Contemporary Issues and Trends in Christian Mission and Evangelism
Topic: Individual to Cosmic Dimension of Salvation
Submitted to: Rev Lalchhandama Submitted by: R. Lallawmawma BD – III, R.
No- 9
___________________________________________________________________________
___
Introduction:
The mission perspective of Christian Mission before the 1952 IMC conference held at
Willingen, Germany was saving the individual soul, converting non-Christians to the
Christians, and proclaiming the gospel to the non-christian country, But the 1952 IMC
Conference change their motive of mission work, and later CWME Conference held at
Mexico City in 1963 assume that the mission work will be at the six continent, they accept
that the whole world as a mission field. To sum up all the mission dimension of individual to
cosmic dimension of Salvation in Christian mission, the paper will quite long, we shall try to
highlight the different perspective of mission within the individual dimension and how it is
shifted to the cosmic dimension of salvation.
Individual dimension:
At the very beginning of Christian mission was started during the Apostolic period,
their mission perspective was mainly concentrated on saving individual soul, especially
human soul. This mind set had been cling to the Christian missionaries over a decade of
centuries. They send the missionaries to the foreign countries, to preach the gospel, and to
convert and Baptist. Their mission work was reach up to the only human salvation. We shall
try to look some mission perspective in those period.
Augustine of Hippo (354-430): Augustine refused the Pelagius teaching of salvation who
took a decidedly optimistic view of human nature and of the human capacity to attain
perfection. According to Pelagius, humanity did not need redemption, only inspiration. 1
Augustine became the first Christian theologian to take Paul’s teaching on justification by
faith seriously. Our sinful condition is so perilous that only God can change it, without any
contribution from us. Essentially Augustine wrestled with an anthropological rather than a
theological problem. He wrote, “I desire only to know God and my soul, nothing else”. The
human soul is lost; therefore it is the human soul that has to be saved. God became human in
order to save human souls that are hurtling to destruction. Not the reconciliation of the
universe but the redemption of the soul stands in the center. 2
Pietist: The fathers of early Pietism, Philip Jacob Spencer and August Herman Francke
geared their work largely to reach the individual. In his Pia Desideria Spencer spelled out the
1
David J. Bosch, Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shift in Theology of Mission (New York: Orbis Books,
1996), 215.
2
Bosch, Transforming Mission.216.
classic goal of Pietist reform, while Francke was in th forefront of those who tried to carry it
out. Both these men laid the accent on true piety, on confessional activity, on the importance
of small gatherings of “devout Christians,” on worship services held in people’s houses, on
religious discussion and Bible reading at mealtimes , on singing and prayer, and on the
priesthood of individual believer.3
The early pietism of Spencer and Francke was replaced by the later Pietism of Count
Nicolaus von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) and the hundreds of missionaries sent out by him and
the Unitas Fratrum to such faraay places as Grenland, Labrador, Alaska, The Himalayas,
Egypt, Abyssinia, West India, and South Africa. In his response to the love of Christ for him,
he felt a burning desire to win human beings for the Lamb or, to borrow his phrase, “to bring
souls to the Lord”. When Zinzendorf spoke these words, he was thinking primarily of
individuals, the firstlings of those gathered from all the peoples and nations on the earth.
Zinzendorf had a term to describe his work: Einzekbekehrungen which means “conversion of
individuals.” Thus it would be true to say that these missionaries emphasizd the saving of
individual souls, wherever they worked national churches appeared.4
The Student Volunteer Movement: As a final example of those missionary organizations
which emphasized the salvation of individuals, let us mention the American Student
Volunteer Movement, an organization which during the latter part of the nineteenth century
and the early part of the twentieth roused many American and European students to offer
their lives in the services of mission in Africa and Asia. Leaders of this movement were
people like John Mott, Robert Speer, and Herman Rutgers. Its influence was so profound that
it really deserves its description as “the greatest missionary movement since Pentecost,” Its
missionaries spread out over all six continents, and still today traces of its influences are
clearly visible in the churches of Asia, Africa and Latin America.
In 1886 this movement formulated its aims: “As an evangelical and ecumenical
gathering of disciples and workers, we invite all who believes in Christ to unite in the
communal task of bringing God’s word of salvation to a humanity living amid spiritual and
moral chaos. Our purpose is none other than the evangelization of the whole of mankind in
this generation.”5
Beyond these two points, there could be other factors that inspired the earlier
Christian missionaries to emphasized saving individual soul in their mission activity.
Augustine of Hippo was the one who paved the way to emphasizing individual soul in
mission strategy in Roman Catholic Church. This inspiration had clung to the minds of the
missionary and church till the middle of 20th centuries. William Carey was the one who set a
new paradigm of mission, he is the pioneer missionaries to extent the dimensions of salvation
from individual to society.
3
J.Verkuil, Contemporary Missiology: An Introduction (Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing
Company, 1978), 176.
4
J. Verkuil, Contemporary Missiology. 178.
5
J. Verkuil, Contemporary Missiology. 180
Cosmic Dimension:
We could say that the IMC Conference which was held at Willingen, Germany in
1952 was the turning point of mission strategy in a sense of individual to cosmic dimension
of salvation. Willingen recognized a close relationship between the mission Dei and mission
as solidarity with the incarnate and crucified Christ. 6 During the past half a century or so
there has been a subtle but nevertheless decisive shift toward understanding mission as God’s
mission. During preceding centuries mission was understood in a variety of ways. Sometimes
it was interpreted primarily in soteriological terms: as saving individuals from eternal
damnation.7
For the Mission ecclesiae (the missionary activity of the church) the mission Dei has
important consequences. “Mission”, singular, remains primary; “missions”, in the plural,
constitutes a derivative. After Willingen the mission Dei concept gradually underwent a
modification- a process traced in great detail by Rosin(1972). Since God’s concern is for the
entire world, this should also b th scope of the mission Dei. Its affects all people in all aspects
of their existence. Mission is God’s turning to the world in respect of creation, care,
redemption and consummation. It takes place in ordinary human history, not exclusively in
and through the church. “God’s own mission is larger than the mission of the church”. The
mission Dei is God’s activity, which embraces both the church and the world, and in which
the church may be privileged to participate.8
In 1963, the first CWME met in Mexico-City under the theme of "mission in six
continents". The perspective of mission was enlarged to encompass all continents, and not
only those of the "south". Meeting during the first development decade, the conference dealt
intensively with witness in a world where God was active, inviting the churches to join in
missio Dei. It was the time of a positive appreciation of secularization and of non-religious
formulations of Christian faith and action, in particular in the West. 9 Before the Mexico City
Conference, the mission scope had been narrowed to three continents. The concept of these
“mission in six continent” became wider and comprehensive than the concept of misio Dei.
From this conference, the way they understand the salvation of God also became wider and
vast. They do accept that the whole cosmos is the mission field for every believer. Before
that, when the church commissioned the missionaries, their vision was mainly to the African
continent and Asia continent, which were the mission field for the western countries. But
from this conference, they accept that the western countries and the European countries were
also the mission field for the Christian missionaries.
Christopher Sugden writes, “The 1960’s and 1970’s have witnessed an evangelical
awakening to the social implications of Christian faith.” They further expressed that, “The
‘marriage’ between evangelism and social responsibility as a holistic approach to mission
was confirmed by the Consultation on the church in response to Human Need, sponsored by
6
Bosch, Transforming Mission. 390.
7
Bosch, Transforming Mission. 389.
8
Bosch, Transforming Mission. 391.
9
http://www.mission2005.org/New-Delhi.557.0.html
the World Evangelical Fellowship (Wheaton, June 20-July 1, 1983). Therefore, now they can
say, “Since 1983 a new generation has arisen who have been drawn into wholistic mission,”
and also. “Since 1983 a new global community has also joined the holistic mission
movement: the Pentecostal movement.” Taking all this into account it does not seem to be too
mistaken to pronounce 1983 as the year that marked the setting of holistic mission on its own
path.10
The Lausanne II Congress on World Evangelization at Manila in 1989 published the
Manila Manifesto which affirmed that, “God is calling the whole church to take the whole
gospel to the whole world,” and “determined to follow Jesus in preaching Good News to all
people by word and deed.”11 Thus, the Manila Manifesto is intentionally holistic. Social
responsibility and evangelistic proclamation are not competing or compartmentalized
ministries but different aspects of an interrelated mission of God.12 In March 2000 the WCC’s
CWME adopted another statement entitled ‘Mission and Evangelism in Unity Today’ as a
study document. This statement, as stated above, also highlighted the holistic understanding
of mission, and it also stressed on the holistic nature of God’s mission. And the ‘New WCC
Affirmation on Mission and Evangelism,’ worked out by the CWME and unanimously
approved by the WCC Central Committee on 5th September 2012 at its meeting on the island
of Crete, Greece, called “Together towards Life: Mission and Evangelism in Changing
Landscapes,” was presented to the WCC 10th Assembly at Busan, Republic of Korea, in 2013.
This ‘New Affirmation’ also deals Christian mission in a holistic manner.13
Conclusion:
The way that we understand God as Trinity affects our understanding of hope which
affects our understanding of mission. Our model of God really controls everything. Christian
hope can be seen as focusing on three related dimensions of life: the personal, the communal
and the cosmic. These are found in three broad sets of biblical images relating to eternal life,
the Kingdom of God and the New Creation. The various expressions of the work of salvation
(individual, communal and cosmic) each have their own emphases. Perhaps the central focus
of this cosmic teaching about salvation is that this new creation is nowhere other than “in”
God. Paul says, “He made known to us the mystery of his will…to be put into effect when the
times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together
under one head, even Christ.” (Eph 1:10). The language is of cosmos, a new creation of all
things, and the redemption of creation.
10
Andrew Lalhmangaiha, Holistic Mission and the Serampore Trio (Delhi: ISPCK, 2010), 6-7.
11
James A. Scherer and Stephen B. Bevans, eds., New Directions in Mission and Evangelization 1: Basic
Statements 1974-1991, 3rd printing (Maryknoll: New York, [1992], 1998), 294.
12
Roger E. Hedlund, Roots of the Great Debate in Mission (Bangalore: Theological Book Trust, 1981),
416.
13
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/resources/documents/commissions/mission-evangelism/together-
towards-life- mission-and-evangelism-in-changing-landscapes.
