Apparently, that time is not now.  Until that time comes, it is important for us to think about the ways we describe what the work is that he gave us to do, just as it is important to examine the way we do it.    Jesus told his disciples that they should not worry too much about the time.  Rather, they were to focus on being His witnesses in Jerusalem, all of Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:7-8).

Over the years, in the MC, we have worked hard at developing an honest critique about how we are doing with the task.  We also need to work hard in our critique of how we describe the task.

Right now, some churches–at least in the West–are stuck in old ways of thinking about missions that are paralysing their willingness to send and threatening their fruitfulness.   Missional faith is dimmed by discouraging descriptions that Christianity is losing its vitality in some places and is overwhelmed by descriptions multiple thousands of “unreached” groups in others.   We run the risk of reducing Christ’s mission into a statistical problem to be solved.

In another example from my own country.  We Swedes have worked conscientiously to engage and understand followers of other religions in dialogue and witness.  In the process, though, many churches have adopted pluralistic views that “all roads lead to Rome.”  That may have been true in the Roman Empire but it misses the point when it comes to understanding the work of Christ as the crucified Messiah, his resurrection and call to gospel faithfulness.

When we think about the mission Christ gave us, we do it with God.  And he seems to be working to keep the mission from getting stuck and to keep his people from missing the point.  At the moment, his solution seems to be new leaders in new places.  The fruit that these new leaders are producing is not only that new missionaries are sent from new places. God is also using them, and the missionaries they send, to talk about what the calling requires, and sometimes they are describing the mission in new ways.

Can we think out loud, together, about new ways in which Christ’s mission is being described?  How do you feel about what you see?

Bertil

Bertil Ekstrom, Executive Director of the Mission Commission writes:  ”I recommend the Business as Mission Global Think Tank as an important and viable process for deepening the knowledge about and the use of this God-given tool for advancing His Kingdom.”

The Global Congress on Business as Mission (BAM), will be held in Chiang Mai, Thailand – April 25-28, 2013 –a unique gathering of leaders and practitioners from all continents that will address key strategic issues related to Business as Mission. The BAM ThinkTank is announcing this congress as the culmination of a yearlong process in which they have engaged hundreds people from all over the world.  Over 30 national, regional and international working groups will present cutting edge BAM practices and models and bring strategic recommendations during the Congress. The global Congress will provide a unique ‘one-stop shop’ to meet and interact with BAM leaders from all over the world, on an unprecedented scale.

Visit http://bamthinktank.org/congress to find out more.

Quotes from key leaders in business, church and missions endorse the BAM Think Tank & Congress: http://bamthinktank.org/about/endorsements/

A digital post card and sample social media posts can be found here: http://bamthinktank.org/congress-media/

Mats Tunehag
Co-Chair | Business as Mission Global Think Tank

More information: http://bamthinktank.org/congress

The worldwide missional scene has seen in the last three decades the launching of many “mission vessels” with an unseen diversity of flags from all the continents. Without forcing the comparison, the spreading of the Good News requires all sorts of boats, both those that can navigate the big seas and those that can enter the smaller rivers and berth at local harbours.

The size of the boat does not matter, neither the port of origin. Some are built for deeper water, others are fragile for navigating streams but not the dangers of unknown seas. When big vessels try to enter small rivers or when rowboats go out to deep waters, catastrophe is eminent. Both “Titanics” and rowing boats have shipwrecked.

Both the numbers of injured sailors and of lost missionaries has been a big concern for some time.

The missional challenge is to understand and acknowledge the distinctive functions and seek co-operation between missional initiatives of all sizes, flags, and destinations. We look for partner-ships to be inclusive, respectful and strategic. As sea-routes go today from everywhere to everywhere, our missional co-operation should reflect the reality of the Holy Spirit’s initiative to move God’s people into His mission.

A good model for partnership is seen among Jesus’ disciples: “…they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats…” (Luke 5:7).

The WEA Mission Commission considers itself to be a missional community — a fleet of many diverse boats, if you will.   The MC Leadership Team does not aspire for the MC to be a big vessel.  Rather, we want to be a catalyst for many partner-ships that include both the big and the small. In the worldwide trouble waters we believe that a safer and more productive journey can be done when we know each other, share our navigation journals and unite our efforts.

What experiences have you had with mission partnerships? Feel free to post your comments.

Bertil Ekström

The WEA Mission Commission Leadership Team wishes you all

A Blessed New Year!

Nearly 325 participants were there (100 from Korea plus 225 from about 45 other nationalities).  We met to think about the unreached, unevangelised and unenegaged peoples of the world.  Since Ethne to Ethne began building momentum 10 years ago, the efforts have born fruit in terms of new communities of Christ believers in places where, before, there were no followers of Christ.

The meeting was organized by steering committee that is thinking and active in mission leadership.  It took place Hallelujah Church whose former senior pastor Rev. Dr. Sang-Bok David Kim is the Chairman of WEA. My respect for Korean missions and churches increased. It was my privilege to visit Dr. David Lee, the former Chairman of WEA MC. His vision is sharply focused on training Koreans for mission work through Global Mission Training Centre and Global Professional Training Centre.

The plenaries were reports on the progress of the Gospel in several parts of the world.  The meeting was always bi-lingual with Korean translations. When  participants made reports in their own mother languages with interpretation, one could feel the global nature of people who followed and took the Great Commission of Jesus seriously.

• 12 Ephesus strategic working groups discussed definite church planting issues for 12 different clusters of people groups. Each cluster had similar cultural affinities or languages or regional closeness–the 300m Bengali speaking peoples, Cushites 57 million, NE Africa, etc.
• Some WEA Mission Commission networks were represented:  Vision 5: 9, Tent-makers, MemberCare.  But I would have liked to see more networks and more Mission Commission Associates.

An important issue was raised, and I hope some will comment here about it:   About 30 years back, 29% peoples of the world were unreached. Even after 30 years still there are 29% unreached peoples. Why? With all that we have done why is it that the world is still unreached? What would be our price to pay?

I came back very exhausted but encouraged in spirit. Jesus is at work.

K. Rajendran
Associate Director

It is extremely important that mission efforts today seriously consider the local culture and its history and allow local Christians to form their contextualised structures for the church and find their appropriate expressions for the faith. Outsiders can and should collaborate with the dynamic and spontaneous churches in Africa, but the dancing rhythm and the singing tune have to come from the African leaders.

As you will see, the partnership vision of the DMC comes from themes that are important expressions of Christian discipleship:  “the vision for a good and fruitful co-operation (partnership) in mission is relational and person-focused partnerships, centred around Christ, unity in faith and common values, characterised by trust, openness and transparency”.

Between denominations and mission agencies, the 36 organisations in the DMC represent the breadth of the Christian Church in Denmark.

The week was full of fellowship, new friendships, challenges from God and reaffirmation of the commitment to serve His kingdom through the Ibero-American mission movement.  Jose Luis Ramirez of Mexico was elected the seventh president of COMIBAM.   He will provide leadership for the movement together with the Executive Director Decio de Carvalho for the next three years.

The strategic plan of COMIBAM includes concrete actions that will promote deeper commitment by God’s people in Ibero America and will support that commitment by walking together with the very diverse missional initiatives.

As part of the Silver Jubilee of COMIBAM several of the former leaders were present. Here the new elected president (to the left) together with five of the six former presidents of COMIBAM.

Victor Ibagon de Colombia, outgoing President of COMIBAM, opened the assembly by challenging participants to listen to God together to understand the future of the movement.

The daily themes were

• Together in the Word
• Together in Prayer
• Together in Fellowship
• Together in the Task.

Each theme was applied to the administrative challenges of COMIBAM. I had the privilege to share about the Centrality of the Word of God in the first evening.

Victor Ibagon spoke about Prayer in the morning session of the second day.

In his Presidential report, Victor Ibagón described recent changes in COMIBAM,  In the past, COMIBAM saw its primary task to be challenging national movements to become mission minded. These efforts have been largely successful.  In each country of Latin America there is now a national movement with sufficient maturity to develop their own plans.

The new focus is on mobilization toward unreached people groups.  And it is this new focus that has led COMIBAM to turn to partnerships with non-Western initiatives.   COMIBAM announced plans to participate in the Ethne to Ethne Network.  COMIBAM has also worked out a co-operation with MANI in Africa.

We look forward to hearing from you about how the MC can encourage even more of these kinds south-south connections.

I was reminded that Sweden is indeed not the centre of the world.  It took me 30 hours of travel until I landed in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It takes a long time to get from Sweden to nice places like the Caribbean. Even at 2 AM,  the hospitality of the region was evident.  They picked me up at the airport and took me to the hotel where I will stay during this week.

This week will be dedicated to COMIBAM.  I will come back with brief reports from what are actually two events.

First, there is the General Assembly, in which new leadership and new directions for COMIBAM will be discussed and decided.

The general Assembly will be followed by a leadership conference.

The Dominican Republic is significant for me about when remember being president of COMIBAM.  It was outside Santo Domingo that I led my first board meeting in 1998. Together with David Ruiz we started to re-structure the way COMIBAM was functioning. We had just come out of the second COMIBAM Congress in Acapulco, Mexico, 1997.  Rudy Giron had stepped down as president after some excellent years of leadership. Inspired and strengthen by the conference, it was time to consider a more active involvement of national leaders in the structure of COMIBAM itself and to facilitate the formation of national mission associations and alliances in many of the 25 Ibero American countries. That work was carried out primarily by David during his years as Executive Director of COMIBAM.

For those who read Spanish there are a couple of places on the web where you can get information about what is going on with COMIBAM in the Dominican Republic this week.  A temporary website has all the information about the Leadership Summit that includes information about the General Assembly. And more information about the General Assembly is on the COMIBAM site itself.

I am really looking forward to these days, meeting good friends and listening to what God has prepared for the future of the movement.