생명선교의 범주와 영역에 대한 일고찰

이후천(Hu Chun Lee) 한국기독교학회 2014 한국기독교신학논총 Vol.91 No.-

In the global dimension, the issue regarding on life and ecosystem is the most significant topic in theology in these days. Essentially, the issue of life encompasses all dimensions of the biosphere and human life. The theme of WCC 10th Busan assembly, “God of Life, Lead us to Justice and Peace,” invites us to the mission Dei which includes all biospheres and human being. The theme implies that all biospheres including human being are the object of the redemptive action of the triune God because human life is deeply connected to all biospheres. Furthermore, the theme proves that God deconstructs the disorder of dehumanization, poverty, and oppression through the Holy Spirit. And the theme clearly confirms that God is the re?creator who brings justice and peace in the world. In this respect, the first purpose of this article is to articulate that all creatures should be included in the object of salvation and liberation in the mission Dei. The second purpose of this article is to articulate that the sphere of salvation and liberation should be extended into justice and peace. In the chapter II, I will describe the emphasis point of “‘Together towards Life: Ecumenical Affirmation on Mission and Evangelism in Changing Landscape” of CWME. In order to suggest the validity of the emphasis point, I will propose proleptic perspective as a theological foundation. Furthermore, I will introduce A Rocha`s movement to preserve all creatures as an example for the basis of the Old Testament and the mission of life. In the chapter III, I will articulate the relationship justice and peace in the sphere of the mission of life through examining “Economy of Life, Justice, and Peace for All: A Call to Action” and “An Ecumenical Call to Just Peace”. Futhermore, I will suggest the approach of a political philosophy about people who experience injustice without legal protection through Giorgio Agamben`s notion homo sacer.

부흥운동과 교회성장

이후천(Lee, Hu-chun) 한국선교신학회 2007 선교신학 Vol.16 No.-

This study is to investigate the relation between the revival and the growth of churches. This is, however, not to verify but to examine the historical process of it. I will show how the revival and the growth of churches have been related historically. For this, two kinds of data will be used. The first, in relation to a revival, is the novel A Revival by Giyoung Lee(1895-1984). the writer of North Korea, which satirized revivals of Korean churches from a critical perspective. Through this novel, I discriminate the difference and similarity between the present revivals of church and the early revivals of 80 years ago. And I approach the features of revivals and then the essence of revival movements. Secondly, concerning church growth, I discuss the relation between church growth and its revival movement which is based on McGavran’s Understanding Church Growth. I approach the relation by McGavran’s point of view. Finally I consider the situation of today’s Korean churches and presented their revival movement as a challenging subject.

한글성경번역 이론에 대한 선교학적 성찰

이후천(Hu Chun Lee) 한국기독교학회 2011 한국기독교신학논총 Vol.77 No.-

The primary tool for spreading the Christian gospel is Bible translation. John Ross and Seo, Sang Ryun translated Luke`s gospel in the April of 1878, and the Korean Church is celebrating a centennial anniversary of the completion of Korean Bible translation. About 69 billion people speaking 6,900 languages are living in the world, and each language has its own symbolic systems, structures and meanings. The UBS reports that all or part of the Bible have been translated in 2,508 languages in 2009. But the Bible has not yet been translated into 2,252 languages that about 353 million people speak, and this shows that the Bible translation is a crucial task in the Christian mission. However, the Bible translation process is complicated. Roman Jakobson suggests three types of translation: intra-lingual, inter-lingual, and inter-semiotic translation. A general understanding of translation of this kind may be adopted to the Bible translation for mission. What is more important, however, is the matter of Bible translation in the mission for those with different cultures. The Bible translation into a language of different cultural background should seriously consider what type of translation theory to be applied. Taking the example of Korean Bible translation, Underwood insisted to translate God into "Chun-Ju" while James S. Gale and Samuel A. Moffett into "Ha-Na-Nim." The Korean Bible translators should consider the question of honorific address, denigrating expressions, dialects and spacing etc. The Bible translation theory is not limited to the three types between the source language and the target language, but includes many other translation theories. The Bible translation from a missiological perspective should consider the questions of how much the translation is reflecting the other culture, if the meaning of the message is effectively delivered, and if it can make the religious experience happen. This article introduces the translation theories of Eugene A. Nida and P. Hiebert, and discusses the function of footnotes for the double translation. Based upon this translation theory, it examines the problem of the current Korean Bible translation from a missiological perspective, and suggests the missiological tasks to make a better Korean Bible translation.

단기선교에 대한 선교학적 성찰

이후천(Lee, Hu-Chun) 한국선교신학회 2011 선교신학 Vol.28 No.-

The enthusiasm and expectation of Korean churches for short-term mission is tremendous today. As a result, the number of short-term missionaries reaches 100,000 per year approximately. There are several reasons though, Korea’s economic growth, church growth, and overseas travel liberalization since January 1, 1989 are inferred as a major steppingstones for the explosive growth of short-term mission. The expectation for short-term mission of Korean churches can be categorized into two according to their intention. One is for local church growth and the other is for training of candidates for long-term mission. In any events, short-term mission today not only contributes to the attainment of goal for sharing the gospel in a cross-cultural environment in a short period, but also settles down as an effective program for church growth. However, negative view on short-term mission appears at the same time. Externally critics on short-term mission suddenly stood up since the hostage affair of short-term missionaries sent by Saemmul church in Afganistan on July 19, 2007. This was a big challenge for Korean churches, regardless of evangelical or ecumenical position, to understand the importance of comprehending local culture in mission field. Internally, the need of awareness in terms of self-reflection on short-term mission in the circle of Korean churches occurred. This came from the consciousness of crisis of the depression of Korean church growth, the weakness of long-term missionaries, the misrepresentation of short-term mission, and the official complaint to the essentiality of missionary work. Thus, more systematic and strategic training and theoretical theologizing works are needed today in Korea. Normally short-term mission means overseas missionary work between one and four year period, but nowadays it is accepted as a visiting tour of mission field in a period of a week or so. It also called differently according to the purpose, the motive, and the characteristic of the mission organization, such as short-term ministry, short-term service, mission trip, vision trip, exploratory training, and the like. However, the contents of these programs are almost similar, and thus, the name is often changed according the vision of mission organization and the solidity of the program. In this situation, this article surveys the problems of short-term mission from a missiological perspective and aims to suggest some alternatives. For this purpose, this study first analyzes the contents of publications related to short-term mission, and then discusses missiological issues to propose some alternatives.

한국적 상황에서 “선교적 교회(missional church)”가 갖는 의미 연구

이후천(Lee, Hu-chun) 한국선교신학회 2009 선교신학 Vol.21 No.-

The Korean Church is encountering three serious problems from a missiological perspective. The first is the conflict between the evangelical party and ecumenical one; in spite of the holistic and cooperative movements between them, the institutional and theological antpathy between them still exists. The second question is that the Korean church growth has stopped, contrary to its expectation of the leveling off of the size of churches after the great church growth period, and that the polarization of the church is getting worse. Third one is the question whether the local protestant churches are effectively evangelizing the local community by fully understanding their culture. In this situation, we are to serch for a ecclessiological paradigm which projects a mission church that breaks through these problems. We may ask three questions in more detail: how can we make a successfully localized church which has its roots in Korean historical cultural experiences. Is it possible to suggest an alternative paradigm that terminates the conflict between the evangelical and ecumenical parties and that consentrates on the mission tasks in mutual cooperative relationship? However, what missiological role and direction can we suggest in order to deliever the Christian message to the Christians and non-Christians effectively and persuasively in this rapidly changing society and cultural values? With regard to these questions, the discussion of the “missiological church” that is developed by the North American scholars provides a helpful insight to us in searching for an mission church models in this Korean Christian circumstance. It is because the churches of the North America and Korea share the similar questions and struggle to find a breakthrough to be successful in evangelizing the gospel in the rapidly changing local community and cultural values. This discussion is made in two ways: one is theoretical missiological approach and the other is practical one that approaches in light of church growth. This article deals with these two aspects because the question of how a church can do its evangelical mission in its local community and its own situations, after the period of great church growth in Norch American churches, is to be raised; it is so because the theological perspectives of the evangelical and ecumenical parties find their common insterests with regard to the question of evengelization and culture. Therefore, this article examines the question of whether the idea of missiological church may work as a successful model that overcomes the problems that the Korean church is struggling as mentioned above. It will survey Choi Hyung-Gun’s arguments and Missional Church: A Vision for the Sending of the Church. The background and the character of the emergence of the missiological church will be dealt with, and the possibility of application of this model to the Korean church and its meaning will be examined with regard to the questions raised above, especially in terms of three issues of church, gospel and culture.

시스템 선교론

이후천(Hu Chun Lee) 장로회신학대학교 세계선교연구원 2005 선교와 신학 Vol.15 No.-

한국에서 선교적 교회론의 접근방법들에 대한 선교학적 성찰

이후천(Hu chun Lee) 장로회신학대학교 세계선교연구원 2012 선교와 신학 Vol.30 No.-

1998년 세계 선교신학계에 용어 선교적 교회(missional church)가 서적을 통해 등장한 지 올해로 14년이 흘렀다. 이 용어의 출현은 잘 알려진 바대로 1980년대 후반 북미에 일단의 교회지도자들과 신학자들이 GOCN(the Gospel and Our Culture Network)을 구성하면서부터였다. 이들은 교회와 복음 그리고 문화라는 세 방향의 영역을 상호소통시키려는 하나의 운동이 되어 그동안 수십 권의 서적과 촉진 웹사이트와 관련기관을 설립하기에 이르렀다. 이러한 선교적 교회 운동의 특징은 무엇보다도 하나님의 선교(Missio Dei) 개념에 대한 이해에 있어서 레슬리 뉴비긴의 선교학에 기초하여 전형적인 복음주의적 신학적 경향을 견지하고 있다는 점이다. 그러면서도 상황화에 대한 강조점이 훨씬 이전의 복음주의 경향과 다르다고 볼 수 있다. 이것은 동시에 교회중심적인 전통적인 복음주의 진영의 선교이해에 대한 한계를 극복하고 지역사회와 함께 존재하는 통전적 선교를 지향한다. 그런데 문제는 이 선교적 교회에 대한 역사적 발전과 그 당위성을 충분히 이해하고 공감하면서도 그 개념의 불확정성과 이에 대한 성과를 현재로서는 파악할 수 없다는 것이다. 초대교회의 복음전도 운동처럼 서구교회성장의 한계에 직면해서 이제 막 출현한 새로운 운동이기 때문에 그에 대한 평가를 정확히 내릴 수 없기 때문이다. 또한 북미의 상황에서 등장한 이것이 과연 한국적 상황에서는 어떻게 유효하게 적용될 수 있는지 등도 아직 검증되어야 할 과제이다. 더 나아가 이것이 그 이론적 근거를 실제 목회현장에 적용하려는 운동인지, 혹은 기존의 선교적 의도를 가진 지역교회의 사례들을 정리해서 선교적 교회라 칭할 수 있는 것인지도 밝혀주어야 한다. 뿐만 아니라 이 운동이 ‘진퇴’를 거듭하는 기독교 역사에 있어서 이제는 그 중심부에서 주변부로 전락한 서구 기독교왕국의 재건을 위한 재진격 여부에 대해서도 확증할 수 없다. 분명한 것은 이 선교적 교회 운동이 현 단계 선교의 위기가 논의되고 있는 한국교회의 선교현실에 그래도 하나의 대안을 제시해줄 수 있지 않을까 하는 기대치를 높여주고 있다는 점이다. 이런 상황에서 이 글의 목적은 엄밀하게 말해서 GOCN의 선교적 교회운동이 한국에서 어떻게 접근되고 있는지 그 방법들을 살펴보며 이에 대한 선교학적 성찰을 하려는 데 있다. It has been 14 years since the terminology of ‘missional church’ was introduced to the world mission theology in 1998. This term appeared when some church leaders and theologians of the North America organised the GOCN (the Gospel and Our Culture Network) in the late 1980’s. They have been interested in the communication among the church, gospel and culture, and produced many publications and web sites, as well as founding related organizations. The missional church movement is supporting the traditional evangelical theology, based on Lesley Newbigin’s missiology with regard to the understanding of the Missio Dei. However, this movement goes beyond the traditional evangelical party’s understanding of mission which is church oriented by pursuing the holistic mission dwelling with the local community. Adimtting the validity and the contribution of the missional church to the history of mission, the problem is that its concept and the achievement cannot be evaluated exactly. It is because this movement appeard as a reaction to the recent crisis of the western church, and accordingly has a short history. Another question of this movement is whether it can be applied to the context of Korean society because it appeared in the context of the North America. Furthermore it should be clarified if this movement is seeking for the application of the theoretical basis to the field ministry, or if the cases of local churches that have missional intention are to be identified as missional church. It is also uncertain whether this movement is pursuing the reconstruction of the western Christian kingdom which has been shifted from the center to the outside throughout the history of Christianity. However, this missional church movement can provide an alternative to the mission of the Korean church which is facing a crisis. This article is interested in missiological investigation of the GOCN by examining how the GOCN is to be understood in the Korean church.

선교적 교단을 향하여

이후천(Hu Chun Lee) 한국선교신학회 2014 선교신학 Vol.36 No.-

이 글은 '한국의 교단들이 복음적인가?'라는 근본적인 질문에 대한 대답을 추적한다. 이 질문에 대답하기 위해서는 일단의 평가기준을 마련할 필요가 있었다. 여기에 적절한 것이 선교적 교회론의 관점에서 교단주의 혹은 교단들에 대한 평가들이었다. 그래서 먼저 2장에서 밴 겔더의 연구 성과물을 중심으로 북미 교단들의 현실과 나아가야 할 방향을 살펴보았다. 북미교단들의 평가가 중요한 것은 한국의 교단들 대부분이 북미로부터 수입되었고, 그 성쇠 패턴이 유사하기 때문이다. 그 평가들에 따르면 북미교단들은 역사적으로 시대적인 상황 속에서 변화, 발전되었다는 사실이 드러났다. 그리고 현재 각 교단들은 철저히 성서적인 기반 위에 성립되어야 하고, 역사적으로 상황을 중시해야 하며, 사회적으로 다양한 계층들이 복합적으로 모이는 공동체가 되어야 하고, 조직적으로는 통전적인 선교적 교단으로 발전되어야 함을 강조하고 있다. 이때 선교적 교단은 교회를 해체하자는 운동이 아니다. 3장에서 우리는 앞서 추출된 기준과 방향성을 잣대로 삼아 한국교단을 평가해 보았다. 그 결과 한국 교단들의 통제시스템, 미래예측, 선교자원 활용이 상당히 부족함을 지적하였다. 이것을 극복하기 위해 성경적인 선교적 교단들을 추구해야 하고, 여전히 각 교단들의 상호예의가 필요하며, 사회변화에 따른 다양한 선교대상들을 접근해야 하고, 각 교단들의 선교적 연계성이 필요하다는 점을 제시하였다. 특히 사회적 영향력을 상실하여 교단들의 교세가 감소되는 위기적 상황에서 복음 속에서 그 극복의 단서를 찾고 교회의 본질을 회복하는 교단의 모습과 선교적 리더십을 가진 목회자, 선교적 교회 마인드로 무장된 교인들이 많이 양육되어 배출되도록 하는 시스템이 갖추어져야 할 것을 제시하였다. This paper tries to provide an answer to the question of whether the Korean Church is missional. This quest needs a tool for the evaluation. This paper believes that the evaluation of denominations from the perspective of missional ecclesiology is appropriate. Therefore, the chapter two examined the North American churches based on Craig Van Gelder research. The evaluation of the North American church is crucial because most of Korean churches have their roots in the North American churches, and their rise and falls are quite similar to them. The research tells that the North American churches have developed and changed in accordance to their contemporary situations. It also tells that each denomination should have its basis on the Bible, be sensitive to its contemporary situations, be a community that is formed with various social classes, and grow to be a holistic missional denomination. Being a missional denomination, however, does not mean to disorganize church. In chapter three, we examined the Korean church on the basis of the standard previously mentioned, and we pointed out that the Korean church has a problem with the control system, predicting the future, and the use of mission resources. Therefore, this chapter made a few suggestions in order to solve this problem: the church should be biblical mission oriented church; each denomination should respect each other; various approach to the mission targets in accordance to the social change should be made; and each denomination should be missional networked. It especially suggested that a system to produce many pastors with missional leadership and mission minded lay persons. It also suggested that the church should try to find ways to overcome the crisis of the contemporary churches that have lost their social influence and accordingly encounter the minus growth.

한국에서 선교적 교회의 사례와 그 기준지표에 대한 고찰

이후천(Hu chun Lee) 한국선교신학회 2013 선교신학 Vol.34 No.-

The researcher in this paper tries to suggest proper indicators of the missional church based on his critical evaluation to Dr. Kookil Han's study of missional churches in Korea. The researcher describes 'Missio Dei', 'the Bible-centered evangelicalism', 'the emphasis of indigenous culture', 'practicalism', 'the focus on the essence of the church', 'dynamics of the Holy Spirit', 'ministry of lay people', and 'the pursuit of the dispersive church' as the main characteristics of the missional church. The researcher highly evaluates Dr. Kookil Han's endeavor to study emerging missional churches in Korea. However, the researcher points out that some cases which Dr. Han introduced, do not reach to the criterion of the missional church in terms of the main characteristics of the missional church. In this paper, Songahk church, Hannam first church, Sungkwang church, Kwangyang-Daekwang church, Sungam church are described as emerging missional churches in Korea. From the common characteristics of these churches, the researcher factors out 12 indicators for the missional church: 1) the missional church is to be on evangelistic ecumenicalism based on theology of Trinity; 2) the missional church should exercise good influence to the local community; 3) the missional church needs to contribute to the development of the local society; 4) the missional church ought to understand the true value of the church; 5) the missional church should endeavor to be a living community; 6) the missional church must not have any internal conflict among people in the church for more than ten years; 7) the missional church needs to endeavor for the cross-cultural mission; 8) the missional church should support the horizontal structure in which the clergy and the laity lead the faith community together; 9) the missional church is to catch up with the changing trend of the region and the times; 10) the missional church should be financially independent; 11) the missional church ought to be ecumenical in working with others; 12) the missional church must work for the larger community where the local church stands. The researcher lastly argues that Korean church leaders need to dig out more missional churches in Korea and establish a reliable criterion indicating the missional church for developing a biblically faithful and culturally relevant missional ecclesiology in Korea.

1910년 에든버러 세계선교사대회 주제 “이 세대 안에 세계의 복음화”에 대한 선교학적 성찰

이후천(Lee,Hu-chun) 한국선교신학회 2010 선교신학 Vol.24 No.-

The World Missionary Conference at Edinburgh in 1910 discussed the “Evangelization of the World in This Generation”, and it attracted lots of interest thanks to its publicaton by John Raleigh Mott. However this theme was also criticised by Gustav Warneck who doubted the possibility of evangelization within a generation; he argued that the world evangelization cannot be bound to time, and this shows that ‘enthusiastic support’ and ‘harsh criticism’ were competing each other at that time. This article examines the significance of the slogan “Evangelization of the World in This Generation” by dealing with John Mott's monograph, and reconsiders the issues that it brought up from a missiological perspective. It by so doing asks a question whether this slogan can be realized today. John Mott's monograph consists of 9 chapters, which begins with the concept of this slogan. The second chapter deals with the question of responsibility of the world evangelization, and it is followed by the discussion of hinderances that block this goal for the world evangelization. Chapters from four to seven argues for its possiblity within this generation, which gives the achievement of the first century Christians, modern missionaries, the power of Church to support it, and its leaders as examples. Chapter eight discusses the core element in the world evangelization in this generation. The world Christian church has made an outstanding achievement after the Edinburgh Conference of 1910 as Mott predicted; the number of churches and Christians has increased significantly. However the Christian church has failed to cope with the upcoming global issues, and was often found to be an outsider. Furthermore many churches often weakened their power by conflicting with each other, and it made many Christians feel frustated, especially through the two World Wars, which resulted in the minus growth of church.This article questions whether the "evangelization of the world in this generation' is possible through this reflection of the last century. A positive answer to this question is possible when the church correctly interpretes the gospel and successfully applies it to the daily life in the world, because to live like Christ surpasses the material, financial and skillful mission strategies of the church in making fruits of mission.