November 14, 2005

WINDHOEK, Namibia/GENEVA – "We need the prophetic voice of Africa. Africa's spirituality is a gift to the world," said Rev. Dr Kjell Nordstokke, director of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) Department for Mission and Development (DMD). He was presenting the LWF Mission Document, ‘Mission in Context: Transformation, Reconciliation, Empowerment – An LWF Contribution to the Understanding and Practice of Mission' to the Africa Lutheran Church Leadership Conference, taking place November 9-14 in Windhoek, Namibia, under the theme "From Isolation to Communion: For the Healing of Africa."

More than 80 representatives of African Lutheran churches received the document 12 November 2005, committing to the implementation of its principles and aims.

European and North American churches are losing 6,000 members a day, while African churches are receiving 23,000 new Christian members a day. The growing strength of African Christianity means Africans are becoming more and more prominent within the worldwide Christian community, Nordstokke said. Africa already is playing a leading role in inter-faith dialogue. Africans have assumed important church leadership positions, as exemplified by LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko from Zimbabwe.

In his presentation, Nordstokke related the three sections of the document-"Contexts of Mission," "Theology of Mission," and "Practice of Mission"-to the context of Africa. While the growth of Christianity in Africa is a sign of hope, African churches are concurrently faced with an increasing number of members suffering from a new devastating poverty caused by HIV/AIDS, wars and people's displacement.

This context of African reality has to be connected to the theological core of the mission document, Nordstokke said. He stressed the holistic nature of mission, based in the three key concepts: Transformation, Reconciliation, and Empowerment. "These three key concepts test if you are truly in mission," he said. They have the special strength of being interdisciplinary terms, which are used theologically, and in the social sciences. Accordingly, Nordstokke urged the conference participants to seek exact authentic translations of the concepts in their own languages.

In practical terms, Nordstokke said, mission in Africa today means finding ways of sharing resources and defining new roles for Africa's mission partners, and for African church leadership in the world. "The taskŠis to proclaim hope, offer hospitality, resist all mechanisms of exclusion, and bear witness to values that defend human dignity and justice," he concluded.

The 62-page publication Mission in Context: Transformation, Reconciliation, Empowerment – An LWF Contribution to the Understanding and Practice of Mission was produced by the LWF-DMD. It builds on the 1988 LWF Mission Document, "Together in God's Mission: An LWF Contribution to the Understanding of Mission," and aims to encourage self-analysis and reaffirmation of mission in context among the LWF member churches and other bodies.

The Africa Lutheran Church Leadership Conference is being jointly hosted by the LWF and the three Lutheran churches in Namibia-the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Republic of Namibia (ELCRN); Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN); and the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN-GELC).

Lutheran World Information