A webinar looking back at LWF’s Mission in Context document and reflecting on future directions for a missional church. Photo: LWF/Johanan Celine Valeriano
An African and an Asian theologian look back at the key 2004 document and reflect on future directions for the churches
(LWI) - Two theologians who were engaged in the production and dissemination of a key document on mission, which has guided the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) for the past two decades, came together on 29 April to evaluate progress and reflect on future directions for the churches in a rapidly changing world.
Rev. Dr Péri Rasolondraibe from the Malagasy Lutheran Church and Rev. Dr Priscilla Singh, a pastor of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church in India, shared insights on their work to develop and implement the 2004 document ‘Mission in Context: Transformation, Reconciliation, Empowerment’.
Rev. Dr Christine Keim from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Württemburg, who serves as steering group chairperson for a Global Mission Consultation that will take place in Taiwan from 17 to 21 May, offered opening remarks. She noted that the work to revisit and update the Lutheran theology and practice of mission comes in response to a resolution drawn up at the end of the 2023 LWF Assembly in Kraków, Poland.
From missionary activity to missional identity
Rasolondraibe, who served as director of LWF's Department for Mission and Development from 1995 to 2005, recalled the era in which the ‘Mission in Context’ document was written, an era marked by rapid globalization, the fall of apartheid in South Africa and shifting geopolitical alliances after the end of the Cold War.
Within the churches, he said, there was also a major shift in thinking about mission, moving from “an activity that the church does” to an understanding “that the churches are invited to take part in God’s mission.” This change from a “missionary” to a “missional” model had been developed at a global consultation in Nairobi, Kenya in 1998, he noted.
I have to be to be a living Epistle, the only one my neighbor will ever read.
Rev. Dr Priscilla Singh of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church
Singh, who served as LWF Secretary for Women in Church and Society from 1998 to 2008, explored the biblical foundations upon which the 2004 document was based. Drawing on the Road to Emmaus story from Luke's gospel, she said the document seeks to frame mission in terms of accompaniment, walking together with vulnerable people, just as Jesus walks with the disciples, listening to their needs and their expectations.
“Transformation from sadness to joy” takes place, Singh continued, as Jesus opens up the Scriptures to the disciples. They move from “knowing about Jesus” to “knowing him personally,” she explained. They are “empowered through the Word of God” enabling their eyes to be opened as they share the Eucharist together. Singh noted that the disciples then run to share the good news, despite the exhaustion and trauma they had experienced over the previous days. In India, where Christians are a minority, she said, “this means I have to do the same, to be a living Epistle, the only one my neighbor will ever read.”
Creating a context for hope
Singh also reflected on the identity of the two disciples returning from Jerusalem to Emmaus after the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday. One is named as Cleopas, she notes, and although the other was traditionally believed to be a man, she said some scholars suggest it could have been Cleopas’ wife, Mary, who was also at the foot of the cross during Jesus’ crucifixion. The appearances of the Risen Christ, first to the women, then to a couple and thirdly to the men in Jerusalem change the “patriarchal model of church,” she said.
Rasolondraibe offered a concluding reflection on future directions for the churches, noting in particular that the role of the Holy Spirit in a missional church needs further discussion and development. While mission begins with the local context, he noted, the churches must move beyond and work together with other Christians “to create a context for hope.”
The webinar, moderated by LWF’s current director for Theology, Mission and Justice, Rev. Dr Sivin Kit, was attended by theologians, mission practitioners, students and church leaders including women and youth from different parts of the globe. They shared questions on tensions between prophetic witness and political neutrality, on pressures of “competition” from churches using “prosperity gospel” tactics, on the implications of decolonializing mission and on the need to engage with young people who are the “change-makers.”
