Foundations for Christian Mission, Student Workbook, SW04

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F O U N D A T I O N S F O R C H R I S T I A N M I S S I O N

they rejected all claims that this symbolism ought not be appropriated personally for them as singles. After all, this motivation underlies much of the traditional Christian argument for celibacy for sisters who surrender themselves up to Christ and him alone. How would you answer these two dear missionary sisters in regard to this issue? Is the personalization of this symbol appropriate, or should we restrict its usage to the entire people of God as the bride of Christ, and not individuals seeing it as relevant for their personal lives?

Suburban vs. Urban Styles of Spirituality

In regard to the warfare motif of Christian discipleship and mission, one can notice a stark difference between urban and suburban styles of spirituality and battle. Speaking generally, for many suburbans who have attained a measure of affluence and convenience, a major emphasis in their spiritual journey is safety, protection, and security. Often the society is perceived as a evil counter force warring against the positive morals and decency of the nuclear family, and the goal is to conserve these values and belief systems to ensure that the family and neighborhood is kept secure from those forces which would seek to undermine that security. Urban styles of spirituality, on the other hand, tend to highlight the conflict and struggle with the world and its agents. Warfare is embraced as a necessary response to the ever-present evil all around that seeks to destroy and annihilate them. The predisposition of a mature Christian will be constant vigilance and engagement with powers, of struggling to overcome these powers on a daily basis. The assumptions are not rooted in conserving values, but liberating people from oppressive and dangerous structures that hold them in their grasp. With nothing to protect and no affluence to keep, they tend to embrace spiritual motifs which emphasize fighting, engagement, and struggle. What do you make of these different styles—are they simply the result of spiritual journeys based on different contexts, or is there something more fundamental in the different assumptions and their outworking in spiritual life?

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Is Christianity a Western Religion?

Unfortunately, many wrongly have associated the entire Christian enterprise with a kind of controlling Euro-centrism that would see Christianity as Western, white, and middle class. Although the strongest and most intense Christian movements are currently third-world and involve people of color, the centers of power and finance for much of the Christian world are still white and western. Most of the seminaries,