Biblical and missiological basis

In Genesis, the story of creation lays the foundation of a covenant relationship between God and the creatures God made. God promised to care, love, and sustain all the created beings in grace, while the created beings were to be faithful to God’s promises. All the creatures are dependent on the creator’s goodness and mercy.

Creation is also closely connected with redemption; God’s creation of the universe was the first act of salvation for all God’s creatures.

However, human beings who were created in the image of God became disobedient and fell into sin. Still, though sin permeated all creation, God in mercy called the people of Israel to show love. They were to bless all nations through the covenant relationship that called for the people of Israel to be faithful to God.

In Genesis 12:2-3, God said, “I will make of you a great nation so that you will be a blessing to all the families of the earth.” The mission of the people of Israel was to witness the truth of one God and to bring the justice and blessings of God to all people. For this purpose, God gave a mandate to the people, to proclaim the saving message to all people. The word often used in the Hebrew Bible was karah, meaning to “proclaim.” The word karah always implies proclamation of the message of God’s salvation to all nations and to every creature.

Yet the people of Israel became legalistic. They were more concerned with keeping the laws than being faithful to God’s mercy, especially after the Babylonian captivity in the sixth century before the common era.

To proclaim this message of God, to fulfill God’s plan of salvation and bring all people into new relationship with the creator through faith, Jesus Christ, the Savior, came to the world. Jesus proclaimed the message of salvation, witnessed to the truth of God’s love and provided the way to be saved.

Jesus’ followers faithfully spread his message and witnessed to Christ’s love. Early Christians, people who believed Jesus to be the Christ, assembled in communities of the faithful and proclaimed, witnessed and worshiped God. This worshiping community, the members of the ecclesia, was not confined in a building. This ecclesia was always an assembly of people that transcended national, ethnic, linguistic and cultural boundaries. The best example of such a church was found in the first church of Christians in Jerusalem. Here people of different nationalities and cultures were brought together into the community of the faithful by the power of the Holy Spirit through the means of grace.

The people of this assembly of believers did not exist for themselves but for the sake of others. They proclaimed the message of salvation, served neighbors and witnessed to the love, peace, and salvation they shared in Christ. This included not sitting still while neighbors were treated unjustly by an oppressive government. The Christian vocation is to bring others into Christian faith and to serve others.

Martin Luther emphasized this point when he wrote, “When a Christian begins to know Christ as his Lord and Savior, who has redeemed him from death, and is brought into his dominion and heritage, his heart is thoroughly permeated by God; then he would like to help everybody attain this blessedness. For he has not greater joy than the treasured knowledge of Christ. So he begins to teach and exhort others, confesses and commends his blessedness before everybody, and prays that they too may come to this grace” (Ewald M. Plass, ed., What Luther Says, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959, p. 959).

Despite Luther’s emphasis on Christians teaching and praying to help others “attain this blessedness,” many U.S. Lutherans today lack evangelistic zeal or knowledge for sharing effectively the good news with Asian neighbors or any other neighbors who are different in language and culture. Here rests the crucial dilemma of Asian ministry in the ELCA: Asian ministry cannot take place in a vacuum, but in the grassroots of human life where people mingle in business offices, schools, and gatherings of neighbors.

The ELCA’s good intentions for gospel-sharing with new Asian immigrants are often confined to plans, programs, and strategies of church offices. However, for Lutherans to be witnesses to Christ’s love, they must invite their new Asian neighbors to their faith community to share the means of grace of God. They must meet people of Asia and the Pacific Islands and be hospitable to these new neighbors in daily life.

Christians everywhere are to be salt to preserve God’s truth and be light to shine in the darkness of the world. Also, the theological basis of an ELCA Asian strategic plan is not only to proclaim the message but to be leaven to expand the whole lump of bread in a given place and given time. This church can be a place where diversity is leaven for renewal, reformation, and the building of a stronger church.

A church story: Singing songs of new life

[Singing God’s songs for Asian ministry can ring out far and wide in the ELCA when non-Asian congregations join in as partners in gospel telling!]

A Lutheran church in downtown Minneapolis went through the common transitions of most inner city congregations: declining membership, high cost maintenance of an old building, population change in the community, crime, and other inner city problems. One year, the police department even asked to use the church tower to observe the activities of neighborhood drug dealers.

Yet the congregation did not put aside their ministry and shift into a maintenance mode. They had a very strong tradition of mission involvement. Despite the new challenges at home, they were still supporting over a dozen overseas missionaries.

They looked out and saw that their neighbors included Southeast Asian people, more poor people, and more elderly people…and they caught a mission vision! They began to see their neighborhood as their mission field. Drawing from lessons and experiences they had learned from years of involvement in cross-cultural mission work, they now looked for ways to share the Gospel with their new Asian neighbors.

This new vision for ministry drew people together. Families drove miles to join congregational activities because they caught the mission vision and experienced being in ministry on their front lawn. The congregation was once again busy.

Now there was a large Sunday school with most of the students being Southeast Asian. The church provided an Asian women’s group, offered English-as-a-second-language classes, held contemporary worship services in the parking lot, and visited elderly persons in the nearby housing projects. This mission-minded congregation was doing more than surviving. They were doing ministry.