HE TWO STRUCTURE T OF GOD’S REDEMPTIVE MISSION S Ralph D. Winter In an address given to the All-Asia Mission Consultation in Seoul, Korea in August 1973 (The founding of the Asia Missions Association), Ralph Winter describes the forms that GodÕs two Òredemptive structures,Ó take in every human society, and have taken throughout history. His thesis has two major implications: (I) We must accept both structures, represented in the Christian church today by the local church and the mission society, as legitimate and necessary, and as part of ÒGodÕs People, the ChurchÓ and (2) Non-Western churches must form and utilize mission societies if they are to exercise their missionary responsibility effectively. Such structures are not ÒWestern but Biblical.Ó It is the thesis of this article that the Messiah had come in Jesus whether Christianity takes on West- Christ, the Son of God; that in ern or Asian form, there will still be Christ a final authority even greater two basic kinds of structures that than Moses existed; and that this will make up the movement. Most made more understandable than of the emphasis here will be placed ever the welcoming of the Gentiles on pointing out the existence of without forcing upon them any lit- these two structures as they have eral cultural adaptation to the ritual continuously appeared across the provisions of the Mosaic Law. An centuries. This will serve to define, outward novelty of PaulÕs work illustrate and compare their nature was the development eventually of and importance. The writer will wholly new synagogues that were also endeavor to explain why he not only Christian, but Greek. believes our efforts today in any Very few Christians casually part of the world will be most effec- reading the New Testament (and tive only if both of these two struc- with only the New Testament avail- tures are fully and properly able to them), would surmise the involved, and supportive of each degree to which there had been other. Jewish evangelists who went before Paul all over the EmpireÑa move- Redemptive Structures in New ment that began 100 years for Testament Times Christ. Some of these were the peo- First of all let us recognize the ple whom Jesus himself described structure so fondly called Òthe New as Òtraversing land and sea to make Testament ChurchÓ as basically a a single proselyte.Ó Saul followed Christian synagogue.1 PaulÕs mis- their path. Paul built on their efforts sionary work consisted primarily of and went beyond them with the going to synagogues scattered new gospel he preached, which across the Roman Empire, begin- allowed the Greeks to remain ning in Asia Minor, and making Greeks and not be circumcised and clear to the Jewish and Gentile culturally assimilated into the Jew- believers in those synagogues that ish way of life. Paul had a vast HE TWO STRUCTURE T OF GOD’S REDEMPTIVE MISSION S foundation on which to build: Peter demanded. It was also dependent, declared ÒMoses is preached in from time-to-time, not alone upon every City (of the Roman Empire)Ó the Antioch church, but upon (Acts 15:21). other churches that had risen as a Yet not only did Paul apparently result of evangelistic labors. go to every existing synagogue of PaulÕs team may certainly be Asia,2 after which he declared, considered a structure. While its ÒÉall Asia has heard the gospel,Ó design and form is not made con- but, when occasion demanded, he crete for us on the basis of remain- established brand new synagogue- ing documents, neither, of course, type fellowships of believers as the is the structure of a New Testa- basic unit of his missionary activity. ment congregation defined con- The first structure in the New Tes- cretely for us in the pages of the tament scene is thus what is often New Testament. In both cases, the called the New Testament church. absence of any such definition It was essentially built along Jewish implies the pre-existence of a com- synagogue lines,3 embracing the monly understood pattern of rela- community of the faithful in any tionship, whether in the case of the given place. The defining character- congregational structure or the istic of this structure is that it missionary band structurewhich included old and young, male and Paul employed earlier as Saul the female. Note, too, that Paul was Pharisee, and later, at the time the willing to build such fellowships Antioch congregation in Acts 13:2 out of former Jews as well as non- released Paul and Barnabus for Jewish Greeks. missionary work. There is a second, quite different Thus, on the one hand, the structure in the New Testament structure we call the New Testa- context. While we know very little ment church is a prototype of all about the structure of the evangelis- subsequent Christian fellowships tic outreach within which pre- where old and young, male and Pauline Jewish proselytizers female are gathered together as worked, we do know, as already normal biological families in mentioned, that they operated all aggregate. On the other hand, over the Roman Empire. It would PaulÕs missionary band can be con- be surprising if Paul didnÕt follow sidered a prototype of all subse- somewhat the same procedures. quent missionary endeavors And we know a great deal more organized out of committed, expe- about the way Paul operated. He rienced workers who affiliated was, true enough, sent out by the themselves in task-oriented com- church in Antioch. But once away munities as a second decision from Antioch he seemed very much beyond membership in the first on his own. The little team he structure. formed was economically self- Note well the additional com- sufficient when occasion mitment. Note also that the struc- 2 HE TWO STRUCTURE T OF GOD’S REDEMPTIVE MISSION S ture that resulted was something New Testament is trying to show definitely more than the extended us how to borrow effective pat- outreach of the Antioch church. No terns ; it is trying to free all future matter what we think the structure missionaries from the need to fol- was, we know that it was not sim- low the precise forms of either the ply the Antioch church operating at Jewish synagogue or Jewish mis- a distance from its home base. It sionary band, and yet to allow was something else, something dif- them to choose comparable indige- ferent. We will consider the mis- nous structures in the countless sionary band the second of the two new situations across history and redemptive structures in New Tes- around the worldÑstructures tament times. which will correspond faithfully to In conclusion, it is very impor- the function of patterns Paul tant to note that neither of these employed, if not their form ! two structures was, as it were, Òlet It is no wonder that a consider- down from heavenÓ in a special able body of literature in the field way. It may be shocking at first to of missiology today underlies the think that God made use of either a fact that world Christianity has Jewish synagogue pattern or a Jew- generally employed the various ish evangelistic pattern. But this existing languages and cultures of must not be more surprising than the world-human communityÑ the fact that God employed the use more so than any other religionÑ of the pagan Greek language, the and in so doing, has cast into a Holy Spirit guiding the biblical shadow all efforts to canonize as writers to lay hold of such terms as universal any kind of mechanically kurios (originally a pagan term formal extension of the New Testa- meaning lord or even dictator), and ment churchÑwhich is not a pound them into shape to carry the unique structure but Òthe people Christian revelation. The New Tes- of GodÓ however those individuals tament refers to a synagogue dedi- are organized. We seek dynamic cated to Satan, but this did not equivilence , not formal replica- mean that Christians, to avoid such tion.4 a pattern, could not fellowship together in the synagogue pattern. The Early Development of These considerations prepare us Christian Structures Within for what comes next in the history Roman Culture of the expansion of the gospel, We have seen how the Chris- because we see other patterns cho- tian movement built itself upon sen by Christians at a later date two different kinds of structures whose origins are just as clearly that had pre-existed in the Jewish Òborrowed patternsÓ as were those cultural tradition. It is now our in the New Testament period. task to see if the functional equiva- In fact, the profound missiologi- lents of these same two structures cal implication of all this is that the were to appear in later Christian 3 HE TWO STRUCTURE T OF GOD’S REDEMPTIVE MISSION S cultural traditions as the gospel femaleÑthat is, a biologically per- invaded that larger world. petuating organism. Of course, the original syna- Meanwhile, the monastic tradi- gogue pattern persisted as a Chris- tion in various early forms, devel- tian structure for some time. oped as a second structure. This Rivalry between Christians and new, widely proliferating structure Jews, however, tended to defeat undoubtedly had no connection at this as a Christian pattern, and in all with the missionary band in some cases to force it out of exis- which Paul was involved. Indeed, tence, especially where it was possi- it more substantially drew from ble for Jewish congregations of the Roman military structure than dispersion to arouse public perse- from any other single source.