The Kigali Pilgrim

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Here is another observation from Emmanuel Katongole which gets to the heart of what "mission" is really about.

Being an immigrant can be a blessing. God's mission, as I read it in 2 Corinthians 5:17, is new creation. God is reconciling the world to himself. And there is a sense of journey that is connected with that. When, later on, Paul says that "we are ambassadors of God's reconciliation, God is appealing through us," he is inviting us into a journey toward a new kind of community. People looking at Christians should be confused. Who are these people? Are they black? Are they white? Are they Americans? Are they Ugandans? In Revelation, John sees people drawn from all languages and tribes and nations: an unprecedented congregation. Living on three continents has deepened my understanding of the church as such a congregation; at the same time, it has heightened my sense of Christian life as a journey and of what it means to live as a pilgrim, a resident alien.

In evangelical churches, mission has long been understood as somewhat synonymous with evangelism. Evangelism, in those same circles, has long been understood in terms of "getting people saved," often in a context wholly isolated from a believing community. The era of mass evangelism seems to be waning in America, although there are signs that it is still alive and well in the two thirds world. But the question of whether it is alive or dying is secondary to the question of its effectiveness in fulfilling the true mission of the church. If God's mission, as Fr. Katongole says, "is new creation," then how effective is mass evangelism, as currently practiced, in carrying out that mission?

One could make the case that Pentecost was the first example of "mass evangelism." But the three thousand new disciples added that day "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers" (Acts 2.42). In other words, they were incorporated into the community of believers and the practices which defined that community. They were not simply led in "the sinner's prayer" and then told they could go home, confident that if they died that night, they'd go to heaven. Granted, that is something of a caricature of what happens at present-day "mass evangelism" events. But it does reflect a major shortcoming of this approach to evangelism. Modern evangelicalism has unquestioningly accepted an Enlightenment presupposition which is diametrically opposed to orthodox Christian faith, namely, belief in the autonomous individual. Salvation, under this paradigm, is a strictly individual choice with responsibility for following up on the experience falling entirely to the person having made such a choice. Converts at mass evangelism events are encouraged to connect with a local congregation, but there is no guarantee that they will. Even if they do, there is the likelihood that the "church of their choice" will be one in which the expectations for spiritual growth are minimal. 

The early church was no stranger to "mass evangelism." Indeed, from Pentecost onward, the Gospel was spread from Jerusalem to Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth by means of proclamation to large numbers of people. The one-on-one evangelism episode involving Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8.26-40) seems to be the exception, rather than the rule. But this was "mass evangelism" of another kind entirely than what passes for "evangelism," mass or otherwise, in the contemporary American church. Salvation was a corporate or communal, as opposed to merely individual or private, experience. Entire households, where deep-rooted relationships already existed, heard and received the Gospel. Entire towns, such as Samaria, were said to have "received the word of God" (Acts 8.14). When one individual convert, such as Simon the magician, tried to take matters into his own hands, he was soundly rebuked by the apostles (Acts 8.20).

Clearly, "mass evangelism" has its place. But, within the wider context of the mission of God (Missio Dei), it can only be effective so long as it remains true to its biblical foundations. The new creation has nothing to do with turning up a bunch of autonomous individuals whose "salvation" is all about getting themselves into heaven. The new creation is the final glorious work of God bringing restoration to the whole of the created order. This work begins with Christ, continues through the church, and climaxes with the great heavenly banquet, consummating the union of Christ and his Bride in the presence of God the Father forever and ever.

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Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove oursevles a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

• The Book of Common Prayer

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Ugandan born theologian Emmanuel Katongole, son of Rwandan parents, offers a new perspective on mission and the challenge facing the church in these transitional times.

The challenge that Christianity faces in our time is the challenge of tribalism. There's a church in Rwanda where the baptismal font still stands. But it bears the scars of being hacked by machetes, and the church was littered with thousands of bones of people who were killed. You couldn't find a more strange and ironic and tragic image than that: a common baptism surrounded by killing in the name of Hutu and Tutsi.

Many of us feel we are beyond that, but the dynamics of national identity remain—even of ecclesial identity. We can be settled in our Catholic power. We can be settled in our Baptist, Episcopalian, Pentecostal, or evangelical identity, and we feel a certain power from that. We think that our mission derives from that power.

The story of the tower of Babel begins with people settled in the land. The tower speaks of strength, power, and stability. It speaks of the ability to stand above the land and survey it. Pilgrims don't build a tower! In our day, I think what God is doing is exactly what he did for that tower—dispersing people, spreading them out, scattering them. Scattering, the way I read it in Genesis, is a good thing. It is part of God's purpose for God's people. It is meant to be good news for both Israel and the nations.

Scattering was, indeed, a good thing for the early church when the first persecution broke out in Jerusalem (see Acts 8). The Gospel seems to spread quite rapidly whenever God's people are scattered in this way, for it is in being thus scattered that they are enabled to seek out and gather up God's elect from every tribe, nation, people, and tongue.

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I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge—even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you—so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:4-9, ESV)

To “wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” is no passive act. Paul tells the Corinthians that they have been well-equipped for the task. They have been given “the grace of God. . . in Jesus Christ.” They have been “enriched in him in all speech and all knowledge” and “the testimony about Jesus Christ” has been “confirmed among [them].” Thus, Paul says, they “are not lacking in any spiritual gift” as they “wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

But, if they are “not lacking” in anything, what is left for them to “wait” for?

Simply put, what is left is Christ’s revelation of himself in the lives of those in whom his Spirit dwells. It is one thing to have confirmed among us “the testimony about Jesus Christ.” But that is only the Old Covenant—the law and the prophets, who testified to his coming. But, as the Old Covenant was not brought to completion until Christ himself came as the Word made flesh, so the grace, the knowledge and the gifts of the Spirit given us under the New Covenant are not complete until Christ himself is manifest—that is, revealed—in our lives. Grace, knowledge and spiritual gifts are only the seeds. They may provide evidence of Christ at work within us. But only when Christ is fully manifest in our lives—our spirit joined with his Spirit; our natural inclination toward sin supplanted by his spiritual inclination toward obedience; our tarnished image reshaped and restored by his perfect image; our life consumed into his life—do we become a perfect reflection of him who “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15); and only then is our salvation made complete in him.

Such completeness in Christ is cultivated through a life of deep contemplation and prayer. Evelyn Underhill, in The Light of Christ, writes:

The mystics keep telling us that the goal of prayer and the goal of hidden life which should itself become more and more of a prayer, is union with God. We use that phrase often, much too often, to preserve the wholesome sense of its awe-fulness. For what does union with God mean? It is not a nice feeling we get in devout moments. That may or may not be a bi-product of union—probably not. It can never be its substance. Union with God means every bit of our human nature transfigured in Christ, woven up into his creative life and activity, absorbed into his redeeming purpose, heart, soul, mind and strength. Each time it happens it means that one of God’s creatures has achieved its destiny. [Celebrating the Seasons: Daily Readings for the Crhistian Year, Morehouse Publishing, pages 87-88]

To “wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ” is not to sit around bemoaning his absence. On the contrary, it is to contemplate, actively pursue and embrace his presence. To “wait” in this context connotes eagerness, expectancy, even overt anxiousness. As such, we ought to be eager to yield our broken, misshapen lives to the One who comes to repair and reshape them, that he may “sustain [us] to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

When we stand before God in judgment, it will not be enough to say we knew everything about Christ. God is not interested in what we have stored up in our heads. He is interested only in what he sees when he looks deep into our hearts. Does he see there our old, sinful, corrupt selves. . . or. . . does he see his own beloved Son, his perfect image and likeness?

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When is one’s salvation complete? That is, when is one’s whole person—spirit, soul and body—wholly transformed into the image and likeness of God, so as to be fit for eternity in his presence? For most of us, it is not likely that we will see our salvation completed in this life. But that is not, ultimately, the “big question.” God will accomplish his plan for each one of us, for his Church, and for the whole creation in his time, according to his eternal will and purpose. We live in joyful expectation of being made complete in this life even if, in the end, that expectation is not fully realized until the life to come. Likewise, we look daily, and with great anticipation, for the coming of Christ, the parousia, when all creation will be restored and God’s kingdom fully consummated. But the real question is not, “When will all things be completed?” but, rather, “How will all things be completed?”

To this question, God has already provided his definitive answer.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. (Revelation 1:1a)

The Greek word "apocalypse," translated in the above verse as "revelation," means, literally, "unveiling." Therein lies the key difference between prophecy in the Old Testament and prophecy in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, prophecy was hidden, that is, "veiled." In the New Testament, prophecy is revealed, that is, "unveiled" in and through Jesus Christ.

Paul says, "Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 2:12-18).

In the Old Testament, the outcome of history was "sealed" until the time of its fulfillment (cf. Daniel 12:9). In the New Testament, specifically in Revelation, the "seals" are opened (Revelation 6:1-8:5) and John is specifically instructed, "Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near" (Revelation 22:10). In other words, the outcome of all of history, under the New Covenant, is an open book because, no matter when or where it is fulfilled, it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God the Father.

Salvation, then, is not complete until we are reformed in the perfect image and likeness of Christ, who is "the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation” (Colossians 1:15). Jesus says that in order to see his kingdom, we must be “born again” (John 3:3). To be "born again" is to be "born" after the manner of Christ himself, "not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but born of God" (John 1:13).

Unfortunately, many in the Church today believe that being "born again" is the be all and end all of Christian experience; that once we are "born again," our salvation is complete. But this is not consistent with biblical teaching. Peter writes, "Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God" (1 Peter 1:22-23). In other words, you have been born again. Now, grow up!

There are many who claim to be "born again," but precious few who truly want to "grow up.” Yet, Scripture is quite clear that this is precisely what is expected of us.

And he [Christ] gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11-16, ESV)

The picture Paul paints here is one of growing out of what might be called “spiritual childhood” or “spiritual adolescence” and into “mature manhood,” reflecting the image and likeness of Christ “in every way.” This is not, contrary to popular concepts, an instantaneous, one-time experience. Just as “growing up” physically is a life-long process, so, too, is “growing up” spiritually.

For each one of us, the experience of being “born again” varies. However, once we have made the initial decision to become a Christian, most of us probably go through what might be called the “fundamentalist stage” of spiritual development. At this early stage in our growth into Christ, we have to have the “fundamentals” or the “basics” spoon-fed to us. During this period, we tend to think of God and his plan of salvation in terms of abstract concepts. We crave the “mother’s milk” of the faith, the “five fundamentals” which lay its foundation: the inspiration of Scripture, the Virgin Birth, the vicarious atonement, the resurrection, and the second coming.

Yet, the more we become aware of the truth of God’s Word, the more we begin to realize just how far we have fallen from his favor. Ultimately, such a conceptual understanding of the faith only serves the same purpose as the Old Covenant law. It makes us acutely aware that we are sinners in need of a Redeemer who far transcends our attempts to pigeonhole him in a few “basic” tenets.

It is in coming to this point in our walk with Christ that we must make a very crucial decision to either go further or to fall back. If we choose to fall back, the path of rebellion, we will soon find ourselves either rejecting everything we have learned thus far or remaining trapped indefinitely in a state of spiritual adolescence, knowing the “fundamentals,” but being afraid to venture beyond our comfort zone.

If we choose to go further, however, we will, by yielding to the Spirit, be led into an understanding of the faith which is higher, deeper, and of greater substance than we could have ever imagined when we thought of it only in conceptual terms. Faith becomes more than a concept; it becomes a reality. Christianity becomes more than a religion; it becomes a Person, and that Person is the One who has been, all along the way, beckoning us, “Follow me.”

For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. (1 Peter 2:21-25, ESV)

These words from Peter ought to bring great comfort to those who are truly “growing up” into Christ. For, as the Apostle makes clear, following Christ means following the path of suffering, enduring the scorn of the world. It is not an easy path, but it is the only path to true perfection.

If we choose instead to reject the “fundamentals” or remain static in our understanding of them, we will inevitably fall into any number of theological and doctrinal aberrations, all of which will make our faith less real and Christ more distant, even seemingly absent.

What is sadly lacking among most high profile Christian leaders today is precisely the kind of spiritual maturity which Peter, Paul and other New Testament writers said was an absolute prerequisite for exercising spiritual leadership. “Fundamentalists” chose at some point in their lives to remain in their comfortable “system” and not to venture further into life in Christ. “Liberals,” on the other hand, chose at some point to reject all they had learned about the faith. As a result of their respective decisions, neither “fundamentalists” nor “liberals” have the strength “to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that [they] may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:!8-19).

The embarrassing public squabbles which often erupt whenever representatives from these two groups appear on television is to be expected when two overgrown adolescents are put in the same room. They start fighting over who gets to play with the toys. They scream at each other, hurl insults, and call each other names until the “parents” come in and take the toys away from both of them. The writer of Hebrews indeed has “much to say” about this sorry state of affairs among Christian “leaders.”

About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righ teousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,  and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they then fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned. (Hebrews 5:11-6:8, ESV)

Note what is included in “the elementary doctrine of Christ.” Such “fundamentals” as “the resurrection of the dead” and “eternal judgment,” not to mention some other rather important ideas, such as “repentance” and “faith toward God.” What the writer is saying is that “grown up” believers do not need to keep being reminded of how important such doctrines are. They are the building blocks of the faith, but once the foundation is laid, it must be built upon. This does not mean that we “outgrow” the basics but, rather, that we grow in our understanding of them and, thus, begin to comprehend the deeper reality of life in Christ. Peter echoes this same truth.

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:1-5, ESV)

Paul also adds his agreement.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22, ESV)

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7, ESV)

What, then, is the end result of a decision to “go deeper” and “grow up” into Christ? Paul's expression of Christian maturity can only be made by someone who has long since passed the early stages of being "born again.”

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:19b-20)

If being "born again" is the entry point into life in Christ, then dying with Christ is the passageway into a deeper experience of union with him. For only if we share in Christ's suffering and death will we also share with him in his resurrection. As Paul says elsewhere:

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith--that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:8b-11)

Paul sees "the resurrection from the dead" as the end, that is, the outcome, of his relationship with Christ--a relationship in which Paul shares in every aspect of Christ's salvific work, from being born of the Spirit to suffering the scorn of the world, to being nailed to the cross and, finally, being raised from the dead. Even Paul could not, or would not, claim to have been made whole in this experience at the time he wrote to the Philippians:

Not that I have already obtained this nor am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Philippians 3:12-16)

But how is this relationship brought to completion? The Bible tells the story of God's relationship with humankind through the establishment of two covenants: the covenant of the law and the covenant of grace. The covenant of grace is the superior covenant and is, in fact, the eternal covenant God established from the foundation of the world. It alone leads to salvation. Yet, we call it the "New Covenant" because, within human history, it is revealed after the covenant of the law, that is, the "Old Covenant." Both covenants, however, do serve a purpose in God's plan of redemption. The Old Covenant convicts us, that is it makes us aware, of our sin and our fallennes. The New Covenant brings salvation by grace through faith to all who believe. The words of an old Gospel hymn sum this up very well.

By God's Word at last my sin I learned
Then I trembled at the law I'd spurned
Till my guilty soul, imploring, turned to Calvary!
Mercy there was great and grace was free!
Pardon there was multiplied to me!
There my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary!

So, what we have is, as Paul says on several occasions, a mystery. The "New Covenant" is actually older than the "Old Covenant." If our relationship with God is on the basis of grace through faith, we are thus to become, under the New Covenant, the people we were before the law (Old Covenant) was necessary to reveal to us the people we are. Under the New Covenant, we are restored to the state of perfection which was lost in the fall. We are back where we were in the beginning, that is, with God for all eternity. Yet, it can only be said of Christ that "He was in the beginning with God" (John 1:2). If human beings are to be restored to that relationship whereby they can be "in the beginning with God," they must be "in Christ." That is what life under the New Covenant of grace is all about!

So, as members of God's New Covenant community, the Church, we look not to world events for the "fulfillment" of some ancient prophecy, but to Jesus Christ, God's ultimate revelation ("unveiling") of himself, the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End; and the ongoing fulfillment of the eschatological kingdom which is the consummation of all of history. In him, we find our rest.

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Missouri Baptists are facing a dilemma involving the funding of an emerging congregation which meets at a St. Louis microbrewery. Apparently, the outreach ministry is employing a unique form of evangelism which runs afoul of official denominational policy.

"Theology at the Bottleworks was started to reach people who are actively opposed to Christianity, by discussing contemporary cultural issues in a neutral environment," explained Darrin Patrick, founding pastor of the Journey, which attracts about 1,500 people weekly to three sites. Those who attend Theology at the Bottleworks grab a beer and discuss political or spiritual topics, such as the role of women in society, the legal system, or animal rights.

The outreach caught the MBC off guard, said interim executive director David Tolliver. "We need to engage the culture, but without compromising our biblical, traditional Baptist values," Tolliver said. "For me, that includes abstinence from alcohol."

As the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." But, in this case, I'm not sure what's not broken and what doesn't need fixing.

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David Mills, editor of Touchstone, is not impressed with the contemporary apostles of "relevance," particularly with regard to the language of preaching.

The preacher’s problem is that relevance is decided not only by what the hearer can and will hear, but what he needs to hear whether or not he wants to, and the latter may not be communicable in language he will naturally understand. The language can be bent only so far, till it is bent out of shape. The apostles of relevance do not see this problem, and hence toss away the truths they genuinely want to convey.

Because the right word is often the unusual or technical or “outdated” word, the preacher should not abandon a specifically Christian vocabulary even though the man in the pew may not understand it right away, and even though he may find it off-putting or even offensive. These words will be the language of the insider, and therefore almost by definition irrelevant to the outsider the preacher wishes to bring inside and many of those who are already inside but lack the conscious and energetic commitment of the real insider.

I think, from many years of listening to preachers good and bad (and the friend I began with was a good preacher), that the preacher almost inevitably loses the Christian meanings when he replaces the biblical and traditional language. Some may be able to translate without great loss, but this requires not only considerable verbal gifts but also synoptic knowledge and sufficient holiness to see the reality to which the words point.

There are many men in our pulpits who are holy and knowledgeable but not verbally gifted. The few who are have a gift so personal that the rest of us would be wise not to imitate them, partly because, language being what it is, we are not good enough to see our failure to do what they can do.

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