| April
2009 - Vol. 29
The Challenge
of Mission in Ireland Today, continued
Bishop Good,
in his address, agreed that there are now many more strident and forceful
voices in Ireland and elsewhere which are critiquing a Christian viewpoint
and arguing for a humanistic or even atheistic understanding of life. Religious
practice as traditionally understood in Ireland has declined and continues
to do so, and there is an increasing moral relativism that regards as unacceptable
that Christian ethics and moral standards should have pride of place in
the Ireland of today, north or south.
But despite
these challenges, Bishop Good affirmed his deep conviction “that this is
a good time to be alive, that it is a great time to be a follower of Christ
and that it is the right time to have Good News to share.” As much as at
any previous period in our history, people are in need of the grace, the
love, the forgiveness, the new start and the eternal hope which faith in
Christ freely offers us.
conference partidicants
God created
mankind for relationship, Bishop Good stated, and God’s acts of creation
and of redemption are the expressions of the depth of his love. Mission
is the overflow of our transforming encounter with God; it is not so much
our work for him but his work in us. Mission is the full breadth of what
God is doing in building his Kingdom among us – and evangelism is a key
aspect of that, whereby people are invited to allow the power of the Holy
Spirit to draw them into a Kingdom way of life, to forsake their old patterns
of living and their old values, to be adopted into a new life modelled
on Jesus Christ’s example of self-giving love.
Bishop Good
recommended a book about evangelism that had challenged him recently. Entitled
Just
Walk Across the Room by Bill Hybels, the book de-mystifies the whole
business of talking to other people about faith and shows that evangelism
can be an exciting adventure which doesn’t necessarily require great theological
expertise or special social skills. People do really appreciate someone
noticing them, taking an interest and wanting to find out more about them
– hence, the advice given in the title “Just Walk Across the Room.”
In his concluding
remarks Bishop Good urged his listeners to enlarge their sense of what
mission is – God’s activity in which he chooses to involve us. If we hold
exclusively to the approach of our own spirituality, whatever it
may be, we may well be limiting our ability to be more useful to God in
his mission.
“We can learn
a great deal from and be inspired by the evangelistic and mission style
and approach of others,” Bishop Good pointed out, “as long as we are willing
to adapt and apply the lessons we learn in what I hope will be for you
a life that is far from misadventure and much more of a mission-adventure
with God.”
During a time of questions and answers
following his talk, Bishop Good commended the communities for their willingness
to commit time to both live community life and be actively involved in
the renewal of their local churches as well.
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[Louis Power is a member
of the Community
of Nazareth, in Dublin, Ireland.] |
Quotes
from Bishop Ken Good
When
thinking about mission, we constantly need to be brought back to that bigger
picture in which God is the focus. He created humankind for relationship,
and his acts of creation and of redemption are an expression of the depth
of his love. They are his mission. Missio Dei is the Latin phrase
which places the emphasis on what God is doing, rather than us mistakenly
and presumptuously assuming that mission is entirely our responsibility
and that it is all up to us. As Jurgen Moltmann expresses this reality,
"It is not the church that has a mission of salvation to fulfill in the
world; it is the mission of the Son and the Spirit through the Father that
includes the church."
Any
theology of mission must be based on God himself. It is only when our lives
are centred on God, when we know that we are loved by him and have been
forgiven by him, when we are set free from our fears and petty preoccupations
and find ourselves swept up in his divine mission of transformation and
renewal, then we can engage more holistically and realistically in mission,
in his mission.
When
we are enabled to see the world more as God sees it, when we sense something
of his compassion and love, when we are moved as he is by the signs of
injustice, oppression, lostness, alienation, fear and pain in the world,
then can we engage more realistically in his mission.
One
of the things which impresses me about a large group of people like this
is the healthy range of ages, the variety of life experiences, from north
and south, and the assortment of church backgrounds and affiliations. All
seeking to serve Christ more effectively, you each have something positive
and useful to offer to the rest of us today.
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