mission & evangelism:
International Review of Mission
IRM January 2003 - Editorial - by Jacques Matthey
MISSION IN SECULAR AND POSTMODERN CONTEXTS I
Yesterday, I tried to find on the Internet the geographical location of a church in one of the smaller Swiss towns. After a short time of searching, I discovered it was not possible. I could have found the railway station, police station, schools, theatres and other buildings of public interest. However, on the map I brought up on my screen, there was no specific option under culture, leisure or religion to find a church. Now, I agree I am not the most imaginative Internet surfer before the Lord but my lack of success seems to me to be a sign of changes in my own Swiss society.
Cultural and religious developments in the "West", together with the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the tremendous growth of Pentecostal and charismatic churches, are, I believe, among the major new phenomena missiology needs seriously to address today. In the October 2002 issue of IRM, you found contributions on HIV/AIDS and a Pentecostal approach to health and healing. This edition of IRM deals with the relationship between gospel and "Western" cultures, and takes as its basis papers and reports from a consultation organized in Breklum, Northern Germany, by the Mission study desk of the World Council of Churches and the Northelbian Centre for World Mission. A future edition of IRM will contain more papers from the consultation.
The consequences of the modification of religious behaviour in so-called postmodern contexts could be much more dramatic for churches all over the world than most of us are able to envisage. Of course, nobody is able to foresee what philosophical, theological and institutional shifts will be brought about by the changes we discern in countries marked by secularization in public life and the individualization of religious beliefs and practices. What we seem able to affirm, however, is that these things are not just "Western" phenomena.
First, to support this assertion, missiologists from the two-thirds world who were present at Breklum gave clear evidence of similar changes affecting their own contexts. We must not underestimate the actual penetration and probable future impact of secularization and postmodernity on most cultures in the world, in particular through the influence of the media on new urban generations. The novel and many ways in which the cultural effects of globalization play themselves out in the various contexts of the world will, however, produce original mixtures rather than just necessarily carbon copies of Western societies. Churches in all continents would be well advised, however, not to wait too long before putting these questions in a central place on their mission agenda. If the Breklum consultation and IRM can be of help in this regard, our time will have been well spent.
Second, the gradual quantitative decrease of the social basis of the "mainline" churches in the North due to the new configuration of religious practice could in future deeply affect the capacity of these churches to maintain their present institutional framework. This could also influence their future capacity and willingness to share resources with partners in other parts of the world. We did not address this item directly in Breklum but it is part of the worldwide consequences of "Western" developments.
It seems urgent to continue with a really intercontinental debate on mission in postmodern contexts. That is what the Breklum consultation attempted to do. At its eighth assembly in Harare in 1998, and as a follow-up of the earlier gospel and cultures study process, the WCC was challenged to give more visible emphasis to a continued reflection on witness in secularized contexts. Later, several partners insisted that we keep the question on the agenda of the Mission and Ecumenical Formation team.
The Breklum consultation was mainly prepared and organized by a team composed of Dietrich Werner from the Northelbian Centre for World Mission, Birger Nygaard from Areopagos, and also general secretary of the International Association of Mission Studies (IAMS), Klaus Schäfer from the Association of Churches and Missions in Germany (EMW), and myself. Without the administrative help of Marlise Freidig, my assistant here in Geneva, and the personnel of the Christian Jensen Kolleg in Breklum, the consultation would not have taken place.
The
purposes of the meeting were to:
We recognized in the invitation letter that
The terms “secularized” and “postmodern” or “Western” refer not only to new cultural and religious developments in North American and European countries, but also in Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand, in the late 20th century. There are several schools of analysis and thought as to the quantity and quality of changes really experienced in these contexts since the 1970s. At this stage of the dialogue, we only try to hint at certain developments which we think challenge traditional mission thinking and practice, without taking any final position as to the relevance of the terminology used.
After the consultation, we would not dare say that we have solved the uncertainty in the terminology nor come to a common understanding of even the major trends in the various contexts with which we dealt. Our experience was more of a sharing of various approaches than an attempt to come to common conclusions. This means that the papers you will find in this issue express the personal approach of each author. This is true of all papers, even of those that provide an overview of developments in a country, such as the articles by network leaders.
At the consultation, there were presentations that gave an overview of a country or region, individual thematic papers, reports on study projects, case studies and summaries of international dialogue processes, such as the mission study project of the Leuenberg church fellowship, and the preparatory work for the assemblies of the Conference of European Churches (2003), the Lutheran World Federation (2003) and the forthcoming world mission conference of the WCC (2005). In this issue of IRM, the "main melody" will be sung by regional presentations from the United Kingdom, Germany and some countries of eastern and central Europe. The "counterpoint" representing other continents will come in papers from Mexico and Korea. Most major trends of religious and cultural developments appear clearly through these articles. The material is complemented by a case study experience of the Focolare movement, which has an international character I also want to highlight the important similarities, as well as differences in analysis and approach that we can find in the Orthodox paper from Russia. Much deeper missiological dialogue is urgently needed between East and West, in particular on matters of gospel and mission in secularized contexts.
It was not intended that the consultation would adopt the group reports. They do, however, represent the shared concerns and results of the work of each group, but no more than that. The reports are of interest as a kind of overall summary of the problems and perspectives with which we struggled. The same is to be said of the WCC press release.
In the next issue of IRM, we will publish other papers on mission in postmodern contexts from North America, Europe, Aotearoa-New Zealand and South Africa, with "counterpoints" from Brazil and India. There will also be the concluding reports given at the Breklum consultation by the two reflectors, Jyoti Sahi from India and Wilbert Shenk from the USA.
I hope that this and the next issue of IRM will together enhance missiological thinking and give courage for new missional experiences by and with people moved by postmodern thinking and behavioural patterns in secularized settings.
Jacques MATTHEY