wfn.org | ABCUSA: Baptists Emphasize Evangelism at Global Gathering

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Rich.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (Valley Forge, Pa. 6/3/05)--American
Baptists were among participants at the 2005 Conference for World
Mission and Evangelism emphasizing "being and vocalizing the Good News"
as essential to mission in the 21st century.

Meeting under a theme of "Come Holy Spirit, Heal and Reconcile!," the
more than 600 attendees gathered at the former Olympic Village in
Athens, Greece, May 9-16.  The World Council of Churches-organized event
represented a wide range of Christian traditions including Roman
Catholic, Pentecostal, evangelical and mainline.

The week-long conference event included a variety of worship
experiences, addresses, Bible studies and small group dialog and
sharing.  Workshops focused on such topics as "Refugee and Migrant
Churches," "Missional Churches," "Living with HIV/AIDS in the Church"
and "Reconciling Evangelism."

"One of the ways conferences such as this stretch many of us is the
emphasis on the justice dimension of mission and evangelism," said the
Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches
USA.  "However, what I missed at the conference was an adequate
treatment of our mandate to invite others to follow Christ.  As American
Baptists we hold dearly both justice and the call to faith in Christ."

Medley was among several Baptist leaders signing a letter addressed to
the organizing commission of the Conference, encouraging them to offer
"a more adequately holistic treatment of mission that includes the
importance of vocalising the Good News."

In part the statement notes, "Baptists tend to avoid over-defining
themselves with reference to the creedal statements of the historic
Christian faith though acknowledging and taking their full place within
that tradition. However, the greater majority of Baptists, if not all,
would wish to emphasise a firm allegiance to the mandate of the first
Apostles and the early Church given them by the Lord of the Church,
Jesus Christ. This mandate is understood as a responsibility to take a
full share in being and vocalising the Good News...of Jesus Christ with
and among all peoples.

"...[Baptists] share with a number of other participants, including the
evangelical and Pentecostal constituency, a concern for a more
adequately holistic treatment of mission that includes the importance of
vocalising the Good News and which does not shy away from addressing
this question in the ecumenical setting of a World Conference. They have
also wondered at times whether the discourse used with reference to
evangelism has tended to over-emphasise the destructive consequences of
evangelistic mission. While Baptists recognise these destructive
elements in our own mission and that of others, we are convinced that
such stories compel us to a renewal of our evangelistic mission practice
rather than its abandonment.

"We encourage the Commission, in the future programme of the CWME, to
consider how best to reflect this concern and to locate the treatment of
appropriately vocalising Christian faith alongside the treatment of
social, diaconal, and political dimensions of the mission task of the
Church."

Medley joined in signing the statement with the Revs. Jan Edström of
Finland, Darrell Jackson of the United Kingdom and Ole Jørgenson of
Denmark.

The more than 600 participants at the conference summarized their
experiences and hopes in a "Letter from Athens to the Christian
Churches, Networks and Communities."

That letter in part reads:

"...The missional character of the Church is experienced in greater
diversity than ever, as the Christian communities continue the search
for distinctive responses to the Gospel. This diversity is challenging,
and it can sometimes make us uneasy. Nevertheless, within it we have
discovered opportunities for a deepening understanding of the Holy
Spirit's creative, life-sustaining, healing and reconciling work.... In
discerning the work of the Holy Spirit, we have experienced the need to
return constantly to the roots of our faith, confessing the Triune God,
revealed to us in Jesus Christ, the Word-made-flesh.

"In Athens we were deeply aware of the new challenges that come from the
need for reconciliation between East and West, North and South, and
between Christians and people of other faiths.... Halfway through the
Decade to Overcome Violence, we realise anew that the call to
non-violence and reconciliation stands at the heart of the Gospel
message....

"Living in the Holy Spirit, anticipating the reign of God, called to be
children of God's new Creation, we have also to acknowledge the troubled
and confusing present. It is a source of pain to us to recognize that
God's mission is distorted by the divisions and lack of understanding
that persists in and among the churches.... The conference theme...has
been a call to a humble acceptance of our own need for healing and
reconciliation.

"...we have continued here in Athens the task of defining the kind of
community God desires us to become, a community that bears witness to
the Gospel in word and deed; that is alive in worship and learning;
proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all; that offers young people
leadership roles; that opens its doors to strangers and welcomes the
marginalised within its own body; that engages with those who suffer,
and with those who struggle for justice and peace; that provides
services to all who are in need; that recognises its own vulnerability
and need for healing; and that is faithful in its commitment to the
wider Creation. We pray that the Holy Spirit will breathe healing power
into our lives, and that together we may move forward into the blessed
peace of the new creation.

Other American Baptists attending the Conference for World Mission and
Evangelism were the Rev. Dr. Cheryl F. Dudley, National Ministries'
associate executive director for Church in Community Transformation, and
Natalie Hanna and Julie Justice, who served as stewards.  Day-to-day
commentary and impressions from the Athens gathering--by Medley, Dudley,
Hanna and Justus--are available at "MissionBlog Greece" on the American
Baptist Churches USA home page: www.abc-usa.org

K/2005ABNS/05ABN47

American Baptist News Service: Office of Communication, American Baptist
Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (800)ABC-3USA
x2077 / (610)768-2077; fax: (610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org;
richard.schramm@abc-usa.org