wfn.org | A Fierce Fight to Win Hearts and Minds

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

LWF Consultation on Renewal Movements in Lutheran Churches

MOSHI, Tanzania/GENEVA, 16 July 2002 (LWI) - Some of them looked
surprised when the Tanzanian church leader remarked that despite a
century of Christian evangelization and decades of political
autonomy, Africa remains "a battleground for all kinds of
ideologies, creeds and experiments." And, that the fight to win
hearts and minds is the fiercest of all.

But for others, Bishop Dr. Erasto Kweka, Evangelical Lutheran
Church in Tanzania (ELCT) Northern Diocese, was merely describing
the reality of the world's poorest continent. The battle for the
African mind and heart has found fertile ground in poverty,
disease and ignorance-ingredients for "the confusion that has
engulfed the continent with endless mushrooming of denominations
and cults," he told participants in the June 9-12 Lutheran World
Federation (LWF) Consultation on Renewal Movements in Lutheran
Churches in North and South, held in Moshi, Tanzania.

Kweka cited the ELCT's gains from the renewal movement during the
last 40 years. "In 1963, there were only 500,000 Lutherans in the
country. We are nearly 3 million Tanzanian Lutherans today," he
told the 40 participants--theologians, lay people, church leaders
and administrators--from 20 countries worldwide.

Most Lutheran preachers in Tanzania were suspicious of the revival
movement in the early 1960s. The arrival of "half-baked preachers
and teachers and their cheap, but popular, recipes for salvation,"
has challenged the ELCT to guide its members to understand the
concerns that the new movements "claimed to monopolize," Kweka
said. These issues include baptism, anointing, salvation, faith
healing, speaking in tongues and other gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The ELCT organizes open-air rallies, community-based Bible study
and prayer sessions, and house-to-house campaigns. Worship houses
are full several times every Sunday.

The consultation coordinator, Rev. Dr. Peri Rasolondraibe,
Director of the LWF Department for Mission and Development, noted
that the Lutheran church is a child of the Reformation thus
reformation and renewal are constitutive of its life. "We will
share our experiences worldwide, while studying renewal against
our traditional Lutheranism. The challenges posed by Pentecostal
churches will also be reviewed against historical churches," he
observed.

Renewal aside, traditionalism portrays Africa as an icon to a
large extent. Bishop emeritus Dr. Manas Buthelezi, Evangelical
Lutheran Church in Southern Africa, Central Diocese, made an
attempt to distinguish traditionalism from renewal by classifying
the gifts of the Holy Spirit into four categories-proclamation
(prophecy, teaching, words of knowledge and wisdom), service
(leadership roles, diaconic acts of mercy and celibacy), special
power (faith healing, exorcism and miracles) and prayer (praying
in the spirit and interpretation). As to the understanding of
healing, Buthelezi explained: "It is cooperation between drugs,
medical doctors and God; but in the final analysis, it is God who
actually heals a person."

Prior to the consultation, four participants from India, Hungary,
France and Germany participated in a worship service at Rau, a
nearby rural Lutheran parish. Its 400-strong congregation has at
least 70 percent church attendance every Sunday, thanks to a
strategy that includes community orientation and peer guidance.
The local people were surprised to learn that overall, there are
significantly fewer church goers in northern countries. One lesson
from the consultation: churches in Africa have immense wealth to
offer.

Headed by Presiding Bishop Dr. Samson Mushemba, the 2.5
million-member ELCT has 20 dioceses. It joined the LWF in 1964.

(Contributed by Seth Kitange, General Secretary, ELCT Northern
Diocese)

The full text of the message from the consultation follows:

Message from the Consultation on Renewal Movements in Lutheran
Churches in North and South
Moshi, Tanzania, 09 - 12 June 2002

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ

We greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ from the slopes
of the majestic Mt. Kilimanjaro in Northern Tanzania with the
words of St Paul,
           Be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making
melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father
at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. [Ephesians 5:18b-20]

We have come from around the world in response to the call of the
Lutheran World Federation (LWF) consultation on Churches in
Mission, held in Nairobi, Kenya in October 1998. The LWF was asked
to organize a consultation on renewal movements in Lutheran
churches in north and south, so that experiences of the
charismatic movement, the awakening movement and phenomena such as
mega churches might be shared among the churches of the LWF.

Our consultation began with a worship service, organized by our
hosts, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania. We thank our
hosts for their warm welcome and all the work they did to make the
consultation a success. The service also included the key-note
address on The Gifts of the Spirit for the Healing of the World.
Each of the three days that followed had its own theme:

- The Ministry of Empowerment
- Renewal Movements and Lutheran Tradition
- The Presence of the Spirit in the Church : A Trinitarian
Approach

We worshipped together, celebrating the presence of the Holy
Spirit in our midst. We told our stories from around the world,
sharing our joys and our frustrations. We heard of the rapid and
sustained growth of many Lutheran churches in the south, as well
as the north. Some of our churches are also facing decline. In
seeking to engage in holistic mission to our world our churches
experience many different kinds of renewal: spiritual,
charismatic, worship and liturgical, structural, and renewal in
our work of advocacy and service in regard to justice and the
environment. For many churches the renewal experience has been
positive, while other churches have experienced difficulties.

We are conscious that we have been part of a process that needs to
continue and therefore offer the following affirmations, issues
and concerns:
- We celebrate the presence and diverse work of the Holy Spirit
throughout the world.
- Since renewal is a natural and normal process in the church, we
call on all churches in the LWF to be open to ongoing reformation
(ecclesia semper reformanda est) and to continue to wrestle with
the issues and reports of this consultation.
- We see the need to affirm and equip the priesthood of all
believers, providing training, mentoring and support for their
various vocations and ministries, and encouraging all God's people
to pray for the gifts and transforming work of the Holy Spirit so
that they may be empowered for service in the church and the
world.
- We recognize that more attention needs to be given to teaching
on the person and work of the Holy Spirit in theological education
and catechetical processes in our churches, but the doctrine of
the Holy Spirit should never be reduced to academic and
intellectual concerns.
- We affirm that our churches need each other and that we have
much to learn from one another.
- There remains a need to clarify the meaning of some concepts and
experiences related to renewal.

We are confident that the Lord of the church will continue to
sustain us, keeping us secure in his care, and giving us what is
required, as various kinds of renewal flourish in our midst.

Our world, and its people, communities and nations need the
healing love of God in Jesus Christ. As missional churches God has
sent us for the healing of the world, and to glorify our Lord
Jesus Christ in word and deed.

We, therefore, call on the churches to:
- Give thanks to Almighty God, who is present through Word and
Sacraments, for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, working in many
different ways throughout the world.
- Pray for a holistic transformation within the Christian
community, so that it extends its concern to the whole of God's
creation.
- Pray that each individual member of the Lutheran family, as a
part of the priesthood of all believers, will be encouraged and
empowered by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, using them in their
service in the church and the world.
- Pray for openness to an ongoing renewal of the Holy Spirit in
our churches and other Christian institutions.

Come Holy Spirit, renew your church. Begin with me!

12 June 2002
Moshi, Tanzania

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing over 60.5
million of the 64.3 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
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