Mission as End and Beginning

I n his comments on John's Gospel, William B. Frazier reminds us, in the lead article in this issue, of "the massive role [jesus'] death plays in his access to the nations and theirs to him." This theme of the crucial significance of death in God's plans for the life of the nations is an old one in the Scrip tures, and echoes from the Old Testament in the life of Abraham. Frazier's "foundational probe," as he calls it, as to where mis sion begins, reminds every participant in mission that the path way to new beginnings for individuals and for groups may lead through the doors of death. It is indeed time for Christians in mission to gain some new perspective on death and eternal life in relation to the catholicity of God's people. The doctrine of the church has always been a battleground between the old and the new, and C. Rene Padilla examines some of the revolutionary implications of a new ecclesiology that has been developing throughout Latin America, particularly through the experiences of base ecclesial communities. Not only for Roman Catholics but for Protestants as well, these new stirrings have challenged traditional mindsets as well as church structures. Does this new ecclesiology mean the end of the church as many have known it, or does it portend a new beginning? As a Protestant, Padilla notes the irony that "most Protestant churches today fear the kind of movement that gave them birth or revitalized them along the way." In ecclesiology as in life itself, some dying may be the prelude to new beginnings. Africa has been the scene of burgeoning movements of church growth, as Norman E. Thomas points out, and there are factors at work in that continent that are significant to Christians around the world. Thomas's article examines some of these factors, and how they may cast more light on movements for evangelization and church growth elsewhere. This issue contains Harry R. Boer's contribution to our con tinuing series, "My Pilgrimage in Mission," as well as Dana L. Robert's presentation on the work of A. J. Gordon, in our legacy series. Although they worked in different generations and circumstances, both men display a remarkable ability to experi ence the essence of the missionary task and to communicate their enthusiasms to others in significant ways. In addressing the question as to where preaching the gospel begins, William B. Frazier replies: "Nowhere but in coming to terms with death does the preaching of the gospel begin. This is the way Jesus himself finally breaks through to the nations, and there is simply no other way open to his followers." Therein may lie a new beginning for all of us.