Filed under: Activist, Church, Madison, Wisconsin, Mission Leadership | Tags: apologetic, apostolic, Church, Henri Nouwen, HIV/AIDS, Jesus Christ, Luther, Madison, Mission, New College, Partnership, Pope Innocent, prophet, Ravi Zacharias, reformation, university, UW, Vern Visick
Pope Innocent 12th, 1243 AD said, “Universities are rivers of knowledge that feed and fertilize the universal church.” The attitude of the church toward universities, including the UW – Madison, was at one time positive. “We do not want to repeat the errors that have come from not revisiting the theological and biblical underpinnings of our mission.” (Taylor 2001:7) The mission for the Church in Madison is to make disciples of all nations, including the powerful institution of the university.
“The way of the Christian leader,” Henri Nouwen writes, “is not the way of upward mobility in which our world has invested so much, but the way of downward mobility ending on the cross.” (Taylor 2001:9) The challenge of the cross today, is to enter the halls of the universities as reformers. Luther, a professor in a university, never intended to be a reformer. Christian professors at the UW may be unwilling, however these professors may be called to be the leaders in a reformation that is as significant for the university as Luther’s was for the church.
Prophetic engagement with the university is underway through various agencies, such as New College in Madison led by Vern Visick. The challenge is to allow that prophet call to stimulate apostolic response. The apostolic call to the Church in Madison is to engage global issues. With effective church partnership, for example, a challenge could go out to the Church in Madison in response to the global HIV/AIDS crisis: “If you adopt an HIV/AIDS orphan (of which there are over 10 million today), the church in Madison will sponsor that child’s education.” “If the Church of Jesus Christ rises to the challenge of HIV/AIDS it will be the greatest apologetic the world has ever seen,” writes Ravi Zacharias. The Church in Madison’s acceptance of a new apostolic call to engage the university with its influential role in the world, it will present a powerful apologetic of the love of God and the love of our global neighbor.
Filed under: Madison, Wisconsin, Mission Leadership | Tags: Modernism, postmodern, privatization, reductionist, secularization, university
How does globalization impact the city of Madison? Some may be unaware of the impact. To respond, we need to first understand how our lives have been shaped by Modernism. “During the last decades of the 20th century, an unfortunate overemphasis on pragmatic and reductionist thinking,” significantly influenced by the modern university, “came to pervade the international Evangelical missionary movement.” Responding today requires understanding the way Christians have responded in the past. “Crippling omissions,” such as reducing the gospel to proclamation, created Christianity without regard for culture or the nations. (Taylor 2001:4)
The forces of Modernism created a greater wall of separation between the private and the public worlds. Today, secularization and privatization are powerful influences in culture, which isolate the influence of traditional Christian ministries. The postmodern response appears to reinforce the reaction to modernism. A new response is required.
This discussion continues…
Filed under: Mission Leadership | Tags: America, Bologna, Cambridge, Edessa, Europe, global community, Iona, Oxford, Paris, Roman, university
A long time ago, in a land far away, a great king had a dream. His dream was that all the world’s peoples, though very different and from many places, would one-day become a global community of the king’s people. The king’s dream was that his people would bring unique gifts and stories to a great celebration. The plan was good. He said, “Go announce this good news and teach all the peoples”. The king’s light was with those who committed to learn in community and serve their world.
They traveled across great deserts, lands, and seas. They settled in communities at the edge of conflict, in Edessa (modern day Iraq and Turkey) and Iona (Scotland). They dug wells for fresh water and they lived in the face of danger and war. “No gates, no lies, no evil powers will prevail against you”, he told them.
These communities were the king’s joy, for they shared the king’s dream to teach all peoples. As time passed the communities grew to reflect more and more the character of the king.
They wrote hymns and created libraries for their stories in preparation for the king’s dream celebration. Wells of water sustained them as they lived, worked, and learned in community, telling of the king’s story, a light to every people.
The king assigned guardians to help the people, but they turned against the king. These very old and powerful teachers chose to teach lies. They planned to destroy the king’s dream and extinguish the light. They taught that power, possessions, and position were to be desired more than the call to know the king.
These guardians arrested, expelled, and killed the king’s servants. Wells of water were stopped up. Many listened to the lies and gave up the beauty of righteousness to gain power. So the light became darkness and the king’s dream was all but lost.
In the land of the West, the Roman powers argued and controlled the dream, dividing words and peoples. They expelled those in the East and called their teachers heretics. Unprotected, henchmen poured out the blood of scholars and saints of the East – and they were forgotten. The sword of learning had been broken. The king’s dream was nearly lost. In the West, some fought with that broken sword to begin again to light the fire of the king’s dream. They began to dig new wells in Paris, Bologna, Oxford, and Cambridge.
Again the guardian powers brought war and pain. The broken sword was taken up in the struggle. Many lost homes and families. Still, they longed for the king’s dream for all peoples. A few reformers knew the king and the king called them to rebuild.
A new Light spanned across Europe to England, Sweden, Hungary, and across the Atlantic to the New World Colonies of America and new wells were dug. Too many people listened to the guardian teachers. They told lies to men and women about their identity, learning, community, family, and faith. They believed the lies, wounding the spirits of generations on every continent, and the guardians became more powerful than ever.
The guardians are giants in the land teaching lies, enforcing what is taught and what is to be known. The guardians divided the king’s people. It taught the world to love created things more than the Creator. These giants stand at the high places, declaring, “I will teach the nations.” How could the king’s dream be fulfilled?
Then, when all hope seemed lost, a few small and unlikely volunteers came forward. They said, “Here am I” and the king gave them the commission: “Now, the mystery hidden for ages is to be made known.” They began to form new communities at the edge of the conflict. They began to dig new wells. These courageous ones have also come to unstop old wells. They are learning how to portray the king’s story for every people. They are unstopping wells and restoring ancient ruins where promises were made to teach the nations. Today the king’s dream is being restored. Families are being restored. They are re-forging the sword of learning that was broken long ago.
by John Henry
John is the director of the Student Mobilization Centre for the University of the Nations, Youth With A Mission
Filed under: Mission Leadership | Tags: Bascom Hall, Budde, Christianity, community, Europe, Lee Dreyfus, Madison, Modernism, Truth, university, University of Wisconsin, UW
During his 1978 run for governor, the former UW-Stevens Point chancellor, Lee Dreyfus, was quoted saying Madison is “thirty square miles surrounded by reality.” There are major “gaps between gospel values and the practices of Christianity in ‘Christian’ Europe” and other formerly Christian territories. (See Michael Budde’s book, “The (Magic) Kingdom of God: Christianity and Global Culture Industries.” Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press. 1997:5) Equally true is the gap between the early gospel values and practices at the University of Wisconsin. A plaque on Bascom Hall reveals the commitment to “encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth may be found.” Etched in the stone of South Hall, is: “Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Class of 1955.”
Today, the university community continues to seek truth, with the limitations of Modernism’s arrogant spirit. Finding truth requires humility and a willingness to learn from sources new and old, including learning from those who have been isolated and marginalized for their religious faith.
Filed under: Activist | Tags: Church, generation, Madison, Mission, poverty, reformation, revolution, Sixties, Students, university
We all want to change the world. Perhaps I’m just too old AND too young, but I’ve always disliked the word “revolution.” I was born in ‘58, just old enough to really dislike the impact of the 60’s Revolution. That period was probably really from ‘68 to ‘74.
I can’t say for sure if it was due to the radical ideas of the ’60s, but it was during that time my family ripped apart with divorce. I lived in Madison, Wisconsin then. I witnessed the student riots (another excuse to skip class?) and the bombing of Sterling Hall (killing an innocent person). I saw the “peace” marchers turn violent. What do you think? Did those Sixties radicals, the ones who wanted to change the world for the better, have any core beliefs? Where are they now? Some are journalists, some in government, and some are teaching the next generation of university students. We’re hearing those voices more and more.
The word revolution has made a comeback in recent years. Today’s students, many of them, are wanting to change the world again. That’s good. We all want to change the world. But why are Christians using the word revolution? I’m all for social justice as part of God’s mission to the world, but I’ve felt a huge disconnect with those who call for revolution today, those who march, sign petitions, and claim by doing so they can end poverty. The way Jesus taught his disciples to turn the world upside down was by dying to self with open-handed surrender. Perhaps, if we are going to use the word “revolution,” we should be clear in our definition. We should not promote the closed fist posture, demanding of rights, with marches on Washington.
The dictionary definition of “revolution” includes “forcible overthrow of government,” “class struggle,” and “political change through uprising.” If instead, today’s revolutionaries could re-interpret the word to mean reorientation, making Jesus the center of our reality, both spiritual and physical reality, then I could join in the call for a revolution. I want to see every person, every family, community, people group, and nation find their hope in Jesus. Some argue that Jesus is too exclusive, that Christians are too narrow in their beliefs. My reply is that Jesus is the most inclusive personality in the universe. Christians are not exclusive, their particular; they want everyone to meet the One who created everything and everyone with good intention.
What the Church often gets wrong, I think, is that they set up a “missions department,” as if the Church were the center of all things. This posture communicates to church-goers and the surrounding world that the task of reaching every person for Christ is just one of the many things the Church must do, a line item in their budget, a committee, something to remember at the annual missions conference.
Reformation, not revolution, is needed. I propose a different attitude and posture for the Church. The Church does not have a mission. God has a mission. The Church must once again apprehend the Misseo Dei, that God is on a mission. We should reorient the Church to join Christ’s mission. The Church is not the center, Jesus is the center. God has a mission and his mission has a Church. Now that is a revolutionary idea!
