Integral Mission Blog

Many followers of Jesus in the United States long for more than what they are currently experiencing in the community of the church. In fact, many are regularly seeking new experiences of worship or teaching or healing that will bring the kind of life and connection they sense they are missing. The unfortunate result of this search is that increasing numbers of United States churches have turned their focus further inward, examining the structure of their liturgy, the quality of their worship, the extent of their “sacrifice” of devotion, etc. This reflection is good and worthwhile, but it is often done as if the members of the church all live in a vacuum – as if the society and world outside the doors of the church do not exist. It seems that the working belief is that each person’s personal submission to Jesus as Lord of the Universe is simply to accomplish salvation for each individual soul. Discipleship, in this environment, simply means leading individual Christians to develop a heart that is internally “right” with God as well as growing in personal obedience which is manifested in their own life and relationships. In many churches and therefore in many Christians’ minds, this is what salvation, righteousness, and community have come to mean.

The isolation and affluence with which many North American Christians live has blinded us to the way most other followers of Jesus live around the world today, has reduced the mission of the church to something mostly unrecognizable to Christians world-wide, and has eroded the North American church’s view of the Gospel itself. What this has left is an anemic, privatized version of a faith that in the words of Tom Sine, an American author and futurist, is little more than “the American Dream with a little Jesus overlay”. At first, this may seem a harsh critique. But as we open our eyes to what God is doing in his church worldwide, we have to begin to wonder why churches in the United States begin to feel so inwardly focused and irrelevant to society and the rest of the global community by comparison. The kind of transformational life and vitality that so many of us long for seems so often to escape North American Christ-followers. Many churches in the United States (especially mainline protestant “evangelical” churches) have become proficient in proclaiming and living an excessively privatized gospel. To the extent that this “gospel” engages the surrounding culture at all, it often does so through an extremely narrow “values” agenda that rings more like discord than good news. Though there are many reasons for this, and many contributing factors, this essay begins with this statement, this negative critique, as an assumption.

Continue reading "Solidarity for Kingdom Mission in the Americas" »

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‘Miraculous’ is a word Christians use with caution. When someone who is not a Christian deliberately uses it in speaking to Christians, our ears prick up. Ann Pettifor spoke in May 2003 about the Jubilee 2000 Campaign as ‘miraculous.’ She was speaking at a time of Prayer, Reflection and Music, part of the ‘Day to Remember’ 5 years after 70,000 people gathered in Birmingham to call for radical debt cancellation. Ann is well qualified to speak about the campaign for she led it and is still much involved in the follow up movement, Jubilee Debt Campaign.

Ann spoke of how on several occasions the campaign had no money left in the bank with bills coming in. Just then a large cheque would arrive and the campaign continued. She described being in New York in September 1999, deeply disillusioned with the lack of progress, and abandoning her team to have a coffee and a moan with a friend. In the café CNN was showing live as President Clinton came to Press Conference to deliver probably yet another bland reassurance that something would be done at some time. Instead he simply said that the U.S. would no longer take any debt payments from the most heavily indebted poor countries. Ann was dumbfounded. Later she heard that the U.S. Treasury had refused to back such a move, and Clinton’s presidential aides advised against it. He was still working on his speech as he went to the Press Conference. Ann saw his dramatic announcement as ‘miraculous.’

The event in 2003 felt much less than a miracle, more a damp squib. 5 years before the human chain had easily circled inner Birmingham in midsummer sunshine. 5 years on we only just managed to circle the small Cathedral precinct in persistent drizzle. The Mothers Union were well represented along with the mainstream churches. Homemade red chains adorned the railings and whistles were blown as we held hands and sang “We shall overcome.” It was a cheerful remembrance but we were aware how insignificant we now were. A few people asked what we were doing and why so many people were wearing rainbow coloured scarves. The Press kept away.

Michael Taylor, former Director of Christian Aid, spoke of sustainability. Can we keep campaigning even now? Less than 20% of the debt has been cancelled - not enough. Even Uganda who has had more debt cancelled than any other country still pays huge amounts in debt repayments. Virtually nothing has been achieved since 1999. With the price of many commodities falling, the problem is growing worse again. Michael Taylor encouraged us to keep going in friendship with people across the world. He recalled being in a village in India where there is no significant debt problem. The women were working on several problems of their own, including a home brew seller who enticed the men to spend too much on beer, and landowners who didn’t pay fair wages. But they were also travelling far and wide, further than they had been in their lives, to gather signatures for the debt petition. Michael asked them why. “Because we want to stand with our sisters in Africa” they replied.

The campaign has indeed been taken to heart in Africa. Many African countries now have organisations bringing together faith groups and NGOs to campaign for debt cancellation and to monitor closely money that has been released through debt cancellation. People are more involved in scrutinising national and local governments. A culture of accountability is being built up. The Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa has moved on from talking about unpayable debt to illegitimate debt - debt incurred by former corrupt leaders for which the present generation should not be held responsible. Responsibility lies more with the lenders who knew the kind of people they were lending to and what the money would be used for.

Africa and Britain took the Jubilee Campaign to heart. Europe however did not. After Birmingham 1998 came Cologne 1999. Great crowds were expected and the town was saturated with police. Thousands of Brits went over for the day. But numbers from Germany, France and other mainland countries were small. The G8 leaders announced the debt cancellation they had been working on since Birmingham, but probably breathed a sigh of relief that they could leave it at that. By the time of the 2001 Genoa meeting, the debt protestors had been swamped by violent anti-capitalists.

It seems that there is little more to expect from world leaders. The Americans suddenly started talking about debt cancellation for Iraq, but, as a Christian Aid spokesman pointed out, this is probably because the debt is owed mostly to France and Russia. George Bush is not sympathetic to debt cancellation, and for him to go against his advisors it would take a miracle of miracles. The European leaders do not have a popular groundswell behind them. There is talk of an annual World Debt Day to provide a focus for the ongoing campaign, but if this is only in Britain and Africa, what impact will it have?

2005 was the year to ‘Make Poverty History,’ with the UK hosting the G8 meetings again as well as holding the Presidency of the European Union. Once again British Christians turned out in great numbers for a pleasant, sunny, protest, this time in Edinburgh. Once again other people stayed away. Bob Geldorf attracted thousands to London for a concert, but hardly anyone to Edinburgh for the real protest. It seems that a little more debt has been cancelled but all the campaigners say it is too little.

Is it now time to be more radical? We have spent years calling on the lenders to cancel debts, could we not now help the borrowers to think about not paying the debts? If these are debts which God has shown us are not only unpayable but are also illegitimate, could we not follow His Word rather than the accepted financial conventions? Ann Pettifor pointed out that periodic cancellation of debt is a Biblical principle. We could be more radical in putting this into practice.

A common approach to personal debt in this country is for a debt counsellor to calculate what an individual can afford to pay in debt repayments, and to tell the creditor that they can have this amount or nothing. Could we not move towards setting up some kind of body to make these calculations for any country that wanted to avail itself of this approach? This International Body would calculate how much a country can reasonably afford to pay in debt servicing. The country would then pay this amount and no more. If the creditors tried punitive action, the International Body, and its contributing members, would help the debtor country as much as they could.

Jubilee Debt Campaign is working on a procedure for insolvency for countries which is similar to this idea but which depends on the unlikely agreement of all parties. It is high time we at least talked about a more radical approach. We cannot force any country to take any particular course of action but we could invite them to think about it with us. We could offer to campaign on behalf of any country which decided to default. We could encourage coalitions of defaulters to support each other. We could help to calculate the effects of any trade embargo against defaulters, and how the effects could be alleviated. (Most of what the West provides for Africa could now be provided by or through India or China.) We could at least commit ourselves to start talking like this unless the creditors offer more cancellation over the next 2 years. We could stand with those countries who decided to follow the God of the Bible and of miracles rather than the financial institutions of the Western Empire.

Roger Harper
May 2003 and May 2006

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A letter from the US Conference for the World Council of Churches to the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches
Porto Alegre, Brazil
Saturday 18 February, 2006

Grace to you and peace from God the Holy Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. As leaders from the World Council of Churches member communions in the United States we greet the delegates to the 9th Assembly with joy and gratitude for your partnership in the Gospel in the years since we were last in Harare. During those years you have been constant in your love for us. We remember in particular the ways you embraced us with compassion in the days following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina just months ago. Your pastoral words, your gifts, and your prayers sustained us, reminding us that we were not alone but were joined in the Body of Christ to a community of deep encouragement and consolation. Even now you have welcomed us at this Assembly with rich hospitality. Know that we are profoundly grateful.

Yet we acknowledge as well that we are citizens of a nation that has done much in these years to endanger the human family and to abuse the creation. Following the terrorist attacks you sent “living letters” inviting us into a deeper solidarity with those who suffer daily from violence around the world. But our country responded by seeking to reclaim a privileged and secure place in the world, raining down terror on the truly vulnerable among our global neighbors. Our leaders turned a deaf ear to the voices of church leaders throughout our nation and the world, entering into imperial projects that seek to dominate and control for the sake of our own national interests. Nations have been demonized and God has been enlisted in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous. We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights. We mourn all who have died or been injured in this war; we acknowledge with shame abuses carried out in our name; we confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to deter our leaders from this path of preemptive war. Lord, have mercy.

The rivers, oceans, lakes, rainforests, and wetlands that sustain us, even the air we breathe continue to be violated, and global warming goes unchecked while we allow God’s creation to veer toward destruction. Yet our own country refuses to acknowledge its complicity and rejects multilateral agreements aimed at reversing disastrous trends. We consume without replenishing; we grasp finite resources as if they are private possessions; our uncontrolled appetites devour more and more of the earth’s gifts. We confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to call our nation to global responsibility for the creation, that we ourselves are complicit in a culture of consumption that diminishes the earth. Christ, have mercy.

The vast majority of the peoples of the earth live in crushing poverty. The starvation, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the treatable diseases that go untreated indict us, revealing the grim features of global economic injustice we have too often failed to acknowledge or confront. Our nation enjoys enormous wealth, yet we cling to our possessions rather than share. We have failed to embody the covenant of life to which our God calls us; hurricane Katrina revealed to the world those left behind in our own nation by the rupture of our social contract. As a nation we have refused to confront the racism that exists in our own communities and the racism that infects our policies around the world. We confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to call our nation to seek just economic structures so that sharing by all will mean scarcity for none. In the face of the earth’s poverty, our wealth condemns us. Lord, have mercy.

Sisters and brothers in the ecumenical community, we come to you in this Assembly grateful for hospitality we don’t deserve, for companionship we haven’t earned, for an embrace we don’t merit. In the hope that is promised in Christ and thankful for people of faith in our own country who have sustained our yearning for peace, we come to you seeking to be partners in the search for unity and justice. From a place seduced by the lure of empire we come to you in penitence, eager for grace, grace sufficient to transform spirits grown weary from the violence, degradation, and poverty our nation has sown, grace sufficient to transform spirits grown heavy with guilt, grace sufficient to transform the world. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Amen.

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by Brian McLaren

I wish that C. Rene Padilla were wrong in his article "Why Do People Hate Americans?" But my experience traveling widely over the last decade requires that I say, with sadness, that he is right.

When I hear my fellow Americans discuss this question, they have very different answers from Rene’s. “They are just jealous of our success,” is the most frequent response I hear. “We have worked hard and become powerful and prosperous, and so they resent us.” Perhaps there is some truth to this diagnosis in some cases, although the psychology assumed by this defense doesn’t make sense to me. For example, I believe that Costa Rica has great natural beauty, that France and Greece have extraordinary cultural treasures, that Canadians and Brits have a tremendous sense of humor, that South Africa has charted an amazing course of truth and reconciliation over the last decade. Their extraordinary features don’t make me hate them or resent them, but rather appreciate and admire them.

“They’re just jealous of my strength,” sounds like exactly the kind of thing the bully in Rene’s school might have said to comfort himself when the nice kids in the class didn’t invite him to their birthday parties.

One of the most important books I read in 2005 was Richard T. Hughes’ Myths America Lives By (Univ. of Illinois, 2003). This professor of religion from Pepperdine University details six myths that have arisen over our history, myths that may have a grain of truth to inspire, but also have great power to self-deceive. They are:
1. The Myth of the Chosen Nation
2. The Myth of Nature’s Nation
3. The Myth of the Christian Nation
4. The Myth of the Millennial Nation
5. The Mythic Dimensions of American Capitalism
6. They Myth of the Innocent Nation

Supported by a range of quotes from the founding fathers to our current president, the book argues that America has “absolutized its myths” and as a result has entered, or is at great risk of entering, a deep state of denial or willed ignorance about “the suffering that American policies might inflict on poor and dispossessed people in other parts of the world.” He calls for “a true revolution of American values” which will “encourage Americans to see the world through someone else’s eyes, perhaps even through the eyes of their enemies.”

As a leading Latin American theologian and leader in the mision integral movement across Latin America, C. Rene Padilla is telling us what the North American Distinguished Professor of Religion Richard Hughes has also concluded. Until we move beyond an immature and unchristian defensiveness (strengthened, no doubt, by the “warrior trance” that has overtaken our country since September 11, 2001), and until we seek with great humility to see ourselves as others see us, we will not experience a true revolution of American values. We will instead become more and more entrenched in the myths that we have become dependent on – that some might say we have become addicted to.

I hope that increasing numbers of Americans will heed the Biblical call to self-examination, that we will recognize the dangers that the Bible tells us successful people and nations are particularly susceptible to. I hope that we will remember what the Book of Proverbs and James both say characterizes wisdom – notably, a humble willingness to listen to correction and rebuke. I hope that we will aspire to something far better than being feared as a bully. Rather, I hope that we will aspire to be a good neighbor in the global classroom … with a reputation for wisdom, humility, honesty, cooperation, justice, and the kind of strength that is displayed not in violence but in kindness and compassion.

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by Jim Martin

As a North American pastor I am often involved in discussions about what it means for the church to be the church. There are lots of versions of this discussion floating around. Some churches seem to hide within themselves. Some focus on Evangelism, some pride themselves on their "External Focus", some describe themselves as "Missional". And while I would not say the discussion among church people in North America is completely academic (I see many churches doing meaningful ministry), I would say that it has been somewhat frustrating and limited. It seems to fall victim to an all-too-common polarization. Either we have churches that are involved in evangelism and are concerned about the condition of people’s souls, or we have churches that are concerned with social issues like poverty and injustice. Seldom do we encounter churches that are willing or able to embrace both ends of this biblical spectrum.

As a pastor connected with some of what God is doing in Latin America, I have, for the last 10 years, been both humbled and inspired by what so many churches in Central and South America understand as the nature of church. Many of these churches have had to forge their existence in difficult environments. Systemic poverty and corruption are a fact of life in many places in the Third World. The claim that one has "Good News" rings much differently in an environment where human suffering is more pervasive and visible. There must be Good News for both body and soul.

As a result, one of the beautiful things the Latin American church has given us in the last half-century is a rich theological basis from which we can build discipleship and ministry which embrace the fullness of what church should be. For decades now, Churches in Latin America have been talking about the mission of the church as an "integrated mission". The following is a brief description of the concept written by a group leaders who have been practicing Integral Mission for a long time.

From the Micah Network Declaration on Integral Mission:
"Integral mission or holistic transformation is the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel. It is not simply that evangelism and social involvement are to be done alongside each other. Rather, in integral mission our proclamation has social consequences as we call people to love and repentance in all areas of life. And our social involvement has evangelistic consequences as we bear witness to the transforming grace of Jesus Christ. If we ignore the world we betray the word of God which sends us out to serve the world. If we ignore the word of God we have nothing to bring to the world. Justice and justification by faith, worship and political action, the spiritual and the material, personal change and structural change belong together. As in the life of Jesus, being, doing and saying are at the heart of our integral task."

This blog will seek to provide postings and discussion which explore this concept of churches bridging the divide and ministering to the complete range of human needs. We will seek to foster dialogue among church leaders in South and North America in an effort to promote Integral Mission not just in the Americas, but everywhere.

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