에큐메니칼 협력 선교에 대한 선교신학적 근거

Ecumenical Cooperative Missions

Korean missions in the late 20th and the 21st century has many similarities to the situation of world missions when the World Missionary Conference Edinburgh was held a hundred years ago. World missions, passion for evangelization or optimistic prospects, and the competitive missions methods among each denomination are all phenomenon that were seen at the situation of world missions a hundred years ago. In order to structuralize a cooperative system for a more efficient missions, representative of mission organizations have gathered, suggested, and discussed regarding various issues in Edinburgh a hundred years ago. Among them, when we look at the topics of cooperative missions, they contain a very comprehensive character. The three principles of self-governing, self-supporting, and self-propagating which aim at the self-reliance of church in the mission field, the effort to understand the cultural diversity and local culture, the awareness of the importance of educating local church leadership, and etc were the topics which had been discussed in structuralizing a cooperative relationship for world missions. The World Missionary Conference Edinburgh was a conference which clearly suggested and declared that world missions is not an activity done individually and independently by certain local churches or mission organizations but an action which is performed together through a cooperative relationship by world church and mission organization. After the Edinburgh Missions Conference, all world churches have affirmed the necessity and the appropriateness of cooperating for mission activities despite the differences in dogma, liturgy, church traditions and etc. The conferences held after then were conferences to find concrete ways in how the world church and mission organizations will actualize this cooperative missions. World missions movement which was lively developed in the early 20th century sought as its core topic, the cooperative missions based on the unity and union of church. The ecumenical movement which started in mission field believes in the unity of church and mission movement and that these two cannot be separated. This is the core spirit of the World Missionary Conference Edinburgh. World missions has been proceeded in the cooperative mode since the early church and up to today, the 21st century. Mission has the form of partnership mission intrinsically. Mission at the time of the World Missionary Conference Edinburgh had been performed based on methods of separating different areas. The church in the western church is a church which does missions and has regarded only non western area as its mission field. However, today we are faced with a situation where the whole world is a mission field and all the world churches are a church which does missions. Therefore, in the context of heading towards a cooperative missions in the 21st century, today’s concept of missionary must be “missionary co-worker practically.