Vincent Donovan on Missions, Culture and Evangelization
Some excerpts from Vincent Donovan's book 'Christianity Rediscovered'... just some thoughts to ponder upon...
It is surely here in the midst of the cultures of the world, and not in the church, that the ordinary way of salvation must lie, the ordinary means of salvation, the very possibility of salvation for most of the human race. Or else it is a very strange God we have. The gospel must be brought to the nations in which already resides the possibility of salvation. I had to realize that God enables a people, any people, to reach salvation through their culture and tribal, racial customs and traditions.
Now it is the turn of the European-Americans to be passed over. Before this century is out, the members of the predominantly non-white third world, for the first time in history, will begin to become the majority in the Christian church. As the message passes from us to them, I find myself hoping that they will make better use of it than we did.
Another assumption on which missionary work was built was this: we had to convince the world of sin, instead of leaving that task to the Holy Spirit, as Christ suggested.
Mission has never been a one way street. It has always been a dialogue, and every word of importance and value in that dialogue has not always been spoken by the sending church to the mission land. Sometimes it has been quite the reverse.
On the Masai church: The only church they had ever seen; The only church they knew, was a church perpetually on the move, a mobile church, a nomadic church, a church never perfect, never reaching the end, never having all the answers, never coming to rest – a church on safari. For them it would always have to be a pilgrim church.
Never accept and be content with unanalyzed assumptions, assumptions about the work, about people, about the church or Christianity. Never be afraid to ask questions about the work we have inherited or the work we are doing; the day we are completely satisfied with what we have been doing; the day we have found the perfect, unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer, never in need of being corrected again, on that day we will know that we are wrong, that we have made the greatest mistake of all.
The goal of evangelization, and the basis for its urgency, is to put all things under the dominion of Christ. The fulfillment of the human race, the destiny of the human race, of all creation, is what is at stake. Personal salvation is a secondary question. The recapitulation of all things in Christ is what is in store for the human race. God intends to bring the earth and the human race to the fulfillment of the kingdom, planned from the beginning of creation and with the recapitulation of all things, all men, all nations, all the earth, in the man Jesus, in the Word made flesh, at the end. The nations and cultures of the world, with all the riches they imply and possess, are not destined merely for salvation – to be saved and conserved. They are called to be lifted up and fulfilled and transformed in Jesus Christ. Not to bring salvation and goodness and holiness and grace and God, which were there before we got there. But to bring these people the only thing they did not have before we came – hope – a hope embedded in the meaning of the life and death and resurrection of Christ.
It is surely here in the midst of the cultures of the world, and not in the church, that the ordinary way of salvation must lie, the ordinary means of salvation, the very possibility of salvation for most of the human race. Or else it is a very strange God we have. The gospel must be brought to the nations in which already resides the possibility of salvation. I had to realize that God enables a people, any people, to reach salvation through their culture and tribal, racial customs and traditions.
Now it is the turn of the European-Americans to be passed over. Before this century is out, the members of the predominantly non-white third world, for the first time in history, will begin to become the majority in the Christian church. As the message passes from us to them, I find myself hoping that they will make better use of it than we did.
Another assumption on which missionary work was built was this: we had to convince the world of sin, instead of leaving that task to the Holy Spirit, as Christ suggested.
Mission has never been a one way street. It has always been a dialogue, and every word of importance and value in that dialogue has not always been spoken by the sending church to the mission land. Sometimes it has been quite the reverse.
On the Masai church: The only church they had ever seen; The only church they knew, was a church perpetually on the move, a mobile church, a nomadic church, a church never perfect, never reaching the end, never having all the answers, never coming to rest – a church on safari. For them it would always have to be a pilgrim church.
Never accept and be content with unanalyzed assumptions, assumptions about the work, about people, about the church or Christianity. Never be afraid to ask questions about the work we have inherited or the work we are doing; the day we are completely satisfied with what we have been doing; the day we have found the perfect, unchangeable system of work, the perfect answer, never in need of being corrected again, on that day we will know that we are wrong, that we have made the greatest mistake of all.
The goal of evangelization, and the basis for its urgency, is to put all things under the dominion of Christ. The fulfillment of the human race, the destiny of the human race, of all creation, is what is at stake. Personal salvation is a secondary question. The recapitulation of all things in Christ is what is in store for the human race. God intends to bring the earth and the human race to the fulfillment of the kingdom, planned from the beginning of creation and with the recapitulation of all things, all men, all nations, all the earth, in the man Jesus, in the Word made flesh, at the end. The nations and cultures of the world, with all the riches they imply and possess, are not destined merely for salvation – to be saved and conserved. They are called to be lifted up and fulfilled and transformed in Jesus Christ. Not to bring salvation and goodness and holiness and grace and God, which were there before we got there. But to bring these people the only thing they did not have before we came – hope – a hope embedded in the meaning of the life and death and resurrection of Christ.
posted by sojourner @ Tuesday, November 15, 2005
0 comments
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home