Vol. 14, No.4 nteroatlooa• October 1990 etlo • • Mission Enroute to A.D. 2000 s the world moves into the last decade of the twentieth A century, the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN offers the final three of sixteen essays in our series on "Mission in the 1990s." Our authors remind us once again that responsible world mission On Page demands a proper blending of new and old. 146 Mission in the 1990s: Three Views Recalling an old Sunday School favorite, "Tell Me the Old, I. Emilio Castro Old Story," Emilio Castro declares, "In the jungle of compet­ II. David J. Bosch itive offerings of miracle solutions to all human problems, a finger III. L. Grant McClung, Jr. pointing clearly to Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the best service we can render to the world today." This must be linked with "mis­ 158 What We Can Learn from Y. T. Wu Today sion in Christ's way," and with a new appreciation of the "power K. H. Ting and wisdom of the Spirit" not only in mission traditionally con­ ceived but in the care and sustenance of all creation. 161 The Legacy of Sadhu Sundar Singh In his contribution to the series, David Bosch shares high­ Eric J. Sharpe lights of his forthcoming book Transforming Mission. He draws on biblical, historical, sociological, and hermeneutical studies to show 164 Noteworthy that the missiological principle of contextualization "suggests the experimental and contingent nature of all theology." Old, 167 My Pilgrimage in Mission Western-oriented theological structures must answer to new in­ T. A. Beetham sights from other quarters of the world church. Bosch also sees as "new" the recovery of the eschatological horizon of mission. 172 Christian Mission and Religious Pluralism: A These and other factors, in Bosch's view, amount to "a new Selected Bibliography of 175 Books in English, paradigm" of mission. 1970-1990 L. Grant McClung, [r., concludes our series with an assess­ Gerald H. Anderson ment of the role and contribution of the Pentecostal/Charismatic movement. Here, another "old" element is recovered as 177 150 Outstanding Books for Mission Studies "new": the centrality of the Holy Spirit in mission. "With our talk of 'dialogue' and 'trialogue,''' says McClung,"we 178 Author's Reply are overdue for 'Pneumalogue'-hearing what the Spirit is saying to the churches." 181 Book Reviews Equally profitable reading will be found in this issue in essays on Y. T. Wu, as contributed by Bishop K. H. Ting, and Sadhu 187 Dissertation Notices Sundar Singh, by Eric J. Sharpe. T. A. Beetham's "My Pil­ grimage in Mission" recalls a career that spanned the training of 188 Index, 1990 church leaders in Ghana to providing in his later years ecumenical liaison for mission agencies in Britain and national churches in 192 Book Notes Africa. Finally, this issue offers two extended lists of books, many of which are essential reading if we are to faithfully incorporate the "new" and "old" in mission enroute to A.D. 2000. of lsslonory• • scorch Mission in the 1990s: Three Views I. Emilio Castro n June 1989 the World Council of Churches Commission situation confronted by the churches. On the one side they are I on World Mission and Evangelism held a conference in called to occupy the spiritual vacuum left by the disappearance San Antonio, Texas, to address mission in the 1990s under the of a prevailing ideology and are invited to fulfill their classical title "Your Will Be Done-Mission in Christ's Way." For a full roles of preserving loyalty to and integration of society. On the discussion of our topic, I refer the reader to the report and pub­ other side, that appeal to the churches is not always made on lications from that conference. Here I limit myself to three em­ gospel grounds but as a convenient tool to provide cohesion in phases that I consider central to authentic mission today. societies that are searching again for their historical identity. The real challenge is to put gospel content to the new church loyalty, Telling the Story of Jesus to provide a direct link to the story, teaching, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the foundation stone on which to Mission in the 1990s needs to concentrate on spreading the actual rebuild personal and social life. knowledge of the story of Jesus of Nazareth. "Tell me the old, The emotion of religiosity is there but the knowledge is lack­ old story" is the refrain of an old hymn we used to sing in Sunday ing. The translation, publication, and distribution of the Bible are School. Yet the telling of that story is our most urgent mission once again central to the fulfillment of our vocation. Countries challenge today. We are confronted by secular societies, by a that have been fighting for years for permission to print or import spreading consumerism in which even the central aspects of our limited numbers of Bibles (where even today, on the black market, faith like the incarnation of the Son of God have been transformed a Bible is sold at astronomical prices) are in desperate need of into objects of commercialization. Jesus, the church, Christianity, gospel literature that can provide real-life content to the religious are taken for granted. Especially in the Western world churches symbols. After so many decades of being denied education with belong to the panorama, but not many people expect important Christian references, there is an accumulated challenge to provide those references for the older generation and to assure especially that today's children and teenagers know the sources of our A finger pointing clearly to Christian faith so that they may have valid points of reference to go beyond their ethnic loyalties to loyalty to the Savior, Redeemer, Jesus, the Lamb of God, is and Lord of all. the best service we can Another aspect of our present situation that obliges us to concentrate our thoughts on the telling of the story of Jesus Christ render. is interreligious dialogue, which is an increasingly common ex­ perience for Christians in every corner of the earth. The inter­ religious encounter that in the past was the privilege of missionaries things to happen through them: "Can anything good come or travelers is becoming today an experience available to every out of Nazareth?" (john 1:46). Once again the answer to our Christian. It is important in these encounters to be aware of the modern world needs to be: "Come and see." The passing of nature of our distinctiveness, of our contribution, and of the cen­ the Christian tradition, the events of the life of Jesus Christ, to ter of our life. The story of Jesus Christ is the real novelty, the the present and coming generations is both fundamental and new breakthrough. In the 1990s, like the apostle Paul, we must difficult: fundamental, because finally it is the only contribution be ready to say: "For I decided to know nothing among you we have to offer to modernity-a mirror, a point of reference, a except Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). yardstick, a life, Jesus Christ; but difficult, because this very life has been made the object of manipulation and reductionism, of The Redeeming of History soap operas, of commercial deformations. In the jungle of com­ petitive offerings of miracle solutions to all human problems, a Mission in the 1990s needs to recover afresh Jesus' way of mission. finger pointing clearly to Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the best The year 1992 is an obvious reference date; five hundred years service we can render to the world today. have passed since the Spanish arrived in America. Official cele­ It is easier to see the fundamental importance of this central brations will be organized in Spain and every main city in Latin dimension of our missionary work when we consider present America. For Spain it is a clear attempt to remind the world that events in former socialist societies, where the breaking down of their country was a great power, that there was a time when the a monolithic culture built around atheistic presuppositions is sun never set over the Spanish empire. But for the church of Jesus opening doors for the recovering of religious experience and re­ Christ it is also a reminder of the fact that along with the con­ ligious participation. But the real danger is that this religiosity querors came the missionaries, and the Gospel was spread all that eagerly looks back to old national traditions is not necessarily over the continent. The strange historical alliance of the sword recovering the tradition of Jesus Christ. The growth of alliances and cross has meant the submission of practically all inhabitants of ethnic groups and confessional affirmations, whether in of the continent to the Roman Catholic Church. It is a model of Yugoslavia or the Ukraine, etc., indicates the highly sensitive evangelization that belongs to our history, with its shadows but also with its lights. The question for us is not to engage in a celebration of that colonial past nor to profit from that occa­ sion to celebrate the fact that Protestant missions came to Latin Emilio Castro, a Methodist ministerfrom Uruguay, is General Secretary of the America to break the cultural monopoly the Catholic church had World Council of Churches. 146 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH enjoyed in this continent during so many centuries. It is not a International Bulletin moment for the glorification of the past; it is a moment for a sober assessment of its meaning, especially from the perspective of the of Missionary Research indigenous Indian population or the black people who were brought as slave laborers to this continent.