April 1997
Back Issues

Contents

• Summer Programs Introduce Students to Mission Service
• Walls to Deliver Mission of the Church Lectures
• Emmanuel Alumni Have a Global Impact
• From the President: From Where Do Missionaries Come?
• Bob Russell Featured Speaker at Emmanuel Commencement
• Taber Concludes 18 Years of Service to Emmanuel
• Emmanuel Recruitment Staff
• NACC Breakfast to Feature Ray Stites
• Summer School 1997
• 1997 Doctor of Ministry Class Schedule

Summer Programs Introduce Students to Mission Service

Each year many Emmanuel students spend their summers participating in short-term mission ventures. Here, third year M.Div. student JOEL TRAMEL writes about the weeks he spent in Papua New Guinea during the summer of 1996.

“Going to the mission field was not a life-long dream of mine. Yet somehow I found myself on a summer internship with Pioneer Bible Translators in Papua New Guinea. What bewildered me most was that the decision to go on this trip had been prayerfully and deliberately considered. I had not been forced to apply at gunpoint, nor had mind-altering substances played a role. I was (and still am) very impressed with the work of Pioneer Bible Translators, and I was both intrigued and frightened by the prospect of cross-cultural ministry. At the outset of the trip I hoped that it was not just some spiritual dare of mine to see if I could go through with it without losing my nerve. Looking back on the experience, I am beginning to suspect that it was a spiritual dare, but I think that it was God who dared me. As the Air Niuguini jet descended toward Madang, the wearying 25-hour journey from Dallas was ending, but I knew that the real journey had just begun.

“We embarked upon a tour of five different villages. In each village a different facet of PBT’s ministry was highlighted. In each village we made friends who took us with them as they went about their daily life and helped us with language acquisition. We also tried to be helpful to the missionaries with whom we were staying. It is certainly a fact that I had experiences this summer which were radically different from anything I could possibly experience in the United States. From spear fishing and riding in dugout canoes to eating saksak (a rather unappealing starchy goo), grubs and bandikoot, I knew that I was not in Kansas anymore. Somehow what was more striking was that there were so many ways in which life in the jungles of Papua New Guinea is similar to life anywhere. I had always imagined that missionaries were superheroes with martyr complexes. I figured that their lives were constantly marked by isolation and dread; dread of diseases and harsh living conditions, dread of the strange ways of the locals, dread of the slithering, crawling myriad of cold-blooded creatures with venom and sharp teeth. Instead of a grim band of steel-jawed superheroes, I found out that these missionaries were regular people with fulfilling ministries and lives. Work is work wherever one is doing it, and there is always joy in work when it is for the Lord. Furthermore, scary music does not start up every time one sets foot into the jungle. Even in the absence of the roads and handy telecommunications so entrenched upon the landscape of the American cosmos, there is such a thing as business as usual.

“Thus I found reassurance in my experiences this past summer. Wherever I go and however I serve, God will already be there. The prospect of cross-cultural ministry is not nearly so daunting because, as long as my focus is upon the lordship of Christ, I will be rooted in the culture of the Cross. As the American Airlines jet descended toward Dallas, the wearying journey from Madang was ending, but I knew that the real journey had just begun.”

Walls to Deliver Mission of the Church Lectures

Dr. Andrew Walls, Guest Professor of Ecumenics and Missions at Princeton Theological Seminary, will lead Emmanuel School of Religion’s Mission of the Church Lectures on April 30 and May 1, 1997. The topic is “Mission as Learning Experience: Studies in the Missionary Encounter Within the Western World.”

Professor Walls was founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World at the University of Edinburgh, and now serves as the Curator of the Centre’s Archives.

He previously taught at the University of Aberdeen, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone), and has held guest lectureships in various universities throughout the world.

His most recent books (1996) are The Missionary Movement in Christian History (Orbis Books and the University of Edinburgh) and African Christianity in the 1990s (University of Edinburgh) with Christopher Fyfe.

Prof. Walls has been a Methodist minister for nearly forty-five years and is the premier historian of Christian mission.

Lectures will be presented each day at 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. The lectures are free, and the public is encouraged to attend.

Emmanuel Alumni Have a Global Impact

Emmanuel School of Religion alumni serve in a variety of ministries in over 30 countries around the world. The following is a list of alumni who are either serving outside the borders of the United States, or non-Americans who have ministries in the United States. We realize this list is not comprehensive. Emmanuel is proud of all her alumni who are serving in cross-cultural or international ministries.

From the President
From Where Do Missionaries Come?

As someone who served abroad as a missionary for over 11 years, I have been pleased to hear of an increasing number of congregations that are taking their giving to “foreign mission” with a higher degree of seriousness. But I usually find out about such congregations when I am representing Emmanuel School of Religion, only to discover that their giving to “home missions,”; such as benevolence and education is being cut back. The missionary in me says, “Good news!” The educator in me says, “Bad news!” Thankfully, there still seems to be an overall balance in outreach giving that includes the many facets of the church’s global ministry. But when giving to Christian colleges and seminaries is dropped in favor of foreign missions, one must ask, “From where do missionaries come?” With few exceptions they come from our Christian colleges and seminaries. We do well to remember the Apostle Paul’s image of the church as the Body of Christ with its many members each performing its unique service to the whole body.

Missions is central to the life of Emmanuel School of Religion. Half of our faculty have served as foreign missionaries and continue to perform short-term mission service abroad. In preparing men and women for service in the church, a sense of mission permeates both theory and practice. One of the five ancient symbols in the Emmanuel seal is that of a ship in full sail. The cross is emblazoned on the sail, and the prow of the ship is the head of a lamb, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This symbol seems to have its origin from I Peter 3:18–22 where the Apostle describes Noah’s ark as providing safety for God’s people during the Flood. But unlike Noah’s ark which seems to have simply drifted, the ship of the church is in full sail plowing through the stormy sea of sin, going off on its missionary journey.

This issue of the Envoy is devoted to the Emmanuel people who are involved in mission ministries. When we hear the word missions, we are inclined to think of cross-cultural missions. We used to say “foreign missions,” but today we readily recognize as missionaries those who are working in the United States in ethnic communities. In fact, when we look at the work of the missions committees among the churches, it would seem that missions refers to all of those individuals, agencies and institutions who look to the local church for their support. In this sense, I often find myself representing Emmanuel School of Religion at mission fairs and faith-promise rallies.

Over the years we have been inclined to draw an arbitrary distinction between evangelism and missions. Literally, a missionary is simply one who has been sent. An evangelist is one who proclaims the Good News. The Christian missionary is one who is sent to proclaim the Good News. But we might ask, “But are not all Christians sent to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ?”

Furthermore we can no longer assume that the focus of missions is primarily Africa and Asia. The English missiologist, Lesslie Newbigin, seems to have been haunted by a remark made by General Simatoupong of Indonesia. They were sitting side by side at the Bangkok Conference on “Salvation Today.” Some years earlier General Simatoupong had led the Indonesian forces that had won independence from the Dutch. As Newbigin describes it, “When there was no more fighting to be done, he naturally took up theology.” During the Conference, there was a discussion on the global missionary situation. Not particularly happy with the direction the discussion was taking, the General was heard to mutter, “Of course, the number one question is: Can the West be converted?”

Today we are haunted by the decline of the church in Europe and North American. Countries that led in the evangelization of much of Africa and Asia are themselves struggling with a secular culture which, at the least, marginalizes the church and, in too many situations, completely disregards the church. Hence one of the primary questions today is, How can the church have a missionary impact on Western culture?

Thus it is incumbent that everyone preparing for Christian service see themselves as an integral part of the mission outreach of the church, regardless of where they are led to serve. “Maintenance ministries” are not good enough for the church. The local congregation, in order to be faithful to the Gospel, must see itself as a missionary church in this broad sense.

Emmanuel School of Religion is committed to the mission of the church. Those who are prepared for Christian service at Emmanuel may find themselves in Kenya or in Canada, in New Guinea or New Jersey, in England or New England. But wherever they are called to serve, it will be with a strong sense of mission.

—Dr. C. Robert Wetzel, President

Bob Russell Featured Speaker at Emmanuel Commencement

Bob Russell, minister of Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky, will speak at Emmanuel School of Religion’s thirty-first commencement exercises on Sunday, June 1.

Russell has ministered at Southeast for nearly thirty years. The small 120-member congregation has become one of the largest churches in America with over 9,000 attending worship services every weekend.

Russell is the author of seven books. His most recent, May All Who Come Behind Us Find Us Faithful, was published in 1995. He is also heard weekly on the national radio broadcast “The Living Word.”

Taber Concludes 18 Years of Service to Emmanuel

Dr. Charles Taber, Professor of World Mission at Emmanuel School of Religion, announced that he will retire from full-time teaching at the end of the Spring 1997 semester. After 18 years as a member of the Seminary’s faculty, Taber said that he will use his retirement to work on research and writing projects.

First, he will conclude in September his participation in the Missiology of a Western Culture project. Then he will publish an essay on “The Interface of Missiology and the Social Sciences,” which is an outgrowth of the project. He also hopes to compile a collection of essays on the unity of the church. In addition, his wife, Betty, and he have begun a book about Christian approaches to people of other religions. In October, Taber will teach a Doctor of Ministry class at Emmanuel, then give the Mission of the Church Lectures in November.

As for travel, Charles and Betty will vacation in Florence, Italy, next fall. They will continue to reside in East Tennessee.

When asked about his vision for the future of the missiology program at Emmanuel, Taber said, “I would like to take a more missional approach to the home field of the United States and North America. It’s becoming more evident that the United States is not a Christian country. We also need to work at understanding what makes society and culture tick so we can make the Gospel more relevant. But I still don’t want to lose the global aspect, either.” He also stated, “The connection between mission and church unity are very important and need to be emphasized.”

Taber joined the seminary’s faculty in the fall of 1979, after serving six years as Associate Professor of World Mission and Anthropology at Milligan College.

Born to medical missionaries in France, Taber grew up in French Equatorial Africa. After graduation from Bryan College in 1951, he returned to the Central African Republic for the Foreign Missionary Society of the Brethren Church and served there until 1960. He served as minister with the Community Grace Brethren Church in Warsaw, Indiana, from 1960 to 1962.

Dr. Taber received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Hartford Seminary Foundation, specializing in linguistics and anthropology. He returned to West Africa in 1969 and served as a translations consultant for the United Bible Society until his appointment to Milligan College in 1973.

Taber has distinguished himself as one of the world’s leading missiologists and as such has participated in missiology conferences and seminars in the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Near East. He is currently a member of the Missiology of Western Culture project and has in the past served as president of the American Society of Missiology, president of the Association of Professors of Missions, contributing editor for International Bulletin of Missionary Research, board member of Pioneer Bible Translators, and editor of the journals Practical Anthropology and Gospel in Context. He has authored and co-authored six books, and has served as editor and co-editor for two others.

Taber’s successor has not yet been announced.

Emmanuel’s Recruitment Staff

NACC Breakfast to Feature Ray Stites

Ray D. Stites (M.Div. ’74), President of Nebraska Christian College, will speak at the annual Emmanuel Breakfast during the 1997 North American Christian Convention in Kansas City. The breakfast will take place at the Marriott Downtown in Kansas City on July 2, 1997, at 7:30 a.m. in the Count Basie Ballroom A.

Mr. Stites received his undergraduate education from Kansas State University and Manhattan Christian College, graduating from Manhattan with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Christian Ministries in 1968. He received his M.Div. from Emmanuel School of Religion in 1974.

Stites, who has a strong interest in new church planting and growth, has ministered with six churches in Kansas, West Virginia, and Texas. He also served as instructor in church history at Dallas Christian College before being named president of NCC in 1991.

Emmanuel’s annual alumni meeting will follow the breakfast at 9:00 a.m. in the Yardbird Suite A.

Breakfast tickets are $15 per person and may be obtained by sending a check payable to Emmanuel School of Religion to: Office of the President, Emmanuel School of Religion, One Walker Drive, Johnson City TN 37601-9438.

Summer School 1997

CMP 791: Seminar in Preaching
Dr. Myron J. Taylor, Adjunct Professor of Preaching
June 3–13

CMM 701: Seminar in Mission: Urban Church Health
Dr. Gordon Moyes, Superintendent of Wesley Mission Sydney, Australia
June 16–20, 23–25

CME 701: Family Life Education
Dr. Rick Townsend, Professor and Chair of Marriage and Family Studies, Johnson Bible College
July 7–17

CD 796: Seminar in Doctrine: From the Jewish Messiah to the Christian Trinity
Dr. Ronald Heine, Director of the Institute for the Study of Christian Origins, Tübingen, Germany
July 22–August 1

1997 Doctor of Ministry Class Schedule

*Registration for Doctor of Ministry degree classes must be completed three months prior to the beginning of the class in order to prepare reading assignments. All classes meet at Emmanuel School of Religion with the exception of the Northwest course.