Theology and mission in a new era
Reformed Theology arose out of turmoil in the 16th Century and developed in dialogue with biblical foundations, the teaching of the Reformers, and the needs of churches in different circumstances - each of which have added a layer of understanding to the complex. It was also affected by its context and understanding of mission.
Looking back it is possible to see how
many of its concerns were related to a sense of mission largely
confined to the European societies that its leaders were familiar
with. Reformed theology has since grown in range and depth as it has
engaged in a mission not only to reform the faith of those already
Christian, but also to win others to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord
of all and Saviour of those who trust in him. We may have discovered
how mission grows our understanding about God through experiences of
talking about our faith, doing things like going on work parties to
Vanuatu, or participating in pastoral care, and sharing in worship
in other churches when we have travelled.
Changes over time may be confusing when we
would like to believe the founders of the tradition got it all right
first go, but its growth and its very diversity also serve to
highlight the core instincts of Reformed faith, to place the Bible
over the Church even when the Church is the interpreter of the
Bible, to emphasize the Sovereignty of God and the Lordship of
Christ over Church and Creation, to give a priority to the grace of
God over human responsiveness, to value the study of the things of
God, because getting it right is considered important, and to
viscerally distrust any suggestion of earning merit in the sight of
God, let alone salvation. More than people within the tradition
generally recognise, both the idea of "Semper Reformanda" and the
practice of Reformed churches in developing fresh confessions in
different circumstances indicate a commitment to what since 1972 has
been referred to as contextualisation, not just to the givenness of
the faith.
The readings this week include what might be
called the classic themes of theology and traditional Reformed
interest in issues of authority and the implications of the idea of
Reformation as an ongoing activity of the Church (the Latin title of
Moltmann’s article means “Theology reformed and always reforming”).
Medgyessy deals with the practical issues of Reformed mission in a
post-communist Eastern Europe where churches and agencies flood in
and churches that have survived decades of persecution have to find
their feet and navigate the competing visions of what mission now
needs to be about. Peel reminds us that theology and mission have a
vision beyond the present, and beyond this life, in reflection on
eschatology and the Christian Hope—where is all this heading?
All Christian traditions reflect on their
understanding of what they believe God is calling them to do in this
world, but the Reformed family has in recent decades been blessed by
a number of people seeking to articulate the will of God for the
Church in the multitude of circumstances found in a world of
globalisation and diversity. David Bosch and Lesslie Newbiggin were
the giants of an era which is now passing. Of course we should read
wider than our own tradition, and both Bosch and Newbiggin certainly
did that to the great enrichment of their understanding, yet they
also knew their own heritage, were informed by it, reacted against
it, and pressed it forward. People like Darrell Guder, now at
Princeton, are beginning to be appreciated. French missiologists
like Marc Spindler and Jean-François Zorn deserve to be translated
and better known. The Gospel and Cultures movements in UK, New
Zealand (led by the late Harold Turner)and North America, often have
a strong Reformed component. The desire to remind people of the
essential missionary nature of the church and to think of the church
as missional in its essence is being pressed to design systems and
theological education which will better reflect God’s missionary
purpose for the Church. This reflects an awareness that for the
traditional churches of the West an urgent call to mission is local
and the once supportive culture and world view of Western society is
corrosive of faith and its institutions. Yet mission must also be
global.
Reformed theology has not always adjusted well
to different cultural settings. Sometimes it was an unexpected
affinity with Confucianism, or a promise of education and its
apparent connection with modernity which attracted people in
Asia and Africa to what this part of the Christian family appeared
to offer. This engagement carried a risk of a rational faith which
did not easily engage people’s hearts as much as their minds and
their economic concerns. Yet the strengths and weaknesses of what
Reformed Christians brought to mission around the world have also
enriched the family understanding of what it is to be Christian.
Conclusion
In a small way this course has helped
introduce us to the story of this Reformed and Presbyterian family,
the reality of its diversity, and the enduring nature of a
surprising number of its core beliefs and values.
I hope we see it as a stream in the story of
God’s Church which has a future as well as a past. In the worship,
organisation, and mission of the church in an era of change we are
influenced by our context, the responses of other Christians to that
context, and by the inheritance of our spiritual heritage. This
means that in the future the names may be different and yet the
contribution of the Reformed heritage will continue, if at times
like a not so dormant gene for red hair, it reappears unexpectedly.
There may be other stories like the one I heard of a Northland town
where Pentecostal young adults with a Presbyterian background came
to the point in their new church where convictions about ordered
process and leadership and a teaching ministry were things that they
rediscovered and re-appropriated some years after they had rebelled
against them!
In a situation where identity in a
post-denominational post-modern age easily takes its cues from
popular models of spirituality, often without much regard to the
importance of heritage, I hope that the Reformed story has also
served to help connect you and the Church where you are not only to
this particular family, but also to the wider family of the people
of God, and the vocation you have in it.
John Roxborogh