Category Archives: Evangelism

What are missionaries?

Posted on July 13, 2011 by | Leave a comment

This is a guest post by Brian Kokol, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (short bio at the bottom). 

Every two years, longer-term Global Mission personnel of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) engage in “Home Assignment”, which includes two months of visits alongside congregations, universities, and a variety of other organizations throughout the United States.  Among other things, Home Assignment is meant to produce a dynamic dialogue surrounding what God appears to be doing around the world, and a result, animate a heightened awareness that mission takes place everywhere and involves everyone.

After two months of driving, flying, speaking, listening, backpack living, hospitality receiving, and Lutheran pot-luck consuming, the following are some lessons learned: Continue reading →

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Posted in Africa, Church, Ecumenism, Evangelism, Justice, LWF, North America

Youth refuse to fulfill quotas…

Posted on April 7, 2011 by | Leave a comment

…but want to participate in the life of the global communion. This is one of the many challenging statements that were given today by young leaders participating in the LWF African Leadership Consultation in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Young people also highlighted the continuing plight of unemployment for many young people. They strongly advised the present church leadership to prioritize the issue if they don’ want to risk an estrangement of young people in their churches.

The young leaders also spoke to the way they see leadership. It should be free of any kind of corruption, free of “leadership conflicts, power struggles, external forces, repression of staff members (conflict managements), nepotism, tribalism … etc.”

Please read the full text of the thought-provoking and challenging message here or as pdf. Continue reading →

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Posted in Africa, Church, Evangelism, Faith, HIV/Aids, Justice, LWF, Poverty, Poverty/Affluence, Spirituality, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation

What is it like to be a Lutheran in China?

Posted on July 12, 2010 by | Leave a comment

by Mary Button, USA

After Bishop Dr. Zephania Kameeta’s keynote presentation we broke up into our Bible study groups to discuss further our thoughts and feelings.  Each group was given an envelope with a few words from the presentation inside. The envelope was passed around and each of us talked about what the word meant to us within our own contexts. The word that my new friend Lydia Fong received was: “injustice.” Bishop Kameeta spoke very strongly about the Christian imperative to fight injustice and Lydia said this word made her think about the situation of Christians in mainland China. She went on to say that in light of the injustice faced by Chinese Christians she prays. It was after she shared this with our group that I knew that I had to interview her and share with everyone her perspective on Lutherans in Hong Kong.  I wanted to share a few questions with Lydia Fong with you.
 
What do you do in Hong Kong?
I work for a German company as an assistant operations manager, but my work is primarily retail. In my church, I work with young people.
 
What are your hopes for this Pre-Assembly?
I am excited about being in communion with other international youth. I am excited to see how we young people can elaborate on the theme “Give us today our daily bread.”
 
Can you tell me about your church in Hong Kong?
We are called the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hong Kong (ELCHK). I work in the youth department. The most important thing we do is prepare youth to work at a macro level. There are 52 ELCHK churches and we provide a number of social services, including schools and elderly services. The churches have a very well organized structure. We just celebrated our 55th anniversary. From the youth perspective, I think the ELCHK is providing many opportunities and activities.
 
Can you tell me about the Christian church in mainland China?
Because Hong Kong was ruled by the British, we are accustomed to freedom of religion. I would say the situation in mainland China is better than in North Korea. The situation has improved from older days but the government still fears that Christianity would encourage opposition to the government. There are many underground churches. As a young person, I think that traditional Chinese thinking results in parents discouraging children from joining the church, in some cases.

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Posted in Asia/Pacific, Church, Evangelism, Faith, Pre-Assembly, Youth Ministry

Mission and Power

Posted on June 14, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Update 16 June: Now includes Jec’s cool original paintings.

At the Edinburgh 2010 conference “Witnessing Christ Today”, Jec Don Borlado delivered this short presentation on the theme “Mission and Power” from a youth perspective. I find it a very helpful contribution.

Good Afternoon.  Thank you for giving me the “power” to speak to you.

I recognize that you become vulnerable when you don’t have “the power”..

And so, for your security, I hope not to abuse it in the next five minutes or so.. J

I am an Asian.

I am a Filipino.

I am a Young Person.

As Asians, our context is that of plurality and diversity..

most of the countries in this region have a colonial past..

we are on the process of nation building, development and modernization..

we want to achieve authentic self & cultural identity in the context of a modern world ..

we are in search of a form of social order beyond the current alternatives..

Asia is home to some of the world’s living and reawakening religions that shape both culture and consciousness..

and last but not the least, in the Asian context, the Christian community is a minority..[1]

Continue reading →

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Posted in Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Evangelism, Faith, Youth, Youth participation

Encounters in Edinburgh – Mission is out of control

Posted on June 5, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Talking today to Julio Lopez, a Presbyterian minister from Argentina, he summarized his learning from the Edinburgh conference so far. He said: “Mission is alive – but it is out of control.”
He sees that there is a lot of mission happening by Christians around the world. But it is not organized by a limited number of churches and mission agencies. Quite often, it just happens – through migrants and freelance missionaries, by emerging churches unconnected with traditional churches. That is not necessarily a bad thing but points to the activity of the Holy Spirit. But it still leaves the need and the task to get into a fruitful and also critical dialogue.

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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Evangelism, Faith, Latin America/Carribean, Middle East, North America

A German blog about Edinburgh 2010

Posted on June 4, 2010 by | Leave a comment

There are many ways to get information about the Edinburgh 2010. An especially interesting one is a German language project by Gwen Bryde. She is also a young delegate to the LWF assembly: Here is the link.

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Posted in Africa, Church, Ecumenism, Europe, Evangelism

Global Mission Conference has started in Edinburgh

Posted on June 3, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing Christ Today has started in Scotland yesterday. It is an outstanding conference bringing together for the first time mission theorists and practioners from around the world from traditions as diverse as Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Protestant (also Lutherans), Anglican and Evangelical.

You can follow the conference on edinburgh2010.org

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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Evangelism, Faith, Latin America/Carribean

Experiencing mission

Posted on November 6, 2009 by | Leave a comment

Since Monday, I am part of meeting of Christians from three countries: The Netherlands, Argentina and Cameroon. They are representing discussion processes in their country about what “mission” means for people in their countries. It is really fascnating to hear the different perspectives. Here are some:

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Posted in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Church, Ecumenism, Evangelism, Faith, Latin America/Carribean, Spirituality

Joining a global mission movement

Posted on August 5, 2009 by | 2 Comments

What is “mission” today?
For some, it is quite a loaded word: Missionaries going to other parts of the world in order to propagate Western ideas.
For others “mission” describes the natural way of every Christian to speak happily about her or his faith.
Still for others, mission is not a human activity but God is the one who in a mission becomes flesh and reconciles the world with Godself. We can only participate in this mission (cf. the LWF understanding of mission).

Whatever you think about mission: You can join an exciting global conversation.
Christians from all parts of the world and from most Christian traditions are coming together in Global process discussing “Witnessing Christ today”. It is an anniversary process remembering an very important Mission Conference in 1910 in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Young people can join this process in several ways: Continue reading →

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Posted in Church, Ecumenism, Evangelism, Justice, Life, LWF, Youth, Youth Ministry, Youth participation

Edinburgh 2010: Witnessing to Christ today (I)

Posted on September 16, 2008 by | 2 Comments

Is it possible to recreate great impulses? The World Missionary Conference in 1910, the first of its kind, had a major influence on church history in the 20th century. Many see it as an important milestone in the ecumenical movement, it certainly had greatly facilitated the coordination of the work of mission organizations. It made strong impact with the idea that the churches have to stand to together in order to witness Christ to the world.

2010 marks the 100th anniversary of that event. It is already clear that there will be another conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, to celebrate the first conference. However, it should be more than just a polite and somewhat boring history event. It should give again a strong impulse to global Christianity to witness Christ together in ways that are appropriate for today. The group that has come together to do that is already quite impressive. All the participating organizations have sent their representative to the “General Council” of that process. It started meeting yesterday in Edinburgh and I am there on behalf of the LWF.

The process has two major aspects: 

It is great to know that is already clear that 25% of the participants are supposed to be youth at the conference but a lot of details are not yet so clear. That is what we are working on in St. Colms a very nice old building that used to host the College for Women Missionaries.

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Posted in Church, Ecumenism, Evangelism, Spirituality, Youth participation