Ethne to Ethne conference encourages faith that more people will hear the gospel

I was encouraged by Ethne to Ethne meet at Seoul, Korea. November 27-30, 2012.  People will hear the Gospel through these efforts!

Nearly 325 participants were there (100 from Korea plus 225 from about 45 other nationalities).  We met to think about the unreached, unevangelised and unenegaged peoples of the world.  Since Ethne to Ethne began building momentum 10 years ago, the efforts have born fruit in terms of new communities of Christ believers in places where, before, there were no followers of Christ.

The meeting was organized by steering committee that is thinking and active in mission leadership.  It took place Hallelujah Church whose former senior pastor Rev. Dr. Sang-Bok David Kim is the Chairman of WEA. My respect for Korean missions and churches increased. It was my privilege to visit Dr. David Lee, the former Chairman of WEA MC. His vision is sharply focused on training Koreans for mission work through Global Mission Training Centre and Global Professional Training Centre.

The plenaries were reports on the progress of the Gospel in several parts of the world.  The meeting was always bi-lingual with Korean translations. When  participants made reports in their own mother languages with interpretation, one could feel the global nature of people who followed and took the Great Commission of Jesus seriously.

• 12 Ephesus strategic working groups discussed definite church planting issues for 12 different clusters of people groups. Each cluster had similar cultural affinities or languages or regional closeness–the 300m Bengali speaking peoples, Cushites 57 million, NE Africa, etc.
• Some WEA Mission Commission networks were represented:  Vision 5: 9, Tent-makers, MemberCare.  But I would have liked to see more networks and more Mission Commission Associates.

An important issue was raised, and I hope some will comment here about it:   About 30 years back, 29% peoples of the world were unreached. Even after 30 years still there are 29% unreached peoples. Why? With all that we have done why is it that the world is still unreached? What would be our price to pay?

I came back very exhausted but encouraged in spirit. Jesus is at work.

K. Rajendran
Associate Director

Streams under an oak … Musings about the legacy of missions in Africa

On my recent visit to Mozambique and South Africa, I was reminded again about the importance of the mission legacy from the West. Churches have been planted and grown. In some cases large denominations have been formed. Some things should have been done differently. The ecclesiastical models, the doctrinal imposition and the Western culture as normative for the new believers have caused significant delays in the contextualisation of the Christian faith in many places. The search for cultural roots and relevant expressions for the faith in local contexts creates unnecessary tensions between leaders and generations. The supposed superiority of written books over oral transmission causes a deficient understanding of academia and the overestimation of formal studies in detriment of practical experience and popular wisdom. Leadership development and discipleship are in shortage.   Could this be the result of foreign models that are not suitable to African realities?

It is extremely important that mission efforts today seriously consider the local culture and its history and allow local Christians to form their contextualised structures for the church and find their appropriate expressions for the faith. Outsiders can and should collaborate with the dynamic and spontaneous churches in Africa, but the dancing rhythm and the singing tune have to come from the African leaders.