8/13/2019 Theology of Mission by John Howard Yoder http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/theology-of-mission-by-john-howard-yoder 1/60 THEOLOGY of MISSION A Believers Church Perspective JOHN HOWARD YODER EDITED BY G AYLE G ERBER K OONTZAND A NDY A LEXIS -B AKER
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copy104862698308810486251048628 by Gayle Gerber Koontz and Andy Alexis-Baker
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Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are rom the New Revised Standard Version o the Bible
copyright 1048625104863310486321048633 by the Division o Christian Education o the National Council o the Churches o Christ in
the USA Used by permission All rights reserved
Te Aferword ldquoAs You Gordquo by John Howard Yoder was originally published by Herald Press copy1048625104863310486301048625 Used
by permission
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Interior design Beth Hagenberg
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ISBN 10486339830951048632-983088-10486328520199830881048632-1048628983088852019852019-983093 (print)
ISBN 10486339830951048632-983088-10486328520199830881048632-98309510486251048633852019-852019 (digital)
Printed in the United States o America infin
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record or this book is available rom the Library o Congress
In 9830899830979830951048627 the coursesessions were recorded onto reel-to-reel audiocassettes and then re-
corded again in 9830899830979830951048630 however we could find only nine lectures rom the
9830899830979830951048630 course Yoder planned to have the lectures transcribed printed and
used or course material as he did with his lectures or the course
ldquoChristian Attitudes to War Peace and Revolutionrdquo983091 As Yoder said in a
memo to Wilbert Shenk in February 9830899830979830961048627 ldquoWe already have a taped
transcription rom the last time the course was offered six years ago It
is proposed that this be typed off and reproduced so the students can
read it prior to class session Tis would enable the same class ormat
which I have used in two other subjects or years and would also acil-
itate the preparation o an inormal publication such as had been done
with two o my other coursesrdquo983092
Like the war peace and revolution lectures Yoder thought that the
theology o mission lectures might someday be edited or publication as
a book In one memo he wrote in 9830899830979830951048627 Yoder hinted that he might want
to revise the lectures or publication at a uture date saying an inormal
transcription would be ldquoa separate question rom whether a more pol-
ished version should be created which would be visible or commercial
2Te seminary was renamed Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 9830909830881048625983090 Yoderrsquos course
was titled ldquoTeology o Missionrdquo not ldquoTeology o Missionsrdquo Tis reflected the shif in termi-
nology beginning to be accepted in response to the conceptual development rom the 1048625983097983093983088s o
missio Dei as the true source o missionary action Yoder however neither reers to this term nordiscusses the concept
3Posthumously edited and published as John Howard Yoder Christian Attitudes to War Peace and
Revolution ed Andy Alexis-Baker and ed Koontz (Grand Rapids Brazos Press 983090983088983088983097)4John H Yoder to Wilbert Shenk 1048628 February 10486259830979830961048627 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss
1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 10486259830961048625 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
PO Box 10486251048628983088983088 Downers Grove IL 10486309830889830931048625983093-1048625104862810486261048630
World Wide Web wwwivpresscom
Email emailivpresscom
copy104862698308810486251048628 by Gayle Gerber Koontz and Andy Alexis-Baker
All rights reserved No part o this book may be reproduced in any orm without written permission rom
InterVarsity Press
InterVarsity Pressreg is the book-publishing division o InterVarsity Christian FellowshipUSAreg a movement
o students and aculty active on campus at hundreds o universities colleges and schools o nursing in theUnited States o America and a member movement o the International Fellowship o Evangelical Students
For inormation about local and regional activities write Public Relations Dept InterVarsity Christian
FellowshipUSA 10486301048628983088983088 Schroeder Rd PO Box 98309510486321048633983093 Madison WI 983093852019983095983088983095-98309510486321048633983093 or visit the IVCF website at
wwwintervarsityorg
Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are rom the New Revised Standard Version o the Bible
copyright 1048625104863310486321048633 by the Division o Christian Education o the National Council o the Churches o Christ in
the USA Used by permission All rights reserved
Te Aferword ldquoAs You Gordquo by John Howard Yoder was originally published by Herald Press copy1048625104863310486301048625 Used
by permission
Cover design David Fassett
Interior design Beth Hagenberg
Images abstract painting Ordered by Ron Waddams Private Collection Te Bridgeman Art Library
Vintage labels copy aleksandar velaseviciStockphoto
ISBN 10486339830951048632-983088-10486328520199830881048632-1048628983088852019852019-983093 (print)
ISBN 10486339830951048632-983088-10486328520199830881048632-98309510486251048633852019-852019 (digital)
Printed in the United States o America infin
InterVarsity Press is committed to protecting the environment and to the responsible use onatural resources As a member o Green Press Initiative we use recycled paper whenever possible o learn more about the Green Press Initiative visit wwwgreenpressinitiativeorg
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record or this book is available rom the Library o Congress
In 9830899830979830951048627 the coursesessions were recorded onto reel-to-reel audiocassettes and then re-
corded again in 9830899830979830951048630 however we could find only nine lectures rom the
9830899830979830951048630 course Yoder planned to have the lectures transcribed printed and
used or course material as he did with his lectures or the course
ldquoChristian Attitudes to War Peace and Revolutionrdquo983091 As Yoder said in a
memo to Wilbert Shenk in February 9830899830979830961048627 ldquoWe already have a taped
transcription rom the last time the course was offered six years ago It
is proposed that this be typed off and reproduced so the students can
read it prior to class session Tis would enable the same class ormat
which I have used in two other subjects or years and would also acil-
itate the preparation o an inormal publication such as had been done
with two o my other coursesrdquo983092
Like the war peace and revolution lectures Yoder thought that the
theology o mission lectures might someday be edited or publication as
a book In one memo he wrote in 9830899830979830951048627 Yoder hinted that he might want
to revise the lectures or publication at a uture date saying an inormal
transcription would be ldquoa separate question rom whether a more pol-
ished version should be created which would be visible or commercial
2Te seminary was renamed Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 9830909830881048625983090 Yoderrsquos course
was titled ldquoTeology o Missionrdquo not ldquoTeology o Missionsrdquo Tis reflected the shif in termi-
nology beginning to be accepted in response to the conceptual development rom the 1048625983097983093983088s o
missio Dei as the true source o missionary action Yoder however neither reers to this term nordiscusses the concept
3Posthumously edited and published as John Howard Yoder Christian Attitudes to War Peace and
Revolution ed Andy Alexis-Baker and ed Koontz (Grand Rapids Brazos Press 983090983088983088983097)4John H Yoder to Wilbert Shenk 1048628 February 10486259830979830961048627 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss
1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 10486259830961048625 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
PO Box 10486251048628983088983088 Downers Grove IL 10486309830889830931048625983093-1048625104862810486261048630
World Wide Web wwwivpresscom
Email emailivpresscom
copy104862698308810486251048628 by Gayle Gerber Koontz and Andy Alexis-Baker
All rights reserved No part o this book may be reproduced in any orm without written permission rom
InterVarsity Press
InterVarsity Pressreg is the book-publishing division o InterVarsity Christian FellowshipUSAreg a movement
o students and aculty active on campus at hundreds o universities colleges and schools o nursing in theUnited States o America and a member movement o the International Fellowship o Evangelical Students
For inormation about local and regional activities write Public Relations Dept InterVarsity Christian
FellowshipUSA 10486301048628983088983088 Schroeder Rd PO Box 98309510486321048633983093 Madison WI 983093852019983095983088983095-98309510486321048633983093 or visit the IVCF website at
wwwintervarsityorg
Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are rom the New Revised Standard Version o the Bible
copyright 1048625104863310486321048633 by the Division o Christian Education o the National Council o the Churches o Christ in
the USA Used by permission All rights reserved
Te Aferword ldquoAs You Gordquo by John Howard Yoder was originally published by Herald Press copy1048625104863310486301048625 Used
by permission
Cover design David Fassett
Interior design Beth Hagenberg
Images abstract painting Ordered by Ron Waddams Private Collection Te Bridgeman Art Library
Vintage labels copy aleksandar velaseviciStockphoto
ISBN 10486339830951048632-983088-10486328520199830881048632-1048628983088852019852019-983093 (print)
ISBN 10486339830951048632-983088-10486328520199830881048632-98309510486251048633852019-852019 (digital)
Printed in the United States o America infin
InterVarsity Press is committed to protecting the environment and to the responsible use onatural resources As a member o Green Press Initiative we use recycled paper whenever possible o learn more about the Green Press Initiative visit wwwgreenpressinitiativeorg
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record or this book is available rom the Library o Congress
In 9830899830979830951048627 the coursesessions were recorded onto reel-to-reel audiocassettes and then re-
corded again in 9830899830979830951048630 however we could find only nine lectures rom the
9830899830979830951048630 course Yoder planned to have the lectures transcribed printed and
used or course material as he did with his lectures or the course
ldquoChristian Attitudes to War Peace and Revolutionrdquo983091 As Yoder said in a
memo to Wilbert Shenk in February 9830899830979830961048627 ldquoWe already have a taped
transcription rom the last time the course was offered six years ago It
is proposed that this be typed off and reproduced so the students can
read it prior to class session Tis would enable the same class ormat
which I have used in two other subjects or years and would also acil-
itate the preparation o an inormal publication such as had been done
with two o my other coursesrdquo983092
Like the war peace and revolution lectures Yoder thought that the
theology o mission lectures might someday be edited or publication as
a book In one memo he wrote in 9830899830979830951048627 Yoder hinted that he might want
to revise the lectures or publication at a uture date saying an inormal
transcription would be ldquoa separate question rom whether a more pol-
ished version should be created which would be visible or commercial
2Te seminary was renamed Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 9830909830881048625983090 Yoderrsquos course
was titled ldquoTeology o Missionrdquo not ldquoTeology o Missionsrdquo Tis reflected the shif in termi-
nology beginning to be accepted in response to the conceptual development rom the 1048625983097983093983088s o
missio Dei as the true source o missionary action Yoder however neither reers to this term nordiscusses the concept
3Posthumously edited and published as John Howard Yoder Christian Attitudes to War Peace and
Revolution ed Andy Alexis-Baker and ed Koontz (Grand Rapids Brazos Press 983090983088983088983097)4John H Yoder to Wilbert Shenk 1048628 February 10486259830979830961048627 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss
1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 10486259830961048625 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
PO Box 10486251048628983088983088 Downers Grove IL 10486309830889830931048625983093-1048625104862810486261048630
World Wide Web wwwivpresscom
Email emailivpresscom
copy104862698308810486251048628 by Gayle Gerber Koontz and Andy Alexis-Baker
All rights reserved No part o this book may be reproduced in any orm without written permission rom
InterVarsity Press
InterVarsity Pressreg is the book-publishing division o InterVarsity Christian FellowshipUSAreg a movement
o students and aculty active on campus at hundreds o universities colleges and schools o nursing in theUnited States o America and a member movement o the International Fellowship o Evangelical Students
For inormation about local and regional activities write Public Relations Dept InterVarsity Christian
FellowshipUSA 10486301048628983088983088 Schroeder Rd PO Box 98309510486321048633983093 Madison WI 983093852019983095983088983095-98309510486321048633983093 or visit the IVCF website at
wwwintervarsityorg
Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are rom the New Revised Standard Version o the Bible
copyright 1048625104863310486321048633 by the Division o Christian Education o the National Council o the Churches o Christ in
the USA Used by permission All rights reserved
Te Aferword ldquoAs You Gordquo by John Howard Yoder was originally published by Herald Press copy1048625104863310486301048625 Used
by permission
Cover design David Fassett
Interior design Beth Hagenberg
Images abstract painting Ordered by Ron Waddams Private Collection Te Bridgeman Art Library
Vintage labels copy aleksandar velaseviciStockphoto
ISBN 10486339830951048632-983088-10486328520199830881048632-1048628983088852019852019-983093 (print)
ISBN 10486339830951048632-983088-10486328520199830881048632-98309510486251048633852019-852019 (digital)
Printed in the United States o America infin
InterVarsity Press is committed to protecting the environment and to the responsible use onatural resources As a member o Green Press Initiative we use recycled paper whenever possible o learn more about the Green Press Initiative visit wwwgreenpressinitiativeorg
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record or this book is available rom the Library o Congress
In 9830899830979830951048627 the coursesessions were recorded onto reel-to-reel audiocassettes and then re-
corded again in 9830899830979830951048630 however we could find only nine lectures rom the
9830899830979830951048630 course Yoder planned to have the lectures transcribed printed and
used or course material as he did with his lectures or the course
ldquoChristian Attitudes to War Peace and Revolutionrdquo983091 As Yoder said in a
memo to Wilbert Shenk in February 9830899830979830961048627 ldquoWe already have a taped
transcription rom the last time the course was offered six years ago It
is proposed that this be typed off and reproduced so the students can
read it prior to class session Tis would enable the same class ormat
which I have used in two other subjects or years and would also acil-
itate the preparation o an inormal publication such as had been done
with two o my other coursesrdquo983092
Like the war peace and revolution lectures Yoder thought that the
theology o mission lectures might someday be edited or publication as
a book In one memo he wrote in 9830899830979830951048627 Yoder hinted that he might want
to revise the lectures or publication at a uture date saying an inormal
transcription would be ldquoa separate question rom whether a more pol-
ished version should be created which would be visible or commercial
2Te seminary was renamed Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 9830909830881048625983090 Yoderrsquos course
was titled ldquoTeology o Missionrdquo not ldquoTeology o Missionsrdquo Tis reflected the shif in termi-
nology beginning to be accepted in response to the conceptual development rom the 1048625983097983093983088s o
missio Dei as the true source o missionary action Yoder however neither reers to this term nordiscusses the concept
3Posthumously edited and published as John Howard Yoder Christian Attitudes to War Peace and
Revolution ed Andy Alexis-Baker and ed Koontz (Grand Rapids Brazos Press 983090983088983088983097)4John H Yoder to Wilbert Shenk 1048628 February 10486259830979830961048627 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss
1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 10486259830961048625 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
In 9830899830979830951048627 the coursesessions were recorded onto reel-to-reel audiocassettes and then re-
corded again in 9830899830979830951048630 however we could find only nine lectures rom the
9830899830979830951048630 course Yoder planned to have the lectures transcribed printed and
used or course material as he did with his lectures or the course
ldquoChristian Attitudes to War Peace and Revolutionrdquo983091 As Yoder said in a
memo to Wilbert Shenk in February 9830899830979830961048627 ldquoWe already have a taped
transcription rom the last time the course was offered six years ago It
is proposed that this be typed off and reproduced so the students can
read it prior to class session Tis would enable the same class ormat
which I have used in two other subjects or years and would also acil-
itate the preparation o an inormal publication such as had been done
with two o my other coursesrdquo983092
Like the war peace and revolution lectures Yoder thought that the
theology o mission lectures might someday be edited or publication as
a book In one memo he wrote in 9830899830979830951048627 Yoder hinted that he might want
to revise the lectures or publication at a uture date saying an inormal
transcription would be ldquoa separate question rom whether a more pol-
ished version should be created which would be visible or commercial
2Te seminary was renamed Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 9830909830881048625983090 Yoderrsquos course
was titled ldquoTeology o Missionrdquo not ldquoTeology o Missionsrdquo Tis reflected the shif in termi-
nology beginning to be accepted in response to the conceptual development rom the 1048625983097983093983088s o
missio Dei as the true source o missionary action Yoder however neither reers to this term nordiscusses the concept
3Posthumously edited and published as John Howard Yoder Christian Attitudes to War Peace and
Revolution ed Andy Alexis-Baker and ed Koontz (Grand Rapids Brazos Press 983090983088983088983097)4John H Yoder to Wilbert Shenk 1048628 February 10486259830979830961048627 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss
1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 10486259830961048625 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
In 9830899830979830951048627 the coursesessions were recorded onto reel-to-reel audiocassettes and then re-
corded again in 9830899830979830951048630 however we could find only nine lectures rom the
9830899830979830951048630 course Yoder planned to have the lectures transcribed printed and
used or course material as he did with his lectures or the course
ldquoChristian Attitudes to War Peace and Revolutionrdquo983091 As Yoder said in a
memo to Wilbert Shenk in February 9830899830979830961048627 ldquoWe already have a taped
transcription rom the last time the course was offered six years ago It
is proposed that this be typed off and reproduced so the students can
read it prior to class session Tis would enable the same class ormat
which I have used in two other subjects or years and would also acil-
itate the preparation o an inormal publication such as had been done
with two o my other coursesrdquo983092
Like the war peace and revolution lectures Yoder thought that the
theology o mission lectures might someday be edited or publication as
a book In one memo he wrote in 9830899830979830951048627 Yoder hinted that he might want
to revise the lectures or publication at a uture date saying an inormal
transcription would be ldquoa separate question rom whether a more pol-
ished version should be created which would be visible or commercial
2Te seminary was renamed Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 9830909830881048625983090 Yoderrsquos course
was titled ldquoTeology o Missionrdquo not ldquoTeology o Missionsrdquo Tis reflected the shif in termi-
nology beginning to be accepted in response to the conceptual development rom the 1048625983097983093983088s o
missio Dei as the true source o missionary action Yoder however neither reers to this term nordiscusses the concept
3Posthumously edited and published as John Howard Yoder Christian Attitudes to War Peace and
Revolution ed Andy Alexis-Baker and ed Koontz (Grand Rapids Brazos Press 983090983088983088983097)4John H Yoder to Wilbert Shenk 1048628 February 10486259830979830961048627 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss
1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 10486259830961048625 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
In 9830899830979830951048627 the coursesessions were recorded onto reel-to-reel audiocassettes and then re-
corded again in 9830899830979830951048630 however we could find only nine lectures rom the
9830899830979830951048630 course Yoder planned to have the lectures transcribed printed and
used or course material as he did with his lectures or the course
ldquoChristian Attitudes to War Peace and Revolutionrdquo983091 As Yoder said in a
memo to Wilbert Shenk in February 9830899830979830961048627 ldquoWe already have a taped
transcription rom the last time the course was offered six years ago It
is proposed that this be typed off and reproduced so the students can
read it prior to class session Tis would enable the same class ormat
which I have used in two other subjects or years and would also acil-
itate the preparation o an inormal publication such as had been done
with two o my other coursesrdquo983092
Like the war peace and revolution lectures Yoder thought that the
theology o mission lectures might someday be edited or publication as
a book In one memo he wrote in 9830899830979830951048627 Yoder hinted that he might want
to revise the lectures or publication at a uture date saying an inormal
transcription would be ldquoa separate question rom whether a more pol-
ished version should be created which would be visible or commercial
2Te seminary was renamed Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 9830909830881048625983090 Yoderrsquos course
was titled ldquoTeology o Missionrdquo not ldquoTeology o Missionsrdquo Tis reflected the shif in termi-
nology beginning to be accepted in response to the conceptual development rom the 1048625983097983093983088s o
missio Dei as the true source o missionary action Yoder however neither reers to this term nordiscusses the concept
3Posthumously edited and published as John Howard Yoder Christian Attitudes to War Peace and
Revolution ed Andy Alexis-Baker and ed Koontz (Grand Rapids Brazos Press 983090983088983088983097)4John H Yoder to Wilbert Shenk 1048628 February 10486259830979830961048627 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss
1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 10486259830961048625 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
In 9830899830979830951048627 the coursesessions were recorded onto reel-to-reel audiocassettes and then re-
corded again in 9830899830979830951048630 however we could find only nine lectures rom the
9830899830979830951048630 course Yoder planned to have the lectures transcribed printed and
used or course material as he did with his lectures or the course
ldquoChristian Attitudes to War Peace and Revolutionrdquo983091 As Yoder said in a
memo to Wilbert Shenk in February 9830899830979830961048627 ldquoWe already have a taped
transcription rom the last time the course was offered six years ago It
is proposed that this be typed off and reproduced so the students can
read it prior to class session Tis would enable the same class ormat
which I have used in two other subjects or years and would also acil-
itate the preparation o an inormal publication such as had been done
with two o my other coursesrdquo983092
Like the war peace and revolution lectures Yoder thought that the
theology o mission lectures might someday be edited or publication as
a book In one memo he wrote in 9830899830979830951048627 Yoder hinted that he might want
to revise the lectures or publication at a uture date saying an inormal
transcription would be ldquoa separate question rom whether a more pol-
ished version should be created which would be visible or commercial
2Te seminary was renamed Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in 9830909830881048625983090 Yoderrsquos course
was titled ldquoTeology o Missionrdquo not ldquoTeology o Missionsrdquo Tis reflected the shif in termi-
nology beginning to be accepted in response to the conceptual development rom the 1048625983097983093983088s o
missio Dei as the true source o missionary action Yoder however neither reers to this term nordiscusses the concept
3Posthumously edited and published as John Howard Yoder Christian Attitudes to War Peace and
Revolution ed Andy Alexis-Baker and ed Koontz (Grand Rapids Brazos Press 983090983088983088983097)4John H Yoder to Wilbert Shenk 1048628 February 10486259830979830961048627 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss
1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 10486259830961048625 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Yoder lef or Europe the spring o 9830899830971048628983097 During World War II the Men-nonite Central Committee (MCC) began sending volunteers to help war
sufferers and reugees1048626 Tis effort grew greatly ollowing the warrsquos end As
part o this expanded program Yoder was assigned to a childrenrsquos home in
Alsace Eastern France Te other part o his commission was to promote
Christian witness to peace ldquoa new sort o missionary work one in which
little has as yet been done but which offers great opportunity or creative
workrdquo983091
Harold S Bender assistant secretary o MCC defined Yoderrsquos as-signment in the context o urgent spiritual questions that Europeans were
raising How can people have hope when they have experienced two dev-
astating wars resulting in widespread destruction and displacement all
within the space o thirty years Te oundations o Western civilization
were crumbling and it was insufficient to be concerned only about physical
and material needs983092 Te loss o hope had taken a heavy toll across Europe
Yoder was soon introduced to the International Mennonite PeaceCommittee and later the Puiduix Teological Conerence an ecu-
menical group that met regularly to study ldquoTe Lordship o Christ over
Church and Staterdquo He lived and worked among the French Mennonites
one o the oldest Mennonite conerences in Europe At this time they
were divided between traditionalists committed to preserving the past
and younger people eager or a more vital and spiritually satisying
Christian aith Yoder was asked to assist French Mennonites in recon-
necting with their historical and theological heritage hoping this might
help overcome division and oster renewal o congregational lie It was
characteristic o Yoder that he maintained close and ruitul relations
with the French Mennonites on the one hand and quickly orged an
extensive network o interchurch and ecumenical contacts on the other
2For a uller biography o Yoderrsquos lie see Mark Tiessen Nation John Howard Yoder (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 983090983088983088983094) pp 1048625-9830909830973Harold S Bender to John H Yoder August 1048625983088 10486259830971048628983096 983094 b1048628983090 Bender papers Mennonite
Church USA Archives Goshen IN4North American Mennonite mission executives visited Europe July 983090983097ndashAugust 10486251048628 1048625983097983093983088 to plan
or the next phase o ministry See Wilbert R Shenk An Experiment in Interagency Cooperation
(Elkhart IN Council o International Ministries 1048625983097983096983094) pp 983090-1048628
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
During this time Yoder and French Mennonite leaders were dis-
cussing possible collaboration between French and North American
Mennonites in new mission initiatives in France He reported to Men-nonite Board o Missions (MBM) that ldquothe social service program o
MCC is incomplete i it does not leadrdquo to evangelization But he cau-
tioned against any North American attempt to do evangelization alone1048629
His French interlocutors emphasized the importance o this being done
collaboratively with French leadership
Already in this early period Yoder was concerned with mission
strategy and theology Te spring o 9830899830979830931048628 he was part o a group hostedby the British Society o Friends While in Britain he and others visited
the Hutterian Wheathill Colony He reflected on this visit in an article
ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo contrasting the lack o attraction
o the typical church made up o nominal members with the evange-
listic appeal o a congregation characterized by dynamic koinōnia1048630
Te summer o 9830899830979830931048628 Yoder ended his service with MCC in order to
study church history and theology ull-time at the University o Basel
In early September however a major earthquake struck Orleacuteansville
Algeria killing a thousand people and causing widespread destruction1048631
For several years French Mennonites and American Mennonites
working in France had been discussing possible new ministry in Fran-
cophone North Arica Andreacute rocmeacute a French Reormed pastor and
the secretary o the International Fellowship o Reconciliation had an
interest in Islam and wanted to find practical ways o engaging with
Muslims He encouraged Mennonites to act
In response to this crisis Mennonite agencies agreed that MBM
would send a team o builders to Algeria French Mennonites also re-
cruited volunteers and helped provide oversight Yoder directed this
5John Howard Yoder to Mennonite Board o Missions ldquoReport on Mission Possibilities in
Francerdquo 983093 October 10486259830979830931048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-1048625983088 Box 983090 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN Special thanks to Colleen McFarland archivist who has been unail-
ingly helpul in locating materials6John Howard Yoder ldquoDiscipleship as a Missionary Strategyrdquo Christian Ministry 983096 (JanuaryndashMarch
10486259830979830931048628) 983090983094-10486271048625 Republished in John Howard Yoder Radical Christian Discipleship ed John Nugent
Andy Alexis-Baker and Branson Parler (Harrisonburg VA Herald Press 9830909830881048625983090) pp 10486259830941048627-9830959830887Marian E Hostetler Algeria Where Mennonites and Muslims Met 983089983097852021852021ndash983089983097852023983096 (Elkhart IN np
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
emergency relie and reconstruction program which lasted rom 983089983097983093983093 to
983089983097983093983096 He reported later ldquoFrom the very beginning it was planned that a
permanent missionary or missionary couple be assigned to Algeriaboth to supervise the present work and to prepare or other kinds o
missionary activityrdquo1048632
During these years Yoder continued to develop his thinking about
the mission o the church He had become acquainted with Bishop
Lesslie Newbiginrsquos work Newbigin had served as a missionary to India
since 98308998309710486271048630 In 983089983097983093983090 he delivered a lecture series in Glasgow subsequently
published as Te Household o God a book widely acclaimed or its reshthinking about the nature and mission o the church Afer both New-
bigin and Yoder contributed essays to a symposium on ldquoTe Nature o
the Unity We Seekrdquo in the Spring 983089983097983093983095 issue o Religion in Lie Yoder
wrote to Newbigin ldquoEver since reading your Household o God Irsquove
been wanting to ask you some questions but didnrsquot eel I should bother
you Now that Irsquove been privileged to share with you the pages o Re-
ligion in Lie I eel better acquainted and encouraged to take the liberty
o writing yourdquo1048633 Yoder raised probing questions about the nature o the
local church and the role o the episcopacy in principle and in practice
in the Church o South India In January 983089983097983093983097 he received an apologetic
and long-delayed reply rom Newbigin now in transition rom India to
the International Missionary Council in London giving a hurried and
incomplete response to the issues Yoder raised Newbigin remarked
twenty years later ldquoJohn Yoder wrote the most searching critique o my
book that I received rom anyone And I have not yet answered himrdquo 9830891048624
Between December 983089983097983093983095 and April 983089983097983093983096 Gospel Herald published Yo-
derrsquos five-part series on ldquoIslamrsquos Special Challenge to Christian Missionsrdquo983089983089
8John Howard Yoder ldquoOur First Tree Years in Algeriardquo Gospel Herald February 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983095 10486259830939830979John Howard Yoder to Lesslie Newbigin 1048625983093 April 1048625983097983093983095 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist
Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 104862510486251048625983095 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN See Religion in Lie 983090983094
(Spring 1048625983097983093983095) or Newbigin and Yoder essays on ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo10Newbigin to Yoder 983090 January 1048625983097983093983097 John Howard Yoder Collection Hist Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box
104862510486251048625983093 Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Newbiginrsquos later remark was to WilbertShenk in 1048625983097983095983097
11itle o the first installment published December 10486271048625 1048625983097983093983095 104862510486251048628983090-10486281048627 Subsequent installments
were as ollows ldquoIslamrsquos Challenge to Mennonitesrdquo February 1048628 1048625983097983093983096 10486251048625983088-10486251048625 ldquoOur First Tree
Years in Algeriardquo April 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 1048625983093983096-983094983088 ldquoTe War in Algeriardquo March 1048625983096 1048625983097983093983096 9830909830931048628-983093983094 ldquoMis-
sion and Material Aid in Algeriardquo April 1048625 1048625983097983093983096 1048627983088983094-983095
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
sions Gustav Warneckrsquos pioneering five-volume Evangelische Mission-
slehre published in 983089983096983097983090ndash9830899830979830881048627 laid the oundation or the academic
study o missiology Warneck aimed to provide a theorymdashnot atheologymdasho mission aithul to the Christendom vision For him it was
axiomatic that Western theology was authoritative and accordingly
would be the basis or teaching and training on all continents At that
time seminaries and mission training schools offered no courses in
mission theology Indeed the development o mission theology as a
dedicated field in mission studies had to wait until the 983089983097983093983088s 983089983091 Te
urther step beyond mission theologymdashthat is contextual theologiesmdashemerged late in the twentieth century
Te International Missionary Council (IMC) played an indispensable
role in the development o mission theology through a series o interna-
tional assemblies between 983089983097983090983096 and 983089983097983093983096 In 983089983097983093983090 the IMC met at Will-
ingen Germany Although the assembly ailed to agree on a concluding
statement the assembly is regarded as a landmark event a catalyst to
uture developments in mission theology983089983092 In lieu o a conerence con-
sensus statement Wilhelm Andersen prepared an essay ldquoowards a
Teology o Missionrdquo which surveyed and summarized developments
rom 983089983097983089983088 to 9830899830979830939830909830891048629 Following Willingen the IMC Commission on Te-
ology o Mission sponsored research and writing projects that kept
these developments on track Te 983089983097983093983096 IMC Assembly in Accra Ghana
approved two new studies Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o
the Churchmdashwhich Yoder used as a textbook or his Teology o Mission
coursemdashand D Niles Upon the Earth9830891048630
Yoder entered the conversation during this creative time in the devel-
13We lack a comprehensive history o these developments throughout the twentieth century but see
Gerald H Anderson Te Teology o Missions 983089983097983090983096ndash983089983097852021983096 (Boston University PhD diss 1048625983097983094983088)
Gerald H Anderson ed Te Teology o the Christian Mission (New York McGraw Hill 10486259830979830941048625) and
Rodger C Bassham Mission Teology 983089983097983092983096ndash983089983097852023852021 (Pasadena CA William Carey Library 1048625983097983095983097)14See N Goodall ed Missions Under the Cross (London Edinburgh House Press 10486259830979830931048627) At the
time Willingen was declared a ailure Lesslie Newbigin later observed ldquoTirty years later one
can look back and say that it was one o the most creative in the long series o missionary con-erencesrdquo Unfinished Agenda rev ed (Edinburgh St Andrew Press 10486259830979830971048627) p 10486251048627983088
15Wilhelm Andersen owards a Teology o Mission International Missionary Council Research
Pamphlet No 1048626 (London SCM Press 1048625104863310486291048629)16Both published in New York by McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090 Nilesrsquo book was criticized especially by
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
opment o mission theology During the 983089983097983093983097ndash9830899830971048630983088 winter term Yoder
gave a lecture at Drew University on ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo9830891048631
Tis brie but undamental statement o Yoderrsquos theological vision holdstogether missiological ecclesiological and ecumenical dimensions as
does his approach in this book Each dimension is essential to the in-
tegrity o the whole Te churchrsquos mission is to witness to the lordship o
Christ over all the powers calling men and women to give their alle-
giance to Jesus Christ
Yoderrsquos Anabaptist perspective and his doctoral study with Karl Barth
and Oscar Cullmann led him to trace deviations rom the biblical normover the centuries that resulted in a truncated ecclesiology He saw the
ldquoConstantinianrdquo shif that linked baptism and citizenship as paradigmatic
or the accommodations and compromises the church made repeatedly
with the powersmdasheconomic political social and moral While the New
estament maintains a clear distinction between ldquochurchrdquo and ldquoworldrdquo
between belie and unbelie too ofen the church heeded other voices and
succumbed to the temptation to blur the lines between them Te Con-
stantinian variety o mission notorious in its crusading and colonizing
orms contradicts the sel-giving love graciously offered by Jesus the
Messiah and his call to voluntarily ollow him Yoder argued that a com-
promised and conused church will not engage the world with the liber-
ating good news that Jesus Christ is Lord While the sixteenth-century
Reormation made some gains it reaffirmed the alliance between church
and state thus attempting to deend and maintain the territorial character
o the church an ecclesiology at odds with the New estament
In his 9830899830971048630983095 keynote address to the Believers Church Conerence at
Louisville Kentucky Yoder extended and elaborated his critique o
Christendom and proposed an alternative vision o the church as a mis-
sionary people in and to the world9830891048632 wo years later without changing
the substance he rephrased his argument ldquoTe Anabaptist vision calls
or a Believersrsquo Church With reerence to the outside this means that
17John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Otherness o the Churchrdquo Drew Gateway 1048627983088 (Spring 1048625983097983094983088) 10486259830931048625-983094983088
Republished in Te Royal Priesthood (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830971048628) pp 983090983090983088-104862798308818John Howard Yoder ldquoA People in the Worldrdquo in Te Concept o the Believersrsquo Church ed James
Leo Garrett Jr (Scottdale PA Herald Press 1048625983097983094983097) pp 983090983093983088-9830961048627 Republished in Royal Priesthood
pp 983094983093-10486259830881048625 See especially ldquoMission Compromisedrdquo pp 983096983097-10486259830881048625
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
the church is by definition missionary a church which invites [people]
into ellowship Men and women [are] not born into ellowship [but]
are invited to enter it by ree adult decision in response to the procla-mation o the love and suffering o God On the inside the Believersrsquo
Church means that the adhesion o a member is [by] personal respon-
sible conscious mature adult choicerdquo9830891048633 Tis churchrsquos inner lie will be
marked by uncoerced mutual care
In the 983089983097983090983088s and 9830899830971048627983088s IMC assemblies had grappled with the theme o
ecclesiology and mission Hendrik Kraemerrsquos Te Christian Message in a
Non-Christian World (9830899830971048627983096) marked the high point in this developmentAfer World War II a critique o ldquoecclesiocentrismrdquo emerged led by mis-
siologists such as J C Hoekendijk By 9830899830971048630983088 Hoekendijk was arguing that
the church was only an instrument or bringing Godrsquos shalom to the world
Based on a careul reading o Ephesians 1048627 and 983090 Corinthians 983093 Yoder
offered a different understanding that required a ldquobasic reorientation o
our thinking about missionrdquo He rejected the classical definition o the
church that is the church is ldquopresent where the sacraments are admin-
istered and the word o God is preached to the aithulrdquo because it
sunders the essential relationship between church and mission Further
to assert that church and mission are inseparable ldquois not simply an a-
firmative statement about the church it is also a radical questioning o
her missionary methodsrdquo10486261048624
Yoder was equally critical o evangelical and ecumenical Protestant
views o ecclesiology and missions Functionally both operated rom
the same Christendom model missions were initiatives taken inde-
pendent o ecclesial responsibility Lacking a robust ecclesiology evan-
gelicals were characterized by their preoccupation with personal piety
and they viewed mission as the work o a special society outside the
churchrsquos purview Mainstream Protestantism was associated with state
churches which had large nominal memberships since mission was not
integral to its ecclesiology the mission-minded among its membership
ormed independent mission societies
19John Howard Yoder ldquoAnabaptist Vision and Mennonite Realityrdquo in Consultation on Anabaptist
Mennonite Teology ed A J Klassen (Fresno CA Council o Mennonite Seminaries 1048625983097983095983088) p 104862820Ibid p 1048627983090
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
initiative or it was the evangelical wings o the major churches that
joined with believers church people in sponsoring Protestant missions
Te membership o the IMC reflected this act Both ecumenical andevangelical Protestants had argued against IMC-WCC integration pre-
cisely on the grounds that it would inevitably alienate a significant part
o the Protestant missionary movement that hitherto had worked har-
moniously with IMC and Christian Councils across the world
Tis experience stimulated not only Yoderrsquos theological writing but
also his behind-the-scenes relationship building among evangelical and
mainline Protestant mission leaders1048626983091
Further it influenced his ap-proach to Mennonite mission strategy
Yoder and mission strategy World War II was a watershed event or
missions It hastened the collapse o the old system o Western domi-
nation and with it the mission model o the previous 983089983093983088 years Christian
missions were at an epochal crossroads Donald McGavranmdashborn to
missionary parents in India and himsel a missionary to India rom 9830899830979830901048628
to 9830899830979830931048628mdashpublished his seminal work Te Bridges o God in 983089983097983093983093 Mc-
Gavran emerged as a leading strategic thinker with his axiom that the
key to church growth was to pay attention to the sociocultural bridges
by which people groups could be reached He argued that church growth
is the sine qua non o mission effectiveness
Yoder took a keen interest in the challenge o exploring mission strat-
egies appropriate in the emerging environment He acknowledged the
achievement o the modern mission movement and noted that ldquoChurch
historians are already recognizing the lsquoForeign Missions Movementrsquo as
probably the most significant development in church history since the
Reormationrdquo1048626983092 Yet Christian missions were defined by what Sri Lankan
Christian leader D Niles called the ldquoWesternity o the missionary
baserdquo10486261048629 Although missionaries were not direct agents o colonialism
modern missions could not be separated rom ldquoa still broader cultural
and economic tiderdquo10486261048630 Te modern mission model was borrowed directly
23On this see Gayle Gerber Koontz ldquoUnity with Integrityrdquo in Radical Ecumenicity ed John Nu-
gent (Abilene X Abilene Christian Unity Press 9830909830881048625983088) pp 983093983095-983096104862824John Howard Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo Christian Living 983096 (August 10486259830979830941048625) 104862598309025D Niles Upon the Earth p 104862598309798309326Yoder ldquoChristian Missions at the Endrdquo p 1048625983090
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
rom the secular realm like colonial officials who administered Western
colonies across the world the missionary was sent rom the West sup-
ported financially rom the West and ollowing service would return tothe West Tis era was now ending Newly independent countries were
taking steps to restrict or even curtail the work o oreign missionaries
Yoder put the modern mission movement in historical perspective by
viewing it within the whole o Christian experience For most o the past
nineteen centuries the expansion o the church happened through the
migration o committed lay Christians amilies or groups went to new
regions where they settled earned their livelihood and cast their lotwith their adopted community10486261048631 No mission society provided financial
and moral support and there were no fixed length o terms or provision
or returning home to retire In this respect the modern mission
movement is a historical anomaly In searching or new strategies in the
late twentieth century earlier historical patterns can be instructive
In 9830899830971048630983089 Yoder published a pamphlet titled As You Go Te Old Mission
in a New Day His textual premise was the amiliar Matthew 983090983096983089983097 which
he retranslated ldquoAs you are going rdquo Te thrust o the Great Com-
mission is not finding new geography but being alert to needs and op-
portunities or witness wherever the Christian is Yoder grounded his
presentation in historical experience From this standpoint the modern
proessional missionary does not represent the whole o Christian
history On the contrary
[What] we call the ldquooreign missionary movementrdquo is a relatively recentphenomenon in the history o the church beginning about 983089983096983088983088 It
would be wrong to limit our thinking about the uture o missions to one
particular concept Troughout the history o Godrsquos people the
Gospel has been brought to new parts o the world primarily by mi-
gration o financially independent Christians [who] were dispersed
sometimes because o commercial or amily interests more ofen be-
cause o persecution Where they went they took their aith with them
and new Christian cells were planted10486261048632
27Yoder makes the same arguments more succinctly in ldquoAfer Foreign MissionsmdashWhatrdquo Chris-
tianity oday 983094 (March 1048627983088 10486259830979830941048625) 1048625983090-1048625104862728John Howard Yoder As You Go Focal Pamphlet No 983093 (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830941048625)
pp 10486251048625-1048625983090 See aferword below p 10486289830881048628 Subsequent reerences to aferword in parentheses
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Yoder called or cadres o people ready to experiment and take risks in
order to discover resh patterns o missionary obedience Rather than
understanding Christian mission as a program this was a challenge to venture orth as witnesses o the gospel in neglected places both at
home and across the world Tis bold resh strategic thinking struck a
responsive chord with younger people
J D Graber sent a copy o the pamphlet to McGavran or evaluation
and comment McGavran responded with a five-page review He com-
mented that ldquo lsquomigration evangelismrsquo is a terrifically appealing ideardquo ob-
serving that this was the way Islam was spreading10486261048633
McGavranrsquos concernhowever was that a mission board be mindul o the tendencies o mi-
grant communities to become insular and accordingly take steps to
insure that the main goal be church planting
Yoderrsquos proposal attracted considerable interest and resulted in sus-
tained experiments in Japan Brazil and Bolivia But in the postcolonial
world except or countries o North and South America and Europe mi-
gration with a view to obtaining citizenship has been virtually impossible9830911048624
In addition to his resh proposals about mission by migration Yoder
was deeply involved in strategic thinking about the role o Western mis-
sions and the churches they planted in relation to Arican Indigenous
Churches (AICs)983091983089 Shortly beore Yoder joined MBM administrative staff
in 983089983097983093983096 a group o churches in Nigeria contacted the Board asking to be
recognized as Mennonites Afer some conusion it gradually became
clear that longstanding Western mission policies had produced extensive
unintended consequences that is hundreds o indigenous churches had
sprung up across Arica One such group in Southeastern Nigeria learned
about Mennonites through an international radio broadcast Tey re-
29J D Graber to D McGavran 983097 November 10486259830979830941048625 D McGavran to J D Graber 1048625983090 December
10486259830979830941048625 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627-9830889830901048625983097983093983094-1048625983097983094983093 Box 9830961048627983093 Mennonite Church
USA Archives Goshen IN30Te nearest anyone came to writing up an evaluation o these ldquoexperimentsrdquo was Marvin J
Miller Te Case or a entmaking Ministry (Elkhart IN Mennonite Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983096)
One Mennonite missionary couple tried or 1048627983088 years to get citizenship in India to no avail31Descriptors or this phenomenon have evolved ldquobreakaway churchesrdquo ldquoseparatist churchesrdquo
Arican Independent Churches Arican Initiated Churches and recently Arican Indigenous
Churches Changing terminology reflects growing understanding and respect on the part o
scholars and mission-related churches Te earlier terms are now regarded as pejorative Pre-
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
quested recognition and resources rom MBM Te crucial question was
what kind o relationship was appropriate Yoder was assigned adminis-
trative responsibility or this new venture He helped shape the strategyand theological rationale or a new kind o missional partnership9830911048626
In late 983089983097983093983097 MBM sent Edwin and Irene Weaver who had already
served in India or two decades to Nigeria to get acquainted with these
churches and determine what kind o cooperation might be appro-
priate983091983091 Te Weavers soon discovered that southeastern Nigeria could
not be considered an ldquounworkedrdquo mission field Indeed major Western
denominationsmdashRoman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterianand the independent Qua Iboe Missionmdashhad sponsored missions to
this region since the late 983089983096983088983088s and had well-established churches
schools hospitals and clinics throughout the region A second group o
Protestant missions comprised o those who had arrived more recently
rejected the comity system ollowed by the older Protestant missions In
addition there were numerous Arican indigenous churches inter-
spersed among the ldquomissionrdquo churches Relations between the mission
churches and the indigenous churches were hostile Most o the senior
missionaries bluntly advised the Weavers to leave A ew elt the situ-
ation ought to be addressed and urged the Weavers to stay
Shortly afer arriving Edwin Weaver reported to Yoder some o his
and his wiersquos first impressions In short they elt overwhelmed Re-
sponding to Weaverrsquos ldquostimulating and disquieting letterrdquo Yoder offered
what proved to be prescient counsel ldquothis is more an ecumenical than a
missionary task i those two concepts can be separatedrdquo He counseled
that the main task is to ldquodecrease the conusionrdquo983091983092 Beore Weaver had
received Yoderrsquos December 983089983096 983089983097983093983097 reply he sent a sequel9830911048629 Soon afer
32Wilbert R Shenk ldquoGo Slow Trough Uyordquo in Fullness o Lie or All ed Inus Daneel et al (Am-
sterdam Rodopi 9830909830889830881048627) pp 1048627983090983097-1048628983088 David A Shank ldquoJohn Howard Yoder Strategistrdquo Mission
Focus Annual Review 1048625983093 (9830909830881048625983088) 1048625983097983093-983090104862598309533See the firsthand account by Edwin and Irene Weaver Te Uyo Story (Elkhart IN Mennonite
Board o Missions 1048625983097983095983088)34Edwin I Weaver to Yoder 983097 December 1048625983097983093983097 Yoder to Weaver 1048625983096 December 1048625983097983093983097 both in E
Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627 Mennonite Church USA Archives
Goshen IN35Weaver to Yoder 10486251048628 December 1048625983097983093983097 E Weaver 1048625983097983093983097 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
supplied and paid two teachers983092983089 In the process o setting orth MBMrsquos
understanding o cooperation with the Church o the Lord (Aladura)
Yoder drafed a seven-page statement that included a rationale or Men-nonite cooperation with AICs9830921048626 Te essential elements o Yoderrsquos theo-
logical and theoretical ramework or his strategic thinking in relation
to the churchrsquos mission in West Arica first expressed in the 983089983097983093983096 publi-
cation Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church were urther
developed in the essay ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seekrdquo983092983091 Te mis-
sionary shape o the church and the call or Christian unity were inter-
woven in Yoderrsquos theology and practice o mission
By the 983089983097983095983088s renewal movements were calling insistently or recovery o
the ldquowholerdquo gospel Christian base communities in Latin America liber-
ation theologies Christian communes and liberation movements such as
the antiapartheid campaign in South Aricamdashall were seeking to address
proound ethical challenges with the resources o the gospel During those
years Yoder mentored through his writings and relationships a number o
young evangelicals in their ldquoradicalrdquo attempts to connect mission theology
and ethics Te Yoder amily spent the 983089983097983095983088ndash983089983097983095983089 academic year in Buenos
Aires Argentina He lectured in seminaries and developed a network o
relationships especially among emerging young evangelical theologians
He encouraged them to challenge current mission theology and strategy983092983092
In the United States he served as a resource to Evangelicals or Social
Action and to the Sojourners community and magazine
41Te Teological Education Fund was established in 1048625983097983093983095 by the IMC Under the WCCrsquos Com-
mission on World Mission and Evangelism it continued providing grants to seminaries in Asia
Arica and Latin America or upgrading theological education updating libraries providing
scholarships or advanced training o aculty and offering students stipends to study in semi-
naries and Bible schools in their own countries 42Yoder to W R Shenk memo Policy o Mennonite Missions and Service Agencies oward
Arican Independent Churches 10486251048628 February 1048625983097983095983088 Mennonite Board o Missions IV-1048625983096-10486251048627
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN43John Howard Yoder Te Ecumenical Movement and the Faithul Church (Scottdale PA Men-
nonite Publishing House 1048625983097983093983096) and ldquoTe Nature o the Unity We Seek A Historic Free Church
Viewrdquo in Te Royal Priesthood pp 9830909830901048625-104862798308844See John Howard Yoder Revolutionary Christianity Te 983089983097983094983094 South American Lectures ed Paul
Martens Mark Tiessen Nation Matthew Porter and Myles Werntz (Eugene OR Cascade 98309098308810486251048625)
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
At the first International Congress on World Evangelization Yoder
played a behind-the-scenes role advising and encouraging young theo-
logians Sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association andheld at Lausanne Switzerland July 9830891048630ndash983090983093 9830899830979830951048628 this event brought to-
gether more than three thousand delegates and observers wo o the
plenary speakers C Reneacute Padilla and Samuel Escobar whom Yoder had
met in Latin America represented a new generation o evangelicals in
Latin America Tey called or a vision o ldquoradical discipleshiprdquo and
commitment to a gospel that embraced all o human reality Contesting
the old dichotomy between evangelization and social action they chal-lenged the evangelical status quo
During the Congress these ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo caucused in oppo-
sition to the official statement the Lausanne Covenant Yoder was one
o several o their counselors Tey argued that the Congress ought to
take a more radical position on the issues o poverty and injustice that
blighted the lives o millions o people in the less developed countries
Tey declined to sign the Lausanne Covenant insisting that it was too
passive in the ace o the desperate conditions in Latin America Arica
and Asia9830921048629 Following the Lausanne gathering this group published Te
New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lau-
sanne Covenant in which they developed their position in fifeen
chapters o commentary9830921048630
Yoder and the church-growth debate In 9830899830971048630983093 Donald McGavran
became ounding dean o the School o World Mission and Institute o
Church Growth at Fuller Teological Seminary His ideas were widely
embraced among evangelical mission agencies that began sending their
mid-career missionaries or retooling under McGavranrsquos tutelage Mc-
Gavran argued that church growth was the key indicator o mission e-
ectiveness He amassed case studies rom around the world o how
45Congress leaders tried to accommodate the group Te ldquoradical evangelicalsrdquo drafed a state-
ment ldquoTeology and Implications o Radical Discipleshiprdquo which was included in the official
congress proceedings See J D Douglas ed Let the Earth Hear His Voice (Minneapolis WorldWide Publications 1048625983097983095983093) pp 10486259830909830971048628-983097983093
46C Reneacute Padilla ed Te New Face o Evangelicalism An International Symposium on the Lausanne
Covenant (Downers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 1048625983097983095983094) Senior Western evangelical leaders
insisted this diverted attention rom evangelism ldquothe highest priorityrdquo Tis debate would con-
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
churches grew or stagnated and coined special vocabulary to describe
his ideas Te key to McGavranrsquos theory was the homogeneous unit
principle ldquo[People] like to become Christians without crossing raciallinguistic or class barriersrdquo9830921048631 But could this claim based solely on em-
pirical evidence be validated on biblical and theological grounds
While McGavranrsquos ideas were attracting an enthusiastic ollowing
others were not persuaded9830921048632 Te Civil Rights movement in the United
States was gaining in strength Asians Aricans and Latin Americans
were alarmed by a mission strategy that could readily be used to give
legitimacy to continuing unjust divisions in societies based on casteclass and ethnic differences Tese issues were especially problematic or
missiologists in situations such as apartheid South Arica While Mc-
Gavran vigorously decried these criticisms people remained uneasy He
was a pragmatic strategist not a theologian
In February 9830899830979830951048627 the Mennonite Missionary Study Fellowship met to
study ldquoTe Challenge o Church Growthrdquo Te purpose was to evaluate
the strengths and weaknesses o McGavranrsquos theory and offer con-
structive critique Yoder gave the major paper ldquoChurch Growth Issues
in Teological Perspectiverdquo He approached his topic careully and re-
spectully Much o his critique centered on McGavranrsquos idiosyncratic
definitions o key terms in Matthew 983090983096983089983097-983090983088 discipling and perecting
Yoder argued that McGavranrsquos use o the Great Commission could not
be supported exegetically9830921048633 Te papers presented at the consultation
were subsequently published as a small book 10486291048624
Yoder was invited to a consultation our years later on the homoge-
47Donald McGavran Understanding Church Growth 983090nd ed (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1048625983097983096983088) p
9830909830901048627 McGavran first ormulated and introduced his insights in Te Bridges o God (London
World Dominion Press 1048625983097983093983093)48Already in 1048625983097983094983090 Victor Hayward CWME Study Department (WCC) confided to Yoder that he
was interested in McGavranrsquos ideas but was meeting considerable criticism Victor Hayward to
John Howard Yoder 10486251048628 November 1048625983097983094983090 John Howard Yoder Historical Mss 1048625ndash1048628983096 Box 9830969830931048627983095
Mennonite Church USA Archives Goshen IN Subsequently Hayward did convene the Iber-
ville (Quebec) Consultation on Church Growth which issued the ldquoIberville Statement onChurch Growthrdquo But it did not quell the disquiet
49See David Bosch ldquoTe Structure o Mission An Exposition o Matthew 1048625983094ndash983090983088rdquo in Exploring
Church Growth ed Wilbert R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 9830901048625983096-1048628983096 a magiste-
rial study showing that McGavranrsquos interpretation was indeensible on exegetical grounds50Wilbert R Shenk ed Te Challenge o Church Growth (Scottdale PA Herald Press 10486259830979830951048627)
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
neous unit principle a consultation sponsored by the Lausanne Te-
ology and Education group chaired by John Stott Tirty-five people
gathered in Pasadena Caliornia May 1048627983089ndashJune 983090 983089983097983095983095 Five acultymembers o Fullerrsquos School o World Mission prepared papers on meth-
odological anthropological historical ethical and theological dimen-
sions o the homogenous principle Five scholars prepared written re-
sponses to the position papers and another twenty-five persons
participated in the discussion Yoder responded to Peter Wagnerrsquos paper
ldquoHow Ethical Is the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo but Yoderrsquos response
was never published1048629983089
Yoderrsquos last contribution to the church growth debate was an essay
ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth Tis
makes clear the substantial difference in ecclesiological vision that stood
between McGavran and Wagner on one side and Yoder and C Reneacute
Padilla among numerous other thinkers on the other10486291048626 But the ground
was shifing In a 9830899830979830961048630 reflection rom an insiderrsquos vantage point Arthur
F Glasser acknowledged that interaction with critics had changed the
church growth movement in important ways He noted that ldquo[Mc-
Gavran] no longer uses Homogenous Unit Principle in his writings but
reers instead to the lsquomosaic o peoplesrsquo rdquo1048629983091
Ethics and missionary practice In his speaking and writing over the
years Yoder called American missionaries to deeper cultural and ethical
awareness Because most American missionaries were reared in a reli-
gious culture that prescribed appropriate behavior they were inexperi-
enced in ethical discernment Te way one behaved was not a conse-
51See consultation statement ldquoTe Pasadena Statement on the Homogeneous Unit Principlerdquo
Lausanne Occasional Papers No 1048625 London Lausanne Committee or World Evangelization
and World Evangelical Fellowship 1048625983097983095983095 and Making Christ Known ed John Stott (Grand Rap-
ids Eerdmans 1048625983097983097983094) pp 983093983095-983095983090 Wagnerrsquos paper was published in Occasional Bulletin 9830901048625
(1048625983097983095983096) 1048625983090-1048625983097 Yoderrsquos response ldquoTe Homogenous Unit Concept in Ethical Perspectiverdquo is
available in the conerence compendium held in the Fuller Teological Seminary Library and
in the John Howard Yoder Digital Library hosted in Elkhart County Indiana httpreplica
palnieducdmlandingpagecollectionp1048625983093983095983088983093coll104862598309652John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Social Shape o the Gospelrdquo in Exploring Church Growth ed Wilbert
R Shenk (Grand Rapids Eerdmans 10486259830979830961048627) pp 983090983095983095-9830961048628 Padillarsquos response to one o the Fuller
aculty papers was also published in this collection C Reneacute Padilla ldquoTe Unity o the Churchrdquo
in ibid pp 983090983096983093-1048627983088104862753Arthur F Glasser ldquoChurch Growth at Fullerrdquo Missiology 10486251048628 no 1048628 (October 1048625983097983096983094) 10486281048625983093
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
quence o conversion but o ollowing the practices o onersquos ldquoChristianrdquo
culture Missionaries who had never questioned the common dualism
between evangelism and social action were unprepared to come toterms with the ldquowhole gospelrdquo vision that emerged globally in the 983089983097983095983088s
In June 9830899830979830961048627 Yoder addressed the annual meeting o the Association
o Proessors o Mission on ldquoEthical Issues or raining or Cross-
Cultural Missionsrdquo He argued that American evangelical missionaries
operate with binary patterns ldquoCertain components o the Anglo-Saxon
evangelical experience have predisposed many o us and many o those
who come to our schools to trust binary patterns o analysis which spe-cifically tend to relegate matters o ethical concern to secondary or de-
rivative statusrdquo1048629983092 Examples include nominal versus real Christianity
outer versus inner ormal versus existential and spiritual versus ma-
terial Tese pairs are separated into prior and secondary Obviously a
secondary item is less important than what is prior Yoder observed that
the ethical is ldquoroutinely in the second categoryrdquo10486291048629
Yoder believed it was inexcusable in crosscultural situations to treat
ethical thinking as a ldquosecondaryrdquo matter to be set aside either by habit o
mind or by arbitrary decision raining missionaries or crosscultural
ministry must include attending to ethics or the ethical vision o Jesus
can only be understood as constitutive o the gospel In the lie ministry
death and resurrection o Jesus the Messiah we have seen and received
the whole gospel
Yoder also pressed the indissoluble link between ethics and evangeli-
zation in his ecumenical interactions Te theme o the Sixth Assembly
o the WCC in Vancouver BC July 9830901048628ndashAugust 983089983088 9830899830979830961048627 was ldquoJesus
Christmdashthe Lie o the Worldrdquo the evangelistic task o the church In a
compelling statement he asserted that evangelization is the test o our
ethical vocation Citing John 983089983095 and the Sermon on the Mount he
stressed the integral relationship between visible unity and the dis-
tinctive liestyle o discipleshipmdashsalt light city on a hill Jesus connects
this to the practice o enemy love as displayed supremely in Godrsquos action
54John Howard Yoder ldquoTe Experiential Etiology o Evangelical Dualismrdquo Missiology 10486251048625 no 1048628
(October 10486259830979830961048627) 1048628104862898309755Ibid p 10486289830931048625
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
What is the target and unction o this work Te title could be written
more than one way so we need to meditate on what Teology o Mission
does and does not mean983089
T983144983141983151983148983151983143983161 983137983150983140 983156983144983141 M983145983155983155983145983151983150983137983154983161 T983137983155983147We could ocus on the place o theology as a discipline related to the mis-
sionary task Tat is to say that the missionary witness in a new cultural
context as a church comes into being will ace questions not answered
elsewhere o ace those new questions there will have to be a theolo-
gizing process distinguishing between right and wrong adaptations to
the new host culture checking translation o the Scriptures to insure
clarity and accuracy In a new church context there will need to be cul-turally appropriate articulations or catechism church order and lead-
ership training
In that new situation interchurch relations will pose new challenges
Te missionary representatives o earlier Christianity will have brought
with them their denominational or other identities but there will be a
new theological passing on and relating o traditions in the host country
1[Compare David J Bosch ransorming Mission (Maryknoll NY Orbis 10486259830979830971048625) pp 1048625-10486251048625 J A B
Jongeneel ldquoMission Teology in the wentieth Centuryrdquo in Dictionary o Mission Teology ed
John Corrie (Nottingham Inter-Varsity Press 983090983088983088983095) pp 9830901048627983095-10486281048628 C E Van Engen ldquoMission
Teology ordquo in Global Dictionary o Teology ed W A Dyrness and V-M Kaumlrkkaumlinen (Down-
ers Grove IL InterVarsity Press 983090983088983088983096) pp 983093983093983088-983094983090 mdashEd]
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
But what do we mean by theology o mission as distinguishable rom
other things we might say about missions How is theology distin-guishable rom missionary method and principles
For some people theology means collecting and collating proposi-
tions or truths Tey think that we have a certain number o Christian
truths We can state them at greater length with more propositions or
more simply in a creed Tose affirmations stated in the best possible
language are what we believe Teology is simply a matter o inter-
preting the propositions clariying them checking the definitions
keeping them straight and deending them
Teology starts on the level o catechism What ideas must a believer
believe in order to be accepted or baptism How much does someone
have to know One o the meanings o catechism is ldquowhat you have to
know in order to be recognized by the rest o the Christian community as
a ellow believer and to be ready or incorporation into the community
through baptism or confirmationrdquo Beyond that minimal instruction one
soon discovers that we do not all teach the same theology Catholics and
Lutherans differ so we have to give reasons or choosing this or that
answer to one o the big questions Controversy comes afer catechism
Afer controversy comes systematic thought In systematic thought
we ask how it all hangs together What assumptions are more unda-
mental than others Which reasoning processes are valid and which do
not make sense or are not convincing Systematic theology is sel-
conscious It turns in on itsel and asks ldquoHow are we thinkingrdquo notsimply ldquoWhat do we thinkrdquo It asks ldquoWhy do they think differentlyrdquo
and ldquoHow do we think properlyrdquo Systematic theology comes at the end
o an evolution in theological thought within Christian history It comes
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
them and using related illustrations but they would be dealt with more
ully and careully in a book on missionary methods and principles
Believers church concerns Under the heading o principles or methodswe could ocus on some specific concerns that those in the believers
church and historic peace church traditions hold and how they ought to
be expressed in mission work i they ought to be expressed at all For ex-
ample because o the shape o established Christianity in Europe in the
sixteenth century Anabaptist Mennonites have ocused on the impor-
tance o believers baptism in contrast to inant baptism Should mission-
aries insist in a country where other people baptize their babies that in-ants are not to be baptized and that the decision to become a member o
the church must be a mature personal decision What does the concen-
tration on individual decision mean in a culture where individuals ollow
amily or clan decisions rather than make their own What does believers
baptism mean where there is no established church that collapses citi-
zenship and baptism Does the same obligation remain to make an issue
o inant baptism Is there more o an obligation to ocus on this practice
because the church is in a missionary situation or perhaps less because it
is a more serious matter to press an issue that could divide Christians in
some other part o the world than it seems to be in our part o the world
In North America we have a pluralistic way o getting along on many o
these issues Disagreement and division are more difficult when Chris-
tians are a disadvantaged minority in an unriendly culture
Another question is how mission work should deal with the church-
state relationship given that it has a different orm in every part o the
world o what extent should Europeans or Americans carry to other
parts o the world the patterns or convictions developed in the relatively
tolerant relatively democratic West Or should pacifist Christians
promote an ethic o nonresistance and raise the whole set o questions
around violence the state and the military983091 Minimally missionaries
3[Yoder used the term nonresistance which had a particular resonance or Mennonite seminarystudents at the time We have retained his usage or historical integrity and or the peaceable
spirit the term connotes even though the term is easily misunderstood In our current context
a term such as ldquononviolent resistance to evilrdquo better communicates Yoderrsquos intention or he
consistently argued against those who assumed that nonresistance meant passivity withdrawal
or reusal to respond to the suffering o neighbors See Leo Driedger and Donald B Kraybill
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
Generally when interpreters o the Bible look or its ldquomissionary
messagerdquo especially in the Old estament they identiy such a message
wherever there is reerence to ldquothe nationsrdquo Tere is implicit reerence
to the nations whenever Yahwehrsquos sovereignty is affirmed as reaching
beyond Godrsquos care or the Israelites Genesis 983089ndash983089983089 places all o worldhistory in a context o creationallprovidence under a sovereign who
at the same time is specifically the caring and covenantal Lord who
calls Israel
More directly the call o Abraham is related to Godrsquos saving purposes
or all the nations Some interpreters have taken this to mean that
Abraham was a missionary because he leaves and goes out to receive
some promise that is not defined but which has to do with being ablessing to the world Max Warren or example maintains that ldquoTe
Apostolic church came into being when God called Abraham out o Ur
o the Chaldees and bade him go out into a land he did not know and
Abraham obeyed When the grace o God in choosing Abraham was
met by the aith o Abraham in accepting the choice the Church was
bornrdquo983089 Tus the meaning o electionmdashbeing selected outmdashdoes not
mean a selfish privilege but an assignment to be a mediator or a repre-sentative between the electing God and the nations
1[See Max Warren Te Calling o God Four Essays in Missionary History (London Lutterworth
Press 10486259830971048628983093) p 1048628983093 mdashEd]
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
A third implicitly missionary dimension o Old estament aith is the
nonexistence or the impotence o the other gods or o idols Whenever
this polemic against idols is proclaimed there is intrinsically a messageto the people serving those gods even though the context in which we
find anti-idolatry literature is the internal discipline o the Israelites
On quite another level the prophetic vision o the nations coming to
Jerusalem to learn the law has a missionary impact Te most amiliar
passage is Micah 1048628983089-1048628 parallel to Isaiah 983090983089-1048628 but it is ound as well in
Psalm 10486281048630 Ezekiel 983090983096983090983093-9830901048630 and Zechariah 983096983090983088-9830901048627 In this vision Jeru-
salem is the center o the world which represents a statement about theworld as well as about Jerusalem (Jer 1048627983089983095 9830891048630983089983097) Te nations will come
to Jerusalem bringing tribute (Is 983089983096983095) Tey will recognize Yahweh
Tey will recognize Israelrsquos election Tey will learn the law (Ps 1048630983095) and
civilization will be restored Te word or such civilization is peace
which is spelled out in terms o economics ldquoTey shall beat their swords
into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks nation shall not
lif up sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more but
they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees and
no one shall make them araid or the mouth o the L983151983154983140 o hosts has
spokenrdquo (Mic 10486281048627-1048628)1048626
Tis restoration may be seen with or without Yahwehrsquos direct inter-
vention to ldquojudge the nationsrdquo in the sense o exercising political sover-
eignty It may be envisaged with or without an explicit relationship to
the cult or the temple at Jerusalem Tere is not such a relationship in
most o the above texts It is not said that there will be Bible reading or
circumcision in all o the nations or that there will be no more eating o
pigs Yet the Jews would have to think that the nations would be still better
2Te common picture o people coming to the city could be spoken o as salvation Tey come to
the true God Tey recognize where God has spoken and who Godrsquos chosen people have been
Tey accept Godrsquos law Tey go home and make peace and everybody has his or her own gar-
den What more would they want by way o salvation In one sense we can say that the uture
salvation that is expected or the nations is that they do not become Jews But then what is themeaning o peoplehood What is the place o sacrifice o having the correct Scriptures o the
lawrsquos details and o the way o lie that God wants people to live Tere is a remaining ambiguity
at that point I we bring in the New estament meaning o salvation there are parts that are not
in this Old estament picture I we ask on the basis o the text it is hard to say what additional
benefits the nations would want once that prediction o Micah and Isaiah is ulfilled
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
i they not only heard the law and went back and had peace but i they
started doing without pork observing the Sabbath bringing sacrifices
and observing the lawA ew texts speak directly about the possibility that Yahweh might be
known and praised by the nations Most direct is Psalm 1048630983095 ldquoLet the
peoples praise you O God let all the peoples praise you Let the nations
be glad and sing or joy or you judge the peoples with equity and guide
the nations upon earthrdquo (Ps 10486309830951048627-1048628)
Te songs o the Suffering Servant also have missionary implica-
tions983091
In Isaiah 1048628983090983089-1048628 we read that the spirit o Yahweh has been placedupon the Servant and that he shall ldquobring orth justice to the nationsrdquo (Is
1048628983090983089) Harold Rowley a Baptist Old estament scholar says this mis-
sionary implication ollows logically rom the dogma o monotheism I
there is only one God then that God must be God or all people and that
the election o a particular human group to know this one true God
automatically calls them to become Godrsquos proclaimers983092 He also reers
to Isaiah 1048628983090983090-1048627mdashldquoHe will not cry or lif up his voice or make it heard in
the street a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he
will not quench he will aithully bring orth justicerdquomdashwhich is signi-
icant or the judgment it expresses on later missionary understandings
that the means o this proclamation to bring justice to the Gentiles shall
not be ordinary kinds o power
In Isaiah 1048628983097 we read that the Servantrsquos assignment is not simply ldquoto
raise up the tribes o Jacob and to restore the survivors o Israelrdquo (Is
10486289830971048630) but to be made a light or the Gentiles Isaiah 9830939830881048628-983097 adds the el-
ement o suffering to this ministry to the Gentiles and then the crowning
passage Isaiah 9830939830909830891048627ndash9830931048627983089983090 adds the element o the Suffering Servantrsquos
vindication when it is seen that his suffering was as a ransom or ldquomanyrdquo
Rather than deciding that this passage had to do exclusively with the
prophet or with some other person in his time or with some uture
figure or with a community all o these elements probably belong Te
Servant is perhaps at the same time Israel in its various shades o
3See Harold Henry Rowley ldquoTe Servant Mission Te Servant Songs and Evangelismrdquo Interpre-
tation 983096 no 1048627 (July 10486259830979830931048628) 983090983093983097-9830959830904[Ibid p 983090983094983094 mdashEd]
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
o reaching beyond ethnic identity) was already there1048630
Tere is also another term which makes this same point but less
clearly It would not carry much weight i it were not or the ldquomixedmultituderdquo reerence ldquoTe rabble among them had a strong craving and
the Israelites also wept again and said lsquoI only we had meat to eat We
remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt or nothing the cucumbers
the melons the leeks the onions and the garlic but now our strength is
dried up and there is nothing at all but this manna to look atrsquo rdquo (Num
9830899830891048628-1048630 italics added) Te idea o being unsatisfied with the ood came to
the Israelites rom ldquothe rabblerdquo Who was the rabble Maybe it was someo the Israelites Perhaps not Te text is not clear
What is clear is that once the Israelite people were established in
Palestine the ultimate makeup o that nation included great numbers
o people who were not Abrahamrsquos biological descendants who were
taken into the covenant along the way Tis means that although it was
not a very strong part o Israelrsquos sel-understanding it was part o Is-
raelrsquos lived experience Godrsquos people add others Godrsquos people are open
to membership1048631
But that is not a missionary witness to the nations Nor is it a witness
to the nations when in Isaiah a ew prophecies are directed to Cyrus or
when in Amos words o condemnation are directed to all the neighbor
nations Te literary orm o an address to that other nation or ruler
6O course when a term was not used very ofen we cannot be absolutely sure about its exact
meaning7Te question arises as to how the Old estamentrsquos war stories relate to the theme o incorporat-
ing outsiders I we read Joshua and Judges superficially we have the impression that the Israel-
ites came into the land and took over the whole place right away by killing everybody But i we
look more careully at some o the texts it clearly does not say that Both books repeatedly talk
about people they had not exterminated and that the Israelites then incorporated Despite the
impression in Joshua o a finished battle hal o Jerusalem still belongs to the other people So
there was a long period o infiltration
Moreover the holy war was more o a guiding symbolic vision than it was a technique or
becoming a people Americans are taught in high school to think that their nation became a
nation because o a revolutionary war In reality the war was an episode in a long history o
becoming more loosely related to Britain the real elements o nationhood came beore andafer Similarly the peoplehood o Israel was less dependent on those holy wars than a superfi-
cial reading o Joshua and Judges makes one think
Yet these stories also mark a point at which Israelrsquos sel-understanding did not include an
affirmation o other people In terms o mission however as long as we are ready to destroy any
other people we cannot be missionary Tat is sel-evident
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
does not actually mean that the prophet ever took the message there
and the impact o the message is clearly directed at a Hebrew audience
Jonah took a message to Nineveh but that was not the proclamation oGodrsquos law When the Ninevites repented there is no indication that they
began bringing sacrifices to Jerusalem or stopped eating pork Johannes
Blauw makes this point when he says that the attitude toward the Gen-
tiles in the Old estament is ldquocentripetalrdquo that although the Israelitersquos
vision is universal in that it affirmed that there is only one God o the
whole world their universality is not missionary1048632
Even i we look at the vision o the nations coming to Jerusalemwhich as we saw above is the most dramatic and widely used image
what convinces the nations is Israelrsquos restoration by an act o Yahweh
Te nations are not brought in because missionaries are sent to them
either with a Jewish message or with a wider than Jewish message about
Godrsquos sovereignty Te part that Israel has to play in ulfilling the promise
that the nations will come is simply to wait and keep the law even at the
cost o suffering Harold Rowley represents the typical view that con-
verting Gentiles to Israelrsquos religious practice is not a strong concern in
the Old estament ldquoTey are not missionaries seeking to win the na-
tions to the aith o Jehovah but rather men who are so moved with
gratitude to God or all His goodness to them that they can think o no
worthier way o acknowledging His goodness than to tell all men about
him But this was born o their sense o what they owe to God rather
than any compassion or the Gentilesrdquo1048633 Even when the vision is the
most affirmative as in Isaiah 983090 and Micah 1048628 what people come to learn
is Godrsquos law or the nations not the aith o Israel Tey do not adopt the
cult temple sacrifice circumcision or even Sabbath observance what
they do is go home to live in peace
Tis Old estament imagery shows no thought about the lostness o
8See Johannes Blauw Te Missionary Nature o the Church A Survey o the Biblical Teology o Mis-
sion (New York McGraw-Hill 1048625983097983094983090) pp 1048627983096-10486281048625 [For Blauw the Old estament has a centripetal view o mission in that the nations and aithul Jews come to Jerusalem to experience God With
Jesus a directional change occurs in that his disciples go rom Jerusalem to the nations what
Blauw calls centriugal mission mdashEd]9[Harold Henry Rowley Te Missionary Message o the Old estament (London Te Carey Press
10486259830971048628983093) p 1048627983094 mdashEd]
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament
first thing they were supposed to do was to be aithul Anything else
that they could be used or was dependent on that vision Distinctness
was the first call not out o pride but out o the awareness o the natureo the God who called
Numbers 983090983090ndash9830901048628 tells the story o King Balakrsquos effort to hire a prophet
to curse the Israelites Tis is part o the prophet Balaamrsquos message
ldquoHow can I curse whom God has not cursed How can I denounce those
whom the L983151983154983140 has not denounced For rom the top o the crags I see
him rom the hills I behold him Here is a people living alone and not
reckoning itsel among the nationsrdquo (Num 9830901048627983096-983097) Tat kind o pro-phetic aloneness that willingness to be different is the first requirement
or Israel
Israel is to live up to the covenant Tere shall be no idolatry Te Old
estament reflects a continuing critique o settling into nationhood
kingship and statehood and o orgetting Godrsquos ways In the exile the
texts evidence a continuing hope in covenantal promises despite the
loss o nationhood and statehood Tere is trust o the Servantmdashthat his
servanthood is nonviolent and that his submissiveness will be the tool o
election An understanding o peoplehood has emerged that can lay the
groundwork or something new to happen in the New estament