Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Nov/71

Contributor - John P. Drost

Title - Mission Festival- Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Topic - Missions

Milwaukee is a sprawling, active city on the West shore of Lake Michigan in the State of Wisconsin. Between October 6 and 9 it became the home of more than 2000 members of the Reformed Church in America. The reason? Mission Festival '71.

What had we come to do in Milwaukee? We had come to rejoice, we had come to be together, we had come to listen, we had come to reflect. More specifically, we had come to ask some concrete questions about our Mission and to seek a new commitment to an unfinished task. Did we receive an answer to our questions? Yes and no. What particularly did we receive? Here it is in summary fashion.

1. We received a new assurance of Christ's presence in the world.

Mission Festival was a global occasion, a confrontation by the world and an encounter with many who serve Christ in that world. We were made aware that "there is a world out there, and that the Lord calls us to listen", a song that we sang several times over. Opening night brought the world to our doorstep in the form of a multimedia presentation prepared by TRAVARCA. The message: the world cries out for help.

But in this world, from every race and nation, we met the servants of Christ and in them Christ himself. With us at the festival were men and women from every part of the world to share with us their views, their joys, their burden concerning the mission to the world. From their very presence, from their reports, from their testimony we realized that Christ is in the world and is asserting Himself through his Church. We realized how He is there often in the servant role: as a minority, unbecoming, and seemingly insignificant. At the same time, in his ambassadors, we found Him victorious. In them we saw something of the fulfillment of the Great Commission: Go ye into all the world. Yes we received a new assurance of Christ's presence in the world.

2. We received a new assurance of Christ's presence in His Church.

Mission Festival was also a Church occasion, an occasion where Christians gathered "in one place" to witness to one another of the hope that is within us. It had to be that! Unless the Church has occasion to be strengthened and reassured in her identity - in what she is - how shall she be able to witness and fulfill her mission. The Festival provided ample room for this. As the conference progressed a new sense of faith and ioy and fellowship took hold of us: there was no denying that the Lord was doing a new thing in our midst - the Holy Spirit was at work.

Large numbers attended the prayer groups early in the morning. Participants, moreover, were assigned to a dialogue group, and here in the intimacy of the small group communication and reflection became particularly meaningful. That same sense of unity and solidarity was present in the plenary sessions when we joined in mass in the singing of contemporary and traditional hymns under the able leadership of Linda Dethmers. The Communion Service on Saturday morning was no doubt the climatic event. Here we were gathered in the small group formations around a huge table, the shape of a cross, and here we partook of bread and wine, serving one another in the Name of our Lord. The service was interspersed with singing and testimony - it was a true Eucharist - a service of thanksgiving and praise.

3. We received a new mandate for our mission.

If the Mission Festival was a time of great inspiration - and every participant, I imagine would affirm this - it was also a time for sober reflection. When I speak of a new mandate for our mission, I am not altogether certain what I am saying. To be sure, there is no question about a mission. Dr. Paul Little of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship put it very succinctly: "If we are to have a new commitment to an unfinished task, we must get our feet on solid ground." The bedrock for our mission is no less than the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord: "All authority has been given to me . . ." It further includes his command: "Go, make disciples, baptize, and teach . . . ." And it has the promise: "I am with you always." Dr. Little warned: "Don't becloud the issue by diverting your loyalty to other interests do not imprison the truth of Christ. Be delivered from pride (it is a stench in God's nostrils); be delivered from fear and have confidence that Christ's power will bring His Word to life. Finally know that you will never be obsolete, for your mission does not end until history ends: the end of our mission equals the end of history."

The Biblical mandate, however, has new implications, as we learned from Dr. John Gatu, General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa and Dr. Jose Miguez Bonino, professor Union Theological Seminary Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Dr. Gatu stated that the time has come that Western missionaries withdraw from the Third World so that the churches in Third World countries may find their own identity. The spread of Christianity in the Third World is hindered by the presence of white missionaries. The missionary enterprise has always been associated with Western world interests. Therefore the Third World must be liberated from the Western World. Rather than the people feeding the people, let the Lord feed His people. As for Africa: "We know what we need and we don't need a white missionary to tell us this." Admittedly, Dr. Gatu's position is not shared by a majority, but as one of our own missionaries stated, "it should be very carefully considered".

Dr. Bonino further elaborated on what he called the crisis in missions: a missionary enterprise of 150, years embedded in cultural, economic, social and political structures. The alliance of mission and the Western world have distorted the evangelical mission. For a long time the Church and the American Way of life have been synonymous. True this crisis we must move into a new obedience. The new obedience involves a cost and a task. The cost is in the Church's, opposition to those power structures that prevent the realization of a fuller humanity. (Our South American brethren are very sensitive in this area because of the strong political pressures in that part of the world. A Brazilian pastor with whom I became acquainted expressed himself in disapproving terms of the American support of the military dictatorship in Brazil. He would agree with Dr. Bonino that it is the Church's task to oppose the forces that tyrannize or are instrumental in the tyrannization of people.) The Church must dare to say "no". It must follow the Gospel's way of life and thereby must be willing to risk the things on which it has always counted. The task of the Church as Dr. Bonino saw it to "to be available", that is, to be flexible in relation to change and time. Mission is not "monumental", historical relationships are not an end in themselves. Christian faith and mission must be caught in God's action. Integrity is hereby of the essence: a thinking and sharing together in a joint responsibility of the whole Church to the whole world.

The thoughts expressed by both Dr. Gatu and Dr. Bonino were wholesome and provided a good balance in our missionary thinking. Our mission is not the mission of the West to the World but the mission of God to the world.

Moreover, there is always a danger that we individualize mission, as -something that is strictly concerned with personal renewal and personal salvation. In doing so we lose sight of our relationship to the structures: the social righteousness, an emphasis which is strong in the Old Testament.

4. We received instruction and inspiration from many sources.

The afternoons of Thursday and Friday were set apart for mission action workshops and converse groups. The workshops represented "models for mission and communication" and were conducted by experts in their field. Anything that's going today was there, from New Church Development in the 70's with Dr. Robert Schuller to Youth do their Thing, Neighbourhood Bible studies, and Local Church involvement in International Mission. Imagine meeting all these exciting people and being given the opportunity to learn, listen to what's doing in Christian Mission today.

A special source of inspiration to all of us over thirty were the young people. They were serious, they were spontaneous, they were receptive, they were talented. For many of the young people the finale came early Saturday morning. Was it one o'clock? Was it one thirty? I forget. There was noise in the street and singing: We are One in the Spirit, we are One in the Lord. "Look," says my wife, who was wide awake, "there are hundreds of them." Indeed, nearly three hundred young people had taken to the streets following the closing of the coffee house to shall we say begin their mission to "a world out there". And amazingly, they proved great fishers of men. Seven lonely sailors were caught in their nets of love and zeal. As one sailor testified the next morning when he came to the microphone to confess Christ as his Lord: "I heard the singing, and suddenly I saw this mass of love coming around the corner, and before I realized it, I was caught in it . . ." That certainly was a small but significant beginning for a new commitment to an unfinished task. We pray that the Lord in whose Mission we are mere instruments will use Festival '71 in His Church and in the fulfillment of His plan and purpose. To Him be the glory!

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