Vol. 14, No.3 nternatlooa• July 1990 etlo• ~'~~~~"~• Ever-Changing Contexts ofMission orne things never change." But persons involved in the "S Christian world mission dare not underestimate the process that casts mission in ever-new perspectives. On Page This issue of the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN offers readers two more contributions in the "Mission in the 1990s" series. The 98 Mission in the 1990s: Two Views first of these, by Ralph Winter of the U.S. Center for World Mis­ I. Ralph D. Winter sion, enumerates almost a score of contextual shifts that dictate II. Mary Motte, F.M.M. change in mission. Mary Motte, F.M.M., director of the Francis­ can Mission Resource Center in Providence, Rhode Island, high­ 105 Toward a New History of the Church in the lights the "new" focus on the preferential option for the poor. Third World She also notes, however, the venerable Catholic heritage of min­ Ieffrey Klaiber, S.I· istries to and with the poor. Jeffrey Klaiber, S.J., describes a groundbreaking project that will give us a new history of third 108 The Legacy of Charles W. Ranson world churches, written from the perspective of the recipients of lames K. Mathews Western mission. Christoffer Grundmann, recalling the history of medical missions, reminds us that traditionally it was taken 112 My Pilgrimage in Mission for granted that healing belongs to mission; yet medical mission Arthur F. Glasser became compartmentalized and controversial once the modern scientific context came into play. 115 Confessing Jesus Christ within the World of Readers have come to expect both pleasure and missional Religious Pluralism insights through two on-going features in the INTERNATIONAL Mark Thomsen BULLETIN, the "Legacy" and "My Pilgrimage" series. This issue offers a biographical sketch of Charles W. Ranson by his 116 Noteworthy friend James K. Mathews; and Arthur F. Glasser, known and appreciated by colleagues in mission from many ecclesial back­ 120 Proclaiming the Gospel by Healing the Sick? grounds, shares the events and encounters that have shaped his Historical and Theological Annotations on personal pilgrimage. Medical Mission Finally, Mark Thomsen addresses the issue of pluralism and Christoffer Grundmann insists that a missiology of the cross provides a basis for the sensitivity and openness demanded in today's pluralist world. 122 Author's Reply Thomsen's credo reminds us of the one thing above all others that remains firm in this changing world: "Jesus Christ is the 126 Book Reviews same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8). 142 Dissertation Notices 144 Book Notes of lsslonory• • scorch Mission in the 1990s: Two Views I. Ralph D. Winter hange is the password of the 1990s--changes in perspec­ 1990s the Lausanne Statistics Task Force, or some other serious C tive, changes in concepts of task and goal, and changes body, can bring into widespread public view a far superior picture in methodology. than most people now have of the true status of the growth of Christianity in comparison to other world religions. Surely there Changes in Perspective must be some remedy to wild quotations like "Muslims are growing at 16 percent and Hindus at 12 percent while Christians 1. New Missions from Former "Mission Fields." The existence of are only growing at 9 percent." I have heard this precise phrase thriving "national" churches in the so-called mission lands is from the lips of three different prominent church leaders, but am no longer the only "great new fact of our time." As we plunge entirely at a loss as to where such outlandish numbers came from. into the 1990s, not just church life, but possibly an even more What is indisputable is that population growth rates (apart from important indigenous, national mission movement is springing up immigration) range from 0.6 percent per year in Germany to slightly from within those countries that were once "mission fields." over 3 percent for Egypt. But the vital sector of the Christian Of course, there never was anything really new about a church sphere, which already numbers in the hundreds of millions, is on the mission field, because the process of expanding across growing by more than 6 percent, and there is no other religious or cultural frontiers began as soon as there were two or three gath­ political bloc ofcomparable sizewith an evenremotely comparable growth ered together in the name of Christ outside the Jewish cultural rate. tradition. Neither is there anything essentially new about mission­ During the third of a century when it was easy to assume field Christians becoming missionaries in their own right. The that everything had gone wrong in China, some theologians de­ Western world itself is merely a mission field that has become a veloped a theology that excused us from concern over the growth mission sending base. And it is well known that most of the South rate of Christianity. However, the adverse comparisons in the quotation up above, besides being untrue, unnecessarily under­ mine the entire Christian world mission. The third world mission 3. The SendingCulture vs. the Receiving Culture. The 1990s will not likely improve greatly the ability of the general citizenry in a movement will possibly sending country to see themselves as those from other countries overtake Western missions, see them. Yet nothing is more obvious and embarrassing to those of us who have lived in a foreign country for any length of time in terms of total number of than the tendency of our people back home to take the worst of missionaries, by 1995. the other country and compare it with the best of our own, the sending country. That is no way to see ourselves as we really are! Americans rail against poor populations overseas supporting themselves by supplying the American appetite for drugs, while Pacific was missionized by South Pacific islanders themselves, not wanting to acknowledge the onerous drug trade that Western learning foreign languages and going from island to island ex­ governments have perpetrated for more than a hundred years. tending the Christian movement. Are we Americans overlooking our gigantic international cigarette But now there are over fifty indigenous mission agencies that market, which is not only subsidized in this country but with the are members of the India Missions Association. The Asia Missions help of our federal government is literally forced upon certain Association is nearing its twentieth year of existence. At the global Southeast Asian nations by political processes attempting to level the Third World Missions Association is picking up mo­ "protect" our own drug growers? Panama's government is not mentum. In Nigeria, there is not only a strong association of the only one that has been involved in pushing drugs. What if Nigerian mission agencies, but one member mission alone is our exports to Thailand prompted their troops to invade North sending over six hundred missionaries to untouched language Carolina and burn the tobacco plantations-the source of our en­ groups in and outside of Nigeria. forced export of that highly addictive drug. What if they circled What will be truly new in the 1990s is the astounding prom­ the White House, seized the president, and flew him off for trial inence and vastly larger muscle of the "third world" mission movement. It will possibly overtake Western missions, in terms in Bangkok? of total number of missionaries, by 1995 (Pate, 1989:45-46). Do we realize we have a hundred times as many alcoholics Thus, the crucial and still-unreached goal is no longer merely as hard drug addicts? Will we send troops to smash our own the growing unity of a global church movement but the strategic distilleries or to Scotland to take care of their export whisky pro­ interfacing of a global mission movement. duction? 2. Triumphalism vs. Fatalism. In the past we have seen both How do we look to foreign eyes when we get more violent of these extremes. But it is to be devoutly hoped that during the about a Central American dictator who sasses us than we do about an East African dictator who is determined to starve 4.5 million human beings who are "the wrong tribe"? We are told that certain Japanese government publications Ralph D. Winter wasa Presbyterian missionary in Guatemala from 1956 to 1966. He then taught on the faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary School of World warn against and caricature certain foreign visitors. These doc­ Mission fora decade before founding the UnitedStates Center for World Mission uments are surely as outrageous as they are outlandish. But, in Pasadena, California, of which he is the Director. unfortunately, we can find the same desperate provincialities in 98 INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF MISSIONARY RESEARCH our own country wherever people are as isolated from personal contact with foreigners as most Japanese are. Probably no one International Bulletin force in world history has done more to reduce these kinds of of Missionary Research phobias than the activities of the Christian world mission. But the 1990s are much too short for any great change to take place­ Established 1950 by R. Pierce Beaver as Occasional Bulletin from the Missionary Research Library. Named Occasional Bulletin of Missionary except within the Christian movement itself. Research 1977. Renamed INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OFMISSIONARY RESEARCH 1981. Changes in Concepts of Task and Purpose Published quarterly in January, April, July, and October by the 4. TheNatureof the Task. One of the most urgent areas of reflection and transition, even at this late date in history, is in the area of Overseas Ministries Study Center understanding the basic task of the Christian world mission. In 490 Prospect Street, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A.