General Secretary Randolph Nugent's Address
at the GBGM Board Meeting, Stamford, CT

The debate is still going on with regard to the actual beginning of the new millennium--whether it began at the stroke of midnight on January 1st, 2000, or whether it will begin as this year comes to a close. The doomsday prophets, having survived the New Year's Day past, will have a second chance for fulfillment.

But as directors gathered in the name of the General Board of Global Ministries, we know that this is our millennial moment. This is our last meeting of the old quadrennium, and the quadrennium to follow will be the first one of the new millennium. Thus we stand at a millennial cusp of both past review and future challenge.

In assessing our work over the past quadrennium, an appropriate review question would be: "And have they come to know Jesus Christ?" This is the critical, central, and crucial question of mission. In what ways have people come to know Jesus, and how have their lives changed as a result? Ultimately, it is the experience of new life centered around God in Jesus Christ that is the test for the validity of mission. Or, as Roger Whiteman, one of the lawyers for the Board, always asks: "How many souls have you saved today?" So a good review question for the quadrennium drawing to a close is this: "How many souls have been transformed in Jesus Christ as a direct consequence of the mission activity of the General Board of Global Ministries?"

Cooperative Collaboration

Since the Board has committed itself to being "in a partnership of servanthood with annual conferences"--working with them in those places where our mission is being conducted and advanced--the answer to the review question would have to come from the conferences and component churches that have benefited from their collaborative mission work with the Board. The report sent to you concerning our regional dialogues contains significant information about our new way of doing mission in cooperative collaboration with the annual conferences across the world.

Facilitating Mission

Throughout the past quadrennium, the facilitation of mission has been the undergirding theme for the Board's engagement in mission. Facilitating mission has focused upon establishing churches and providing leadership for them, thereby enabling others to hear the Gospel proclaimed and to know the God who comes to us in Jesus Christ. Leadership training for both laity and clergy has been a key component in making possible the proclamation of the Gospel so that all may believe and be saved.

Have they come to know Jesus? Clearly the answer is yes, as new churches have taken root to become communities of faith. And having come to know Christ, are they learning to serve Him? Clearly that answer is also affirmative, as more and more committed followers are learning to become dedicated leaders.

Building Churches

I am reminded of a wonderful story from the literature of the so-called "church growth movement." This story speaks directly to our own enablement efforts in mission. Back in 1881, the Rev. C. C. McCabe was on a train heading for the Pacific Northwest, where he was given the task of starting new Methodist churches in Oregon, Idaho, and Washington State. As he was reading his newspaper, he came across an article quoting a speech delivered in Chicago by the famous agnostic philosopher Robert G. Ingersol. In that speech, Robert Ingersol had declared: "The churches are dying out all over the earth; they are struck with death."

When the train stopped at the next town, the Rev. C. C. McCabe sent a telegram to Robert Ingersol at the Chicago convention where he was still in attendance. The telegram read as follows: "Dear Robert: All hail the power of Jesus' name--we are building one Methodist Church for every day in the year and propose to make it two a day! Signed: C. C. McCabe."

People who follow the history of camp meetings know that the contents of that telegram became a hit--a camp song--that was a favorite at camp meetings and Sunday evening services. The words bore this witness:

The infidels, a motley band,
In counsel met, and said:
"The churches are dying across the land,
and soon they'll all be dead."
When suddenly a message came
and caught them with dismay:
"All hail the power of Jesus' name
We're building two a day."

Nearly a hundred years and two generations later, during the singing of the closing hymn in the United Methodist Church in Algoma, Wisconsin, a man came forward asking to be baptized into the community of faith. His name was Robert G. Ingersol III. He was the grandson of the renowned agnostic philosopher. Then on a Sunday morning a few months later, the pastor of the same United Methodist Church baptized two infants. One was the pastor's own son. The other was Robert G. Ingersol IV, the great-grandson of the original! And somewhere the angels were singing: "We're building two a day!"

This story of mission evangelism in the past provides an important reminder for us today. One-shot or scattershot proclamation of the Gospel is not sufficient. We must prepare ourselves for the long haul, and we must be prepared to confront the obstacles faced by those who hear our proclamation of Christ. Such obstacles are far more firmly entrenched than the opposition sentiments voiced by a Robert Ingersol in an earlier day, and they will not be overcome in a simplistic manner.

Are We Making a Difference?

So many people today are unable to find easy release from the ills that have taken hold of their lives. Rightly we proclaim: "Surely God's yoke is light and God's burden is easy." But the same cannot be said for the reality of drugs, violence, racism, sexual exploitation, and the like. You read the story about 100,000 women brought to the United States in the last two years just to be sold for sexual exploitation. (They had innocently answered ads to be au pairs.) In Asia, the selling of women into slavery for "sexual pleasure," if that is what we want to call it, is the third highest moneymaker in that whole region, exceeded only by drug smuggling and gambling.

In this country, one in five children lives below the poverty level in our very affluent society. As followers of Christ, are we making a difference? What are we doing to change the cultural environment that makes such huge gaps between wealth and poverty possible? Those of us who would hear and heed the Gospel will find ourselves engaged in life and death struggles with others in the communities in which we live and in the world of which we are a part.

Laying a Foundation for Mission

The proclamation of the Gospel is not simply a matter of saying the words, no matter how boldly, confidently, and sincerely. It is also a matter of laying a very strong foundation for mission and carefully building upon that foundation so that all may not only come to know Christ but may also have life in fullness, and wholeness, and abundance.

To cite just one example, when weapons of war take the insidious and hidden form of landmines--becoming stealthy stalkers and potential killers of children, so that children are afraid to play in the fields or to help in the harvesting of food--then it is not enough simply to condemn the planting of the landmines. It is essential also that we participate actively in landmine removal. But even such active participation in landmine removal is not sufficient. We must also be engaged in helping to replant and retill the soil, sowing the newly safe fields with seeds of grain and foods for life. Even that is not sufficient. We must share the Gospel message with those with whom we have been engaged in landmine removal and soil cultivation so that they will comprehend the meaning of our replanting and the basis for our mission engagement. Those with whom we are so thoroughly engaged in mission not only come to know Jesus Christ but they come to want to share what Jesus Christ is to them. Thus mission expansion occurs.

God calls us as the church in mission to be both followers and doers of the Word of God in Jesus Christ so that the Gospel, in all its fullness, may become the reality for all to believe. Missionary leadership is committed to working in places with great opportunities for evangelization. Such opportunities exist in all sorts of communities all over the world. By providing a variety of service institutions, we pave the way for a full and broad understanding of the Gospel. Such church institutions have been set within communities both to care for special populations in the communities, thereby demonstrating God's love for them--even and especially those who are unloved and those who are considered to be unlovable- -and also to open the way for fuller Gospel witness to all other persons in the communities.

Through the General Board of Global Ministries, the United Methodist Committee on Relief has served those whose lives have been placed in jeopardy because of disasters arising from human or natural causes and other chaotic circumstances. Through such direct life support, the Gospel is proclaimed and exemplified as relief is given. This opens up the possibility for strengthening an already established church presence, or for establishing churches where none had existed before, or, in some cases, for reestablishing churches that may have been destroyed. Have the people in these disaster-stricken places come to know Jesus Christ? Yes, they certainly have--wherever in the world UMCOR has gone with help and hope in hand.

A major and vital special constituency of the Board, the United Methodist Women, have been the major support of mission for women, children, and youth. They have also been the prime movers in education for mission within our entire global denomination. Have they brought others to know Jesus Christ? The answer is a definite yes for countless children and youth for whom United Methodist Women have been the surrogate mothers, aunts, and big sisters; for poor and struggling women whose lives have been transformed by their discovery of sisters in Christ among United Methodist Women; and for the thousands who have attended mission training schools and events.

Under the theme of facilitation of mission, many new and imaginative approaches have been initiated. Many of these innovative approaches have already proved to be excellent ways for doing the work of mission, while other approaches are still too exploratory and as yet undeveloped to be evaluated in the fullness of their potential.

Yet, in my judgment, we have been moving in the correct directions and we must continue to move in those directions. Local church interest in mission has definitely been enlarged and expanded. Local churches are also participanting in the management of mission involvement. Such mission involvement has already resulted in a stronger and more significant mission grounding for the entire denomination. Through hands-on obedience to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission, all United Methodists may come to know Jesus Christ much better and much more fully.

Expanding Mission Outreach

An important mark of this past quadrennium has been the involvement of the General Board of Global Ministries in leadership development for mission in the local congregation. Such missionary leadership within local congregations comes at a critical time. Mission is now moving into a world where the prevailing view is that there are certain spheres in which Christian mission should not be present. These are places where Christian witness to the Gospel has been absent for some time owing to the political makeup of the world.

In the future, we will be walking a delicate line as we extend our mission into areas that heretofore have been the province of other religions and as we move in mission to people in lands where they have not been allowed to hear the Gospel, have been unable to hear it, or have not heretofore had the Gospel presented to them.

As we move in this mission direction, there will be those who react according to past perspectives about mission attitudes--or what might be called the proper ecumenical mission etiquette. There will be charges of proselytism, and the movement of mission in the direction we have chosen will be criticized and even rejected by some people. It is a fact of this ecumenical age that too many people are far more willing to compromise the Gospel than they are to proclaim it. They are far more ready to mute the Gospel witness in the interest of interfaith sensitivity than they are to magnify the Gospel witness in the interest of mission fidelity.

It must be understood, however, that Gospel proclamation does not imply either cultural domination or triumphalism; rather, it expresses faithfulness. Mission is not the domination of others but rather a proclamation to others and with others. Mission witness is neither taking unfair advantage nor is it speaking out of turn. It is simply being obedient and faithful to the direct commission of our Lord.

A story cited during Pope John Paul II's recent visit to the Holy Land indicates the difference between underhanded coercion and open-hearted proclamation. There was a young Roman Catholic couple who had saved the baby of Jewish friends who had perished in the Holocaust. The couple came to a young Polish priest named Karol Wojtyla (later to become John Paul II) and asked him to baptize the baby. The young priest asked them this question: "Would the baby's parents have wanted that?"

"Well, no," the young couple admitted. "The parents would want him to be Jewish."

"And so he should be," said the young priest. "That's the minimum we owe to the survivors of the Holocaust."

That story indicates the delicate nature of interfaith relationships and sensitivities and the need for serious probing of the relationship between fidelity in mission and interfaith unity. Too often, mission efforts have been blunted and thwarted by an ecumenical perspective that views mission as proselytism. From such a perspective, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Christianity would be limited and their outreach proscribed by geographical boundaries or cultural realities.

Just as the extension of our mission outreach must be expanded, so also must the depth of our mission message be given serious consideration. We are called to represent and share the Gospel in both extension and depth. Extension must be strengthened and validated by depth if those whom we engage in mission are to truly come to know Jesus Christ. It cannot be assumed that those who have heard the Gospel message have also given themselves to the Christ whom we love, follow, and serve. Thus, as we proclaim the Gospel in places where it has heretofore been unheard, we are challenged further to deepen our work and our mission. We are to proclaim the Word until all not only hear but heed. Where there has not been any proclamation of the Gospel in the past, the first task is to proclaim and spread the Word to all peoples and nations. But there is a further urgency to see that people respond to what they have heard. There is an urgency not only to make disciples, as the Great Commission commands, but also to help new disciples see and understand themselves as missionaries.

Cultural Concerns

Therefore, we must continue to strengthen our efforts to enlist missionaries from a variety of cultures. Today, in those areas of the world whose political context has placed them outside the West, mission is being conducted, for the most part, by persons from those same lands. The missionary effort is at its best when people are in mission in the same places in which they reside. The presentation of the Gospel is most effective when those who believe and proclaim and those who hear and believe come from the same place. The new believers come to know Jesus Christ more readily when they hear the proclamation as a neighborly and culturally familiar conversation.

Nevertheless, it is a paradox of the Christian faith that one also needs the witness of others from outside one's familiar geographic residence and culture to prevent too easy an accommodation of the Gospel to one's own cultural traditions. Cultural awareness is critical to one's hearing and heeding of the Gospel. One needs to hear the Gospel in one's own setting while not allowing the Gospel to be accommodated to the culture. To maintain that balance and perspective, we need one another.

Creating Faithful Followers

Have they come to know Jesus Christ? The unifying factor in all that is done in the witness to the Gospel by the General Board of Global Ministries is this: Jesus Christ being proclaimed, shared, received, and followed. This results in the changing of lives and, indeed, the changing of life itself. Our task is to dimension the mission and to develop myriad ways in which the Gospel may be proclaimed.

It is important to note and always remember that this task goes beyond witness and proclamation. The task is not simply to elicit a declaration about Jesus that will enable others to come to know God through Jesus Christ. The task is also to set up the structures and to develop the means whereby a regular and continuous response to God in Christ may be made. The mission task is not only to enable people to know Jesus but to further enable them to follow and to serve God in Christ. The task is not only to go unto all nations and peoples and make disciples; it is also to enable them to be faithful disciples. The task is both confessional and structural, involving declaration and implementation.

Sustaining Faith

Faith must be nourished to be sustained. Faith is nourished, supported, and sustained by worship--by corporate worship in the mutual and supportive company of fellow believers. That means for us that the task includes providing the buildings, sanctuaries, and worship spaces where such nourishing, nurturing, and sustaining of corporate worship can take place.

The buildings we provide may also be centers for extending worship into the living of a transformed communal life--centers that vibrate with activities for the whole community of believers: children and youth, parents and seniors. In such a manner, life itself becomes an act of worship, and belief is inextricably interwoven into the fabric of real life.

We Intend To Compete

The mission witness of worship in action and belief manifested in real life will take place in a world of many religions and pluralistic beliefs. The world's many different religions are seen to be, and indeed are, in competition.

Let me be clear: We intend to compete.

We have a claim to the Gospel that we cannot give up.

We do not have the right to give it up.

It is not in our authority to give it up.

It is not in our power to give it up.

We must never accommodate or compromise our mission calling.

Our task is neither to proselytize nor to coerce. It is simply to proclaim in Word and deed.

Our task is to plant the Word and to sow the seed of the Gospel. The harvest now and always is in God's hands.

Distinguishing Apologia and Apology

This Lenten season has been accompanied by uncommon and profound spiritual and missional highpoints. We are meeting at the unique moment of intersection between two millennia. Just over a week ago, Pope John Paul II made history by fulfilling a lifelong dream and walking where Jesus walked two millennia ago. His journey began with a penitent apology and ended in awestruck silence.

On the Sunday before leaving Vatican City for the Holy Land, Pope John Paul II made history on his own home grounds. On the first Sunday in Lent, in an act never before witnessed in the Christian world, the Pope made what was viewed as a public apology for the actions of the people of his church and for all Christians. He asked God's forgiveness for sins committed by Catholics against humankind over the past two thousand years. He asked forgiveness "for the divisions among Christians," for the "violence that some Christians used in the service of the truth, and for the behavior of diffidence and hostility sometimes used toward followers of other religions."

"For the role each of us has had," said John Paul, "with this behavior, in these evils, contributing to the disfigurement of the face of the Church, we humbly ask forgiveness."

Although the Pope shunned the mention of specific groups and individuals, clearly the Inquisition, the Crusades, and the long discrimination and persecution of Jews, culminating in the Holocaust, provided background for inferences on the Pontiff's words. Elsewhere in the Roman Catholic Church, cardinals and bishops echoed the penitential plea for forgiveness, including specific references to sins against Jews, women, homosexuals, and others.

Predictably there was reaction in some quarters, saying the Pope did not go far enough nor was he specific enough. Of particular concern was the Pope's failure to make specific reference to the Holocaust or to speak of his predecessor Pope Pius XII's silence (some say complicity) in the face of Nazi extermination of Jews.

In reading of these momentous events and knowing that I would be making this speech in a few days, I was struck by the marked difference between the words apology and apologia. And, in contemplating that difference, I was further struck by a definition of mission as "never having to say you're sorry."

An apology is an admission of error or of discourtesy. An apology usually means an expression of regret for a mistake or a wrong, with the implied admission of guilt or fault, with or without reference to palliating circumstances.

An apologia, on the other hand, is a formal defense or justification of one's opinions, position, or actions. An apologia implies not an admission of guilt or regret but rather a desire to make clear the grounds on which some belief, position, or course of action is based.

Applying these two words to our missional calling and task, an apologia is our justification for proclaiming and offering Jesus as Christ openly, unashamedly, and without qualification. An apology would become necessary for failing to proclaim Christ faithfully among certain people or groups or for not living lives consistent with our confession of faith.

In offering an apologia, we boldly and unflinchingly proclaim our message, offering Jesus Christ not only as the grounds of our personal belief but also as the grounds for our mission action. If we are truly faithful to our mission, we will never have to offer an apology. We will never be called upon to say we're sorry. For we will have been so unqualifiedly and unconditionally apologetic in the strong justification of our witness that we will never need to be apologetic in the confessional sense of penitence for having ignored, bypassed, refused, rejected, or abused any of God's children.

Have they come to know Jesus Christ? Yes, thank God. And we make no apologies for mission--true mission, faithful mission--carried out in such a way that we shall never have to say that we are sorry we didn't offer Christ to the people.

April 3, 2000

See also:
"Mission Loved and Mission Lived" Bishop Dan Solomon's Address at the GBGM Board Meeting, Stamford, CT
Church's Missions Must Be Christ-centered, Dr. Nugent Says, a UMNS News Feature, April 7, 2000