Off today to Chelmsford to pick up some books by Bishop Stephen. He kindly signed some as gifts to the church in Chennai etc. We are planning to visit four theological colleges:
Tamilnadu Theological Seminary in Madurau
Gurukul Theological College in Chennai
Madras Christian College in Chennai
United Theological College in Bangalore.
Returning to yesterday's 'conversation' with Lesslie Newbigin through his writings... Paul Weston and I (we will be in India together) have been asked to present papers at I think two at least of the Colleges. The following rather heavy reflections (!) are by way of some preparation.
Reading Newbigin again, I will now quote him more fully:
'It seems to me that the development of that kind of local accepting of one another, in spite of our divisions and our misunderstanding, is the Catholic Church in that place seeking to erect the sign of the Kingdom for that place. These two things are mutually involved. I do not think we shall recover the true form of the parish until we recover a truly missionary approach to our culture. I do not think we shall achieve a truly missionary encounter with our culture without recovering the true form of the parish. These two tasks are reciprocally related to each other, and we have to work together on them both.'
But earlier, he has referred to the church as not only a sign' but also
- a foretaste of something different from the world, 'a communion in the Holy Spirit in the life of the triune God.'
- 'an instrument through which God's will for justice and peace and freedom is done in the world.'
I am reminded of Sam Wells who says that reconciliation is the gospel.
Thus Newbigin in his conclusion is developing only one aspect of what he believes the parish church to be. But what does this mean for our mission and evangelism, and for church structures?
Key to Newbigin is that the congregation is the 'Hermeneutic of the Gospel' (cp. ch. 18 'The Gospel in a Pluralist Society'. In the chapter cited he writes: '[T]he gospel cannot be accommodated as one element in a society which has pluralism as its reigning ideology. The Church cannot accept as its role simply the winning of individuals to a kind of Christian discipleship which concerns only the private and domestic aspects of life.'
How is this to come about? '[T]he only hermeneutic of the gospel... is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it. I am, of course, not denying the importance of the many activities by which we seek to challenge public life with the gospel - evangelistic campaigns, distribution of Bibles and Christian literature... But I am saying that these are all secondary, and that they have power to accomplish their purpose only as they are rooted in and lead back to a believing community.'
Newbigin merely asserts this at this point.' However, it is consonant with his stress on the church being a visible community (in e.g. 'The Household of God') and the church being 'the body of Christ'. It may I think be taken as a succinct summary of what he fleshes out elsewhere. The phrase is engaged with not in itself primarily but in conversation with all that he says about the church.
However, in 'Mission in Christ's Way, he points to his own experience. He reflects on his own ministry in Kancheepuram in South India. He notes that conversions and baptisms did not seem to have any visible connection with his own activities. 'If one enquired how exactly this or that person had come to faith inChrist, there were all sorts of elements in the story of which I knew nothing at all...' 'But one factor was common to all: it was the presence of a believing, worshipping, celebrating congregation of people deeply involved in the ordinary life of their neighbourhood... This was no humanely devised programme for mission. It was the work of the Spirit....' And this observation he roots in the theology that the kingdom of God is 'quite simply, God's reign'.
'It is not that the church has a mission and the Spirit helps us in fulfilling it. It is rather that the Spirit is the active missionary.' (Mission in Christ's Way)
Perhaps the church as 'the body of Christ' is the helpful shorthand for this. As Christ was and is, so the church should be (this is well beyond the way this phrase is often used to point to every-member ministry). This then places the emphasis on the whole congregation as testifying in deed and word to Christ. There is no division between evangelism and social action (which he explores in 'The Nature and Calling of the Church'.
With the emphasis placed upon the whole community, the nature of ordination follows a similar slant: '[T]he church, acting as His Body, commissions and empowers the man [sic] set apart for the sacred work. And both in the upward and in the downward movement Christ acts through the ministerial organs of His Body - organs which have been part of its structure from the beginning'. ('The Reunion of the Church', p166, Revd Edition 1960, published 2011)
With this groundwork laid, I hope to be able to return in due course to the ways in which the church can / should be a foretaste and instrument.
Tamilnadu Theological Seminary in Madurau
Gurukul Theological College in Chennai
Madras Christian College in Chennai
United Theological College in Bangalore.
Returning to yesterday's 'conversation' with Lesslie Newbigin through his writings... Paul Weston and I (we will be in India together) have been asked to present papers at I think two at least of the Colleges. The following rather heavy reflections (!) are by way of some preparation.
Reading Newbigin again, I will now quote him more fully:
'It seems to me that the development of that kind of local accepting of one another, in spite of our divisions and our misunderstanding, is the Catholic Church in that place seeking to erect the sign of the Kingdom for that place. These two things are mutually involved. I do not think we shall recover the true form of the parish until we recover a truly missionary approach to our culture. I do not think we shall achieve a truly missionary encounter with our culture without recovering the true form of the parish. These two tasks are reciprocally related to each other, and we have to work together on them both.'
But earlier, he has referred to the church as not only a sign' but also
- a foretaste of something different from the world, 'a communion in the Holy Spirit in the life of the triune God.'
- 'an instrument through which God's will for justice and peace and freedom is done in the world.'
I am reminded of Sam Wells who says that reconciliation is the gospel.
Thus Newbigin in his conclusion is developing only one aspect of what he believes the parish church to be. But what does this mean for our mission and evangelism, and for church structures?
Key to Newbigin is that the congregation is the 'Hermeneutic of the Gospel' (cp. ch. 18 'The Gospel in a Pluralist Society'. In the chapter cited he writes: '[T]he gospel cannot be accommodated as one element in a society which has pluralism as its reigning ideology. The Church cannot accept as its role simply the winning of individuals to a kind of Christian discipleship which concerns only the private and domestic aspects of life.'
How is this to come about? '[T]he only hermeneutic of the gospel... is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it. I am, of course, not denying the importance of the many activities by which we seek to challenge public life with the gospel - evangelistic campaigns, distribution of Bibles and Christian literature... But I am saying that these are all secondary, and that they have power to accomplish their purpose only as they are rooted in and lead back to a believing community.'
Newbigin merely asserts this at this point.' However, it is consonant with his stress on the church being a visible community (in e.g. 'The Household of God') and the church being 'the body of Christ'. It may I think be taken as a succinct summary of what he fleshes out elsewhere. The phrase is engaged with not in itself primarily but in conversation with all that he says about the church.
 |
| The church in an Indian Village - see also the photo below |
 |
The growth of village churches such as this made
a large impact on Bishop Lesslie and he often
refers to this in his writings.
|
Perhaps the church as 'the body of Christ' is the helpful shorthand for this. As Christ was and is, so the church should be (this is well beyond the way this phrase is often used to point to every-member ministry). This then places the emphasis on the whole congregation as testifying in deed and word to Christ. There is no division between evangelism and social action (which he explores in 'The Nature and Calling of the Church'.
With the emphasis placed upon the whole community, the nature of ordination follows a similar slant: '[T]he church, acting as His Body, commissions and empowers the man [sic] set apart for the sacred work. And both in the upward and in the downward movement Christ acts through the ministerial organs of His Body - organs which have been part of its structure from the beginning'. ('The Reunion of the Church', p166, Revd Edition 1960, published 2011)
With this groundwork laid, I hope to be able to return in due course to the ways in which the church can / should be a foretaste and instrument.
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