June 3, 2005

VALLEY FORGE, PA – American Baptists were among participants at the 2005 Conference for World Mission and Evangelism emphasizing "being and vocalizing the Good News" as essential to mission in the 21st century.

Meeting under a theme of "Come Holy Spirit, Heal and Reconcile!," the more than 600 attendees gathered at the former Olympic Village in Athens, Greece, May 9-16. The World Council of Churches-organized event represented a wide range of Christian traditions including Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, evangelical and mainline.

The week-long conference event included a variety of worship experiences, addresses, Bible studies and small group dialog and sharing. Workshops focused on such topics as "Refugee and Migrant Churches," "Missional Churches," "Living with HIV/AIDS in the Church" and "Reconciling Evangelism."

"One of the ways conferences such as this stretch many of us is the emphasis on the justice dimension of mission and evangelism," said the Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley, general secretary of American Baptist Churches USA. "However, what I missed at the conference was an adequate treatment of our mandate to invite others to follow Christ. As American Baptists we hold dearly both justice and the call to faith in Christ."

Medley was among several Baptist leaders signing a letter addressed to the organizing commission of the Conference, encouraging them to offer "a more adequately holistic treatment of mission that includes the importance of vocalising the Good News."

In part the statement notes, "Baptists tend to avoid over-defining themselves with reference to the creedal statements of the historic Christian faith though acknowledging and taking their full place within that tradition. However, the greater majority of Baptists, if not all, would wish to emphasise a firm allegiance to the mandate of the first Apostles and the early Church given them by the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ. This mandate is understood as a responsibility to take a full share in being and vocalising the Good News...of Jesus Christ with and among all peoples.

"...[Baptists] share with a number of other participants, including the evangelical and Pentecostal constituency, a concern for a more adequately holistic treatment of mission that includes the importance of vocalising the Good News and which does not shy away from addressing this question in the ecumenical setting of a World Conference. They have also wondered at times whether the discourse used with reference to evangelism has tended to over-emphasise the destructive consequences of evangelistic mission. While Baptists recognise these destructive elements in our own mission and that of others, we are convinced that such stories compel us to a renewal of our evangelistic mission practice rather than its abandonment.

"We encourage the Commission, in the future programme of the CWME, to consider how best to reflect this concern and to locate the treatment of appropriately vocalising Christian faith alongside the treatment of social, diaconal, and political dimensions of the mission task of the Church."

Medley joined in signing the statement with the Revs. Jan Edström of Finland, Darrell Jackson of the United Kingdom and Ole Jørgenson of Denmark.

The more than 600 participants at the conference summarized their experiences and hopes in a "Letter from Athens to the Christian Churches, Networks and Communities."

That letter in part reads:

"...The missional character of the Church is experienced in greater diversity than ever, as the Christian communities continue the search for distinctive responses to the Gospel. This diversity is challenging, and it can sometimes make us uneasy. Nevertheless, within it we have discovered opportunities for a deepening understanding of the Holy Spirit's creative, life-sustaining, healing and reconciling work.... In discerning the work of the Holy Spirit, we have experienced the need to return constantly to the roots of our faith, confessing the Triune God, revealed to us in Jesus Christ, the Word-made-flesh.

"In Athens we were deeply aware of the new challenges that come from the need for reconciliation between East and West, North and South, and between Christians and people of other faiths.... Halfway through the Decade to Overcome Violence, we realise anew that the call to non-violence and reconciliation stands at the heart of the Gospel message....

"Living in the Holy Spirit, anticipating the reign of God, called to be children of God's new Creation, we have also to acknowledge the troubled and confusing present. It is a source of pain to us to recognize that God's mission is distorted by the divisions and lack of understanding that persists in and among the churches.... The conference theme...has been a call to a humble acceptance of our own need for healing and reconciliation.

"...we have continued here in Athens the task of defining the kind of community God desires us to become, a community that bears witness to the Gospel in word and deed; that is alive in worship and learning; proclaims the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all; that offers young people leadership roles; that opens its doors to strangers and welcomes the marginalised within its own body; that engages with those who suffer, and with those who struggle for justice and peace; that provides services to all who are in need; that recognises its own vulnerability and need for healing; and that is faithful in its commitment to the wider Creation. We pray that the Holy Spirit will breathe healing power into our lives, and that together we may move forward into the blessed peace of the new creation.

Other American Baptists attending the Conference for World Mission and Evangelism were the Rev. Dr. Cheryl F. Dudley, National Ministries' associate executive director for Church in Community Transformation, and Natalie Hanna and Julie Justice, who served as stewards. Day-to-day commentary and impressions from the Athens gathering – by Medley, Dudley, Hanna and Justus – are available at "MissionBlog Greece" on the American Baptist Churches USA home page: http://www.abc-usa.org/.

American Baptist News Service