Spring 1999 - Quarterly Review

in order to be educated later on as Christians, a method which oftenleads more to a superficial Christianization than to an authenticevangelization of the people. In a different way the church growthmovement has chosen the "discipling" of people as the majorobjective of its missionary endeavor (cf. DAWN: Discipling a WholeNation). The third model represents the pattern of evangelismwhich is typical for the whole evangelical movement. The call tofaith is interpreted as a call for personal "decision," anunderstanding which is challenged by representatives of theBarthian Wort-Gottes-Theologie (Word-of-God Theology), whichclaims that we have only to tell the people that God has alreadydecided to save them in Jesus Christ.I am deeply convinced that all these different patterns of thecommission of the church within the New Testament are determinedand shaped by one basic concern: impressing God's saving love on allhuman beings and including them, with all aspects of their lives, in thedomain of God's reconciling and healing action in and through JesusChrist. These three New Testament models for mission are notalternatives from which to choose; they are aspects of the samecommission. We may emphasize different aspects in differentsituations, but we should never separate them from one another orplay them off against one another.• Wherever we find people who are oppressed and possessed by evilspirits of money, power, addiction or greed, wherever we meet humanbeings who are marginalized and ostracized , exploited or misused,poor or disabled, we are called to proclaim to them that God's reign isat hand and to set up signs of love and hope, of justice and healingamong them. Our first task is not to ask people for their personalresponse to this message. The more important thing is that theirbattered lives are reached by the reality of God's saving and lovingpresence and that they are ready to receive what God has done andwill do for them.• Wherever people are caught in a deep crisis of self-esteem—if theytry to justify their lives by religious achievements, by money, power,honor, beauty or success, or they despair about their failure to find realvalue within their lives or when people are haunted by open orrepressed guilt, we are called to tell them that God has said yes totheir lives in Jesus Christ, and that in Jesus' death God has taken onhimself all the nos which people experience as threatening their lives.What matters now is God's yes to us, which justifies, esteems, andPROCLAIMING SALVATION—MAKING DISCIPLES 29