Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to establish my practical theology. First of all, I will discuss the biblical basis for the ministry based upon Pauline theology of reconciliation. Second, I will deal with the mission and ministry of the Church. In the mission section I will criticize three typologies of Christian mission and assert confessionalism as the best alternative to them. In the ministry section, based upon confessionalism, I will define the ministry of reconciliation as proclaiming Jesus as the norm of growing up and harmonious reconciliation, equipping people with the gospel of reconciliation, and sending equipped people to the world and working together with neighbors.
In the third chapter I will discuss the cultural context of Lubbock which desperately requires ministry of reconciliation. Finally I will deal with ministry tasks in my practice of ministry as seen in light of ministry of reconciliation. Through four chapters we come to know why this world desperately demands reconciliation and how we can do for reconciliation.
I. Biblical Basis for the Ministry
From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
Our age is full of conflicts between different value systems based upon different ethnic, cultural, religious, sexual, racial origins. Especially Lubbock Korean congregation almost reflects such diversity , so that it requires ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, I claim my biblical basis for the ministry as 'reconciliation' in the Pauline letter.
Paul claimed the ministry of reconciliation in 2 Cor 5:18-21 which is located in the broader context of 2 Cor 2:14-7:4 to discuss the meaning of apostleship and in the narrower context to focus on the content of the gospel commissioned to the messenger of that gospel by God. Behind Paul's reference to the ministry of reconciliation in 2 Cor 5 lies the real issue concerning the Corinthians' doubting his true apostolate and judging the outward appearances of him and their fellows according to their ecstatic experiences or worldy standards.
Against his opponents who seek their high position in their faith community over against him and others by means of self-commendation or others' recommendation, as the secular do, Paul maintains that the true apostleship comes from God alone. This explains why the term diakonia rather than apostle or apostleship is employed in 2 Cor 5.
The Corinthians' challenge to his true apostleship makes Paul remind them of what content of the gospel is. According to Paul the content of the gospel is reconciliation as both the new reality of Christian faith done by God through Christ's death and as an imperatives required to all Christians. In this respect it is evident that the conception, 'ministry of reconciliation,' is designed to reorient the Corinthian opponents' faith and practice in a genuinely Christian way.
We are living in the midst of conflicts of claims and counter-claims. The issues of conflicts are so diverse from microscopic to macroscopic. Many a Christian tends to take Jesus as a tool to protect their own claims from counter-claims. In this context Christian faith functions to divide, rather than to integrate, the world. They may achieve successful development in this world but are unable to heal the wounded world and to contribute to the reconciliation of the whole nations.
In reconciliation God is the initiator, human beings the object, and Christ the mediator. God alone is the reconciler, we are the reconciled, and the work of Christ is in service of bringing about that reconciliation. In addition, when we take into consideration both the imperative, "be reconciled to God" (2 Cor 5:20), and the constraining power of love, "the love of Christ urges us on" (2 Cor 5:14), God is not simply the agent of the reconciling work but the goal toward whom all reconciliation should be directed.
God's reconciling action is rooted in God's love which is ultimately demonstrated by the death of Christ. Interesting is Paul's claim that "one [Christ] had died for all; therefore all have died" (2 Cor 5:14b). This traditional formula for Paul connotes the death of our old selfhood rather than a mere substitute for our salvation. Here the death of Christ is described more than God's love. God's love on the cross is the abiding reality in the present life which constrains us to live under the control of his love.
Meaning of Christ's death here signifies our dying-to-self and therefore our living-for-Christ. Christians are those who have been already released from their serving-for-self. This is what God's love has done to us by the death of Christ, and the fact of faith. However, it is only when Christians die to themselves and live for Christ/others that such fact is prompted and actualized in real life. This is what God's [Christ's] love urges them on (2 Cor 5:14a). For this reason Christian faith must necessarily entail or radical response to the radical demand of love.
2 Cor 5 plays a role in bridging between the radical demand of love and the ministry of reconciliation. Paul's opponents in Corinth seem to boast about their "earthly wisdom" (1:12), "outward appearance" (5:12), and ecstatic experience (5:13). They seem to doubt Paul's apostleship and to judge others including him according to the worldy standards ["according to flesh," 5:16]. If it is the real case, it is evident that they fail to recognize that the radical demand of love urges them to die to such worldly claims and to live for Christ/others.
In our churches we can see worldly claims similar to the Corinthians. We see success-ism, denominationalism, competition-ism. Those kinds of ethos divide me from you, us from them, so that they make worse the wounds of the divided world. They are claimed as the genuinely Christian type of love. But love never divides but integrates. We must die for self-claims such as success-ism, denominationalism, competition-ism and live for Christ and others.
Since, when the new comes, the old passes away, and there occurs a new creation within a person who has been renewed in Christ (5:17). In 1 Cor 15:31 Paul remarks, "I die everyday." As far as dying is in a logical sequence of living, "new creation" occurs as often as everyday dying. At baptism the Corinthians might have died and lived with Christ. Such dying and living has been already launched, but not come to an end. The on-going process of dying-to-self and living-for-Christ/others is what God's demands radically toward us.
In this respect nobody can claim one's own position as the highest and try to take control over any other. Each of us is growing up by help of others and by contribution to others. For this reason reconciliation directs toward maturation in self and nurturance for others. But this does not mean that we can do everything in reconciling works.
The premise that it is only humankind, not God, who has the necessity of being reconciled does not imply that human beings are only passive in the work of reconciliation. The reconciling event of God's love has already happened through Christ but not come to an end. The constraining power of God's love makes believers bound to the diakonia of reconciliation.
As far as human beings are reconciled by God through the death of Christ, the restored relationship is a free gift from God and a demand toward us. However, the Corinthians rejected both gift and demand, so they are in danger of losing Christian identity. This implies that reconciliation has both vertical and horizontal dimensions.
God's reconciling event in Christ is cosmic reality in scope. Christians are demanded to recognize this very fact of faith and to activate such truth. However, without personal commitment to that event and active participation in it, reconciliation is not present at there. The ministry of reconciliation is imposed upon us to bring reconciliation near and to make it present. When we perform this task, God's reconciliation is present and becomes real. In doing so we are required to die to self and to live for Christ/others. Therefore, it is concluded that to be reconciled to God necessarily entails and requires to be reconciled to one another.
II. Mission and Ministry of the Church
1. The Mission of the Church
My center of theology is reconciliation. Ministry of reconciliation concerns those in cultural, racial, ethnic, religious, ethical conflicts. As far as human beings are fundamentally free and their expressions of freedom are unique and diverse, conflicts are natural and necessary in human society. Problematic is not that there exist conflicts but that our society is less perceptive of the causes of conflicts and therefore less successful in resolving conflicts. What is the best attitude for reconciling conflicts in modern society? There seems to have so far been three normative types of mission.
1. Exclusivism: Karl Barth
According to Barth, we cannot know God by ourselves because of our total depravity. For Barth it is nonsense to insist a general revelation. In this sense, "religion is unbelief."1) Only when God reveals himself to us, we can know him. Inasmuch as religion in general is unbelief, so is Christianity. But Christianity is the true religion because of the once-for-all revelation and salvation offered only in Jesus Christ. So the difference between Christianity and other religions is decisive, even if there are a lot of similarities. There is no other name, except the name Jesus, to save us. Therefore, we can't and don't need dialogue with other religions.
This has such insights as: 1) Barth's premise, "that we are 'sinners,' that there are limits to the human condition, that sound reason and good will of themselves do not automatically insure progress,"2) gives us a realistic view of the world; 2) by presupposing the qualitative difference between God and human beings, Barth tells us the importance of the mystical traditions. However, this type has such oversights as: 1) by regarding the Word of God as absolute authority, he excluded the human experience as nothing; 2) by presupposing the revelation of Jesus Christ as the only authentic revelation, he excluded other religions as worthless; 3) by interpreting the Christian faith only in the light of sola fide and sola gratia, he violated "the nature of grace, to the capacities of human nature, and to the meaning of the incarnation"3); 4) therefore, this type of mission nothing but aggravates diverse conflicts in the world rather than functions as reconciling power.
2. Inclusivism: Karl Rahner
For establishing his fundamental theology, Rahner analyzes "man as transcendent being"4) who pursues something ultimate beyond his ontological restrictions. This transcendentality can be called "a 'transcendental revelation' built into our very nature"5) which is his starting point for the theology of religions. Rahner's verdict on other religions is that "religions are ways of salvations."6) So he says that "the non-Christian religions can be 'a positive means of gaining the right relationship to God and thus for the attaining of salvation, a means which is therefore positively included in God's plan of salvation.'"7) But there is a limitation that Christianity has an explicit name, Jesus, while other religions have no name, anonymity, because the revelation of Jesus Christ is "the 'final, unsurpassable, irreversible' historical realization and manifestation of what God is doing in history,"8) and because "The church is 'the continuation of the mystery of Christ.'"9)
This attitude of mission has such insights as: 1) he regards other religions as "possible ways of salvation."10); 2) he understands "Christ and the Church as a sign or sacrament of salvation"11); 3) he "engages in a dialogue with other religions."12) But this has also such oversights as: 1) his assertion on the uniqueness of Jesus Christ is contradictory to our contemporary diverse experiences; 2) his assertion on the unsurpassibility of the revelation of Jesus Christ does not have the full evidence in the Bible; 3) if the revelation of Jesus Christ is the full meaning for our salvation and so sufficient for human salvation, we can't and don't need dialogue with other religious groups; 4) therefore, this attitude of Christian mission looks apparently embracing but is in nature imperialistic over all diversities occurring in the world..
3. Pluralism: John Hick
Hick who insists the "Copernican revolution in theology" "proposes a 'new map for the universe of faiths.' In designing this map, he speaks repeatedly of the one Spirit, the one Divine or Absolute, the one Logos behind all the religions. Although religions conceive this Reality either theistically(as personal) or nontheistically(nonpersonal), Hick implies that such differences are only historical, cultural, or psychological adaptations."13) By reinterpreting the myth of God incarnate not as "totum Dei, 'the whole of God'" but as "totus Deus, 'wholly God,'" Hick reaches to the conclusion that "God is truly to be encountered in Jesus, but not only in Jesus.14)
This type of mission has such insights as: 1) he can insist that "Jesus is the center and norm for our lives, without having to assert that he be so for all other human beings"; 2) his assertions are credible to our global experience; 3) his attitude leads us to the positive dialogue with other religious groups. But this has such oversights as: 1) considering Buddhist rejection to conceptualize the ultimate reality as God, even his presupposition of the one Divine rooted in theo-centralism is still dogmatic; 2) by presupposing the one true Reality behind all religions, Hick pursues the common essence beyond particular religions--but this eradicates the uniqueness of each religion and culture. What we have to do in our mission is to pursue not a uniformity beyond particular religions and cultures but a reconciliation among conflicts of religions and cultures.
Then, what would be an alternative to the existing three types of Christian mission? It is confessionalism. First, confessionalism proclaims Jesus as the reconciler confessionally, not dogmatically, since it recognizes that all religious expressions of faith is basically confessional, that is, that others may have definite confidence in their own faith as much as we may do in our faith. So we witness our faith with confidence but respect other's religious convictions and cultural expressions. This is a way of reconciling Christian mission.
Second, confessionalism is well aware that it is as a part that Christian faith can contribute to reconciliation of the whole world. This means that other faith may function as parts of effective reconciling agents in the world. In this respect Christianity can be cooperative with other religions and convictions.
Third, confessionalism is directed toward continuous growing up. Confessionalism is neither self-centered system nor self-less system but self-growing up system. Confessionalism is based upon the definite conviction of God's salvific grace through Jesus Christ. But since it well knows that such grace can be given by diverse ways, it always opens self to others and continues to grow up.
Fourth, confessionalism contributes other's maturation. Confessionalism not simply continues to grow up by learning from others but contributes to other's growing up. As far as human world is a nexus of organic interactions, being contributed by and contributing to others is necessary for living and growing up.
2. Ministry of The Church
Based upon my theological center of ministry, Jesus is defined as the reconciler. Mentioned in the previous section, 'the mission of the church,' Jesus as the reconciler should be proclaimed confessionally so that all religious groups and cultural expressions may contribute to one another's growing up and getting harmonious reconciliation. Then, how can we bring about such growing up and harmonious reconciliation? As seen in the previous section, three typologies of Christian ministry are not good enough for wholesome growing up and harmonious reconciliation. Therefore, we need a confessional stance in doing our ministry. Ministry in light of confessionalism has following aspects.
(A) Proclaiming Jesus as the norm of growing up and harmonious reconciliation.
When we take Jesus as the confessional norm, we can definitely witness Christ as the norm of growing up and harmonious reconciliation. But this witness is confessional, not dogmatic. This means that other types of claims are possibly recognized to have such confidence as much as we do. So all faiths are respected as what they are. Without this respect self-growing up and contribution to other's growing up is an empty slogan and getting harmonious reconciliation goes away from the conflicts with which we are confronted in our ordinary life. Jesus as the confessional norm of the ministry affects our practice and reflection of ministry so that we may obtain genuine growing up and harmonious reconciliation in the world full of conflicts, cultural, racial, religious, ethnic...so forth.
(B) Equipping people with the gospel of reconciliation.
Our proclamation of Jesus as the norm of growing up and harmonious reconciliation should continue in equipping people with the gospel of reconciliation. While proclamation functions as impact upon our heart, education does as developing reconciling power within our mind. Education tools may not simply be bible studies but includes various kinds such as sacraments, liturgies, sermons, social works, ecclesiastical services...so forth. We must reconsider all those tools in light of the whole picture, the reconciliation of the world, so that they may serve both our being reconciled to neighbors and the world's being reconciled to God.
(C) Sending equipped people to the world and working together with neighbors.
Those equipped with the gospel of reconciliation must be sent to the world, since God's concern is not simply in the Church but also in the world. God loves the world, not simply the Church. We are the light and the salt of the world, not simply of the Church. For this reason sending people to the world constitutes the essence of Christian ministry.
The purpose of sending is not to conquer the world but to make it reconciled to God. We have definite confidence in our way but do not force it upon others. We respect others' convictions and value systems. We learn from others and contribute to their self-understanding. We work together for the common good, by which we achieve oneness before the presence of God. Atheists, skeptics, Buddhists, humanists...all others may be our friends and partners in achieving the wholesome reconciliation of the world.
Through proclaiming Jesus as the norm of growing up and harmonious reconciliation, equipping people with the gospel of reconciliation, sending people to the world and working together with neighbors, Christian ministry can fulfill God's command, "Be reconciled to one another," and "Be reconciled to God."
III. Cultural Analysis of Lubbock
The total population of Lubbock city is approximately 200, 000, among which Koreans are about 150. A half of Korean population is students and the other half immigrants. Lubbock has no river but just artificial ponds or lakes. She is built around Texas Tech University which is the center of the city.
Cultural context of Lubbock in which I am situated is so diverse. Korean community is classified broadly into two groups: student and immigrant. Student group in Lubbock consists of following constituents: (A) those who have graduated from high school or higher degree in Korea, (B) 1.5 generation who immigrated to the United States in childhood. Cultural texture of group (A) is typically Korean. Most of the group will go back to Korea to have expert jobs such as professor, researcher, so less involving in responsible position of Church. Most of this group were formerly atheists or skeptics or Buddhists.
Cultural texture of group (B) is somewhat intrigued. all of this group are Christians, but most of the group are nominal Christians. Some can speak Korean fluently, while others can hardly or never speak Korean. Korean-speaking 1.5 generation is relatively well adapted both in Korean and American community, while English-speaking 1.5 generation seems to feel crisis of identity--"My skin color is yellow but I speak English alone. Who am I? Why do my parents force traditional Korean values upon me who lives in the American society far different from Korea?"
Immigrant group can be classified according to marriage: Korean and international couples. Korean couples in Lubbock are a few. Their occupation is doctor, professor, nurse, and business. There is an invisible barrier between professional experts and business persons. In actuality close relationship between them is almost impossible without church fellowship. Expert group has close fellowship with American upper class, while business group doesn't have. Korean couples in Lubbock are all first generation immigrants and conserve traditional value system inherited from Korea. But in some sense they show culturally mixed patterns. For example, they are open-minded to divorce issue, sexual ethic. But if they stayed in Korea, they might have been much more conservative to those issues.
International couples are majority of Korean immigrants in Lubbock. All are spouses of soldiers or ex-soldiers. Many of those were formerly prostitutes to treat U.S. soldiers in Korea, married with one of them, and came to America with husband. They were uncared, abused, afflicted by poverty in early childhood because they were raised by a single parents or without parents, walked out at teenage, and were married with American spouse. So they seem to have shame and inferiority feeling consciously and unconsciously. But concerning the former occupation or social standing of the rest of those are not informed, since most of international wives are unwilling to reveal their former career. Probably they may have deep frustration, shame, inferiority, feeling of being deprived.
All Koreans in Lubbock are struggling to establish their own self-identity and value system, even though there may be difference of degree among them. Our church is the only community for Lubbock Koreans, so takes an important role in helping them shape and reshape their self-identity and value center. Especially my congregation feels cultural conflicts to be a Christian as Korean or Korean-American. My congregation is the summary of the diversity of Korean groups in Lubbock.
Children of international couples can not speak Korean but are nurtured by Korean mother and American father. They are also in cultural conflict. Our church has five children of international families. Their conflict is increasing in the church because her culture is dominantly Korean.
There is a single group divorced with the former spouse. All were the wives of American soldiers or ex-soldiers. They manage to live on their own. Their occupation is low paying job or business in flea markets. They lack self-esteem and have guilty feeling and psychological impediments due to divorce.
In this cultural context I am required to be more sensitive to the diversity and plurality of cultural texture in Lubbock and to do my ministry of reconciliation to bring about love as the empowering and nurturing principle in Lubbock. Lubbock Korean United Methodist Church is the only center of reconciliation for Koreans and Korean Americans and their families.
We are running Korean language school which helps to overcome language and cultural barriers. We provide bilingual service every Sunday. We invite all Koreans in Lubbock to Korean traditional meal every month so that we may celebrate our oneness. We invite all Lubbock Koreans and have annual tennis game Through those kinds of works Lubbock Korean UMC provides many bridges among culturally divided Korean community.
IV. Ministry tasks in the practice of ministry
The center of my theology is the ministry of reconciliation. In this paper I want to see three major responsibilities of ministry--preaching/worship, evangelism, and education--in my ministry of reconciliation. And I will examine what to do and how to do the tasks in light of the theological center of my ministry.
1. The Purpose of The Three Major Responsibilities Of Ministry In My Ministry of Reconciliation
(A) Preaching and Worship
I define preaching as proclaiming the death of Christ as Paul asserted in 2 Corinthians 5. The death of Christ is the summary of what God has done for us through Jesus Christ. Its focal point is God's love to save and to renew us from our sinfulness because of which we were broken up with God and neighbors. For this reason the purpose of preaching is to proclaim our newly acquired status in relationship with God, i.e., our being reconciled with God and to empower us to bring about our new reality with effectiveness.
I define worship as celebrating such reality with all the saints in the presence of God. Worship has its own peculiar images, languages, signs, and symbols. That may be diverse according to each community's cultural heritage, because of which we are divided and in conflicts with one another. Nevertheless, sacramental signs and symbols can function as unifying principle to make all diversities one. For this reason we can enjoy our uniqueness and make harmonious reconciliation in our plural age.
(B) Evangelism
I define evangelism as theological ethos to activate the mission and commission given to us by God through Jesus Christ. So what God has done for us through Jesus Christ is the hermeneutical principle of the continuum of our action, practice and self-reflection. The last passage of the Gospel of Matthew 28 is the succinct summary of evangelism: first, we have to go to the end of the world (mission); second, we should make all the people as disciples and baptize them so that commission them to spread the gospel (commission). Through our mission and commission this broken world becomes reconciled to God.
(C) Education
I define education as leading out the image of God within ourselves. Contrary to traditional theism I define God as self-growing in value, while he of course has the principle part which can never be changed. If I suffer, God feels very sorry about it. If I praise him, God is pleased aesthetically. If I do evil, God is angry about me. God's authentic image within us was mature. But we spoiled that image because of sin. For this reason we must grow up and retrieve our authentic maturation.
However, this does not mean that the purpose of Christian education is just to help people virtuous respectively. Human life is fundamentally communal. We are interdependent upon one another. Nevertheless, our egotism and egoism, individual and communal, exchange our communicability and interdependence into incommunicability and dominance-subordination. The purpose of Christian education is to help people be aware of what's going on here and now, how to bring about reconciliation within the broken soul and world by the grace of God through Jesus Christ.
2. The Practical Methodology to fulfill These Three Purposes
(A) Preaching and Worship
I will arrange my liturgy, sermon, and symbols to heal our brokenness and to lead out our oneness. Especially in my sermons I will focus on our brokenness derived from egoism/egotism and on God' healing through the word. Through sermons I will encourage my people to use inclusive, reconciling words to their neighbors.
In addition I am required to employ Eucharist as the unifying principle of the broken/divided world caused by egotism and egoism. Usually Korean churches provide Eucharist just once or twice in a year. But I provide it every month. Next year I will provide it every Sunday. The reason why I do not provide every week Eucharist is not to give shocks to my congregation, since habits of people are changing very slowly.
(B) Evangelism
In conjunction with evangelism our church has various tools. First of all, our church provides Korean language school which takes a role of removing lingual and cultural barriers among Lubbock Koreans.
Second, our church is studying an outreach mission through internet. Majority of Lubbock congregation is students who use internet. There are still those who do not attend our church. Through internet hompage we will provide the good news to them, and they may be more easily accessible to the gospel.
Third, our church will intensify social works in Lubbock. There are divorced groups who were formerly wives of American soldiers or ex-soldiers. They need counseling and spiritual support. We are planning to visit them, to provide some workshops concerning child education. They may not concern Christian faith but have strong concern in their children.
(C) Education
First of all, I will reform bible studies. Bible studies in most of churches are done from individual perspective. Studying the Bible in a group is not identical with studying it from community perspective. The purpose of studying the Bible from community perspective is to help participants recognize the whole picture of the interactions of individual vs. individual, individual vs. group, group vs. group and to invite them to lead the authentic image of God out of self and world.
Second, our church is planning to invite special lectures twice in a year. Those were formerly revival lectures which were mainly focused upon individuals or Christian groups. But I will invite lecturers who have broader vision of reconciliation in local community and the world.
Third, I will use confirmation and baptism as pedagogical tools to empower new members to envisage Christian salvation in light of the whole picture, i.e., our being reconciled to God and neighbors.
Conclusion
Through four chapters we come to know why this world desperately demands reconciliation and how we can do for reconciliation. As far as we are diverse and peculiar, conflicts are unavoidable. Some of them may be necessary but others are detrimental to the whole. Now it is time to work for reconciliation of the world rather than for becoming the majority of the world.
1) Paul F. Knitter, No Other Name?: A Critical Survey of Christian Attitudes Toward the World Religions(Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985) p. 84
2) Ibid., p. 88
3) Ibid., p. 94
4) Karl Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith: An Introduction To The Idea of Christianity, trans. by William V. Dych(NY, NY: Crossroad, 1986) p. 31 Knitter describes that "Rahner sees our very 'existence' as 'supernatural': nature is more than just human nature." Knitter, No Other Name p. 125
5) Knitter, No Other Name p. 125
6) Ibid., p. 126
7) Ibid., p. 127
8) Ibid., p. 129
9) Ibid.
10) Ibid., p. 140
11) Ibid., p. 141
12) Ibid.
13) Ibid., p. 147
14) Ibid., p. 152