Evangelical and Frontier Mission Perspectives on the Global Progress of the Gospel

REGNUM EDINBURGH 2010 SERIES Evangelical and Frontier Mission Perspectives on the Global Progress of the Gospel REGNUM EDINBURGH 2010 SERIES The Centenary of the World Missionary Conference of 1910, held in Edinburgh, was a suggestive moment for many people seeking direction for Christian mission in the twenty-first century. Several different constituencies within world Christianity held significant events around 2010. From 2005, an international group worked collaboratively to develop an intercontinental and multi-denominational project, known as Edinburgh 2010, and based at New College, University of Edinburgh. This initiative brought together representatives of twenty different global Christian bodies, representing all major Christian denominations and confessions, and many different strands of mission and church life, to mark the Centenary. Essential to the work of the Edinburgh 1910 Conference, and of abiding value, were the findings of the eight think-tanks or ‘commissions’. These inspired the idea of a new round of collaborative reflection on Christian mission – but now focused on nine themes identified as being key to mission in the twenty-first century. The study process was polycentric, open-ended, and as inclusive as possible of the different genders, regions of the world, and theological and confessional perspectives in today’s church. It was overseen by the Study Process Monitoring Group: Miss Maria Aranzazu Aguado (Spain, The Vatican), Dr Daryl Balia (South Africa, Edinburgh 2010), Mrs Rosemary Dowsett (UK, World Evangelical Alliance), Dr Knud Jørgensen (Norway, Areopagos), Rev. John Kafwanka (Zambia, Anglican Communion), Rev. Dr Jooseop Keum (Korea, World Council of Churches), Dr Wonsuk Ma (Korea, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies), Rev. Dr Kenneth R. Ross (UK, Church of Scotland), Dr Petros Vassiliadis (Greece, Aristotle University of Thessalonikki), and coordinated by Dr Kirsteen Kim (UK, Edinburgh 2010). These publications reflect the ethos of Edinburgh 2010 and will make a significant contribution to ongoing studies in mission. It should be clear that material published in this series will inevitably reflect a diverse range of views and positions. These will not necessarily represent those of the series’ editors or of the Edinburgh 2010 General Council, but in publishing them the leadership of Edinburgh 2010 hopes to encourage conversation between Christians and collaboration in mission. All the series’ volumes are commended for study and reflection in both church and academy. Series Editors Knud Jørgensen Areopagos Foundation, Norway, MF Norwegian School of Theology & the Lutheran School of Theology, Hong Kong. Chair of Edinburgh 2010 Study Process Monitoring Group Kirsteen Kim Leeds Trinity University College and Edinburgh 2010 Research Coordinator, UK Wonsuk Ma Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, Oxford, UK Tony Gray Words by Design, Bicester, UK REGNUM EDINBURGH 2010 SERIES Evangelical and Frontier Mission Perspectives on the Global Progress of the Gospel Edited by Beth Snodderly and A. Scott Moreau Copyright © ‘Edinburgh 2010’, 2011 First published 2011 by Regnum Books International Regnum is an imprint of the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies St. Philip and St. James Church Woodstock Road Oxford OX2 6HR, UK www.ocms.ac.uk/regnum 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The right of ‘Edinburgh 2010’ to be identified as the Editors of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electric, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the UK such licences are issued by the Copyright Licencing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-1-870345-xx-x Typeset by Words by Design Printed and bound in Great Britain for Regnum Books International by TJ International LTD, Padstow, Cornwall CONTENTS Foreword vii HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Evangelical Missions Development, 1910 to 2010, in the North American Setting: Reaction and Emergence 3 A. Scott Moreau The Progress of the Frontier Mission Movement: A Forty Year Glance from Edinburgh 1980 through Tokyo 2010 53 David Taylor UNREACHED PEOPLES INSIGHTS History and Impact of the Fuller School of World Mission 55 Greg Parsons Personal Reflections on Donald A. McGavran and Ralph D. Winter 68 Ezra Sargunam and Andrew Swamidoss Launching a Movement: A History of the Perspectives Course 71 Yvonne Huneycutt Pentecostal Missions: The Influence of Frontier Mission Missiology 101 Alan R. Johnson INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES The Influence of Unreached Peoples Thinking on Francophone African Theological Education and Mission 119 Moussa Bongoyok History and Growth of the Korean Missions Movement 126 Timothy K. Park Deborah Xu: The Story of a Catalytic Leader in the Chinese House Church Movement 136 Yalin Xin THE USE OF ‘MEANS’ TO FULFILL THE GREAT COMMISSION Relating Church Hierarchies to Mission Agencies: Healing a Breach in the Protestant Church 163 Robert A. Blincoe Gathering, Collating and Meshing Information on the Frontiers: Identifying Unreached Peoples 181 Jim Haney TOKYO 2010 AND CAPE TOWN 2010 REFLECTIONS Making Disciples of Every People in Our Generation: The Vision, Purpose and Objectives of Tokyo 2010 201 Yong Cho and David Taylor The Tokyo 2010 Declaration 207 Missiology and the Measurement of Engagement: Personal Reflections on Tokyo 2010 212 Kevin S. Higgins Celebration, Consultation and Congress: From Edinburgh 2010 to Tokyo 2010 and Cape Town 2010 222 Enoch Wan The Third Lausanne Congress: Assessing Cape Town 2010’s Contribution to the Cause of Christ 234 Cody Lorance EVANGELICALS RETURN TO A HOLISTIC GOSPEL AND KINGDOM MISSION The Biggest Trend in Global Mission 267 Ralph D. Winter The Ebb and Flow of Kingdom Theology: Implications for Mission in the Next 100 Years 274 C. René Padilla A War-Torn Creation 286 Gregory A. Boyd A New Era of Missions Is upon Us 294 Robert J. Priest Index 305 FOREWORD The centennial celebrations of the Edinburgh 1910 conference offered Christians of all stripes multiple opportunities to reflect on the past century of mission. Dynamic growth in many sectors of the church in almost every corner of the world might not have surprised the Edinburgh delegates, but the flavor and consistency of the present world church might well have. Over the course of the twentieth century one of the stories of the church that has moved towards center stage is the growth of evangelicalism around the world. While certainly until the late 1980s this went largely unnoticed among the academic elite of the world, even so by then the vast majority of the missionaries serving to and from every corner of the globe were be framed in some way by this evangelical surge (see Moreau). As we reflect on the past century, then, the stories of the evangelical world church deserve to be heard. In this volume, we do not have space to even begin to scratch the surface. Being forced to choose an orientation, we collected stories and thinking related to the way evangelicals have idealized, operationalized and organized in light of the remaining frontiers of mission. Is it appropriate to talk about frontiers when there are literally Christians in every country of the world, and almost every country is sending out missionaries in some form or another? Evangelicals resoundingly say “Yes!” The frontiers, as evidenced by the authors found herein, are not identified in terms of national identity, but people groups. Evangelicals, characterized as activists, have actively pursued an emerging set of goals developed in relation to “peoples” of the world. While there is not yet unanimity in how a “people group” is to be defined, there is large agreement that cultural and linguistic boundaries are front and center in our understanding of the frontiers that remain. It is appropriate, then, to consider this book as a collection of case studies in evangelical reflection and praxis in relation to what we see as the continuing frontiers in mission. This means that the collection is not intended to give a full picture of evangelicals and all of our efforts. Rather, it is a picture highlighting elements of what we as editors consider the most central of the numerous evangelical missional trajectories. As reading through the chapters will make clear, while there are numerous “cooperative” efforts among evangelicals, there is no overarching organization orchestrating us. Instead, there are Edinburgh 1980 (Taylor) and Tokyo 2010 conference (Higgins) follow-up organizations (Cho and Taylor; Wan). Pentecostal mission movements dot almost every nook and cranny of the globe (Johnson), the Lausanne Movement empowers multiple networks (Moreau; Lorance; Wan), associations of agencies research and count “unreached” viii Evangelical and Frontier Mission Perspectives peoples (Haney). This does not even include the World Evangelical Alliance, the nearest evangelical equivalent to the World Council of Churches (the WEA is not the complete focus of any chapter, but the story of the Missions Commission is outlined by Moreau). This does not even take into account the unnumbered organizations and movements springing up around the world, from Francophone Africa (Bongoyok) to Korea (Park) to China (Xin). Nor

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