Integral Mission

Miguel Alvarez

• Publisher: Regnum
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781912272073
• eBook ISBN: 9781912343546
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

This volume studies Pentecostalism in Latin America as a broad, diverse and multifaceted movement. It describes different features and colours that together shape its collective face. This is done from context to context, weaving various relationships with society and politics. Pentecostalism is situated as a collective actor embedded in a changing reality that blends various streams for theological reflection. The book explains how Pentecostals in Latin America connect to the topic of God's mission in the world today.

Chapter 1

Surveying the History of Integral Mission

In this section we will examine the historical connections of Pentecostal missiology with other Christian traditions. We will look at the emerging contexts of contemporary church mission and how that connection has contributed to the development of recent Pentecostal missiology in Latin America.¹ This information is significant to Pentecostals for they have served the poor and marginalized in a unique fashion. They still may need to elaborate on a theology of integral mission, which may have to incorporate some principles discussed in this work.

The discussion is based on contemporary texts written by missiologists and documents that have come out of major consultations where mission was discussed. It is also limited mostly to Evangelical scholarship, which began to expand after the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1972. Lausanne is recognized by most missiologists as representing a watershed² for current evangelical mission theology.

In addition, I reviewed some of the documents that came out of the evangelical congresses of Pattaya, Thailand; Grand Rapids, Michigan and Lausanne II, in Manila. By way of comparison, I also reviewed some of the documents of the World Council of Churches (WCC), like the Ecumenical Affirmation on Mission and Evangelism (EAME) in 1983, the Nairobi, Kenya Assembly of 1975, the WCC Assembly at Melbourne, Australia in 1981 and at San Antonio, Texas in 1989. The study also reviews the most recent meeting of the Conference on World Mission and Evangelisation (CWME) at Athens in August 2005. I have also reviewed some of the preparatory papers published in the International Review of Mission, Transformation, Pulse, Missiology and other recognized academic research specializing in mission. The literature review, also covered other missiological journals and articles, such as Mission Studies, Missionalia and the International Bulletin of Missionary Research.

These events had repercussions in Latin America as well. The evangelical conferences and the WCC assemblies debated over missiological trends that took place during the time they met. Moreover, they invited representatives from Evangelical and Protestant churches from Latin America. So it is fair to state that most Evangelical and Protestant denominations followed the missiological models that emerged at those gatherings.

It was during this time that Pentecostal churches began to grow significantly. The ministry context incidentally pointed to integral mission. Meanwhile, in the evangelical world, the Fraternidad Teológica Latinoamericana (FTL) [Latin American Theological Fellowship] organized the Congreso Latinoamericano de Evangelización (CLADE) [Latin American Congress of Evangelism] five times and also published the Boletín Teológico Latinoamericano [Latin American Theological Bulletin], which became the main source of information on evangelical theology and mission in the region.

This was also a context of social-economic unrest and political revolution in Latin America. It was the time of Liberation Theology, proposed by some RCC priests, with lay activists in solidarity alongside the poor of the region.

The above context seems to be the natural connection of Latin American Pentecostalism with Evangelicals, Protestants, and Catholics. In this Chapter I discuss the Lausanne movement and the WCC connection with Pentecostal mission. The discussion is also sensitive to the social, economic and political contexts where Pentecostals practiced their faith and mission in the communities.³ They were effective in such contexts of poverty and oppression at most local communities in Latin America.

Mission in the Historical Movements

Pentecostal missiology was born and grew out of its own experience and beliefs,⁴ through the influence of the evangelical and conciliar movements. In Latin America, a number of pentecostal churches reflect the confluence of these two major streams that participated in its formation and approach to Christian service. Historically, both the evangelical and the conciliar streams have exercised a strong influence over the pentecostal approach to integral mission.⁵ Yet, for the purpose of this study, I will limit the research to the second half of the twentieth century, starting from the 1960s, when most contemporary missiological issues began to emerge.

Before the 1970s, Pentecostalism had to struggle in order to be recognized officially as a Christian movement by most evangelical organizations and the conciliar movement.⁶ Although they had evolved from the evangelical stream, pentecostal churches were still considered as heretical⁷ and, therefore, not worthy of consideration as a legitimate Christian constituency.

Evangelicals themselves did not start developing serious missiological thought until the international congresses that took place during the 1960s and 1970s. Another element that affected pentecostal missiology was their acceptance to participate as members of the conciliar movement.⁸ Several independent pentecostal networks of Latin America, especially of Chile and Argentina, became affiliated to the WCC, although some have argued that this may have been simply a way to obtain formal recognition. Yet, for decades, they had struggled against denominational rejection, particularly from some influential segments within the evangelical stream. Pentecostals have also been affected by the influence of the RCC, which has been present in Latin America for over 500 years. Catholic theology and traditions have shaped Latin American societies in their approach to life, religion, and culture.⁹ Most members of the pentecostal community left the RCC by way of conversion.¹⁰ They have joined the pentecostal faith but they still carry their Catholic traditions, customs, and social patterns of behavior. Pentecostal missiologists will definitely have to evaluate the historical influence of the RCC over their members when it comes to participation in social concerns.

A review of evangelical mission

The 1960s was characterized by the increase of social and economic injustice in the developing world. This opened the eyes of protesters in the West and other geographical areas. Social activists hoped that those oppressive powers and unbreakable structures could be substituted for better ones. At this point, this was considered as mission thinking and involvement in transformation. Hence, a growing influence of liberation theology over the poor and oppressed in the Two Thirds World raised multiple questions that demanded answers from evangelical leaders. Evangelical leaders understood the need to convene in large assemblies to discuss the most urgent issues affecting the world at that time. They realized it was important to bring the newly emerging issues to the table in order to offer objective solutions and respond to the demands of their constituencies.

In December 1960, the Evangelicals called a congress in Chicago, Illinois, that focused on the promotion of worldwide evangelism. Although, the main purpose of the organizers was to promote evangelization in the traditional way, some of the speakers expressed their concern about the revolutionary spirit that had been permeating the minds of many people in the church and around the world. This was the first time they acknowledged the emerging strength of liberation theology in Latin America. So, they looked at this occasion as an opportunity to dialogue about the social responsibility of the church to respond to social concerns. Speaking to the student world about the unfinished task, Erick S. Fife, missionary secretary of Inter-Varsity, declared:

We have to understand that there have been sweeping changes that have taken place in the world’s mind since the last World War, and these students are up against all the time and are living in an intellectually stimulating environment. They are looking for mission boards, which they feel are facing the challenge of this day and generation. They are looking for a freedom from prejudice, racial and denominational. They are looking for a mind open to the Lord and his work.¹¹

G. Christian Weiss, who once was the mission director of the Back to the Bible Broadcast, became interested in underscoring “the obligation of Christians to train at the highest academic level national leaders who would be able to give direction to the course of their governments.”¹² Another speaker from Latin America, Emilio Antonio Núñez, in his plenary message he said:

The spirit of the compassionate Christ is one of the main characteristics of genuine Christianity. It is necessary to keep the balance in the emphasis, which is given to the challenge of the peoples’ needs. There is a possibility of giving the impression that the message of salvation is only for the sick and the poor people of the world. The other extreme is to be so afraid of the social gospel that the opportunity for medical missionary work and all humanitarian actions are neglected.¹³

(1) It should be noted that the speech of the Congress on World Missions in Chicago did not go beyond social assistance as a demonstration of Christian social responsibility. In those days, the evangelical leaders were not yet discussing whether political or social action was a duty of the Christian. Issues related to social justice and the prophetic role of the church were not yet included on the agenda. At this time, they were more interested in church planting and growth among natives of other lands, which was another colonial way of referring to mission outreach or world missions. This model of mission was also learned and practiced by the pentecostal denominations based in North America.

(2) However, in the declaration of the 1966 Evangelical Congress at Wheaton, Illinois, in their conclusion, the evangelicals went beyond social assistance. They stated that action was recommended against social evils such as racial discrimination and against all forms of social injustice. Some observers concluded that this new emphasis on social action was related to the presence of a good number of participants from the Majority World.¹⁴ In contrast to the Mission Congress of Chicago five years before, a large number of Latin American leaders were present at Wheaton. Although most of them seemed to be more interested in anti-ecumenism than in social responsibility, they did not oppose the final declaration on social concern.

(3) Another significant congress on evangelism took place in Berlin, Germany, in 1966. This was sponsored by Christianity Today magazine in celebration of its tenth anniversary. The theme of the congress was ‘One race, one gospel, and one task’. There were more than a thousand participants from over one hundred countries,¹⁵ and according to Athol Gill, the issue of evangelism and social concern was raised in-group discussions, but it was not adequately debated. To be sure, the congress statement did include a lengthy section condemning racism, but it did so in purely personal terms, and in describing the ‘one task’ of the church it spoke only of evangelism. Among all papers presented at the congress only one dealt with evangelism and social concern, and it was devoted almost entirely to racism as a barrier to evangelization.¹⁶

It is obvious that during the 1960s, the understanding of the social responsibility of G...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Surveying the History of Integral Mission
• 2 Mission and Pentecostalism
• 3 Integral Mission in Latin America
• 4 Pentecostal Approach to Integral Mission
• 5 Pentecostal Mission in Dialogue with Roman Catholic Theology
• 6 Mission and Socio-Economics
• 7 Mission Theology in Pentecostal Churches: The Case of Honduras
• 8 Widening the Debate on Pentecostal Mission in Latin America
• 9 Pentecostals, Society and Mission
• 10 Pentecostal Mission, Community and Discipleship
• Conclusion
• Select Bibliography
• Index
• Back Cover