NOW AND NEXT – TOGETHER IN MISSION

INFEMIT Summit

Daystar University

Nairobi, Kenya

March 6-9, 2011

Holistic Mission:

The journey since 1974 . . .

Why 1974?International Congress of World Evangelization, Lausanne Switzerland

Lausanne 19743 plenary presentations were lauded later as powerful catalysts for an evangelical theology of holistic mission

Lausanne 1974

Rene Padilla’s “Evangelism and the World”

Lausanne 1974

Samuel Escobar’s “Evangelism and Man’s Search for Freedom, Justice and Fulfillment”

Lausanne 1974

Carl F. H. Henry’s “Christian Personal and Social Ethics in Relation to Racism, Poverty, War and Other Problems”

The need for a theology that embraced both evangelism and social concern was articulated compellingly and definitively at Lausanne ’74.

But these papers merely articulated what God was already stirring in evangelical churches in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, as well as in pockets of evangelicals in Western Europe and North America.

God already on the move

Lausanne 1974

Article 5 of the Lausanne Covenant, entitled “Christian Social Responsibility,” validated evangelical relief and development ministries as part of the work of the gospel in the world

Lausanne 1974

However, for many at the Congress, the Covenant did not go far enough in affirming the centrality of social justice in the work of the gospel

A Statement on Radical Discipleship . . .

. . . was drafted to articulate more forcefully the place of social concern in the mission of the church.

Nearly a quarter of the number of delegates signed it, and was also included as an Addendum to the Lausanne Covenant

Theology and Implications of Radical DiscipleshipA number of issues have thrust themselves upon us from papers delivered inthis Congress and, from the subsequent wrestling with them under the authorityof God’s Word, a number of us have felt the compulsion of his Spirit to sharethis response.

We affirm that . . .The evangel is God’s Good News in Jesus Christ; it is Good News of the reignhe proclaimed and embodies; of God’s mission of love to restore the world towholeness through the Cross of Christ and him alone; of his victory over thedemonic power of destruction and death; of his Lordship over the entireuniverse; it is Good News of a new creation of a new humanity, a new birththrough him by his life-giving Spirit; of the gifts of the messianic reigncomtained in Jesus and mediated through him by his Spirit; of the charismaticcommunity empowered to embody his reign of shalom here and now before thewhole creation and make his Good news seen and known. It is Good News ofliberation, of restoration, of wholeness, and of salvation that is personal, social,global and cosmic. Jesus is Lord! Alleluia! Let the earth hear his voice!The communication of the evangel in its fullness to every person worldwideis a mandate of the Lord Jesus to his community. There is no biblicaldichotomy between the Word spoken and the Word made visible in the lives ofGod’s people. Men will look as they listen and what they see must be at onewith what they hear. The Christian community must chatter, discuss andproclaim the Gospel; it must express the Gospel in its life as the new society, itits sacrificial service of others as a genuine expression of God’s love, in its

The Holistic-Contextual Connection

It was more than coincidence that those advocating for a more socially-informed theology of mission were primarily from the Two-Thirds World

The Need for an Evangelical Theology of Mission that is both

holistic and contextualAs evangelical missiology continued to relegate social concern to secondary status and continued to be managed predominantly by the Western missionary establishment even after Lausanne, some began to sense the acute need to forge a holistic, contextual way of doing mission theology

Enter:The International Fellowship of

Evangelical Mission Theologians

(INFEMIT)

INFEMITFrom its inception, INFEMIT has sought to catalyze theological reflection and action (praxis) from a holistic or integral perspective in response to contextual realities

INFEMITAs a holistic and contextual theological movement, INFEMIT has always emphasized the fact that it is mainly constituted by regional bodies

INFEMITThe three original regional bodies that made up INFEMIT were:

Partnership in Mission, Asia (PIM) Latin American Theological Fraternity (LATF) African Theological Fraternity (ATF)

INFEMITOne way to trace the development of INFEMIT is by its various small but important international gatherings:

“Sharing Jesus in the Two-Thirds World” – Bangkok, Thailand, 1982

“The Holy Spirit” – Cuernavaca, Mexico, 1984 “The Living God in Contemporary Life” – Kabare,

Kenya, 1987 “Freedom and Justice in Church-State

Relationships” – Osijek, (former) Yugoslavia, 1991

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At the fourth gathering, INFEMIT underwent an organizational restructuring, which involved declaring Dr. Vinay Samuel as INFEMIT’s executive director

INFEMITAnother way to trace its development is through its undeniable influence on significant conferences.

One of the most important and definitive of these conferences was Wheaton 1983

INFEMITIn Track III, “The Church in Response to Human Need” at Wheaton ‘83, many members of INFEMIT were instrumental in defining holistic mission in terms of Transformation

INFEMIT Mission as Transformation

The definition for “Transformation” has changed somewhat since Wheaton 1983, but as of 1999, its working definition is:

“. . . to enable God’s vision of society to be actualized in all relationships, social, economic and spiritual, so that God’s will be reflected in human society and his love be experienced by all communities, especially the poor."

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Through various important avenues, INFEMIT has contributed greatly to the development of holistic mission around the world, not just for the evangelical missionary community, but for the whole church in mission.

INFEMIT

Three of them are worth noting:

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Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, providing high-quality, contextual, holistic theological education

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Oxford Centre for Mission Studies Transformation Journal, providing a

forum for international dialogue on relevant theological and missiological issues

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Oxford Centre for Mission Studies Transformation Journal Regnum Books International, providing

in-depth research to advance holistic and contextual theology and practice in the service of the church and academy

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Through these avenues, INFEMIT continues to inform missionary praxis throughout the world.

Although we can claim progress in the global church’s move toward a more holistic and contextual mission, there is still much work to do

The Future Needs INFEMIT!