NZR Edinburgh Weblog:Commission VI Utrecht, February 2011, Wilbert van Saane

Missionary Intelligence

Unusual as the phrase missionary intelligence may sound, it seems to cover an attitude the Bible recommends. It brings to mind such verses from Scripture as Colossians 4.5, which the NRSV renders as: “Conduct yourselves wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time.” Ephesians 5 echoes this advice: “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil.” (15 and 16)

Redeeming the time

The Greek word used for wisdom in both passages is, of course, sōphia. This word makes the apostolic exhortation reach back through the depths of Scripture right to the heart of the God, where sōphia lives and whence it is revealed. Unfortunately, missionary efforts often seem rather the opposite of that divine wisdom. Many mission-minded Christians lack depth and rootedness in God’s loving and compassionate heart, so that missionary efforts come across as clumsy and unintelligent efforts to convince others of some outdated truth.

There is another clue in these verses pointing to the meaning of the phrase missionary intelligence. Both verses encourage Christians to make most of the time. The Greek original actually uses a commercial metaphor here. Christians are called to exagorazō the time. That verb is related to the word for marketplace, agora. The King James Version retains most of that original meaning by translating “redeeming the time”. An extra dimension is added when we realise that the word for time here is kairos.

So what wise Christians do is first of all to “read” the signs of the times. They seek to understand and be in communication with their culture. They imbibe what their culture offers, so that they may be able to seize the opportunities that God brings their way. They are able to distinguish ever-flowing chrōnos from the unique moment of kairos. They are open to those special windows of opportunity that pass so quickly. And when such moments come along, they use the them as precious business opportunities, not to be squandered. They are ready to pay a price, to invest, to sacrifice so that the God-given opportunity is optimally used.

People with missionary intelligence are like Carmelite sister Maria Clarencia in the movie Sister Act. She is not a real nun, but a nightclub singer taking shelter in a convent, because her boyfriend-gangster wants to eliminate her after she witnessed him killing somebody. Maria Clarencia is a streetwise and reluctant nun. But when she finds ways to relate the spiritual to the profanity of San Francisco street life in the neighbourhood, she becomes more committed. She encourages her fellow-sisters to reach out to the community and to sing and speak the gospel in a contemporary way. Through this sister-singer, the neighbourhood enters the church and the church enters the neighbourhood. One short scene in the movie is telling. Sister Mary Clarence looks out from the window of her cell and watches young people on the street and realises she is separated from them by walls. From that moment onwards things begin to change: truly a moment of missionary intelligence!

Spreading missionary intelligence

The Edinburgh 1910 Conference interpreted the phrase missionary intelligence wholly in terms of the support of the “home base” for “foreign missions”. Missionary intelligence was viewed as a heartfelt supportive attitude toward foreign missions. Commission VI counted as necessary elements of missionary intelligence first of all prayer, then a basic understanding of the foundation of missions and the way missions are conducted and thirdly also financial support for missions.

Commission VI worked with an outdated and unjustified assumption of a “home base” and a “mission field”. Most historians commenting on its report do not fail to point that out. And indeed mission leaders today realise that the home base is everywhere and the mission field is everywhere. That critique of Commission VI is granted. What is often overlooked, however, is that Commission VI’s ambitious programme for the stimulation of missionary intelligence contains many relevant aspects for today’s church.

The members of this commission took a broad view of the church and concluded that many Christians do not feel involved in missions at all. That needs to be changed, because mission is a vocation for the whole church. Some carefully selected individuals have that specific vocation of (cross-cultural) missionary. Yet all are called to live, support, uphold and pray for the missionary ministry of the church.

If you want to be supportive of a cause, you need to be informed about it. That is why the study of missions is the main recommendation of Commission VI. Ordinary Christians should know what mission is and what it means to be sent by God. This study of mission is by no means an intellectualist matter. It is something that all Christians – men and women, young and old, educated and uneducated – should work on. Tools for the study of mission are literature, exhibitions, conferences, study groups. Had Commission VI written its reports fifty or a hundred years later, it would surely have included social media.

Missionary intelligence in Holland

In Holland, it was undoubtedly Ir. Jan Willem Gunning J.H.zn. (1885-1922) who did most to stimulate the study of mission. Ir. Gunning was a nephew of the famous missionary leader dr. J.W. Gunning (1862-1923). Unlike his uncle, ir. Gunning had attended the Edinburgh conference and was inspired by it. In order to give Dutch missions that broad, solid embedding in the church at large, Gunning started a special council to promote the study of missions: the Zendings-studie Raad (ZSR, established in 1909). The ZSR was later, in 1946, incorporated in the Netherlands Missionary Council. lt did not compete with the propagandistic work of the missionary societies, but rather complemented it. It tried to help supporters of mission to gain a deeper understanding of the work and the principles of mission. The work of the ZSR included building networks, publishing literature, organising conferences and setting up exhibitions.

Gunning’s most significant contribution to “missionary intelligence” in Holland is probably the overview of all the Dutch missionary work in the East Indies that he edited and published under the title Hedendaagsche Zending in onze Oost (1914). The book includes a historical introduction into Dutch missions and a survey of the character and work of thirteen missionary societies. It also explores the result s of missionary labour in Indonesia. It was updated in 1935 and 1943. Gunning’s book helped the missionary societies appreciate one another and work towards greater unity.

One of the great strengths of the ZSR was that it was not merely a nationwide organisation, but that it consisted of many local groups, each with their own activities and circles of friends. The annual conference gave the local groups the chance to meet and exchange ideas. Without a doubt Gunning’s organisational genius was behind this local and national structure. His book was staple for these local circles.

The work of the ZSR in Holland demonstrates how the programme of the Edinburgh conference played out on the national and even on the local level. A missionary zeal and vision inspired a large number of young people during the first three decades of the 20th century, and created a strong basis of support for missionary societies.

Missing dimensions

One of the factors that alienate contemporary readers is that the Report of Commission VI is permeated by an almost naive Christian optimism and entanglement with imperialism. In line with the strategies of the great John Mott, Commission VI repeats over and over that the church is in principle able to evangelise the world, if only it makes use of all the spiritual “resources” available. In most cases, the report refers to beliefs such as the cross and the resurrection of Christ and the power of prayer. In some cases, however, it clearly refers to western colonial power. “The resources of commerce and science are at the service of the Church for the preaching of the Gospel.” (World Missionary Conference, Report of Commission VI: The Home Base of Missions, Edinburgh, 1910, 270) Later the commissioners conclude: “The Church is exerting a commanding influence over the life and activities of Christian lands. The resources at its disposal, material, mental, and spiritual, if properly consecrated and directed are ample for the speedy evangelisation of the entire world.” (284)

Another disturbing discovery is that Commission VI seems to work with an oversimplified view of human cultures. Neither the cultures of the “home base” nor the cultures of the “mission field” are studied in any considerable depth. The commissioners seem, rather naively, to take for granted that the home base has a Christian culture, whereas the cultures of the mission field are to be Christianised, that is to be westernised. For that is, after all, the inevitable result if missions draw on such spiritual resources as Commission VI recommended. The report reflects briefly on indigenous missionaries – that is, missionaries who work in their own culture. It foresees that the era of foreign missionaries will come to an end and that native church leaders will increasingly be given responsibility for the church (247-8). Yet the report fails to reflect on the way the gospel relates to the cultures of the young churches. The two subsequent world missionary conferences, Jerusalem 1928 and Tambaram 1938, would make up for this, with especially Tambaram speaking from the experience of the younger churches.

As a result of its optimistic outlook on western culture and its failure to address the relation between gospel and culture, Commission VI does not call the church – in home base or mission field – to repentance. It merely calls the western church to use its resources more effectively, so that it may convert more people in the non-western world. It lays out an ambitious programme for increase of support for missions. But a spirit of contrition, repentance and humility is not viewed as an essential part of the missionary attitude. In its chapter about prayer, the report emphasises the work of intercessory prayer and not on prayers of penitence. The logic seems to be: missionary work is hard work at the frontiers, so it needs intense and fervent prayers from many. (7-8) Twenty-eight years, a devastating war and a worldwide economic crisis later, the Tambaram conference was to be permeated with that spirit of contrition. Hendrik Kraemer’s book The Christian Message in a Non-Christian World (1938), which served as preparation material for the conference,  may be read as a passionate call to the church to repent and change. In 1938 the church realised that repentance is a sine qua non for missionary credibility. In the colonial world of 1910, western churches had yet to learn this lesson.

Missionary intelligence today

Today, mission seems a magic word. The aversion against mission that existed in some quarters has changed into deep commitment to mission. Mission has become a primary concern. Everywhere churches are developing missionary strategies and programmes.

In this new climate there is much to learn from Edinburgh’s Commission VI, for this Commission articulates well how mission may become a concern of the whole church, of all Christians. Programmes for the study of mission such as the one Gunning developed in Holland demonstrate that Commission VI was not merely about words. In the wake of the Edinburgh conference, mission leaders successfully drew the support of large segments of the church. Missionary societies were significantly strengthened. People felt involved! That is an example to follow today, so that mission is more than church leaders striving to regain that which was lost. Christian people should know what mission is about, and get involved in numerous creative ways!

Commission VI also stands as a warning to mission today. For today the church cannot afford to position itself outside or above cultures, as Commission VI appears to have done. Today, the church speaks from a different position than it did back in the days of Edinburgh 1910. Christianity is no longer a dominant force in society, if ever it was. Christians today resonate with the Epistle to the Ephesians when it speaks of “evil days”. And although the days are evil, those who wish to obtain that missionary intelligence that draws on the divine wisdom must immerse themselves humbly in culture, with all its beauty and all its ugliness, relying only on truly spiritual resources: a living relationship with a living God. Standing firm in the fast-flowing stream of globalised culture, they listen to the voice of God that guides them to the moments that must be seized and the time that must be redeemed.