I have just returned from Medellin in Colombia, where I participated in the biennial INFEMIT Stott-Bediako Forum organised by The International Fellowship for Mission as Transformation (INFEMIT). This a sibling network to OCMS, both founded over 40 years ago by notable figures such as John Stott and Kwame Bediako. The consultation was a rich time of fellowship, featuring stimulating papers and the warm hospitality of Colombia.
A highlight was the number of outstanding contributions from younger theologians and practitioners. We hope that some of these bright minds will join OCMS to pursue their PhDs.
The theme of the consultation, attended by 115, was Transformation Revisited: Mission and Gospel Imagination. The concept of mission as transformation developed in the years following the Lausanne 1974 consultation as many, particularly from the growing churches of Latin America, Africa
and parts of Asia, questioned the reductionist theology and imagination of those who centred mission on purely evangelism and proclamation. OCMS founders, Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden, were leaders in the mission-as-transformation movement 40 years ago.
Fify years on from the first, Lausanne will be holding its 4th congress in Incheon, South Korea in September. The signs are that the same temptations to reductionism that Lausanne battled with in 1974 are shaping its agenda, firing an imagination that proclaims that with enough resources, technology and collaboration we can ‘reach the unreached’ – a code for proclamation evangelism.
The Edinburgh 1910 missionary conference is known for its slogan, ‘The evangelisation of the world in our generation’. Then an estimated 34% of the world’s population self-identified as Christian. Today it is just under 32%. When will we learn?
Today we might ask: what kind of gospel imagination fires us to participate in God’s great purposes for here and now and for history? To put it another way: as we grow in our experience and knowledge of Christ, how does his life, death, resurrection and ascension fire our imagination for faithful witness where God has called us?
‘Mission as Transformation’ does not perfectly capture the full unveiling of God’s purposes for creation but it’s not a bad start. No single word can shape a full-orbed, Biblical framed gospel imagination because, finally, no word is enough to contain The Word. Let Him shape our gospel imagination.
Shalom
Paul Bendor-Samuel
