This edition also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Church of the Nazarene in New Zealand (see Bennett). Latourette maintained an interest in the progress of the church in Asia and around the world.
REFLECTION ON HOPE John M. Nielson
It was in a few newspapers, but did not feature strongly in the dialogue. Dying grace.” It was not an expression of the impending escape, but his awareness of God's presence in the midst of the process.
WE SHALL REMEMBER THEM
The Growing Conviction and Commitment to Integral Ministry When we taught courses at ATS on theology and development 20
When so many of the people in the world are suffering from civil wars, famine or AIDS, we do not have the luxury of arguing about the exact relationship between evangelism and social concern. One of the characteristics of the Postmodern turn in the West is the reaction against the too spiritual piety of traditional faith and the. Andrew Walls drew attention a generation ago to the shifting center of gravity of the world church.
It didn't make it to the textbooks, and most Christians, including many of the best informed, don't know it happened. It is nothing less than a complete change in the center of gravity of Christianity, so that the heartlands of the Church are. Moreover, he points out, given the demographics and worldview of the majority church, the conflict will surely be "defined in religious terms" (160).
Economy, health care, ethnic and religious violence - these are the issues that form the context of ministry and mission for most people in much of the world.
The growing number and sophistication of Non-Govern- mental Organizations
Looking at the huge and widening divide between North and South, Jenkins says, it doesn't take a leap of imagination to assume that this will increasingly become the key issue of the new century. By the end of the century, the primary providers of services to achieve this goal were the scattered NGOs. World Vision, World Relief, Opportunity International are some of the larger organizations that provide relief and development services, but there are many others.
I noticed how often and easily these professionals spoke in the jargon of the professional development world, from which I was excluded for all my interest and education. An example of change comes from our friendship with David Korten, which dates back to our time in the Philippines when Korten was working with the Ford Foundation and I was teaching at ATS. There he emphasized how necessary it is to take into account the spiritual values of people in order to enable their full flourishing and development.
He now believes that the biggest mistake of previous paradigms was their failure to take into account the full context, material and spiritual, of people's lives.
For Missions and Development: The Best of Times and the Worst of Times
The rift between the theory of the Gospel and the practice of development is indeed as wide as it has ever been. And despite being carried out liberally with our textbooks and technology, the non-Western world has been resistant to this particular disease. Such activities can be valid and appropriate, they are indeed expressions of God's love and grace, even when they are not linked to a presentation of the Gospel.
Second, it is this triune and divine context of the world that finally gives coherence to the practice of both mission and development. This attitude of worship grows out of the Triune life of God, even as it rests in that life. But it is also asking their development work to be something other than what it is: it is a sign of the renewed kingdom of God.
Because it lies at the center and core of the Christian faith and therefore of our Christian identity.
Conclusion
21Tracy, "African American Thought: The Discovery of Framents" in Black Faith and Public Talk, Dwight Hopkins, ed. So to prevent Christians from insisting on this purpose and reason is to ask them not to be what they have become by the grace of God, people made new in the Body of Christ. This divine reality and the missionary exercise it requires is not something Christians can set aside or accept to temporarily keep secret.
Such forms of worship could find their counterparts in development practices, which enable communities not only to live and work, but also to dance and sing. Fragments from both our worship and our development can lead to new visions of the possible. They are certainly more compatible with the growing realization that development in the new millennium is "more about partnerships and joint problem-solving than about the generosity of the North after World War II". actuality of the explosive, marginal, liberating fragments of our many heritages” (37).
Note that this is not an answer to the challenges I have described; that's just my hope and my prayer.
WHERE ARE WE?
It seems to me that the solution will lie in the area of equipping pastors and other church leaders to become equippers of members of the Body of Christ in general to do service work. That NGOs of Christian orientation have increased in this way may speak of the failure of the church leaders at the local level to take this matter of equipping fellow believers to do service work seriously. Although some may be tempted to see this distribution simply as an expression of the church, it is not.
Professionalism, however, has taken control of the situation to the point that many at the local church level are afraid to take the initiative. Stating that only experts are somehow qualified to act in society certainly limits involvement. Many churches seem to be of the opinion that they cannot do any social action without money coming from relatively wealthy NGOs.
1 For evidence of the syncretistic nature of the religious scene in the region of Phrygia, see especially Clinton E.
THE GOSPEL AND SYNCRETISM
CONTEXTUALIZING THE GOSPEL IN COLOSSIANS
On the other hand, it drastically diminishes Christ's dominion over the universe and the effect of salvation he offers to the church. Paul's understanding of "mysterion" (mysterion) is rooted in the Old Testament and apocalyptic Judaism, not in the Greek mystery religions of the time. In any case, our main concern is the present form of the poem and its theological function in the letter.
The most striking flaw of the Colossian "philosophy" from Paul's perspective was that it undermined the supremacy of Christ. Paul's portrayal of the present reality of salvation in Christ also addresses the Colossians' concerns about the hostile powers. 158, who judges that "the paraenesis pays surprisingly little attention to the actual situation of the letter".
On the other hand, Paul's presentation of the Christian message in Colossians shows remarkable sensitivity to context. However, the contextualization of the gospel in Colossians does not focus on threats to Christ's lordship. Rhetorical theory gave an answer to postmodern epistemology in the theory of rhetorical perspectivism, an outgrowth of the philosophy of perspectival realism.
EITHER IGNORANCE OR SIN?
The Jews, though more decent in their understanding of a servant, had a limited understanding of the nature of dia What are the implications of this study of Paul's concept of ministry for the Filipino understanding of Christian ministry. Self-propagation is only one of the many topics promoted in the church today. Paul's understanding of ministry as serving the church will help the pastor to understand his role in the church. Every minister should seek the good of the church and not his/her own good. The well was dug many years ago, long before the Church of the Nazarene purchased this campus. Suddenly we were interrupted by the approaching screams of several mothers and children who lived in the small barungay at the back of the campus. The happiness they show and the smiles on their faces tell of the peace and joy they have found. In April, more than 300 Nazarene theologians from around the world gathered at Seminario Teologico Nazarene de Guatemala in Guatemala City, Guatemala, Central America, for the first-ever worldwide theology conference for the Church of the Nazarene. Stephen and Christi co-authored a paper on New Zealand memory, published in this issue of The Mediator. Floyd Cunningham wrote a short answer paper on memory and offered one of the most important endnotes on memory. David has served as editor of The Mediator, chair of several faculty committees, and the first director of the Ministry Development Center. Seven students enrolled in the new Masters in Theology degree program this first semester. One student is working on the Biblical Studies concentration, two students are working on the Christian Faith and Heritage concentration, and four students are enrolled in the Missions concentration. The degree will be of particular interest to those who wish to teach in the Bible, those who wish to prepare for missionary service, and those who wish to pursue doctoral work. With the departure of Rhonda Ackerman as campus nurse, the Board of Trustees appointed Jennifer Cacanindin, a registered nurse from the Philippines and current APNTS student, as campus nurse. The nurses' clinic was moved to the lower floor of the nursing home. On Friday, April 4, the Nielson Center for Education and Evangelism will be dedicated and the new APNTS president named. The first group of students includes two APNTS graduates, Ben Nacion from the Philippines and Alex Shipp from New Zealand. CALL FOR PAPERS BRIDGING CULTURES FOR CHRISTBIBLE COLLEGE Carolyn M. Bestre
Colloquium
