River of God

An Introduction to World Mission

Priest, Burris

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781621893028
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

River of God is an introduction to world missions aimed at undergraduate students. However, the readers will soon discover that the book is rich in its content far beyond the editors' original plan. It serves as a reader for people with various levels of missiological interest and competence and deals with cutting-edge issues in missions. This book introduces a new paradigm, Kingdom Missiology, which builds on shalom in the Old Testament and as Jesus applied to the Kingdom of God in the New Testament.The first half of the book looks at Kingdom Missiology from the biblical, historical, and cultural dimensions. The second half of the book describes helpful strategies in the implementation of this paradigm. The importance of urban ministry is woven throughout the book.

1

Preach the Gospel or Feed the Hungry

A Flood of Misunderstanding1

by Doug Priest

If you want to start an argument, ask a group of involved church members this question: “Of all the ministries this church performs, which is the most important?” Stand back and watch the fireworks begin.

When I was a missionary kid growing up in Ethiopia, the government required the missionaries to establish and manage primary schools. These schools provided the only opportunity for the local children to receive an education. My father oversaw the expansion of the school, and one of the tasks was constructing outhouses for the students. This meant that funds given for missions were used to build toilets. Nobody had a problem with this use of his time and their mission dollar.

A few years ago I visited Ethiopia and one of the missionaries had an objective that year for constructing seven different latrines. There were no concerns with the use of mission money for such a mundane task as digging pit latrines.

I have walked in many urban areas of the world and smelled the stench of raw sewage flowing through concrete pipes open to the air above. If it is acceptable to use mission money to dig latrines in rural Ethiopia, cannot mission money be used to help with sewage problems in urban parts of the world? Can some­body who has a degree in engineering, urban planning, or sanitation put that education to use for God in expand­ing the kingdom in the urban centers of the world while using mission funds to do so?

What exactly is the primary ministry or mission of the church? How should the church balance the focus between word and deed? Is evangelism more important than social transformation? Should we preach the gospel or feed the hungry?

Word And Deed

Throughout its history the church has been actively involved in addressing the social problems of the world. During the Middle Ages, church members ministered to those suffering from the plague while many of the medical practitioners ran away. Later, the abolishment of slavery came about because Christians stood up against this evil. Schools and hospitals all over the world were started by Christians. In country after country, it was Christians who reduced languages into writing, which led to the education of its citizens. Literacy, fostered by Bible translation and the desire to read the Bible, was a key component in the independence movement and the demise of colonialism.

In the eighteenth century John Howard, a strong believer, noted the horrible prison conditions and determined to change the system. The prison conditions at the time were despicable, housed in run-down filthy buildings. The inmates were surrounded with indecency, alcohol, and disease. Prisoners were mistreated at the least provocation. Howard gave his life and his personal fortune to remedy the conditions and was later personally thanked by the British House of Commons.

Florence Nightingale is regarded as the founder of modern nursing. She received her training at a Christian school, and her faith was deeply influenced by the evangelical revivals in England. The deeply religious Lord Shaftesbury helped to reform the working conditions for the common laborers.2 His reforms cut the working hours in factories from sixteen to ten hours a day and abolished all but necessary work on Sundays. The church established orphanages, emancipated women, educated prisoners, and extolled temperance, all the while exalting Christ and extending his kingdom. Through the centuries, ministries of word and deed went hand in hand. They were seen as two sides of the same coin.

Word Or Deed

But a century ago seminaries in Europe began promoting the rise of mod­ernism and theological liberalism. Many Christians reacted, holding tenaciously to the biblical fun­damentals of the past in the face of Higher Criticism.3 When some began to openly question the authorship of various books of the Bible or the Virgin birth, others broke away and formed new associations of like-minded believers. One of the scandals of Christianity in the previous century was when, for reasons that were not valid then and certainly are not valid today, the church became polarized over the dichotomy of evangelism vs. social action. This false dichotomy became pronounced during the early decades of the last century. Churches separated themselves into camps that labeled one another as either “conservative” or “liberal.” The liberals engaged in doing good deeds, termed social action, while the conservatives concentrated their efforts on evangelism, personal piety, and starting churches. Each group first offended and then later largely ignored the other.

The rift between liberal Christians and conservative Christians widened. As a result, denominations split along these lines. The mainline denominations generally adopted a more liberal agenda that included active response to the social ills of the day. The intellectual movement that sought to apply Christian ethics to social problems became known as the Social Gospel. The liberals talked about “salvation today.” To them, salvation was characterized by peace, justice, alleviation of hunger, and the lack of poverty. The messy here and now became more important than the sweet by and by. In contrast, the conservatives described salvation as eternal life and the blessings that come with heaven. The liberals accused the conservatives of “being too heavenly minded to be any earthly good,” while the conservatives berated the liberals for their “socialist agenda.”

Conservative churches promoted new efforts of evangelism and planting new churches. Their focus became piety along with sharing the gospel widely so that all would have a chance at salvation. Crusade evangelism became commonplace. Books and articles were written discussing various methods of evangelism.

A growing focus on heaven and eternity meant there was less emphasis and desire to address social problems. By and large, Christians were forced to choose between word or deed, between faith or works. To put it bluntly, one could study the Bible, or one could serve in a soup kitchen at the rescue mission. Most conservative Christians chose Bible study. Unfortunately, the “church’s lack of concern about social issues led many social activists in the 1960s and 1970s to think they had to leave the church to make a difference in the world”4

Through the first three quarters of the twentieth century, the ministry options of word and deed were like going to a closet and having to choose either a brown shirt or a turquoise shirt. Both are pieces of clothing, but they are completely different. To choose either evangelism or social transformation and exclude the other does violence to what the Bible clearly teaches and is therefore a sin against both God and humanity. Choice between word or deed should not be an option. Rogers reminds us that “to ignore the physical realities and implications of poverty, hunger, sorrow, and mistreatment in favor of a purely spiritualized ministry is to ignore God’s compassion for the suffering of his human children.”5

Word Over Deed

The Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 1974 marked a watershed event in the life of evangelical and conservative churches. As the conference was devoted to world evangelism, delegates from all over the world attended. The context of Christianity for many of the delegates from the Majority World included poverty, lack of food, minimal education, and environmental degradation. While the attendees from the West spoke of the priority of evangelism over social action, the delegates from the Majority World rose up en masse, wanting nothing to do with such a one-armed ministry. They noted that in the rich West, where needs for food, housing, employment, and clothing were largely met, it was easy to speak disparagingly of social action. But in their world, they could not afford an amputated gospel. To them, evangelism included such activities as feeding the hungry, addressing poverty and unjust structures, freeing the oppressed, and restoring sight to the blind.

For evangelical Christians, Lausanne was a wake-up call. The voices of the delegates from the Majority World were heard. From the Lausanne Congress onward, conservative Christian thinkers slowly began to break down the dichotomy of word or deed and began to see both were necessary to be true to the Bible and to the world situation. Samuel Escobar, mission theologian from Peru, reflects:

The missionary agenda in the Third World cannot avoid the issues linked to Christian mission and social transformation—issues such as human rights, the socio-political consequences of missionary action, the ideological use of the Christian message for political aims, and the religious sanction for contemporary forms of economic or cultural colonialism.6

One does not change one’s opinion on deeply held theological positions overnight, and so a compromise in word and deed thinking was reached. Evangelicals or conservative Christians now understood that neither evangelism nor social action should be left off the ministry agenda. Both were necessary. They held that evangelism was primary, while ministries of social action were secondary. In community after community the church began to involve itself in social ministries as had earlier generations. The concept of meeting people’s felt needs (secondary purpose) as a means of attracting them to Christ (primary purpose) became a prevailing ministry strategy.

Not only was word seen as primary, it was also seen as priority. Many believed the best way to change a society was to first introduce individuals to Christ. These people then, as they came to understand the implications of their faith, would naturally address social needs and society would benefit. Due to a trickle-down effect, it was believed, society would be transformed. As plausible as this strategy sounds, it usually worked only at the individual and immediate family level. Even with a growing Christianity around the world, the rich got richer while the poor got poorer. As Christians in the West dieted, Christians in the Majority World starved.

Word With Deed

In his life, Jesus exemplified exactly the commandments of loving God and loving one’s neighbor. Jesus’ life was a balance between proclamation and demonstration, between word and deed. Jesus came into this world to provide atonement for sin. While he ministered to the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed, and the rejected, his message glorified God and brought salvation to the lost. His ministry included both word and deed. Rogers asks,

Did Jesus feed everyone he taught? No. Did He heal everyone He encountered who...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Contributors
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Preach the Gospel or Feed the Hungry
• Chapter 2: Enfleshing Hope: Incarnational Approaches to Emulate
• Chapter 3: The People of God and His Purpose
• Chapter 4: Missiological Reading of the New Testament
• Chapter 5: Teach Them to Obey All That I have Commanded
• Chapter 6: Surging Waters: Global Expansion of the World Christian Movement
• Chapter 7: Opening the Floodgates: From Everywhere to Everywhere
• Chapter 8: Upon Closer Examination: Status of World Christianity
• Chapter 9: Anthropology and Missions: Learning to Understand the Sea of Humanity
• Chapter 10: Using Anthropology to Understand Ritual and Symbol
• Chapter 11: Rethinking Mission Strategy to Lead Others to the Streams of Life
• Chapter 12: Only the Street Knows Your Name
• Chapter 13: Urban Ministry: The River of God Makes the City Glad
• Chapter 14: Islam: How Christians Are Learning to Create A Bridge Over Tumultuous Waters
• Chapter 15: Short-Term Missions: A Cup of Cold Water in My Name?
• Chapter 16: Crossing Language Barriers
• Chapter 17: Stress and Perseverance in Crossing Cultures
• Chapter 18: New Streams: Looking to the Future
• Bibliography