In the 21st century, I believe the mission of the church and Chirstian education will be defined by a new, more profound awareness of the welfare perspective. To do that, we need to ask “What is the relationship between Christian education and Chris...
In the 21st century, I believe the mission of the church and Chirstian education will be defined by a new, more profound awareness of the welfare perspective. To do that, we need to ask “What is the relationship between Christian education and Christian welfare?” This study is to find out how to merge Christian education and Christian welfare. With this purpose this paper sought welfare perspective from both Letty Russell’s Christian Education theory and Maria Harris’s theory. And I evaluated the strengths and weakness of their welfare perspective.
Letty M. Russell designed a educational ministry of the church in the perspective of christian welfare. It appears from her proposal to call the church ‘Witnessing Community" of pluralistic system in order to stress ‘church toward the world and the other people" and emphasizing that Salvation is humanization encompassing not only the redemption of the soul but also the liberation from the socially oppressing systems.
On the other hand, Maria Harris considers five patterns of life demonstrated in the primitive Christian community described in Acts 2:42-47 -kerygma, didache, koinonia, leiturgia, diakonia- as a prototype of curriculum for church education. And she insists that a complete church curriculum can be established only when integrating these five forms of interrelated curricula. Thus she develops a church curriculum theory to integrate Diakonia with educational ministry of the church.
In conclusion, Contemporary Church should be both ‘educational ministry of the church toward christian welfare" and ‘Diakonia from a standpoint educational ministry of the church". That’s exactly what it is called Holistic Educational Ministry in this age of Welfare.