wfn.org | WARC Mission Pilot project gets results

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> WARC Mission Pilot project gets results

Pastors and lay leaders from three continents meeting in Buenos Aires,
Argentina last week shared stories of how they interpret mission in
their context today. The meeting in the Argentinean capital was part
of a two-year study on

Results of the study are to be presented to a global mission
conference ?Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ Today? scheduled to
be held in Edinburgh, Scotland in June 2010. But their impact is
already being felt in Argentina, Cameroon and the Netherlands.

Pastor Luis Macchi from Chaco, Argentina, reported that the invitation
to form a pilot group with participants from different denominations
provided new momentum in a context where the word ?ecumenical? can be
controversial: understood by some as ?anti-Catholic?, by others as
?from the devil".

"The central question of how we, as an ecumenical group of local
Christians, understand and practice our calling as followers of Jesus
Christ today, helped us to look at each other and at mission with new
eyes", Macchi said.

Local groups compared their witness today with that of their
grandparents around 1910, whether that witness was acknowledged as
?mission? in those days or not, said Jet den Hollander, executive
secretary of the WARC Mission Project.

?We heard amazing stories of how our ancestors shared their faith",
den Hollander reported, "and can only conclude that today as in 1910
the Spirit moves in her own inimitable way.?

Local discussions had included a Bible study on 2 Kings 5, which
reports the salvation of an army general because of the intervention
of a little girl.

?When we saw the suggested Bible passage we were suspicious?,
reported Julio López, president of the Federation of Protestant
Churches in Argentina (FAIE) and coordinator of the four Argentine
pilot groups.

?Why this passage about invading armies and slave-girls for a study on
mission? But as we identified with the different characters, the story
became a window into our own calling?, says López.

This experience was shared by Jonas Maïna, a pastor of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Ngaoundéré, Cameroon. In his part of the country,
Islam is the majority religion and most Christians belong to the
poorer classes. ?But God?s grace knows no boundaries", concluded
Maïna?s group from the 2 Kings 5 passage. "The slave girl and prophet,
wife and servants all in their own way became God's instruments of healing ?.

As a result of their discussions the Ngaoundéré group, which
represented eight different denominations, planned the joint
construction of a chapel in the general hospital. The chapel is
designed to serve the spiritual needs of Christians, Muslims and other
faith traditions alike.

Dutch study groups rejoiced in the fact that a wide spectrum of
churches and organisations participated in the study. Besides
Protestants and Roman Catholics ? who have extensive experience of
cooperation in recent decades ? all three pilots included
Evangelicals, Pentecostals and migrant churches.

Grace Cabactulan, a Roman Catholic member of the Rotterdam group,
says, ?Migrant Christians can give a spiritual, social, and economical
contribution to their new home country. I fled the Philippines in the
1980?s. Mission in Europe means giving a welcome to the many people
who flee their countries but also recognising their contributions to
church and society?.

Notwithstanding contextual differences, several common issues emerged
in the Buenos Aires meeting. Unequal power relations and their
detrimental effect on mission identity and prioritising,
marginalization because of race and ethnicity, and the way migration
shaped and shapes societies and mission were important items in all
three countries. But as Wout van Laar, the Dutch coordinator noted,
?In all our stories you can discern the Spirit?s movement. People
share their faith in countless ways and often outside of formal
mission structures and intentions.?

Den Hollander says, ?These grassroots stories highlight mission as
the privilege of every Christian in her or his own context. This
represents a sea-change since that first world mission conference in
Edinburgh 1910 when the word ?missionary? was mainly reserved for
white men from Europe and North America working in contexts foreign to
their own.?

Added Roger Schmidt of LWF?s Department for Mission and Development,
?There are many ways in which this pilot project can now be developed
for broader use. This was the first run. We hope many more groups will
use this model to reflect anew on their calling.?

Stories, photos, processes and improved guidelines will soon be
available on the LWF and WARC websites. A first sample is now
available on You-tube. http://lwfyouth.org/2009/11/06/experiencing-mission/

> Contact:
> Ms Kristine Greenaway
> Executive Secretary, Communications
> World Alliance of Reformed Churches
> 150 Route de Ferney
> P.O. Box 2100
> 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland
> tel.  +41.22 791 6243
> fax: +41.22 791 6505

> email: kgr@warc.ch

> web: www.warc.ch

>