Still snowbound after Denver's most recent blizzard, let me quote just two more bits from Christopher Wright's CT article addressing the Big Question of "What must we learn, and unlearn, to be agents of God's Mission in the world?"
"Most of the learning and unlearning we must do in this new era is no more than relearning the original nature of biblical Christianity, which very quickly became polycentric. Acts 1:8 can give the impression that the early church spread out in ripples, from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth. But, in fact, Acts tells a more complicated story." After making cases for Antioch, Thessalonica, Ephesus, and ultimately Paul's intentions for Rome as a base for expanding into Spain, Wright insists that Jerusalem was "simply one center among many" in the expansion of the gospel from everywhere to everywhere.
"Another piece of unlearning we must do is breaking the habit of using the term 'mission field' to refer to everywhere else in the world except our own home country in the West. The language of 'home' and 'mission field' is still used by many churches and agencies, but it fundamentally misrepresents reality. Not only does it perpetuate a patronizing view of the rest of the world as always being on the receiving end of our missionary largesse, but it also fails to recognize the maturity of churches in many other lands." Ouch!! The implications of this quote would seem to be enormous.
It of course remains to be see whether we (individuals, churches, and agencies) can unlearn and relearn the many new realities that I believe the Holy Spirit is showing us in this "new" world but I am eager to explore what this all means in a practical sense in my own context of JEX and the Missio Dei textbook.
