Introduction

This Report is written following the 3rd MIWC planning meetings held in Lusaka, Zambia over six days at the Justo Mwale Theological College in the Chamba Valley, Lusaka.   These were God-given days for all of us in the Project. It was a turning point that refocused our vision and expanded the commitment of the people who came from twelve nations representing NA, the UK, Africa, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

We met on the campus of the Justo Mwali Seminary situated along a dusty, dirt road beside a growing community of homes most of us would consider substandard.  We lived in small dormitories, each with desk and requisite candle for when the power went off.  The dorms formed two sides of a courtyard in which we ate in the winter sun.  On the third side stood the kitchen and showers, and on the other the Booth Center where we met.  

Our time was spent divided between meetings and off site visits.  We gathered from Australia, Kenya, Korea, Malawi, New Zealand, Nigeria, North America, South Africa, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, and Zambia.  The consultation was something none of us anticipated.  God showed us things we would never have understood staying in our contexts and cultures.  In creating opportunities to cross boundaries, allowing those of us from the West to be the minority needing to listen attentively, we heard God in unexpected ways about the challenge of mission in the globalizing, multi-narrative worlds of late modernity.   To make sense of why we came to Africa we must go back to the beginning of the project.

Co-Chairs Report #1 October 3, 2008

Japhet Ndhlovu, Neil Crosbie, Alan Roxburgh

Dear Friends:

Warm greetings to each of you in the diverse contexts of ministry around the world where we live and minister in the name of Christ.

It is hard to believe our meetings took place more than a month ago.  After the Lusaka meetings each of us returned to busy lives.  We determined that Neil, Japhet and Alan would co-chair the next stages of our work and shape the agenda around the steps forward we had agreed on together.  Both Neil and Japhet had to travel extensively outside their own countries in August so it was only at the beginning of last week that the three of us were able to arrange a Skype call with one another.  We appreciate your patience.

One of our first tasks was to personally review the Lusaka meetings.  Our common experience was that Lusaka had gone very well.  We achieved the community and communication we were seeking across a diverse, multi-national and multi-cultural set of relationships.  The three of us felt we were able to integrate “Western” and African voices thanks to the wonderful preparation and guidance of key people like Frederick and Jurgens.  We believe that Lusaka was a special event of potential Kingdom significance.  We recognize the responsibility and gift we have been given to guide this process forward and recognize the level of challenge this project will require of us all in terms of communication and the actual implementation of the decisions we made.  Thank you, each one, for contributing to making Lusaka something we might have dreamed of happening but probably didn’t imagine possible. The Lord was with us.

Gestuurde gemeentes is...

Gemeentes  wat hulle bediening wil  fokus op dit wat God besig is om in die wêreld te doen

• van hulle konteks.  Hulle weet dat Christendom- die tyd van 'n kerk met mag-aan die verdwyn is.  Hulle nie verwag dat almal rondom hulle Christene is nie.  Hulle kan die vraag Waar is ons? beantwoord.
• dat die Bybel en gebed hulle as individue en gemeente vorm soos wat hulle deelneem aan God se sending. Hulle laat God se Gees deur hulle werk en hulle bemagtig om risiko’s te neem ter wille van die Evangelie. Hulle is besig om die vraag Wie s’n is ons? te beantwoord.
• van hoe God rondom hulle en in die wyer wêreld besig is. Hulle leer meer van God se sending van die verlossing, herstel en versoening van die wêreld deur Jesus Christus. Hulle kan antwoorde gee op die vraag, Wat is God besig om te doen?
• dat God deur sy Woord en Gees met die gemeente praat. Daarom weet hulle hoe om te onderskei en te luister na God se spesifieke roeping vir hulle. Hulle ken hulle gestuurde roeping en is bereid om daarop met dade te reageer. Hulle is besig om oor grense heen uit te reik ter wille van die Evangelie. Hulle kan die vraag, Hoe is God besig om ons te stuur beantwoord?
• van hulle roeping om  ‘n teken en ‘n voorsmaak van die toekoms wat God vir die hele wêreld is wees. Hulle lewer getuienis van Jesus Christus in hulle uitreiksoos wat hulle ander uitnooi om burgers van God se koninkryk te word. Wanneer hulle saam as gemeente  is, is hulle ook ‘n getuienis van die Evangelie. Hulle is besig om die vraag, Hoe is ons as kerk nou besig om te lewe volgens die patron van God se toekoms? te beantwoord.

Third Annual Consultation in Lusaka, Zambia of the Mission in Western Culture project

(2-9th August 2008)

I always seem to require a week at least to both intellectually and emotionally process my trips to Africa and this time I asked myself why? I have come to the conclusion that travelling to sub Saharan Africa and really experiencing the enormous economic and social transitions that are presently going on as well as enjoying the natural hospitality of the African people is probably a picture of what it was like to move into London or Manchester during the industrial revolution of the 19th century. All around you watch and experience the disorientating effects of modernization while still enjoying, for the time being at least, traditional African values and ways of life.

Lusaka seemed to me to be much like Nairobi or Johannesburg. On every street corner there is much evidence of those who have found their way into the new world of economic success and social mobility juxtaposed with mind shattering and gruelling poverty and injustice. Dusty streets choked with exhaust fumes; women and children breaking rocks by the roadside; expensive new hotels and government buildings often sponsored and built by the new colonialists, the Chinese; sprawling shanty towns and piles of degradable rubbish. Taxi’s crammed full of people on their way to low paid jobs. Young boys forlornly endeavouring to sell plants or meaningless modern bric a brac by the roadside and everywhere, just under the surface of the vibrant hustle and bustle of city life, the daily pressure and ocean of sorrow and heartache associated with a worldwide pandemic, HIV/AIDS.

Modern Africa is a snapshot of what happens when the global viral economies and epidemics of late modernity invade, consume and explode from inside the settled, and to a certain extent more sheltered, way of life previously sustained through the agrarian economies and social hierarchies of traditional tribal society. The effects are devastating, more losers than winners, more problems than solutions, more challenges than available resources. What is being birthed, however, is the possibility of enormous new wealth creation and a ticket into to the 21st century. Progress? Well, maybe, but one thing is for sure we cannot stop this global march toward – toward what? To a certain extent that was what our consultation was all about.