{"id":9240,"date":"2021-01-01T18:19:16","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T02:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.asiamissions.net\/?p=9112"},"modified":"2021-01-01T18:19:16","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T02:19:16","slug":"the-moravian-missional-approach-for-todays-missions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ewcenter.org\/?p=9240","title":{"rendered":"THE MORAVIAN MISSIONAL APPROACH FOR TODAY\u2019S MISSIONS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t

Juno Wang1<\/a><\/sup><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

INTRODUCTION<\/strong>
In 2019, according to the United Nations, there were 272 million international migrants out of 7.7 billion global population, that is, one in every thirty people was a migrant.2<\/a><\/sup> Today\u2019s missions of using ways and means of accomplishing \u201cthe mission\u201d which has been entrusted by the Triune God to the Church and Christians3<\/a><\/sup> is glocal. It is global in scope but local in action and in sequence 4<\/a><\/sup> because of the seamless integration between the local and the global,5<\/a><\/sup> which means local witnesses to have global ripple effects 6<\/a><\/sup> must be culturally appropriate.
Christ has called all Christians to be His witnesses to the world. He gave this mandate in Acts 1:8 which echoes the same word spoken by God in Isaiah 43:10-12.7<\/a><\/sup> Being witnesses means we are transformed and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and to obey our calling and the two greatest commandments wholeheartedly. We are determined to apply our faith to all of life and not to limit it within our church and own ethnic people. We are to follow the sacrificed Lamb for His Kingdom expansion.
The Moravian missional approach is the collective expression of transformed Christian living through their obedience to God and His commands to draw the people they serve to their communities. Every Christian is a missionary with Kingdom orientation and cultural sensitivity to engage the hearts focusing on Christ\u2019s death, the sacrificed Lamb. This paper will mainly focus on the Moravian missional approach we can learn from both the positive and negative aspects of Moravian theories and practices. It will then derive missiological implications for today\u2019s missions and sufferings and reflection. A local church can participate in glocal missions if we learn from the Moravians to quench the Holy Spirit no more and begin to act now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

TODAY\u2019S MISSIONS <\/strong>
The majority of the world is highly relational and communal, and it is God who brings migrants to live among us. The centrifugal missions as \u201cgoing-out\u201d shifts to the missions to \u201ccoming-in\u201d. 8<\/a><\/sup> Today\u2019s mission is local and global interrelatedly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Relational and Communal Cultures<\/strong>
Most people in the world live in relational and communal cultures. People in these cultures behave politely, act in a socially desirable manner, and respect others to maintain group welfare, unity, and harmony. Group opinions and actions, and psychological closeness are emphasized. Individual goals are coordinated with those of the collective, because group success is placed before individual credit or gain. 9<\/a><\/sup> It takes a long time to develop friendship in these cultures and view it seriously, because it includes many obligations and lasts a lifetime.10<\/a><\/sup> The cultural differences in the issues and structures of accountability cultivate fear and mistrust in relationships.11<\/a><\/sup> Conversion to them means transferring their identity and loyalty to a new community; therefore, it is important for them to experience the community prior to their decisions to join. 12<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opportunities<\/strong>
Every Christian is a participant in God\u2019s glorious work as His choice, agent, and pathway in His missional work.13<\/a><\/sup> Non-Christian migrants often have difficulties accepting Christ when they are in their mono-cultural homeland tied to traditional beliefs, but this attitude might be much weaker in multi-cultural cities. Once migrants accept Christ, they are the agents that not only reach their own people here and back in their homeland, but they are also the natural bridges to reach other ethnic groups in the host country14<\/a><\/sup> and wherever they go because of shared migrant experiences.15<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges<\/strong>
Missions without an outward orientation to others conceives an ingrown, complacent, and ethnocentric church.16<\/a><\/sup> The sin of Babel of rebelling against God\u2019s command to fill the earth, and cling to our own culture and reject diversity continues to plague us today. Being a missional church is an obedience issue because we will get out of our comfort and safety zones and engage the world as Christ did if we love like Christ.17<\/a><\/sup> This is the most significant obstacle for us to engage in glocal missions in the church, and the antidote is the Cross. In the New Testament, several words for \u201cwitness\u201d mean martyr, showing the ultimate form of witness is to lay down our life as a witness for Christ.18<\/a><\/sup> We must see our glocal missions from the Kingdom perspective and use that to expand His Kingdom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current Church Missional Approach
<\/strong> God brings to us the migrants who are relational and communal in general, but are churches willing and equipped to build relational bridges to reach out to them?19<\/a><\/sup> Under the possible influence of functionalism, all aspects of a ministry practically serve as functional acts for the survival of that ministry; therefore, missional approach is pragmatic and managerial. The focus is effectiveness and efficiency of doing the right thing and doing it right, and people could be seen as a number on a ministry or fundraising report. Since the eighteenth century, the entire Western missionary movement has been influenced by positivism.20<\/a><\/sup> The major consequences of positivism include distinguishing facts from feelings and values, rising individualism, rejecting all traditional knowledge as superstition, and valuing scientific logics and reasons significantly.21<\/a><\/sup> Nowadays, non-western churches are also under the influence of functionalism and positivism learned from Western missionaries and churches. This missional approach is seen as the right and only way to do missions of the Church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE MORAVIAN MISSION MOVEMENT<\/strong>
The most influential missionary effort of the eighteenth century was the Moravian mission. It was the fruit of the Pietism of the mission founder, Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700-1760).22<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf<\/strong>
Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf fully devoted himself to the Lamb of God and to the cause of Christian unity in all the world.23<\/a><\/sup> His education was Pietistic which preached Christianity as the religion of the heart. They declared one drop of love was worth more than a sea of knowledge.24<\/a><\/sup> Zinzendorf was the key person to formulate the Moravian mission.25<\/a><\/sup> In 1722, Zinzendorf responded immediately after a discussion among the refugees about the oppressive situation of the Hidden Seed in Moravia.26<\/a><\/sup> Zinzendorf provided his land in Herrnhut for refugees from Moravia, Bohemia, and other parts of Germany for religious freedom.27<\/a><\/sup> Through the centuries, these Moravians have suffered persecutions and dangers for their religious beliefs. Their suffering has prepared them for the risks of their missionary efforts.28<\/a><\/sup> In August, 1727, a Pentecostal experience renewed the missionary fervor in Zinzendorf. After that, the Moravians were prepared to be involved in worldwide missions. In 1728, Zinzendorf presented plans for evangelism in the West Indies, Greenland, Turkey, and Lapland. The very next day, twenty-six brethren responded to the call, and committed to pray and go unto the world.29<\/a><\/sup> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The World Missions<\/strong>
In 1732, the Moravians sent their first missionaries to the West Indies.30<\/a><\/sup> The Moravian missionaries particularly worked in remote, difficult, and dangerous fields for marginalized and overlooked people because of their suffering and experience of persecution.31<\/a><\/sup> In 1740, the doctrine of Christ\u2019s suffering solidly awakened the first Moravian convert. The missionaries contextualized the Gospel experimentally.32<\/a><\/sup> The Moravian missionary outreach focused on a disciplined life with a relationship with Christ, piety, and the fear of God.33<\/a><\/sup> To Moravians, the Holy Spirit was the only missionary, and missionaries were agents of the Spirit and sent to the people whom the Spirit has already prepared to hear their message.34<\/a><\/sup>
At the time when Protestants ignored the Great Commission command, the Moravians sent off their ambassadors for Christ to the world.35<\/a><\/sup> The sacrifice of the Lamb was the foundation of the Moravian mission motivation and message. 36<\/a><\/sup> That message was their story of the love of the Lamb.37<\/a><\/sup> During the years of 1732 to 1832, a total of 1,199 Moravians were sent to the fields. In 1882, while other Protestant churches averaged one missionary for every 5,000 members, the Moravian averaged one missionary for every 92 members. A total of 2,000 missionaries were sent to the world, 150 years after the establishment of the mission.35<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MORAVIAN THEORIES AND PRACTICES<\/strong>
Moravianism emphasized on the Holy Spirit for the work of soul winning and guidance in speaking and living out the love of Christ. Christianity was more than religious talk but to connect heart, emotion, and intellect. Their missionaries obeyed the two greatest commandments and the Great Commission of being His witnesses, preached Christ, and imitated His humility. 38<\/a><\/sup> They worked in humility at the side of ordinary people. The missionaries identified themselves with their target groups, and won them more through patience, love, and caring than through teaching and preaching doctrines. 39<\/a><\/sup>
Zinzendorf led the mission with Kingdom orientation and by his example. 40<\/a><\/sup> They learned to be faithful and endurable before they reaped any fruit, and also to be flexible for mission strategy.41<\/a><\/sup> Zinzendorf took the work of the apostle Paul as his model. He hoped for something new for world missions, and he was involved in several missions experiments.42<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positive Aspects<\/strong>
The Moravian mission stemmed out of their Kingdom orientation, obedience to the Holy Spirit, the two greatest commandments, and the Great Commission, and transformation by the Holy Spirit. The focal points of Moravian mission were Christ\u2019s death, cultural sensitivity, relationships with God and others, the role of the Spirit, and long-term discipleship.43<\/a><\/sup> Mostly, it was their collective expression in the transformational communities. They demonstrated a humility and simplicity that allowed peaceful and respectful interactions with their target groups, while most Europeans were intolerable to cultural differences.44<\/a><\/sup> They lived and worked as the servant leaders by Christ\u2019s example among the people to whom they were sent. They went out to share Christ not only in their doing through words and deeds,45<\/a><\/sup> but also in their being. These missionaries of the eighteenth century shared Christ in a culturally responsive way. The missionaries learned their intercultural outreach skills through their communities and people in the fields. They sought the guidance of the Spirit and did not rule over the heathen.46<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Negative Aspects <\/strong>
Zinzendorf said he preferred 100 fruitless attempts to none for the glory of God;47<\/a><\/sup> however, the lack of formal and structured missionary training paid the price for improper contextualization, religious syncretism, indifference to social justice, and an overemphasis on Christ\u2019s suffering. When the missionaries were mainly focused on preaching, they inevitably worked with an unjust system and ignored the broader social issues48<\/a><\/sup> which included slavery and the genocide of native people.49<\/a><\/sup> Their over-identification with Christ\u2019s suffering made them become inward-looking that decreased their evangelistic and missionary zeal which was later realigned.50<\/a><\/sup> The Eurocentric leadership styles and roles were extended in the structure of their Protestantism.43<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MISSIOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS<\/strong>
The Moravian mission is full of positive lessons for churches of all times to follow. Firstly, mission begins with transformation and empowerment by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, mission begins with prayer. Thirdly, mission is out of our obedience to the Holy Spirit and Christ\u2019s commands to lay down our life as a witness for Christ. Fourthly, mission is to get out of our comfort and safety zones and engage the world as Christ did. Fifthly, mission is for the Kingdom expansion. Sixthly, the Christocentric message is what the good news is all about because Christianity is about Christ.
Seventhly, mission to relational-and-communal cultural background people is through a relational and communal approach. Eighthly, church leaders need to have the vision for missions and lead by example. Lastly, relational intercultural training for congregations for today\u2019s missions should be mandatory, especially when we see migrants living in our neighborhood is related to glocal missions. A Kingdom oriented glocal missions worker needs to have the ability to acknowledge the differences, understand those differences at deeper levels, and appreciate or celebrate those differences,51<\/a><\/sup> and this ability can be learned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missions and Sufferings<\/strong>
The Moravians were average people like you and me, but every Moravian was on fire for the Kingdom through the enablement of the Holy Spirit and the love of the Lamb. On the Moravian seal is the Lamb carrying banner with a Cross. The Moravians followed the sacrificed and conquered Lamb. They willed to suffer for missions out of their loving relationship with the Triune God, obedience, and transformation. They were able to identify with the marginalized people they reached and lay down their life for missions. They crucified their comfort, convenience, and fears on the Cross to follow the Lamb. The missionaries relied on the empowerment and guidance of the Holy Spirit than their own strengths and skills. Their relational and communal strategy to live out the suffering of Christ and the sovereignty of the Lord in their being was culturally appropriate. Non-believers were drawn to Christ.
As for today\u2019s missions, the commitment and effort for a two-week short-term missions trip is much easier to fulfill our missional duty than a year-long local missions. Reaching migrants in our homeland is to cross cultural, relational, and other differences which is against our nature and ways of life. It requires us to go to Calvary daily to crucify our comfort, convenience, and fears and draw love and grace from God to love others. God commands us to love our neighbors and be His witnesses. His commands are not only for career missionaries and limited to our own ethnicity, but for all Christians and to all ethnicities as well. We are to love and be witnesses to all ethnic migrants living in the neighborhood. After all, the sufferings of laying down our life to love our neighbors is far less than what overseas missionaries have to contend with.
We are to witness that there is no other God besides Him (Isa. 44:8). That means witnesses should not have any idols of convenience, comfort, ethnocentrism, functionalism, and positivism. We need to examine ourselves and see if there are any idols that are needed to be removed for today\u2019s missions. It is a mission of living out Christ\u2019s life of suffering before preaching it. Suffering from being obedient to the Triune God is not a duty, but a joy and honor to serve and expand His Kingdom. It is out of the unmerited grace and love of God that we love the migrants around us.
Our God is relational among the Trinity and with us, thus we are created to be relational as well. We must uproot functionalism and positivism in our missional approach, and be the agents of the Spirit and relational with God and others. Above all, we need to seek the anointing and empowerment of the overlooked third person of the Trinity. Be transformed and obedient, and faithful and endurable. Let the Holy Spirit produce fruits from our missions. To get involved in today\u2019s missions for His Kingdom and glory, we need to get down from our tower of Babel, get out of our church\u2019s four walls, and follow the Lamb. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

REFLECTION <\/strong>
Whatever evangelism methods we use, Christ should be the center of the Gospel. People cannot be saved without recognizing and identifying with His life, crucifixion, and resurrection. That is the theology of the early Church. A transformed life begins with the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He is not just a savior, but Lord. If Christ is not our Lord, we still live and act by our flesh. Christianity is about Christ. Without a relationship with Christ, Christianity is just a religion or a ticket to enter Heaven. Furthermore, non-churched people would like to see how we live out the Christian faith we profess. They are not drawn to Christianity, because of the failure of Christian life to obey and live out God\u2019s commands. Most people are not looking for religion but love.
God calls us to love our neighbors who are like or unlike us. We should be like the apostle Paul who laid down his life every day in his missions (1 Cor. 15:31). Through our missionary lifestyle and intentionality, we reach out to the lost from far and near who are different than us outside our comfort zone. It puts us in need of the power of the Spirit to deliver us from our comfort zone, disobedience, fear, limitations, and all weaknesses. In humility and obedience, we trust the Lord to carry out His will through us by His grace and strengths.52<\/a><\/sup> It is the Spirit within us enabling us to gladly love others. It is in surrender of our will to a life of close following. Our spiritual life will grow in our obedience and continual relationship with God.
Some long time Christians have lost their first love, and they need humility, the work of the Spirit in their inmost parts, and return to a closer relationship with Christ.53<\/a><\/sup> We must be near enough to hear Him and ready to do His will out of our devotion to Him and His love.54<\/a><\/sup> Our missions work is more than learning a national culture and identifying cultural attributes; it is getting to know people and build personal relationships and trust.55<\/a><\/sup>
A Gospel witness must overcome barriers and intentionally engage with migrants living in the community. When we face outreach barriers and challenges, we need to fight the tendency to withdraw and isolate ourselves as individuals, families, or micro-communities. Withdrawn Christians are not effective witnesses in the community they live, nor to the end of the world, because they spend most their time within the church community not outside the church walls. Even though they would invite outsiders to church programs and events, non-believers often find it difficult to really understand what the life-transforming Gospel is solely from a Sunday sermon.56<\/a><\/sup> To live out the Gospel to relational-and-communal cultural background migrants, the body of Christ needs to actively engage with them in a relational and communal approach.
Relational intercultural training is a way to bridge the cultural gap and help us reach out to the migrants. It focuses on experiential learning in an interactive learning community and is relational. It is training in loving God and others, in doing glocal missions with intercultural outreach skills, in knowing to extend the Kingdom with multi-cultural competency, and in willingness to obey His will. The lost needs to have opportunities to see the transforming power of the Gospel and the outflow of God\u2019s love in action within the community before they would enter a church building. Let the Gospel flow naturally along relationship lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong>
Called, gathered, and sent are the three dynamics of a church\u2019s constituted life occurring simultaneously and continuingly.57<\/a><\/sup> The Church needs to recognize that it is God Himself who brings the international migrants to us, and we need to seize the glocal missions opportunities for the mission task that is in front of us. We must intentionally sacrifice our time and convenience to reach out to the lost who are different than us outside our comfort zone, and crucify our self-centeredness on the Cross to be His witnesses for the Kingdom. Receive intercultural training to improve our interaction skills and give us confidence to build relationships and trust with the migrants as part of the community, and to live out and share the Gospel in a culturally acceptable way. Let the fire of the Moravian mission continue to inspire and motivate churches for reaching the lost from far and near.
Have you been to Calvary for missions lately? Do you really love Him? John 14:15.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books<\/strong>
Blocher, Jacques A. and Jacques Blandenier. The Evangelization of the World: A History of Christian Mission. Translated by Michael Parker. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2013.
Bordas, Juana. Salsa, Soul And Spirit: Leadership for a Multicultural Age. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2007.
Boyd, Gregory and Paul R. Eddy. Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids, MI: BakerAcademic, 2002.
Carter, Alan and Katherine Carter. \u201cThe Gospel and Life Style.\u201d In Theology and Practice of Mission: God, the Church, and the Nations, edited by Bruce Riley Ashford, 128-43. Rev. ed. Nashville, TN: Academic, 2011.
Downes, Stan. \u201cMission by and Beyond the Diaspora: Partnering With Diaspora Believers to Reach Other Immigrants and the Local People.\u201d In Diaspora Missiology: Reflections on Reaching the Scattered Peoples of the World, edited by Michael Pocock and Enoch Wan, Evangelical Missiological Society Series no 23:77-88. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2015.
Elwell, Walter A. ed. Encyclopedia of the Bible. 2 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988.
Howell, Brain M., and Jenell Williams Paris. Introducing Cultural Anthropology: A Christian Perspective. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011.
Kondrath, William M. God\u2019s Tapestry: Understanding and Celebrating Differences. Herndon, VA: Alban Institute, 2008.
Lewis, A. J. Zinzendorf the Ecumenical Pioneer: A Study in the Moravian Contribution to Christian Mission and Unity. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1962.
Lingenfelter, Sherwood G. Leading Cross-Culturally: Covenant Relationships for Effective Christian Leadership. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008.
Martin, Judith N. and Thomas K. Nakayama, eds. Experiencing Intercultural Communication. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011.
Mitchell, Randy G. \u201cCase Study 5: Diaspora Missions in Minnesota: Local Actions With Global Implications.\u201d In Diaspora Missiology: Theory, Methodology, and Practice. Edited by Enoch Wan, 2nd ed. Portland, OR: IDS-USA:2014: 285-308.
Murray, Andrew. The Key to the Missionary Problem: A Passionate Call to Obedience in Action. Fort Washington, PA: CLC Publications, 1979.
Roberts, Bob Jr. Glocalization: How Followers of Jesus Engage a Flat World. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007.
Roembke, Lianne. Building Credible Multicultural Teams. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2000.
Sexton, Jason S. \u201cConclusion, Recalibrating a Church for Mission.\u201d In Four Views on the Church\u2019s Mission. Edited by Jason S. Sexton and Stanley N. Gundry. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017: 193-8.
Tiplady, Richar. \u201cMoravian Community, Spirituality, and Mission.\u201d In Global Missiology for the 21st Century: The Iguassu Dialogue. Edited by William D. Taylor. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2000: 503-6.
Terry, John Mark, and Robert L. Gallagher. Encountering the History of Missions: From the Early Church to Today. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2017.
Wan, Enoch and Mark Hedinger. Relational Missionary Training: Theology, Theory and Practice. Edited by Kendi Howells Douglas and Stephen Burris. Skyforest: Urban Loft Publishers, 2017.
Wright, Christopher J. H. The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible\u2019s Grand Narrative. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Journal Articles
\nGallagher, Robert L. \u201cThe Integration of Mission Theology and Practice: Zinzendorf and the Early Moravians.\u201d Journal of the International Association for Mission Studies 25, no. 2 (2008): 185-210.
\nPark, Hyung Jin. \u201cThe Journey of the Gospel and Being a World Christian.\u201d Torch Trinity Journal 13, no. 1 (May 30, 2010): 83-98.
\nSchattschneider, David A. \u201cPioneers in Mission: Zinzendorf and the Moravians.\u201d International Bulletin of Missionary Research 8, no. 2 (April 1984): 63-7.
\nTira, Sadiri Joy. \u201cGlocal Evangelism: Jesus Christ, Magdalena, and Damascus in the Greater Toronto Area.\u201d Lausanne World Pulse, (06-2010). http:\/\/www.lausanneworldpulse.com\/perspectives-php\/1291\/06-2010 (accessed September 26, 2018).
\nWan, Enoch. \u201cRethinking Missiological Research Methodology: Exploring a New Direction,\u201d Global Missiology, (October 2003). http:\/\/www.enochwan.com\/english\/articles\/pdf\/Rethinking%20Missiological%20Research%20Methodology.pdf (accessed November 25, 2017).
\nWan, Enoch and Sadiri Joy Tira. \u201cDiaspora Missiology and Mission in the Context of the 21st Century.\u201d Global Missiology English 1, no. 8 (October 2010). http:\/\/ojs.globalmissiology.org\/index.php\/english\/article\/viewFile\/383\/994 (accessed November 10, 2017).
\nYi, Kevin. \u201cThe Temptations of Using Your \u2018Calling\u2019 as an Excuse.\u201d Sola Network. https:\/\/sola.network\/article\/temptations-calling-as-excuse (accessed September 10, 2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internet Sources
\nUnited Nations. \u201cWorld Migration Report 2020.\u201d International Organization for Migration, United Nations iLibrary. November 27, 2019. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.18356\/b1710e30-en (accessed November 17, 2020). <\/p>\n\t\t

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