매력적인 하나님 나라 선교사 공동체

An Attractive Missionary Community of the Kingdom of God ―A Study on Inheriting and Developing the Evangelism Message of the1910 World Missionary Conference

In the official messages of the 1910 World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh, particularly in the message to the members of the Christian church in non-Christian lands, one reads that “the word that under God convinces your own people must be your word; and the life which will win them for Christ must be the life of holiness and moral power.” It is a call for holistic evangelism; evangelism with both words and deeds. In 1953, John Bright resonated with the notion that we have only one gospel, the gospel of the kingdom of God, instead of two gospels, social and personal. The social gospel and the personal gospel are two aspects of the same thing. They are intimate to each other. Based on the message quoted above, the author builds new ecclesiology; the church as an attractive missionary community of the kingdom of God. In chapter II, the author regards the church as an attractive showcase for the kingdom of God. The church cafe is now in fashion in Korea. The author suggests that a coffee bar or tea bar (not a wine bar or cocktail bar) within the cafe would stimulate a new and acceptable kind of missionary activity in the church. In other words, they could be an effective place for evangelism, especially to the lonely. In chapter III, the author takes Howard A. Snyder's following question seriously. “What can we learn to help us develop the kind of Christian communities in which it becomes unnecessary to put the word missional before the word church?” As a result of pondering on the question, the author treats the church as a missionary community of the kingdom of God. There should be two kinds of missionaries. One is the official missionary of the church along with supporting mission structures. The other is the unofficial missionary of the Kingdom of God. The latter is a broader concept than the former, but broad enough to include the former. It seems that church leaders literally follow Jesus' first call of being fishers of humans. Because of this church leaders tend to confine their members within a hemmed-in fish farm. Jesus asks us to feed his sheep, not his fish. Sheep are healthy when they are allowed to freely go in and out of their barn. A flock of sheep do not run away easily as long as they are with their good shepherd. Although they eat hay at times in the barn, they are happy when they take fresh grass in pasture land. So also do church members. Of course, the barn represents the church and the pasture land symbolizes the kingdom of God.