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A consultation in Cuba explored many facets of mission. © Yosmel Fernandez Rivera

A consultation in Cuba explored many facets of mission. © Yosmel Fernandez Rivera

How does missional formation transform discipleship? A consultation in Cuba from 10-16 September explored this question and others related to the text Together Towards Life. The gathering was coordinated by the World Council of Churches Commission on World Mission and Evangelism (WCC-CWME) as part of an ongoing quest to explore the means and methodologies for the practical application of Together Towards Life in the life of WCC member churches and mission community.

The consultation in Matanzas, Cuba brought together 25 representatives from the CWME, mission leaders, missiologists and practitioners from WCC member churches to develop strategies to enable and deepen churches’ engagement with Together Towards Life; contextualize materials so that the text can be read across the diversity of WCC churches and settings; and consider how mission formation can contribute to the upcoming Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, in Tanzania in March 2018.

The Matanzas meeting built on a previous consultation in South Africa in October 2014, during which participants formed plans to develop a missiological curriculum for training future mission leaders, modules for equipping local congregations and continuing education courses for missionaries and mission workers. One of the key outcomes of that meeting was production of the textbook Ecumenical Missiology which was published in June and officially launched during the consultation in Cuba. CWME director Rev. Dr Jooseop Keum presented a copy of the new textbook to Rev. Dr Carlos Ham, rector of Matanzas Evangelical Theological Seminary, for use in ecumenical mission formation.

In his opening remarks, Keum reflected that mission is all about face-to-face encounters between people. “It is about the stories of God’s people responding to the calling to be common witnesses to the hope in Jesus Christ,” he said. “Mission has an important role in reclaiming the human face, the powerful stories and testimonies of God’s people, an experience that we have all enjoyed throughout our time together toward life. The human stories of all God’s people contributing to God’s mission in the power of God’s Spirit can serve as a much-needed continuous challenge to the church and the ecumenical movement.”

The Evangelical Theological Seminary captures the justice-centred agenda of Together Towards Life, added Keum. “Being in Cuba at a time of rapid political, social and religious change provided a dynamic context in which to revisit Together Towards Life, he said. “The work of the seminary, with its ecumenical character, its inclusivity, its constant involvement with the community, its diaconal work, its popular Bible studies and its ecological awareness, embody missional formation.”

Professor Emeritus Néstor Míguez, in his keynote address, noted that participation in the world is needed for any true transformative mission. “It is there that we learn and practice the true challenges to abundant life for everyone and for all,” he said. “We live in a world of ambiguity. But we are not to take this ambiguity as a hindrance to our missionary commitment, but as a learning opportunity, an experience that takes us to prove ourselves in the challenges that moves us and the perils we face. There we are to see also the other light of the Gospel: the need for comprehension and forgiveness.”

We can only move forward when we are ready to revise and repent, to reshape our own attitudes, and ask for forgiveness and to forgive others, he added. “We are always need to question our own praxis, to review it in the light of the gospel, in its consequences for creation, for the sake of ‘the least of these’ through whom we serve Jesus, with what we affirm our faith in the God of life.”

Meeting participants developed recommendations for the Conference on World Mission and Evangelism, as well as recommendations for developing inter-contextual study materials for Together Towards Life and for mission formation curricula.

WCC Commission on World Mission and Evangelism