciles would have (New York and London: New York University it, ‘the religiosity of the new immi- Press, 2007); Catherine Wanner, Communities of the Converted: Ukrainians and Global Evange- grants potentially transforms the reli- lism (Ithaca and London: Cornell University gious movement into missionary Press, 2007); Afe Adogame, Roswith Gerloff engagement’. And it does so by impli- and Klaus Hock, Christianity in Africa and the cating western societies as sites of new African Diaspora: The Appropriation of a Scat- religious interactions.3 tered Heritage (London: Continuum, 2008); Jehu J. Hanciles, ‘Migration and Mission: The Religious Significance of the North-South Divide’, in Andrew Walls and Cathy Ross ed., 2 Hanciles, Beyond Christendom, 4. Mission in the 21st Century (Maryknoll, NY: 3 Hanciles, Beyond Christendom, 5. Orbis Books, 2008), 118-129. Unwanted Sectarians 73 gies therefore appeals greatly to the God is turning Eastern Europe upside religious worldviews and sensibilities down. They have developed a new com- of those who patronize it. munity of believers, who under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, seek to present to the society a ‘visible alter- Embassy of God native to the hedonism and libertinism This presentation focuses on a type of of secular society’.6 African-led church in Europe whose Pastor Sunday Adelaja came to membership is European. It draws Soviet Belarussia from Nigeria as a most of its members from the host con- newly born-again Christian in 1986 to text. Pastor Sunday Adelaja’s ‘Church study journalism. During the period of of the Embassy of the Blessed King- study he also led the African Christian dom of God for all Nations’ or Embassy Students’ Fellowship in the then Soviet of God, as I refer to it here, started in Union and went on to found the Word 1994. The Soviet regime for many of Faith Church in Belarus in 1989. He years pursued a vision of modernity did not return to Nigeria after studies and development built on the ideolo- because of what he described to me as gies of Marxism and enlightened by the ‘unstable nature of the situation at science and ‘free from superstitious home’.7 Pastor Sunday Adelaja speaks belief’ that ‘rendered religious commu- fluent Russian, and preaches mainly in nities and religious practice anath- that language. He started the church ema’: In the words of Wanner: because, as he claims, God gave him a Antireligious legislation chased the specific word in 1993 saying: ‘I will use expression of religious sentiment people from the former Soviet Union to and practice into private, atomized gather the end-time harvest before the domains, where knowledge of reli- coming of my son….though I am a for- gious practice and doctrine was eigner, God has given me the ability to often, with each passing genera- go and minister beyond race, culture, tion, replaced by ignorance or indif- and denominational barriers.’8 The ference, even if the sensibility often ‘Embassy of God’, undertakes aggres- remained. For some Soviet citizens, sive evangelism which has ensured however, religion became a refuge, that the church now has congregations a meaningful identity and mode of all over Eastern Europe and beyond. living in an alternative moral uni- For our purposes, there are three verse, in defiance of the numerous main identities that are critical to the risks and penalties involved.5 self-understanding of ‘Embassy of In the midst of this ‘hunger and God’. The first is the thoroughly evan- thirst’ after God, following years of the deliberate persecution of evangelical religion and its followers, a single 6 Hanciles, ‘Migration and Mission’, 125. African Christian has become the 7 Personal recorded interview, Kyiv, May instrument through whose ministry 2004. 8 Sunday Adelaja, Life and Death in the Power of the Tongue (Kiev: Fares Publising House, 5 Wanner, Communities of the Converted, 2. 2003), 25. 74 J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu gelical content of its message. The sec- irrespective of his age, color or ond is the Pentecostal/charismatic ori- skin, nationality and social status.10 entation of the church which also What are the means and strategies defines its strong interventionist theol- by which ‘Embassy of God’ attempts to ogy; and the third is the deliberate pur- impact Eastern Europe with the gospel suit of a transnational agenda aimed at and reach the world for Christ? First influencing and transforming society. what ‘Embassy of God’ challenges or Indeed from its logo to the use and dis- responds to, as far as Ukrainian society play of banners in worship and the is concerned, is what we have referred international agenda of its founder, the to as the dry denominationalism of the transnational significance of ‘Embassy Eastern Orthodox Church and the spir- of God’ is evident. Catherine Wanner itual poverty of the society through captures succinctly the meaning of the which the devil is believed to have logo as follows: blinded people. The level of social The symbol of the Embassy of God deviance and dislocation is phenome- is a globe with Africa forthrightly nal. In an autobiographical work on positioned in the center. The globe both his personal life and the church, is capped by a golden crown with a one of Pastor Sunday Adelaja’s Ukrain- cross. Just below the crown is a ian pastors says this of him: light emanating from Ukraine, This is the chosen of God; he has which remains otherwise been planted in Ukraine to help unmarked. The light from Ukraine turn around the lives of the people, shines throughout Europe and the the country and the history of the Middle East. Africa figures promi- Ukrainian people. He is a person of nently, but the light and energy of destiny through whom God is sav- the church emanate from Ukraine ing not only some individuals but a around the world.9 whole nation. A country that was The name of the church was also so oppressed, firstly by commu- chosen to reflect the transnational nism and then poverty and corrup- understanding of Christian mission: tion, is now starting to experience freedom.11 The Church is the representative of God on the earth—His ‘Embassy’. In attempting to understand the Therefore, we—children of God are transnational appeal of ‘Embassy of the citizens of His Divine Kingdom God’ it is important not to lose sight of and not citizens of this world! The the religious dimension of the life of the Blessed Kingdom of God [is] a church and its global resonances. place of destruction of curses. At the head of every kingdom is a king. Our King is Jesus Christ! He 10 Stated in Church of the Embassy of the is the Lord of all nations;…Jesus Blessed Kingdom of God for all Nations: 8th Anniversary Brochure (Kyiv, 2002), 5. Christ is the Savior for everyone, 11 Galina Korobka in Alyona Dobrovolskaya ed., Olorunwa: The Roads of Life-There is God: Portrait of Sunday Adelaja (Kyiv: Fares Pub- 9 Wanner, Communities of the Converted, 214. lishing, 2007), 180, 181. Unwanted Sectarians 75

Spirit and Experience Sunday Adelaja’s ‘Embassy of God’ ‘Embassy of God’, we have noted, is popular because, as members testify, belongs firmly to the new Pente- it offers a religious menu that satisfies costal/charismatic stream of Christian- the spiritual hunger, thirst and empti- ity with its emphasis on the experi- ness fostered by socialism on the peo- ences of new birth, graces of the Spirit ple of Eastern Europe. The sense of and empowerment for ministry. Like release, empowerment and fulfillment the global Pentecostal movement, it that I experience among the members challenges the staid, silent, and during my visits to ‘Embassy of God’ ordered forms of religion offered by are palpable. Adogame further such older denominations as the East- observes, and rightly so, that these fea- ern Orthodox Church. As forcefully tures bordering on the supernatural in argued by Wanner, all of the Orthodox religion were not totally alien to the Churches in Ukraine consider Ortho- Eastern European context but only doxy an attribute of Ukrainian national- marginalized through years of ‘secular ity. In other words, a Ukrainian is by thinking’ that characterized the Soviet definition Orthodox and therefore regime.14 In addition to his alien back- Christian. In her words: ‘Orthodox iden- ground, obviously worsened by his tity is geographically defined and auto- being African, it is the fact that Pastor matically inherited.’12 In contrast to the Adelaja is responding to seemingly routine processes of incorporation into mundane complexities of life with reli- membership associated with such his- gious answers that makes Ukrainian toric denominations as the Orthodox society see his religion as ‘foreign’. It churches, ‘Embassy of God’ offers an is thus not surprising that the Eastern experiential religion that challenges Orthodox Church has become his bit- the inherited Christian identities of the terest critic and opponent. older traditions as inadequate for the Spirit-human encounter. The elements of supernatural interpretations of the Mission Strategies enigmas of life, interventions through At the root of this approach to the life healing and powerful conversions as of the church is how ‘Pentecostals Adogame observes, ‘appeal to the spir- interpret and preach the Bible’. Conse- itual sensibilities of Ukrainians’ and quently, Ogbu U. Kalu calls attention to this is significant if seen against the the importance of paying attention to backdrop of ‘a context and people Pentecostal hermeneutics as ‘a spe- barely getting over the hangover of a cific lens for reading the Bible seri- Marxist-socialist Weltanschauung’.13 ously’.15 The religious discourse reaf- firms that Pentecostalism is preemi- nently a religious movement and 12 Wanner, Communities of the Converted, 136. 13 Adogame, ‘Up, Up Jesus! Down, Down Satan! African Religiosity in the Former Soviet Bloc—the Embassy of the Blessed 14 Adogame, ‘Up, Up Jesus’!, 321-322. Kingdom of God for all Nations’, Exchange: 15 Ogbu U. Kalu, African Pentecostalism: An Journal of Missiological and Ecumenical Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Research, vol. 37 (2008), 321. 2008), xiii. 76 J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu should be studied as such. The nature prayer sessions. The prayer sessions of its presence, self-understanding, were loud, emotional, aggressive and what it says, does, and how it wit- seriously and thoroughly Pentecostal nesses are important. People are with mass praying in tongues and attracted by its message and by its singing in the Spirit. The focus was not hermeneutics of trust, its certitudes simply on ‘Embassy of God’ but on seek- and claim to stand on the word. There- ing the Lord’s face to break through in fore, we should study its theology and world mission and evangelism and help practices.16 Pastor Sunday Adelaja’s establish the kingdom of God among all Christian story and the theological ori- peoples. On the last day, the colours of entation of his church means the Holy nations available were prayed over Spirit obviously features prominently using them as points of contact for in the movement he leads, giving it its God’s word to reach and touch the peo- Pentecostal character. Paul Tillich ples of those countries. This is therefore indicts Protestantism for replacing a thoroughly Pentecostal movement ecstatic experiences in religion with that has set its sights on world mission doctrinal and moral structure.17 Even and transformation. But exactly how is before Tillich, Rudolf Otto in his clas- this being accomplished? sic work, The Idea of the Holy, bemoaned the fact that Orthodox Christianity had not been able to keep The Message the non-rational element in religion One of the most striking things about alive. Orthodox Christianity had failed ‘Embassy of God’ is the large numbers to recognize the value of the non-ratio- of previously ‘un-churched’ persons nal dimensions of religion and by this who have responded to its evangelical failure, he said, it ‘gave to the idea of message. This is a message that God a one-sidedly intellectualistic and stresses the born-again experience, rationalistic interpretation’.18 that is, acceptance of Christ as personal My December 2007 visit was during Saviour as the only way to become a the church’s Winter Fast, the second of Christian. The evangelical practice of two that are held annually. The meet- the Altar Call in which persons con- ings which lasted twelve days were victed by the message are invited to divided into two sessions of about six make a public confession of sin and hours each. Praise and worship alone acceptance of Christ is standard prac- took two full hours during each six-hour tice. Being a Pentecostal church Bap- session. This was followed by the word, tism of the Holy Spirit and Speaking in testimonies, presentations of the vari- Tongues are also integral to the spiri- ous ministries of the church and then tuality of ‘Embassy of God’. The presence of converted members of mafia gangs, prostitutes and drug addicts and African Pentecostalism 16 Kalu, , xiii. their public testimonies are having a 17 Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, vol. 3 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), great effect on Ukrainian society in par- 117. ticular. It is impossible to meet any of 18 Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy (Oxford: the over three thousand leaders and Oxford University Press, 1923), 3. pastors of ‘Embassy of God’ who has Unwanted Sectarians 77 not been an ex-prison convict. Their bers, who see the addict’s cure and dramatic and profound conversion sto- transformation as a ‘miracle’, testi- ries have brought ‘Embassy of God’ to a mony to ‘God’s grace’. In December stage where government agencies 2007 I discovered that each of the bring social deviants to Pastor Sunday groups of people who had received the Adelaja to do with them what has been Spirit’s intervention and been trans- done to all the others. formed from all kinds of social vices The fundamental message that is has been constituted into different min- preached by Pastor Sunday Adelaja that istries that reach out to their own. For- Jesus is the Saviour of the world has mer alcoholics, prostitutes, the home- also brought about many dramatic con- less and the like now have ministries versions involving former members of that reach out to those struggling with the Orthodox Church. As a result, the problems they had until God found ‘Embassy of God’ is included in the them through Adelaja’s ministry. numbers of new religious movements Natasha was an alcoholic wreck that the Orthodox Church classifies as when she met Adelaja. She is now one ‘unwanted sectarians’ in Ukrainian of the most senior pastors at Embassy society.19 Former members of a histori- of God and for those who knew her in cal church with a proud past and tradi- her previous life Natasha symbolizes tion are turning their backs on an Ortho- for them a clear case of return from dox Church that is part of the political ‘death’ to ‘life’. Indeed, Pastor Adelaja establishment and embracing a new himself considers that he broke movement led by a theologically unso- through in ministry as a result of the phisticated alien who is literally turning conversion experiences of his initial their world upside down. It is these membership. The story is best told in transformations evident in the lives of his own words: former drug addicts, prostitutes, lead- People ask me where my break- ers of mafia gangs and converted politi- through in ministry started….My cians that have brought Adelaja to breakthrough came when I left the attention and given him international pulpit and went to the streets to significance. look for the outcasts….when I reached out to them, doors opened Interventionist Theology wide for my ministry. Someone in The strategy that Pastor Sunday has our church knew of a hospital employed is to bring nonbelievers where drunkards were kept, so I under conviction and ‘to yield such began to go there and beg for the impressive and rapid growth’, Wanner doctors to give me an hour to be notes, ‘trades on spiritually rooted with the patients. I would bring understandings of illness and cure.’ along Natasha who testified to how The original and core membership of she was delivered from alcoholism, the church is made up of recovering and then I prayed for the patients. addicts and their grateful family mem- There, my ministry began.20

19 Wanner, Communities of the Converted, 4. 20 Adelaja, Churchshift, 97-98. 78 J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu

It is testimonies like these that leading political figures in ‘Embassy of brought Pastor Sunday Adelaja and his God’ ‘will undoubtedly have visible ‘Embassy of God’ to attention. The tes- political, economic and strategic impli- timonies were powerful, they brought cations for its continued visibility and in the numbers and it is these numbers growing institutionalization’.21 that have given him transnational significance as one who is charismatic and who has a credible and proven min- Conclusion istry. ‘Embassy of God’ is but one example of how God is using minority groups such as single immigrants to impact Europe Influencing Society in the and North America with the gospel. Power of the Spirit This has been referred to by some as a The socio-economic dislocations that process of the reversal of Christian Soviet society suffered in the wake of mission in which the geographical ori- the collapse of communism meant that gins of the early missionary enterprise people were looking for hope in the have become the mission fields of the midst of hopelessness. Thus one of the 21st century. The exploits of African key strategies of ‘Embassy of God’ is to led mega-size churches in the contem- empower people through physical porary West recall for me the words of wealth that they might in turn influ- St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:27-29, ‘But ence Ukrainian society. The church God chose the foolish things of the encourages members to bring Christ- world to shame the wise; God chose the ian influence into economics, real weak things of the world to shame the estate, banking and industry, enter- strong. He chose the lowly things of tainment and indeed into any other this world and the despised things— and the things that are not—to nullify area of life in which the Spirit chooses the things that are, so that no one may to locate an individual. Pastor Adelaja boast before him.’ It was unthinkable gave them a practical example by get- just two decades ago that African Pen- ting actively involved in the Orange tecostal Christian immigrants could be Revolution. At our December 2007 the people through whom God might meeting, his explanation for getting restore vitality to the lives of people in involved in Ukrainian politics was sim- the former heartlands of Christianity. ple: ‘communism edged religion out of However, through these minority public space but democracy ensures groups, the Spirit is working by draw- freedom of religion and worship’. He ing attention to the viability of the therefore figured that getting involved gospel of Jesus Christ in former Christ- in such a revolutionary movement ian contexts that have jettisoned Chris- helped to restore democracy and con- tian values in favour of moral rela- tributed to the great influence that he tivism and secularization. now has in the society. As Adogame notes, the involvement of local influential figures, captains of industry and 21 Adogame, ‘Up, Up Jesus!’, 319. ERT (2010) 34:1, 79-83 New Faces of the Church: An Indian Case Study

Paul Joshua Bhakiaraj

KEY WORDS: Yesy Bhaktas, India, ing such sensitive issues of fidelity to Hinduism, culture one’s community and membership in an institutional Church has been Churchless Christianity. Theologically Introduction speaking, of course, this is a mis- ‘Matta, Pitta, Guru, Devam,’ is an oft nomer. A disciple of Christ is by defini- quoted maxim in India. It simply tion a member of the body of Christ, the means, ‘Mother, Father, Teacher, church. However, since the phenome- God,’ and signifies the order of priority non itself was rather novel, its coinage that many adopt in their lives. In the seems to have made sense.1 The term Indian view of life, therefore, fidelity to ‘Non Baptised Believer’ and the term one’s family and caste community is of ‘Yesu Bhakta’ (Devotee of Jesus) are paramount importance. Not only is this also employed to refer to this group of the foundation of life as known in the people. An able proponent of this form present but it also the represents the of discipleship, Swami Muktanand, route for the life hereafter. avers: Standing alongside that allegiance lies an equally pervasive perception To become a Christian means that that Christianity is not an Indian reli- one has to leave one’s birth com- gion, rather it has been forced on India munity and join another communi- by westerners. Becoming a Christian ty. It also means that one has to therefore entails turning your back on reject one’s culture (one’s way of thousands of years of religious and cul- life). However it is not a necessity tural heritage, rejecting the role your that to be a follower of Christ one family plays in your present and future has to become a Christian. This life and, not least, jettisoning the caste false teaching has come from the system on which India’s social life is Europeans who saw the Hindustani based. life as demonic and convinced peo- It will be obvious to the reader that ple that in order to become a fol- these attitudes and practices have far- lower of Christ one has to reject the reaching implications for Christian dis- Hindustani lifestyle and adopt a cipleship, not least membership in the European lifestyle… A Hindu fol- church. lower of Jesus also known as a Yeshu Bhakta stays in his Hindu

Yesu Bhaktas 1 Herbert Hoefer, Churchless Christianity One distinctive approach to negotiat- (Madras: GLTC&RI, 1991), p. xiv. 80 Paul Joshua Bhakiaraj

community practicing his prays before a picture in his home. Hindustani culture and giving alle- He had studied in a Christian giance to Christ and Him alone.2 school and thereby learned of This brief paper seeks to first Jesus. He has experienced Jesus’ describe this phenomenon and then help in response to his prayers. He discuss some issues it raises. listens to Christian Radio pro- grammes. He celebrates only Pongal. (N.B. Pongal is the three- How do Yesu Bhaktas come day festival in January which is pri- to be attracted to Christ? marily a social event involving the It is instructive to note that many come whole village community. Many vil- to learn of Christ from their neighbours lage Christians also participate in and often attending a Christian school the festivities though avoiding the is seen as influential. This initial one or two traditional home ritu- knowledge of Christ through personal als). relationships is often further strength- When queried further about the ened when prayers to Jesus are nature and reasons for these practices, answered and healing for sickness is the businessman and his friend admit- received. Growth in morality and an ted: assurance of forgiveness of sins also They fear the reactions of relatives if figure prominently in their spiritual they take baptism. biography. Clearly then many Yesu They want to have a Christian burial. Bhaktas have a deep spiritual experi- They attend Christian public meetings ence of Christ; theirs is not a case of but their wives do not come along. syncretism, the practice of praying to They expect Jesus to take them to all gods, considering them equal and heaven and to take care of their chil- valid paths to one ultimate goal. dren. They do not feel bad about not taking Yesu Bhaktas and the baptism, nor do they feel that God is displeased because of it. Institutional Church God expects of them that they lead a While on the one hand, if Yesu Bhaktas decent life as a follower of Jesus. desire to have a relationship with the They feel they should go to church. church, it appears to be a strained one, If they take baptism, they feel that they on the other hand it seems that many should leave going to the cinema, have little connection with the institu- smoking and other bad habits. tional church. One description of this They do not try to persuade their wives phenomenon is helpful here. to join their Christian faith, as it The businessman does not go to would only cause conflict in the Church, but reads his Bible and home and among the relations. Now they are still accepted by their caste 2 http://margdarshan.blogspot.com/2007/ people and family members. 10/hindu-devotee-of-yeshu.html Last accessed The best way to reach their wives January 8th 2009. would be through Christian litera- New Faces of the Church 81

ture, if there were Bible women, community anchors but yet allows the they could possibly speak with deep yearning for the spiritually fulfill- them, otherwise, only prayer for ing and meaningful relationship with them is possible. Jesus Christ to flourish. They would not be interested in joining a cottage prayer meeting even if it was nearby. How do Yesu Bhaktas They understood Jesus as teaching us nourish themselves to avoid a sinful life and to do good spiritually? to others.3 Most of the time, these believers in Men and women, young and old Christ relate to Christ only in their pri- believers in Christ are legion, but are vate prayers and meditations. Occa- largely invisible to the general popula- sionally they venture to church but do tion.4 They all seem to have in common so anonymously. For the most part an allegiance to family and community, however, they are on their own. More a deep attraction and devotion to Jesus recently though, Christian radio pro- Christ and a genuine desire to forge a grams and Christian TV have come as mode of discipleship that will enhance a boon to Yesu Bhaktas, who relish this personal and family spirituality but yet unobtrusive and perhaps safe way of avoid the stigma of being considered as being fed spiritually. outcastes of their community. They seem to be attempting the impossible; holding together the complex socio- What is the numerical religious context they inhabit and their indisputable devotion to Jesus. significance of this Identity that is integrally linked to movement? family and community among other With regard to demographic distribu- things, finds in the institutional church tion of these non-baptised believers and all that it represents an existence one researcher comments that, ‘[t]he that robs them of their socio-religious most dedicated followers of our Lord, mooring and security, indeed an then among the “other sheep” are to be offence to their sensitivities. Instead of found among teenagers, the house- either submitting themselves to this wives, the high schools educated and existential violence or being content to the poor, from all caste communities.’5 remain in their old state, in their own In Chennai alone: ingenious manner Yesu Bhaktas are Statistics have shown that there is seeking a mode of existence that does a solid twenty-five percent of the not shake and threaten family and Hindu and Muslim population in Madras city which has integrated 3 Herbert Hoefer, Churchless Christianity, pp. Jesus deeply into their spiritual life. 5-6. Half of the population have 4 Also see Andrew Wingate, The Church and attempted spiritual relationships Conversion: A Study of Recent Conversions to and from Christianity in the Tamil Area of South India, (Delhi: ISPCK, 1997), pp. 139-151. 5 Hoefer, Churchless Christianity, p. 110 82 Paul Joshua Bhakiaraj

with Jesus and had satisfying and duised devotion to Christ has prompted learning experiences through it. them to subscribe to one basic assump- Three fourths speak very highly of tion: ‘I am convinced that the Christian Jesus and could easily relate to Him faith will permeate India only as part of as their personal Lord if motivated. Hinduism, what I call “Christ-ized Hin- In addition to this population we duism”’8 For his part, H.L. Richard, have ten percent who are ‘of the another leader, echoes that sentiment fold’, formally Christian. It would when he says, ‘The Rethinking agenda be fair to say that a good one-third will never die and western Christianity of the Madras city population relate will never deeply impact India.’ He to Jesus fairly regularly and deeply goes on to declare, ‘One of the lessons in their spiritual life.6 of history…seems clearly to be that It seems therefore that Yesu Bhak- deeply Indian Christianity will not 9 tas do not represent a few isolated and arise from the existing Churches.’ It is idiosyncratic cases; they seem to rep- salutary to note that this deep disap- resent an influential movement. pointment with the church is akin to a sentiment one notices among well- known pioneers of Indian Christianity Ministering to Yesu Bhaktas and is perhaps reminiscent of their Since the discovery of these Yesu effort to advance contextually relevant Bhaktas, effort has been expended to forms of discipleship. In that sense the cater to their needs in relevant ways.7 Rethinking group is to be encouraged, Assuming the title of an older move- for their motive seems laudable. ment, ‘Rethinking Christianity’, con- However, it appears that in their temporary activists see a lot of promise eagerness for reform, some basic in these patterns of discipleship. Sem- notions are not being sufficiently inars and practical efforts at contex- thought through and the grand alter- tual witness and contextual forms of natives being proposed seem to lack a worship are being encouraged. Some rigour that would in actual fact help critical reflection also seems to have their case. First, if the vast majority of been initiated. Recently, a whole issue the church is painted with the same of a journal was dedicated to this move- brush and thought to have had a negli- ment, where a select group of leaders gible impact on the nation, the very addressed some of these important notion of discussing alternative shapes issues. The evident ‘success’ of a Hin- to Christian discipleship will be super- fluous since the Christian presence will be so miniscule it will perhaps 6 Hoefer, Churchless Christianity, p. 109. It attract little attention in its own right, must be noted however that the statistics let alone effort to rethink its shape. For mentioned here have not been made public and therefore this claim could be contested. 7 It must be said that my attention here is 8 Herbert Hoefer, Jesus, My Master: Jesu B devoted to one vocal section of the Protestant 9 H.L. Richard, ‘Rethinking “Rethinking”: effort alone, though there are significant Gospel Ferment in India among both Hindus movements in the Catholic Church, particu- and Christians’, International Journal of Fron- larly in Hyderabad and Varanasi. tier Missions 19.3 (Fall 2002), pp. 7-17, pg. 9. New Faces of the Church 83 good or bad, the fact that Christianity, that affords little patience for alternate and one has to take the whole of the visions. Though it contributes a great church into account here, is a well deal to the discussion of contextual known, viable and live option for many discipleship and perhaps even offers a in the region is testimony to the impact possible way forward, if the zeal of this that it has had on the nation. As it is proposal, as encapsulated in the above often said in the popular press, though comments, is allowed to overtake its only about three percent of the nation’s more sober intents it may eventually population, the impact Christianity has end up with no different a fate from its had has been significantly more than progenitors found early in the last cen- its numerical strength will have us tury. Zeal for growth is to be tempered believe. The ‘ferment’ that the gospel with patience and forbearance, a virtue has unleashed is testimony to the Christ preached and exhibited in his power of a little yeast. It appears then own life. Furthermore, if indeed these rather myopic to declare on the back of leaders have discovered a successful that: ‘The real move toward an indige- approach that prides itself on its con- nous Christian faith can never come textual suitability, is it not ironic that in such a pluralistic milieu like India, it from the Christian community. It must is promoted as the ‘only’ approach for grow out of the “Churchless Christian- the gospel to impact the nation? ity”, with the help and encouragement of the church.’10 Strong language indeed; stressing that point he once The Way Forward again notes: Clearly this is an important develop- If the Rethinking goal of deeply ment in Indian Christianity and close contextual discipleship to Jesus in attention must be paid to the phenom- Hindu contexts is to be realised it enon of Yesu Bhaktas. We cannot will surely only be through new afford the luxury of assuming that con- movements that are born in Hindu ventional methods and patterns will society. The way of contextual dis- alone suffice in our mission effort. Yet cipleship to Jesus in the Hindu it would not be helpful to reinvent the world must be through the birthing wheel, as it were, as far as the church of Christ centred movements within is concerned. A mature dialogue is nec- Indian cultures and communities.11 essary for a healthy approach that The lack of appreciation for the seeks the welfare of the people concerned as well as the long term theo- diversity, vitality and legitimacy of the logical and spiritual health of the existing forms of Christianity, it seems, church.12 It is indubitable that close smacks of a less than noble approach study and action arising from such informed perspectives is the need of the hour. 10 Richard here quotes Herbert Hoefer. H.L. Richard, ‘Rethinking “Rethinking”’, p. 15. Emphasis mine. 12 It is encouraging to note that one scholar 11 H.L. Richard, Rethinking “Rethinking”, p. pursuing research in this area is Dasan Jeyaraj 16. of OM, India. ERT (2010) 34:1, 84-87 Lessons from My Daughter Reflections of Church and Ethics

J. Daniel Salinas

KEYWORDS: Utilitarianism, ethics, we not seen it? Certainly there are peo- life, death, disabilities, handicap, ple with disabilities around. What does Church, value, Peter Singer, compas- society do with such people and their sion, personhood, church mission, families? Families bear the stigma and strategy, theology. feel embarrassed. Therefore, these people are ignored, institutionalized, or abandoned to public charity. This ON NOVEMBER 23, 1993 we were sud- forced us to evaluate our ethics of life denly thrown into the unknown coun- and society. try of people with disabilities and their We also noticed, with horror, that families. Our daughter Karis was born influential philosophers and ethicists with cerebral palsy. All four hemi- have proposed that these individuals spheres of her body suffered movement are not even persons and do not have damage. She depended completely on the same rights as normal people. us for all tasks like eating, getting These scholars created a ‘Quality of dressed, brushing her teeth, combing Life’ concept and applied it to people her hair or using the toilet. She never with special needs. The argument is talked. Communication was limited to that since the quality of life of these her eyes, crying and smiling. We never individuals does not reach their crite- knew her favourite food, her dreams or ria, their life could (and even should) feelings, her likes or dislikes. Karis be terminated. This includes people of never walked, nor sat up by herself. all ages; children like our daughter, Holding her head up was impossible. elderly who cannot work, quadripleg- She lived her life strapped to a wheel ics, fetuses with health or mental prob- chair or some other therapy apparatus. lems and so on. Further complicating During her seven years of life she vis- matters, the ethicists redefine person- ited more doctors and therapists than hood, adding the category of ‘non- my wife and I combined. human persons’ (basically primates) Slowly we realized this was a huge and bestow upon them the same rights and wide-open country. We asked our- that ‘human persons’ have. Therefore, selves, where was it before? Why had technically, and legally in some coun-

J. Daniel Salinas, MA, PhD, a native of Colombia, serves as the General Secretary of Grupo Biblico Universitario de Paraguay (GBUP), a member group of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), in Asuncion, Paraguay. Lessons from My Daughter 85 tries, such ‘non-human persons’ have, growth. Some pastors even go as far as according to this philosophy, more telling the parents of special needs right to life than our daughter had.1 children that they are welcome in This was just the beginning of our church, but without their children. journey in this new world for us. We Just think for a moment: how many thought that we would find compas- congregations do you know with an sion, understanding, empathy, help, intentional ministry to special-needs rest, and a friendly hand in the church people and their families? How many and the Christian community. Instead, include simultaneous translation for we found the same utilitarian ethics as the deaf? How many Sunday schools in the secular world. For most believ- include Down syndrome kids? Are peo- ers, including the majority of our fam- ple with special needs involved in the ily members, there were two options: leadership of the church? We could go either God heals her or takes her away. on and on. This reality should make us They asked, ‘What sense does it make feel at least embarrassed. This shows to live like that? Isn’t it better that God us clearly the need for believers to con- takes her away instead of letting her sider their ethics seriously. suffer here?’ Innocent questions, but Such an ethical void, or ethical behind them we discovered the same adaptation, became even more acute argument secular scholars proposed. when our daughter died in January These questions also showed us the 2001. The death of a child is unnatural. urgent need to evaluate seriously our It isn’t normal for parents to bury their ethics. The church, where supposedly children. As believers, death makes us the ethics of the Kingdom of God is pro- cry out loud from the deepest part of posed and practised, has bought into, our heart, ‘let your kingdom come’. consciously or unconsciously, the sec- Death is our enemy. But, in our case, ular ethics of the day. The church for most of the believers who came to should be the voice for the mute, eyes comfort us, our daughter’s death was for the blind, hands for those who can- the best thing that could have hap- not produce, and feet for the lame. pened to her and to us. For those peo- Rather, it seems to want to eliminate ple she was better off dead. They were these people because they cannot con- not that blunt, but the message was tribute, or bring a monetary offering, clear, she is better off now, no more nor can they help with numerical suffering and pain. That was too much for us to bear. Would anyone in their right mind say that to parents who are 1 See, Paola Cavalieri and Peter Singer, eds., burying their seven-year-old ‘normal The Great Ape Project: Equality Beyond Human- child’? Yes, Karis lived with much pain ity (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996), and suffering, but how much better to Joseph Fletcher, Humanhood: Essays in Bio- search for ways to alleviate the pain medical Ethics (Buffalo: Prometheus Books, and not celebrate death. Is not our God 1979), Helga Kuhse, ed., Unsanctifying Human pro-life? Are we not supposed to pro- Life: Essays on Ethics / Peter Singer (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), Peter Singer, Rethinking mote life? So then, why did they keep Life and Death: the Collapse of Our Traditional telling us that it was better for our Ethics (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994). daughter to die? 86 J. Daniel Salinas

The church has let the world con- God’s providence and sovereignty. God vince her that the criterion to define has always had control of the universe. the value of life is its utility, its capac- In his self-revelation he presents him- ity to produce. If anyone, like our self as compassionate, merciful, just, daughter for example, cannot produce, holy, eternal, and loving. He is the her life is meaningless, worthless. The redeemer; he takes the initiative to church has adopted an ethics in which reach us. His mission is to restore his utilitarian criteria are predominant.2 rebellious creation through his trans- For utilitarian ethics the moral task formed people—the church. God cre- today is to reach the highest happiness ated human beings as his image-bear- and the lowest pain. It does not matter ers independently of how much they if that implies induced death for a ter- produce. However, after sin entered minal patient, or abortion of fetuses the world, death was manifested in all with genetic or other malformations. areas of human life. We see the effects Indeed, isn’t life with limitations of death in the oppression of the poor, unhappy? in economical inequality, in kidnap- The same utilitarian ethics can also ping, unjust laws, political corruption be found in the church’s mission and violence. strategies and theories. Most Christian My wife and I experienced the mission today is about reaching the effects of death not only when our highest numbers, in the shortest time, daughter passed away, but in the with the lowest costs and the best prof- uncomfortable rejection of many, its. Such a definition of mission leaves including believers. Today those who out the weak, the orphan and the grieve are to be left alone. We have for- widow, the poor and displaced, gotten the biblical text, ‘Mourn with because they bring only problems and those who mourn’. As a couple and as meagre offerings. This is definitely a family, we constantly grieve the related also to a deficient theology. death of our dreams. Our daughter will We need to recover the doctrine of never play sports, graduate, or get creation. God is the Creator of every- married; milestones in the process of thing, and all people, including people life. Death hurt us every time someone with special needs. He is also the Sus- told us, that for her, she was better off tainer of the whole universe. He is very in heaven. Death was better for her. much involved in all aspects of his cre- Even though our daughter could not ation. He did not create us to abandon produce, neither could she invest any- us. Also as important, is the doctrine of thing in the economy, she was a bearer of God’s image and that was more than enough reason to have lived. How come the church has accepted so much utili- 2 Utilitarianism is defined as ‘the rightness or tarianism without even thinking twice wrongness of an act or moral rule is solely a mat- about it? I think we need to return to ter of the nonmoral good produced directly or Jesus’ model of life. indirectly in the consequences of that act or rule.’ J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philo- Jesus’ importance goes beyond sote- sophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview riology. He is God’s personal revela- (Downers Grove: IVP, 2003), 433. tion in human form. Jesus came to Lessons from My Daughter 87 show us how to accomplish God’s mis- the church? Our praxis has to follow sion. He was God incarnate, dwelling Jesus’ model of promoting life. We among us. He came to serve, to give his need to learn and practise the King- life for many. Jesus constantly dom’s ethics. The church must be com- departed from the orthodoxy of his passionate towards those in need. It time. He let children come to him. He has to include the poorest of the poor, included women among his followers. the needy, orphans, widows and those He did not care about the ceremonial who suffer daily the results of death. contamination when touching the dead The church is called to respect the dig- body of a widow’s only son. He took nity of human life, because we are the time to restore the dignity of a chroni- bearers of God’s image. We are to cally unclean ill woman who had become the advocate of those whose touched him. He stopped a successful basic rights are denied. The church meeting to heal a paralytic who came needs to say ‘no’ to big numbers and through the ceiling. He confronted the big investments, and return to defend- religious leaders who wanted to kill him for doing good on the Sabbath. He ing and promoting life in its fullness. promoted life, and paradoxically, it We are called to reject any and all sys- was through his death on the cross that tems that promote death and support he conquered death to give us life eter- wholeheartedly those that respect all nal. Jesus is the Saviour of the world human life. Let’s be actively searching and the incarnate one par excellence. for people with special needs in our Therefore, what can we do to stop neighbourhoods to serve them and the assimilation of utilitarian ethics by their families with the love of Jesus. Faith Lacking Understanding Theology “in a Glass Darkly” Randal Rauser In an attempt to put mystery back at the heart of Christian theology, Randal Rauser leads the reader on a riveting and, at times, unsettling journey through the major doctrines encapsulated in the Apostles’ Creed. In each case he illustrates how a theoretical understanding of the doctrine as yet eludes us. We simply do not know, for example, what it means for God to be Trinity, or how Christ can be both human and divine, or how the atonement works. However, Rauser shows that the journey of thinking theologically – which arises out of a love for, and worship of God within a communal atmosphere – is as important as the end result of achieving doctrines that approximate reality. In this way the author seeks to steer us on a middle course between the twin errors of evangelicalism (heightening the doctrine) and liberalism (heightening the process). This is a gripping, clearly written and unique introduction to honest and humble Christian theology for an emerging culture. Randal Rauser is Assistant Professor of Historical Theology at Taylor Seminary, Edmonton, Canada. 978-1-84227-547-4 / 216 x 140 mm / 192pp (est.) / £10.99 Paternoster, 9 Holdom Avenue, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK1 1QR, UK ERT (2010) 34:1, 88-91 Way of Hope in Cambodia

Stephan J. Bauman

KEY WORDS: Cambodia, Way of shapes the very core of the religious, Hope, cell movement social, political and cultural life of Cambodia, Cambodians are strongly influenced by animism, seeking to Introduction appease spirits and ancestors through Cambodia’s approximately 12 million worship and use of talismans. Cambo- people have suffered decades of civil dians are just as likely to visit a tradi- war, including genocide under the tional faith healer as a medical practi- Khmer Rouge holocaust, where as tioner in response to illness and dis- many as 2 million people died. This ease. extended period of destruction has dev- The church in Cambodia is young astated Cambodia’s social, economic, and lacks experienced leadership. and intellectual infrastructure, limit- Although evangelical activity began in ing its ability to break itself from the Cambodia in the 1920s, the church grip of poverty. Child mortality rates struggled to grow and develop. Only are alarmingly high: one Cambodian one Protestant denomination, the child in ten dies before reaching the Christian and Missionary Alliance age of five compared with one death in (CMA), was allowed to work in Cambo- 85 in most developed countries. About dia until the Khmer Rouge regime 85% of Cambodians live in rural areas came to power when all religious activ- with inadequate access to education, ity was shut down. At the time of the water, credit, and medical services. Khmer Rouge takeover, there were More than one half of Cambodian chil- only 12 evangelical Khmer pastors. dren are malnourished. The spread of Almost all of these died under the HIV/AIDS has been a more recent phe- Khmer Rouge so that when Christian nomenon but Cambodia now has the denominations, including the CMA, highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in all Assemblies of God, Baptists, and oth- of Asia. ers, were allowed to work in Cambodia Cambodia is one of the least Chris- in the early 1990s, they essentially had tianized countries in the world. Only to begin anew. All of Cambodia’s cur- 0.7% of Cambodians are Christ-follow- rent pastors and church leaders are ers, about 60,000 Christians in a popu- from among those who became Chris- lation of 12 million. While Buddhism tians in the 1990s.

Stephan J. Bauman ([email protected]) is the Senior Vice President of Programs of World Relief and lives in Baltimore, Maryland. Way of Hope in Cambodia 89

Way of Hope dia’s Children became one ministry Way of Hope is a movement of six thou- vehicle for the Way of Hope cells. In sand Cambodian Christ followers, 2002, World Relief launched Mobiliz- organized into more than 800 cell ing for Life (MFL), to promote behav- churches, reaching out to children and iour that prevents HIV/AIDS transmis- families in more than 162 villages in sion and support families affected by five provinces. Over 37,000 children HIV/AIDS. The Way of Hope cell are involved in the associated commu- churches became a primary vehicle for nity health program, and more than reaching out to the wider community. 5,000 volunteers are active in raising Today, all three aspects of the Hope HIV/AIDS awareness, providing edu- initiative, Hope for Cambodia’s Children, cation and home visiting. Way of Hope, and Mobilizing for Life, World Relief,1 the initiator and cat- work together and complement one alyst of the Hope initiative, began another. The Hope initiative also part- working in Cambodia in 1991. The ners beyond World Relief with, for Hope initiative grew out of a child example, Christian Service Interna- health and evangelism (CHE) program tional, in training volunteers about launched in 1993 in tandem with World nutrition and the benefits of the Relief’s microfinance initiative, now a Moringa tree. separate institution called CREDIT Way of Hope’s cell churches gener- serving in excess of 20,000 families ally consist of 8-15 people, multiplying through loans and savings. to 16 or less.2 Way of Hope is known as The aim of World Relief’s child a ‘church without walls’ meeting, pri- health and evangelism program, called marily, underneath homes built on Hope for Cambodia’s Children, was sim- stilts. Meetings are short in length to ple: evangelism and preventative allow for the daily demands of village health messages aimed at children life. First level cell groups are called ages 5-12. As children were impacted, ‘Paul Groups’ (currently about 420) parents began to enquire and many while subsequent groups, birthed by adults began to follow Christ. In the Paul groups, are called ‘Timothy response, World Relief organized the Groups’. adults into cells giving birth, in 1997, World Relief ‘Adult Educators’ to the Way of Hope cell movement. Way train volunteer leaders chosen by the of Hope models an ‘every member in cell members through a voting process. ministry’ approach, where each cell Discipleship-focused training, which member is engaged in ministry to their includes theology, health, HIV/AIDS, greater community. Hope for Cambo- and cell multiplication, occurs on a weekly basis at the provincial level.

1 World Relief (www.worldrelief.org) is U.S. based nonprofit working worldwide to 2 Note, the Cambodian government requires empower the local church to serve the most registration once a group exceeds 30 people vulnerable through health, economic develop- so, from the practical perspective of avoiding ment, refugee assistance, and disaster the bureaucracy involved, the cells have response. remained small. 90 Stephen J. Bauman

Local institutional churches provide a matic lines, such as ‘Church Growth’, venue, and some resources, for a three ‘Health Knowledge’, ‘Teaching Skills month, second level training for cell and Arts’, ‘Evaluation’, and ‘Counsel- leaders. The volunteer leaders do not, ing’ have been implemented to ensure as a norm, have a high level of educa- quality impact. tion; some are illiterate. Participation, Since its inception, the Hope initia- story-telling, and interactive methods tive has emphasized four key values: are used to overcome these barriers. prayer and worship, local ownership, For some, Bible lessons through child participation, and relationships. Transworld Radio complement the Integrating prayer and worship into all training initiatives. programmatic activities has reinforced The notion of ‘church’ in Cambodia a vision of holism; local ownership has usually connotes a building, ‘a big flat resulted in significant empowerment, or apartment to worship the Lord’. For well beyond World Relief; child partic- Way of Hope, church is defined from the ipation has produced a leveraging, or Book of Acts: ‘For us, church means a multiplying affect, and; the emphasis group of people in the community on relationships has allowed the vol- where people can meet, can talk about unteers and staff to be responsive to God’s word—not only on Sunday. So the needs of the community. our church is that we want them to come together, five people or ten people. Our church is a church with no walls. Theological Reflection For others, they have money or funds, The Way of Hope cell movement models so for us the obstacle is that other at least three important characteris- denominations have funds to build a tics for theological reflection. First, church. For us, we only have a rela- ‘Way of Hope’ moves beyond an instru- tionship with God to give them.’3 mental, or utilitarian, ecclesiology. In Still, cell members tend to view Way para-church circles, it’s common to of Hope as an ‘impoverished’ version of view the church primarily as a means church when compared to its institu- to an end, as a vehicle to serve the poor tional counterpart. As such, leaders and oppressed. Others resist this nar- 4 regularly emphasize the Acts view of row definition, saying the church itself church along with its communal life is also the goal of mission, ‘in constant and emphasis on outreach. need of repentance and conversion’ to To complement and support the cell become all it’s meant to be as the bride 5 movement, World Relief has placed of Christ. The Way of Hope movement ‘Community Life Mobilizers’ in each province with the aim of connecting the cells to the greater community. Vari- 4 See for example, Harper, P. and Metzger, ous committees, organized along the- P.L., Exploring Ecclesiology: An Evangelical and Ecumenical Introduction (Brazos Press, 2009). 5 Ecclesia semper reformanda, from Bosch, 3 Based on an interview with Nareth, World David, Transforming Mission (New York: Mary- Relief provincial leader, in September 2007. knoll Orbis, 1991). Way of Hope in Cambodia 91 is both a vehicle of mission, in reaching ‘clergy/laity’ dichotomies, the cells out to the greater community, and an significantly empower those closest to object of mission, for renewal, disciple- the needs. It allows the movement to ship and, most importantly, worship. remain incarnational, allowing Christ The cells are little communities of to dwell deeply, through a ‘church hope, ecclesiolae, fully incarnated without walls’. within the pressing problems of the Third, ‘Way of Hope’ moves beyond rural Cambodian landscape. working ‘on behalf of the poor’ to allow- Importantly, the non-instrumental ing the poor to become their own actors of character of the cells allows them to change. Too often, well intended out- define, and redefine, their outreach siders seek to work ‘for the poor’7 or mandate according to emerging issues. even ‘with the poor’ but, in so doing, The cells are able to outlive their initial snuff out local initiative.8 Such pos- outreach task, adapting to the chang- ture, and corresponding models, can ing needs of the community, primarily further entrench poverty, especially because their raison d’être transcends the form of poverty that results when its current instrumental cause. our friends feel inferior relative to the Second, ‘Way of Hope’ moves beyond west.9 Ministry ‘by the poor’, within common dichotomies. The cell move- their own communities, has the poten- ment is facilitated by a para-church tial to transform from the inside out. organization, World Relief, in loose Moreover, the likelihood for these partnership with the Cambodian insti- interventions to sustain is higher tutional church. Way of Hope empha- because ownership is higher. Way of sizes both ‘word and deed’ expressions Hope allows the poor, those marginal- of the gospel not merely ‘alongside ized and on the periphery, to become 6 each other’, but rather in an inte- actors in solving their own community grated, interdependent fashion. To be a problems. This represents empower- cell member is to worship; to worship ment in its truest form. is to reach out. Further, Way of Hope leadership consists primarily of female volun- 7 Often characterized as becoming ‘a voice teers, very few of whom are formerly for the poor’. trained for the ministry but who are 8 In Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: deeply engaged in the community. By Continuum Books, 1990), Paulo Friere refers moving beyond ‘male/female’ and to this as ‘conscientization’, that is, when the poor move from being mere objects in the process of change to actually becoming sub- jects, or change agents. 9 Bryant Myers, and others, tackle this sub- 6 Quoted from the Micah Declaration on Inte- ject by identifying ‘poverty of being’ and gral Mission, developed at the Micah Network ‘poverty of vocation’ as the deepest and worst consultation on Integral Mission held in forms of poverty. See Walking with the Poor Oxford during September 2001. (New York: Maryknoll Orbis, 1999). ERT (2010) 34:1, 92-96 A Neopentecostal Experience of Aimara people

Marcelo Vargas

KEYWORDS: Neopentecostal, Aimara, Ecuador, which have a higher percent- indigenous communities age of indigenous population, but still not the demographic index found in Bolivia which has a high percentage of I Background to the case indigenous people both in rural and urban areas. study The religious ideas and practices of The ideology used to design Bolivian the native indigenous peoples of State institutions to date is just Bolivia, which were both well-defined another example that reveals the sys- and deeply-rooted, remained beneath a tem of ethnic discrimination that veneer of Roman Catholicism, which makes Bolivia what it is today. The pre- was alien to their existence and forced sent indigenist government is making upon them by the Spanish in the 16th huge efforts to change this deeply century.1 From its earliest days, rooted, unjust reality, but it is proving Protestant evangelical Christianity,2 to be a long, difficult road. Daily life brought to Bolivia by European and and lifestyles throughout the country North American missionaries more show how most people are still victims than hundred years ago, has also main- of segregation because of their indige- tained a relationship with Bolivian cul- nous appearance and socio-cultural ture in which there has been mutual patterns. Production, education and influence. This exchange has become health structures have forced them to more dynamic and diversified, as evan- leave their homelands because of poor gelicals have increased in numbers and state policies that fail to reach rural influence. areas. These structures have margin- The capital La Paz is the most cul- alised indigenous groups because of their identity, relegated their indigenous languages, and rejected their tra- 1 José Carlos Mariategui, SieteEnsayos de ditional forms of practising medicine. Interpretacion de la Realidad Peruana (Lima: The same is true of their vernacular Amauta, 1976), 172-173; Herbert S. Klein, justice system and forms of transmit- Bolivia: the evolution of a multi-ethnic society ting indigenous identity to new gener- (New York: Oxford University Press Black- ations. Bolivia is quite different from well, 1992), viii. 2 ‘Evangelical’ is a word that in Bolivia iden- neighbouring countries, like Brazil and tifies what in other places is known as Protes- Chile, where the indigenous population tant. In most Latin American studies these is the minority, or even Peru and two words are interchangeable. A Neopentecostal Experience of Aimara people 93 turally indigenous Latin American cap- munities, none with more success than ital. Of the Andean nations, Bolivia pre- the Neopentecostals, although these, serves the most indigenous identity just like previous invasions, have inherited from the two most influential failed to erase the fundamental compo- pre-colonial cultures of the region: nents of their ethnic identity. Aimara and Quechua. Herbert S. Klein At first sight, Neopentecostals are says: ‘It is also the most Indian in the blazing a trail for indigenous women to American republics: as late as the cen- play leadership roles within a context sus of 1976 only a minority of the pop- of gender equity. They are also using ulation were monolingual speakers of their own language for services and Spanish.’3 These cultures remain adopting symbols and rituals that despite a systematic opposition to their come from their own indigenous iden- existence from the colonizing tity rather than Protestant tradition. Spaniards and the Creoles of the Whether it is recognised or not, the Republican era. The invaders used the Aimara identity proposes new ways of sword and the cross as their weapons living and representing the Christian to subdue the people and with them faith. It is, therefore, important to they pursued and fought the natives. learn to read and interpret these lan- However, even if their intention had guages. The urgent task is to listen to been peaceful and respectful—which what people are feeling and under- was obviously not the case—they standing about their decision to join a brought an exogenous, cultural system Neopentecostal congregation and to from foreign lands. This system repre- share with people who possibly have sented very different political, eco- very little theoretical or theological nomic, religious and social realities knowledge what they think and that could not substitute the strong believe, even when this does not coin- Aimaran identity and related lifestyles. cide with the official position of the In addition to all this background, church that represents their new-found the Aimaras have been affected by new faith. and numerous impacts during the last century. They have been moulded by It is the purpose of this analysis to political, social, economic and reli- concentrate our attention on the iden- gious influences and changes. Moder- tity and mission of Neopentecostals nity and globalization have hit them from the city of La Paz, Bolivia’s with all their force via education, administrative capital, where the democracy, legislation, trade unions, Aimaras are the largest, dominant eth- and non-Catholic religious groups. The nic group, particularly those who proliferation of new forms of Christian- belong to the ‘Power of God’ Church. ity has brought new sources of tension and profound changes. Evangelical or Protestant denominations have made II The distinctive nature of inroads into Aimara indigenous com- Aimara culture This section will take different aspects of the Aimara, including their world- 3 Klein, Bolivia,vii. view, indigenous spirituality, lan- 94 Marcelo Vargas guage, multi-ethnic sense, three- while, for the Aimara, even today, the dimensional logic, and integral episte- ‘alajjpacha’ (heaven) and the ‘manqha- mology as the basis for the analysis of pacha’(hell) have mixed elements of Neopentecostals. wickedness and kindness. Not all the bad is in the ‘manqhapacha’ not all the 1. Worldview, spirituality pure is in the ‘alajjpacha’. Although there are forces that work for wrong, What makes the Aimara culture dis- these same forces can work for good tinctive? What do the Aimaras think and this is part of the framework of the about themselves and about the world? belief and morality of the ancient How do they perceive who they are and Aimara.4 the world around? How do they conceive the spiritual and material worlds? The great obstacle when try- 2. Social life: Multicultural and ing to respond to these questions is intercultural that our effort to understand these The interrelationships found in each issues tends to be monocultural. In event and in the Aimara personality are other words, we try to mould our a vital foundation for their identity and understanding based on a modern this aspect is utterly contrary to the western paradigm. Our mind tends to individualism prevailing in globalized conceive life divided into separate, societies, where relationships and independent compartments. We auto- events have a marked anthropocentric matically dichotomize and by doing so character. In the Aimara conscience, impoverish the reality. The mind of the however, the human being is not the native Aimara conceives life in a way centre. Man and woman are not taken that is different from and, often, con- into account in an isolated or individu- tradictory to the westernized mindset. alized form. Nature and the cosmos Life and the world for them are an inte- coexist, they feed each other, they pro- grated whole that is fundamentally tect and mutually respect each other. spiritual and in harmony with the cos- Community life is where needs, prefer- mos. ences and a sense of life are generated. How do the Aimara understand The human being is placed in the phys- their world and how do they fit into it? ical and spiritual atmosphere sur- With the arrival of Christian spiritual- rounding, to form one indivisible, inte- ity and morality, a foreign worldview gral whole. It is impossible to live with- was incorporated into the Aimara out the diverse fabric and multifaceted metaphysical outlines. It was an adap- nature of interdependent cosmic rela- tation that both left their own continu- tionships. ities alive and strengthened them. However, not everything is perfect However, inevitably, changes and mod- ifications occurred which, in turn, became apparent in their own disconti- 4 O. Harris & T. Bouysse-Cassagne, ‘Pacha: en torno al pensamiento aymara’ in Xavier nuities. For example, the western Albo, Raices de America: El mundo Aymara world view makes a clear moral dis- (Madrid: Alianza Editorial & UNESCO, 1988), tinction between heaven and earth, 246. A Neopentecostal Experience of Aimara people 95 in the Aimara ayllu (the community life tradition that manifests itself in as an ancestral base of coexistence). beliefs, customs and forms of life. Community life, be it in the rural areas Rather than being textual, Aimara or urban context, combines values that communication has been and still is a are highly human and integrating with living experience. Language, as a anti-values of domination, perversion result, is central. The Aimara language and discrimination. The historic con- gives its speakers an abundance of lin- text of marginalisation, poverty and guistic resources. It is enough to know suffering influences many aspects of some of the grammatical system to Aimara life. Their creativity is have a clear idea of the wealth and expressed with a sense of originality; complexity of this language. The their sense of festiveness in the imagi- extensive demarcation of the sources nary of celebration; interdependence in of information, the affirmation of reciprocity and complementarity. How- humanity and its differentiation from ever, there are also shadows of fatal- the non-human by means of language, ism, where fate is stained with pes- and the dynamic interaction between simism; accommodation to the belief language, culture and the perception of that natural and supernatural forces the world are also aspects of the are pigheaded and unavoidable. Frivo- Aimara language. Neither the Aimara lity, cheating and vengeance are seen culture nor the language is sexist as as acceptable forms of behaviour and are the Spanish and English lan- despair is commonplace because life is guages. When the Aimara speaks seen only in terms of the present, with about human beings, they do not few positive roots in the past or indica- exclude half the human race by refer- 5 tions of a better future. ring to someone only in masculine terms.6 The language gives the Aimara 3. Language woman an equal social level in a way The Aimara culture is a spoken rela- that could serve as a model for the con- tional culture. Its channels, its sources temporary world, with its glaring are not written documents produced by inequities in terms of gender and jus- isolated individuals. There are no tice. enlightened individuals who apply a discursive rationality. The Aimara do 4. Three-dimensional logic not determine tradition by conceptual- Implicit within the cultural Aimara lan- izing or idealizing their utopias in writ- guage is a trivalent logic.7 The logic of ten texts. The Aimaras’ main ‘text’ is a its beliefs, for example, is not bipolar. colourful fabric of live ‘perceptions’ in minds and hearts. It is a treasure of accumulated community wisdom shared by means of an oral ancestral 6 M.J. Hardman, ‘Jaqi aru: la lengua humana’ in Albo, Raices, 155-216. 7 Blithz Lozada Pereira, Identidad y vision del 5 Juan J. Tancara, Teologiapentecostal: prop- mundo Aymara’II Seminário Internacional del uestadesdecomunidadespentecostales de la ciu- Pensamiento Andino Cuenca (UNESCO, 2005) dad del Alto (La Paz: ISEAT, 2005) 5. 10. 96 Marcelo Vargas

In other words, it is not conclusive or profoundly Aimara? Is its vital identity absolutist on one hand, or static and moulded by the singularity of this cul- individualistic on the other. It does not ture? Do their principles, values, have the binary logic of belief or non- sacred holism, their cosmic interrela- belief, of the legitimization of a unique, tionship, orality and linguistic inclu- exclusive, closed system of beliefs. sivism, their three-dimensional logic This trivalent logic implies the com- and thirst for the unknown, place them passionate submission to its imaginary outside inadequate overseas moulds? religious community and its syncretis- tic practices, but at the same time, the construction of elements that modifies III Conclusion the established ‘pantheon’. The indigenous worldview, so essen- The Aimara worldview starts, in the tially different from the globalized one, same way as the Vedic tradition of exercises a powerful influence in Boli- India,8 in the non-duality of reality. vian society and defines the religious Reality is not conceived in dimensions and social behaviour of the majority. that are in conflict or opposed to each The advance of Neopentecostalism is other—good and bad, sacred and pro- taking place specifically in the Aimara fane; masculine and feminine, visible cultural context in the city of La Paz, and invisible, true and false. Neither without completely eliminating or one nor the other can exist without the replacing indigenous religiosity.9 The possibility of there being a third alter- indigenous Aimara identity still builds native. God exists and so does the values, behaviour and spirituality in Devil; human beings and Nature; spirit Bolivia. All evangelicals, and Neopen- and body. In the Aimara concept of cos- tecostals in particular, are strongly mos, there is room for a third alterna- influenced by this indigenous world- tive of equal importance. The parts do view. not counterattack each other; on the There is a lack of wholeness in the contrary, they are complementary, church witness and mission in relation inclusive. This three-dimensional— to cases like the Aimara people. and sometimes more—Aimara logic is Instead of establishing the kingdom of sustained by the relational cosmic sys- God in each culture with the purpose of tem mentioned earlier with its princi- home-grown wholeness and redemp- ples of reciprocity and solidarity. tion, the most common experience has Is the Neopentecostal experience at been prejudice in imported forms, con- Power of God Church specifically and tents and spirit.

8 Josef Estermann, La filosofía andina como 9 Kwame Bediako, Christianity in Africa: The alteralidad que interpela: una critica intercultural Renewal of a Non-western Religion (Edinburgh: del androcentrismo y etnocentrismo occidental Edinburgh University Press & Orbis Books, (La Paz: ISEAT, 2004), 6. 1995), 215.