Hard questions about mission in a plural world
by James R. Krabill

Celestin Djimadja, Germain Noukpakou and Alphonse Godonou, pastors from Benin Bible Institute and part of the global faith family, preached during their 2005 visit to Waterford Mennonite Church in Goshen, Ind. Photo: John D. Yoder

6. Culture. Are there respectful ways for our churches to approach people of other faiths and cultures? And if so, why do so many Christians have a bad reputation for being culture-bashers, imposing their faith on people through manipulation and coercion?

7. Global faith family. What will happen to the church and its mission as it realizes that the center of gravity for the Christian family has moved south? What new issues and challenges will the global church face? How will it feel for Christians in the West to live in a world where the majority of missionaries are Africans, Asians and Latin Americans, a world where the West is considered "a vast mission field" in desperate need of the gospel? What positive possibilities could arise?

We at the Mission Network take these questions seriously. They are among the most important of our day.

But they are not only questions for the mission agency, but also for the entire church — all the congregations, district conferences, schools, camps and members of Mennonite Church USA, which is committed to becoming more "missional" in both intent and practice.

We will not achieve clarity on all these matters overnight. It will take hard work, renewed focus and disciplined intentionality around a new set of priorities. But each day of creative reflection and faithful obedience will, I believe, bring us closer to the central affirmations that have given life and sustenance to followers of Jesus from the earliest era of the Christian movement to the present day.

Related resource

Is it insensitive to share your faith? Read the second chapter of Krabill's new book. You can also borrow or purchase a copy online.

These affirmations include these core convictions:

• The God known to us in the Scriptures is a missionary God with a cosmic plan to set things right with our broken, violent and sinful world;
• Jesus is the means, the messenger and the model of that plan;
• The church, despite its failures and imperfections, remains the principal instrument through which thepractice and proclamation of God’s saving plan are made known to the world.

For some people it may require a significant leap of faith to get from the many hard questions about mission to these affirmations, and that is why we need a conversation. For the questions do not simply go away by avoiding them. We, as God’s people, have our work cut out for us. It is time to dig in and get on with it!

And as we do, we need to keep listening to the stories of people, from our own culture and around the world, for whom the good news of Jesus is giving new life and meaning, stories like those that appear in this issue of Beyond Ourselves. These are stories of grace, transformation and hope — stories that inspire imagination and invite us to believe and celebrate that God is, in our day as in times past, assembling a new people from every nation, tribe, people and language, who together proclaim, "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb" (Revelation 7:9-10 NIV).

James R. Krabill is senior executive for Global Ministries with Mennonite Mission Network

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Return to Beyond Ourselves—Fall 2006