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The Legacy of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in the 21St Century

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The Legacy of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in the 21St Century The Legacy of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in the 21st Century 9 The Legacy of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in the 21st Century writing that produced about a dozen books and hundreds of im - Michael W. Goheen portant articles. 3 On this occasion of the centenary of Newbigin’s birth we Bishop Lesslie Newbigin is one of the most important missiolog - probe his legacy for the 21st century. There are a number of ways ical and theological thinkers of the 20th century. The American to approach the issue. One way is to note the various contribu - church historian Geoffrey Wainwright, from Duke University, tions he made to the 20th-century church, which were tangible once remarked that when the history of the church in the 20th and readily identifiable: his nuanced theological work in the area century comes to be written, if the church historians know their of church government that broke the logjam and contributed to job, Newbigin will have to be considered one of the top ten or the formation of the CSI, his formulations of the missionary twelve theological figures of the century. In his book, he honors church expressed in the official documents of the significant Will - Newbigin’s significant contribution by portraying him in patristic ingen Conference, his chairmanship of the famous “committee of terms as a “father of the church.” 1 Newbigin was first and fore - twenty-five” that produced one of the most significant and founda - most a missionary; he spent forty years of his life in India. But he tional theological statements on eschatology for the World Coun - was much more: he was a theologian, biblical scholar, apologist, cil of Churches that was adopted at the Evanston Meeting, the ecumenical leader, author, and missiologist. The breadth and fashioning of the statement on local and ecumenical unity depth of his experience and his contribution to the ecumenical adopted at the New Delhi meeting of the WCC that remains sig - and missionary history of the church in the 20th century have nificant, his key part in the integration of the WCC and IMC in been “scarcely paralleled.” 2 1961 along with the part he played in shaping the WCC and Newbigin was born in England in 1909. He was converted to CWME (Commission on World Mission and Evangelism) in those Jesus Christ during his university days at Cambridge. He was early days, and his role as a catalyst in making mission and West - married, ordained in the Church of Scotland, and set sail for ern culture a central agenda item in the church’s mission. An - India as a missionary in 1936. He spent the next eleven years as a other way is to identify his tremendous theological contribution to district missionary in Kanchipuram. He played an important role mission theology and its relevance and significance for today. This in clearing a theological impasse that led to the formation of the is the way I will proceed in this article. Church of South India (CSI), a church made up of Congregation - alists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Methodists. He served as The Gospel as Public Truth bishop of Madurai for the next twelve years. The next six years of Newbigin’s thinking on every subject begins with the gospel, his life were spent as an ecumenical leader, first as general secre - and especially that event that is at the center: the cross. From the tary of the IMC, the International Missionary Council, and then beginning of his Christian life until the end, he believed that this as associate general secretary of the World Council of Churches was the clue that he must follow if he were to make any sense of 4 (WCC). He returned to India and became bishop of the important the world. Newbigin stresses the foundational nature of the Diocese of Madras for ten years. Following his retirement in 1974 gospel in two closely related ways: as public truth and as universal until his death in 1998, he lectured at Selly Oaks College in Birm - 3For more on his life see Newbigin, Unfinished Agenda: An Updated Autobi - ingham, England, pastored a small Reformed church in Birming - ography (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew Press, 1993); Tim Stafford, “God’s Missionary ham, and carried out a punishing schedule of lecturing and To Us,” Christianity Today (December 9, 1996): 24–33; Michael Goheen, “As the Father Has Sent Me, I Am Sending You”: J. E. Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiol - 1 Geoffrey Wainwright, Lesslie Newbigin: A Theological Life (Oxford: Oxford ogy (Zoetermeer, Netherlands: Boekencentrum, 2000); Wainwright, Lesslie New - Press, 2000), 390–93. bigin: A Theological Life . 2 Alan Neely, review of Unfinished Business [sic]: An Autobiography , by Lesslie 4Newbigin, Unfinished Agenda , 11. Newbigin, in Faith and Mission 4/1 (Fall 1986): 106. 10 Trinity Journal for Theology & Ministry The Legacy of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in the 21st Century 11 history. 5 While Hinduism and Western humanism locate truth in dom to Israel, the church was to make known the kingdom to the something unchanging outside of history, the biblical story lo - ends of the earth. cates truth in a story of God’s redemptive deeds and words in his - A number of significant elements of this view of mission re - tory that culminate in Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ the end and main profoundly relevant for our day. First, mission is not an op - meaning of cosmic history have been revealed and accomplished. tional extra but is central to this era in redemptive history. “The At the cross God has dealt with the sin and misery of the world; in meaning of the ‘overlap of the ages’ in which we live, the time be - the resurrection a new world has dawned; at Pentecost the Spirit tween the coming of Christ and His coming again, is that it is the was given so men and women could begin to share in this new time given for the witness of the apostolic Church to the ends of world. the earth. The implication of a true eschatological perspective will Nothing is more urgent in our day than a church that believes be missionary obedience, and the eschatology which does not the gospel and makes it the fundamental starting point and di - issue in such obedience is a false eschatology.” 6 One cannot un - recting power for its life. But the way Newbigin articulates the derstand this time period apart from mission; this era is defined gospel is equally significant: in a world caught on the horns of rel - by the call to make known the good news in life, word, and deed. ativism and fundamentalism, his formulation of the gospel Newbigin speaks of the logic of mission: “The logic of mission is comes as a breath of fresh air. Over against the rampant rela - this: the true meaning of the human story has been disclosed. Be - tivism that threatens the truth of the gospel, Newbigin stands cause it is the truth, it must be shared universally.” 7 The term firm: the gospel is true – universally true – for everyone in all “logic of mission” refers to the essential historical connection be - parts of the world at every point in history. Over against the fun - tween the good news of the kingdom revealed in Jesus and the damentalist assumption that the gospel is a set of unchanging universal mission of the church to make it known. The era of the propositional truths or dogmatic ideas to be simply asserted church’s mission must follow the revelation of the gospel in Jesus. against all others, Newbigin holds forth the gospel as events that Second, mission is ecclesial. Mohammed left behind a book to reveal the meaning and goal of world history and thus provide the communicate the truth he believed he had received from God. clue for understanding and living in the world, but is flexible Jesus did not write a book; he left behind a community. Thus, enough for dialogue with adherents of other religions and world - mission defines the church’s identity: one cannot understand the views. church apart from its sending. Mission is not merely one (even very important) ministry of the church but defines the very nature The Logic of Mission of the church. 8 This is God’s way of working in redemptive his - If the gospel is true, if it tells us where all of history is going, tory: God chooses a people, reveals to them the “secret” of his then mission must follow: the story must be made known. Jesus coming kingdom, and charges them to make it known in their did not write a book but left behind a community that would corporate and individual lives, words, and deeds. 9 make known the good news of the kingdom of God by embodying it in its life, expressing it in its deeds, and announcing it in its 6Lesslie Newbigin, The Household of God: Lectures on the Nature of the words. He charged them with this mission: “As the Father has Church (London: SCM Press, 1953), 153–54. sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21). They were to continue 7Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids: Eerd - the mission of Jesus in his way. As Jesus made known the king- mans, 1989), 125. 8Goheen, “As the Father Has Sent Me” ; also “‘As the Father Has Sent Me, I Am Sending You’: Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology,” International Re - 5He also speaks of the gospel as “secular announcement,” by which he view of Mission 91/362 (July 2002): 354–69. means the “announcement of an event which is decisive for all men and for the 9George R.
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