THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH

Dr. Daryl R. Climenhaga

Integrative Essay

“Lessons from History”

Irai A. Rodrigues Filho

Box 492

December 05, 2013

Introduction

This Essay is a humble attempt to integrate all the readings done

for the course The Growth of the Church as taught by Dr. Daryl

Clemenhaga at Providence Seminary. I am using Paul Pierson’s

outline1 for the analyses of the principles for the following two

reasons. First, it gives a more chronological and general

overview of the History of Christian Expansion, and secondly, it

gives a missiological flavor to the analysis. The principles are

illustrated through the historical events in 7 different stages

of the Church’s expansion: Early Expansion, Change and attempts

at Renewal, Reformation Era, Renewal and the beginnings of

protestant Mission, The great centuries and The New Era and 21st

century.

The principles analyzed in this essay are: #1. The gospel

crosses and destroys dividing barriers; #2. Evangelization belongs to everyone in the

church; #3. The gospel challenges all other powers in this world; #4. When the 1Paul E. Pierson. The Dynamics of Christian Mission: history through a missiological perspective (Pasadena, CA: Willian Carey International University Press, c2009), 3-4.

church and the state become one, the church loses; #5. Some mission efforts fail:

Even failure can succeed; #6. Mission is part of the church’s identity: whenever they

are separated the church become sectarian; #7. Renewal and liberation comes from

the periphery of the church.2

We should be thankful that History illustrates and

registers principles using scientific and non-scientific sources,

like anthropology, sociology, phycology, scripture, and so on.

The principles drawn from “history” help us to be more effective

in God’s mission as we apply the lessons that worked, as we

analyse the ones we are applying already, and as we avoid making

the same mistakes.

Early Expansion

During the early expansion of the church, the Gospel

destroyed the racial barrier between the Jews and Gentiles (#1).

It is notorious in the council of Jerusalem (Acts 15), in the

identity of the Antioch Church, in Peter’s vision and his meeting

with Cornelius (Acts 11), in Paul’s ministry and Mission, and so

2 Index

on. Andrew Walls called it the Ephesian Moment3, when two races

and two cultures historically separated by the meal table (sacred

and non-sacred food issues) now met at the same table to share

the knowledge of Christ. The core message of the Gospel promoted

equality before God, with no difference of gender, class or

ethnicity. Nevertheless, the Christian church became part of the

oppressed group from the very beginning of its place in history4.

With the fall of the temple in 70 A.D., the table was once more

separated. On one side was the powerful rich Roman Empire and on

the other side was the weak and powerless Christian society.

It is important to note that the Christian Church was active

in missions from its very beginning. Every Christian shared the

Good News since Pentecost (#2). Even though there was persecution

and commercialization the gospel spread (#5). It is also

important to realize that the Christian church had the tendency

to close in on itself. It happened during the resurrection,

before the election of the deacons (Acts 6), and right before

Paul’s missionary journeys (#6). They needed a stimulus to go out3 Andrew F. Walls. The cross-cultural process in Christian history: studies in the transmission and appropriation of faith (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, c2002), 72-81.4 Mark A. Noll. Turning points: decisive moments in the history of Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books; Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity Press, c1997), 13-38.

and they always got it. They got the first stimulus from the

resurrected Christ, when he left to them his peace and

commissioned them to an incarnational ministry, Jesus said to them

again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you”(John

20:21) The second time came with the pouring out of the Spirit at

Pentecost. The third time was when the persecution from the Jews

was directed towards the Christians and sealed with Estevan’s

death. The fourth time also came as persecution from the Romans

towards all the Christians. The early church challenged the

spiritual powers through exorcisms, healings, natural phenomena,

and so on. Declaring “Jesus is Lord” was a very strong political

statement, challenging the Roman Empire’s authority (#3).

In the beginning of the 4th century when the Roman emperor,

Constantine, became a Christian and made his empire a Christian

empire, the Christian church went from the periphery to the

throne (#7). The Church became united with the powerful state and

unhappily the church started losing its morale (#4). Constantine

was the first ruler to kill under the banner of Christ. He was

the first to establish an imperial entanglement with the church,

although he did not represent the worst desecrations that took

place later under the Christian state. The Roman Empire finally

fell under the barbarians and what sustained the political life

was the Catholic Church. It was not just the Empire that fell;

the church and its morality were damaged5. Even though the

class, gender and racial division were still very notorious in

the beginning of Christendom, the church was still the place

where everyone shared the same ground (#1).

Now the church was really losing. Charlemagne was ordained

Emperor by the Pope. He took the position of church state

cooperation by transforming the west side of the former Roman

Empire into Christendom. His coronation6 was the culmination of

Christendom and a great turning point in the history of the

Christian church. For the next 800 years, everything from

religion to politics, economics, music or art would be considered

Christian.

Change and attempts at Renewal

5Gushee, David P. The Sacredness of Human Life: why an ancient vision is key to the world’s future (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, c2013), 147-53.6 Mark A. Noll. Turning points: decisive moments in the history of Christianity, 99-118.

The changes and attempt at Renewal started earlier with

Benedict’s rule (530 AD)7. His rules shaped the course of

monasticism and revealed how central monasticism had become in

shaping the course of Christianity. Monasticism was built upon

the foundation of the scriptures, which worked for and served the

16th century reformation. Also, all the missionary work done in

the Middle Ages was done by monks and friars (#6, #7).

In the middle ages when the disparity between rich and poor,

powerful and powerless increased, the need for transformation

increased as well. What rescued the church again was the Celtic

movement that preached to the barbarian tribes (who later became

Christians) and the friar movements who were accepted by the

church (Franciscans and Dominicans) (#7). They opened the

church’s door to the outcasts, women, orphans and aliens. They

even created the first, second and third orders, where women, lay

and married people could serve within the church, breaking the

structure the church had created. Francis of Assisi stepped over

the religious barriers and went to talk to the Muslim governors

when on the other side the crusades were shedding blood in the

7Mark A. Noll., Turning points: decisive moments in the history of Christianity, 77.

name of Christ. The friar movements were a simple and notorious

way of saying to the church that they had missed the mark (#2).

Another sad example of the church’s failure in its

relationship with the state was the crusades. The fourth crusade,

for example was one of the greatest blood baths in the history of

humanity. During this time (1054 AD), the church was divided into

East (Orthodox) and West (Roman) and they also lost territory to

the Muslims. As we have already seen, the rescue was coming from

the periphery (friar movements) (#7), but in the meantime the

church lost its reputation in its relationship with the state and

was becoming sectarian (#4, #6).

Reformation Era

Since Pentecost, Paul’s missionary journeys and the early

expansion the Gospel broke cultural and language barriers (#1).

During the time of the Reformation, one of the biggest barriers

the Gospel broke was that the Bible was translated into the

vernacular languages in the Christendom. With Luther’s Bible

translation into German and their separation from the Roman

Church, the lay people now had access to the scriptures, which

would later challenge the reformation’s “sola scriptura” (#3).

The Anabaptist movement challenged breaking the hierarchical and

Presbyterian interpretation of the Scripture towards a multi-

voiced interpretation of the Bible from a multi-voiced church.8

Without realizing it, the protestant church was opposing the

Catholic Church’s union with the state, but they hid behind the

new national powers condemning themselves to lose the battle

(#4). It did not take too much to start the same conduct the

Catholics had against the “infidels.” They all got together to

persecute and kill the Radicals (Anabaptists).9 It is easy to

understand why the protestant church was making the same

mistakes. For almost 300 years they withdrew into themselves

without having any major missionary initiative (#6). As always,

the missionary initiative came from the periphery. The early

Anabaptists were passionately missionary (#2), preaching the

gospel to the local peasants and nominal Christians day and

night, through water or fire10 (#7). Unfortunately, after so much

8 Stuart Murray. The Naked Anabaptist: The bare Essentials of a Radical Faith (Waterloo, Ontario: Herald Press, c2010), 46, 105-108.9 Harvey Plett. Seeking to be Faithful: the Story of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference (Rosenort, MB: Country Graphics and Printing Ltd., c1996), 1-9.10 Harry Lowen; Steven M. Nolt. Through Fire and Water: an overview of Mennonite History (Waterloo, Ont: Herald Press, 1996).

persecution they were known as “the quiet in the Land” (#6). By

the 1540s, many of the persecuted Mennonites were migrating to

Poland. The radical reformation seemed to fail, but in the midst

of persecution they learned to be Jesus by being an example and

alternative for future skeptical centuries in need of peace (#5).

During the same time of the reformation in Europe, the

Catholic reformation took place and the Gospel message went

overseas. The church kept being one with the colonizers in the

new colonies, and once again the church lost (#4). The Gospel

broke the salient and racial injustice when the imperial church

was subjugating the Natives in Latin America. The dissident voice

was present in Montesino’s11 sermon (the voice that claimed in

the desert-as he called himself), in the voice of Bartolome de

las Casas, and in the Jesuits (#7). The Gospel crossed cultural

barriers, took the shape of Native languages and proved that the

Natives were humans as much as the proud colonizers (#1).

Renewal and the beginnings of protestant Mission

11 Enrique Dussel. The Church in Latin America: 1492-1992 (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, c1992), 4, 44, 48, 203, 204.

The 18th century was a great century to show that the gospel

was not just food for the soul. With the Industrial revolution

and French Revolution in Europe, the number of people that

migrated to the cities grew, increasing the power of the

bourgeois and enlarging the line of the proletariat and poverty.

This reality found the Church of England devoted to itself, with

lack of passion for mission and for helping the needy. The

spiritual hunger found dwelling in the pietism and puritanism of

the conversion of the Wesleys12 and the strength of Wilberforce.

The trade from West Africa to the new world ran into thousands.

After the successful campaign for abolition, led by William

Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, and with the remarkable help of

the former slave, Olaudah Equiano, a British naval squadron

patrolled off the Slave Coast in 1807. 13

The renewal of the Anglican church came from the periphery

and was motivated by the poor and for the poor (#7), but in order

to make all the social changes, the church had to challenge the

powers of its time (#3) and sit at the dinner table with the

12 Mark A. Noll., Turning points: decisive moments in the history of Christianity, 215.13 Timothy Yates, The Expansion of Christianity (Oxford, England: Lion Publishing plc,c2004), 74.

slave, the legislator, the clergy and the layman (#1, #2). During

this time, the protestant mission awoke14 and William Carey

established the structure for missions and missionaries were sent

to the coasts of Asia and Africa.

The 17th and the 18th century tried very hard to disassociate

the church from the State. It is very understandable, based on

the colonizing and oppressing role of the church, however, it led

the society to moral values disassociated from its theological

origins. Immanuel Kant retained an attractively rigorous ethic

affirming the absolute dignity and worth of persons and our

obligation to honor that dignity without compromise. Kant

grounded his ethic in practical reason rather than revelation,

and rejected any meaningful connection to the former natural,

traditional law tradition. He is the best example of the gradual

de-Christianizing of what were once Christian convictions, and

retaining a biblically inflected ethic of duty and sacrifice,

while rejecting its theological foundations.15

14 Paul E. Pierson. The Dynamics of Christian Mission: history through a missiological perspective,199.15 David P. Gushee The Sacredness of Human Life: why an ancient vision is key to the world’s future,242.

By the late 18th century, The Mennonites had to move from

Prussia to the south of Russia (later known as Ukraine) standing

strong against the power of the local government (#3). The way

they challenged the powers of the world was with nonresistance16.

In the meantime, the colonizers in Latin America were changing

the slave labor from the natives to the Africans. The dilemma of

England came to be the dilemma of America.17 By the end of the

century, the reformation came from the boundaries (#7), and the

Jesuits (1759) were the main social force opposed to the

interests of the sugar-masters, the landowners, and the pioneer

columns in Brazil.

The Great Century (19th)

The increase of wealth, the use of it, and the struggle of

classes assumed a life of its own away from the eyes of the

church. As a result of that, the beginning of the 19th century

was characterized by industrial poverty giving birth to theories

that later on would divide the world in two: capitalism and

Communism.18 By the second half of 19th century, Illuminism took

16 Harvey Plett. Seeking to be Faithful: the Story of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, 71.17 Enrique Dussel. The Church in Latin America: 1492-1992, 187.18 Mark A.Noll. Turning points: decisive moments in the history of Christianity, 239.

root. Darwin came up with his theory of the evolution of the

species and the focus on science increased. The church suffered

with the higher criticism of the scriptures and England rose up

as the new world empire. Its power over India, Africa and the

forcing of the opium trade into China brought an association

between evangelism, Christianity and colonialism which was very

negative to missionary work19 (#4).

During this time, The Mennonites were pressured to join the

army when the Russian state was fighting against France. Their

Christian values were stronger than the value of their huge

farms. Many of them left everything behind and came to North

America (USA and Canada) (#3) peacefully communicating to the

Russian government that “Jesus is Lord”, not the Czar20.

This was also the time when the inland missions started with

Livingstone (Africa) and Taylor (China) (#2). This inland mission

was the antithesis to the world empire (England) teaching us that

even though the colonial church was corrupted, God always raised

up dissident voices against injustices (#3). Africa took a great

19 Paul E. Pierson. The Dynamics of Christian Mission: history through a missiological perspective,241-242.20 Harvey Plett. Seeking to be Faithful: the Story of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, 80.

step forward in the History of Mission under the name of Samuel

Ajayi Crowther with his interest in an African indigenous church

which was self-governing, self-sustaining and self-propagating

(#1, #7). This attempt failed with Crowther’s death, but a legacy

was left to the African church, who took it seriously in the next

century21 (#5).

New Era (20th)

The 20th century was a bloody mess. The enlightenment

project was living off inherited, yet already incoherent

fragments left behind from earlier moral traditions that actually

believed in a teleological view of human nature, which prescribed

substantive moral norms. The consequences of that damage were

intellectually visible in the writings of Nietzsche and

politically visible in the great messy slaughters of the 20th

century. He deconstructed the old morality, religion,

epistemology and also began a reconstruction, or a revaluation of

values22. It was followed by the Twentieth-Century Nazi Assaults

21 Andrew F. Walls. The cross-cultural process in Christian history: studies in the transmission and appropriation of faith, 155.22 David P. Gushee. The Sacredness of Human Life: why an ancient vision is key to the world’s future, 260.

on Human Life23 and the two world wars. Even though this lesson

was not presented in the introduction of this essay, it is

important to note that human life and society that tries to

divorce itself from God is condemned to perish.

This era suffered the First World War, but also enjoyed the

second awakening of a historical missionary presence and was

symbolized by Edinburgh World Missionary conference (1910)24 .

The rationalization of faith cooled off the church and the

consequences of the war demanded a practical response. Liberal

theology appeared, trying to respond to a scientific world and as

a result, a social theology increased. Missions started to

dwindle and the charismatic/Pentecostal movement stood up against

a rational and cool church25 (#1, #2, #3, #7). There is something

to note here. Since the revival at Azuza Street in 1906, the

Pentecostal and charismatic movement are the movements that are

growing the fastest in the world.26 The Pentecostal movement

showed once again that evangelization belongs to everyone in the

23 Ibid., 304.24 Mark A. Noll. Turning points: decisive moments in the history of Christianity, 261.

25 Paul E. Pierson, The Dynamics of Christian Mission: history through a missiological perspective,315.26 Timothy Yates. The Expansion of Christianity, 179.

church. The 20th century was an African century. The number of

Christians in Africa grew immensely, but not just in Africa, but

also in Latin America, Asia and the Pacific. It was the century

of the underdog.27 David Bosch is an example of how African

Theology became a reference to the whole world. He stated that

any Theology which does not address the academy, the church and

the wider society is sectarian or empty. He dedicated his whole

life to Africa and South Africa during its most conflicting

times, even though he had opportunity to go somewhere else28.

The second half of the 20th century is marked by the

consequences of the Second World War. USA took England’s place as

the new world Empire. Its economic power promoted the military

governments in Latin America in response to the rise of communism

on the continent. The church’s response to the oppression was

marked by the Catholic Council in Medellin (1968)29 where the

theology of the oppressed took form. Liberation theology did not

take root in the whole church though. The majority of the

27 Ibid., 166.28 Andrew F. Walls. The cross-cultural process in Christian history: studies in the transmission and appropriation of faith, 273.29 Alain Gheerbrant. The Rebel Church in Latin America (Markham, Ontario: Penguin Books Canada Ltd., c1974), 121.

Catholic Church was part of the oppressed governments, but there

was an emerging force that joined sides with the revolution. The

later aspect is present in the speech of Fidel Castro, Friday,

January 12, 1968 (#3, #7).30 The church opposed the imperialist

power and rose up from the periphery.

Second Vatican (1962-65) and the Lausanne congress (1974)

were the examples of the understanding of the church regarding

the role of the lay people and the importance of a message of the

Gospel that comes from the whole church, to the whole world and

to the whole human being.

This was the century where the Mennonite church understood

that the only way of breaking away from segregation was to go

out, and “do missions”. The Evangelical Mennonite Conference sent

its first missionary to the Brazilian amazon. Her name was

Suzanne Plett from the Prairie Rose congregation. She served the

Lord until she died, along the Amazon River in Brazil in 1956.31

Conclusion - 21st Century Challenges

30 Ibid., 267-270.31Harvey Plett, Seeking to be Faithful: the Story of the Evangelical Mennonite Conference, 136-145.

The world survived the desecrations and carnage of the

period from 1914 to 1945. Gushee suggests32 in this chapter that

much of the fermentation on the political, intellectual, and

religious landscape after 1945 can be connected to one or another

struggle to resacralize human life. Humanity was trying to

regroup and find its way after 30 years of desecrations. He also

proposes that we should not be talking about the sacredness of

human life, but about the sacredness of created life33. His

holistic approach comes into play once again. What if we keep the

value of human beings and yet desecrate creation? There is no

“smoke free area” in creation. Human beings need a preserved

environment where they can live. The Bible is full of evidence

that God has shown profound care for nonhuman creatures and

creation. It does not mean that we should abandon the sacredness

of human life ethics, but we should expand our vision to discover

the value of other creatures.

Nowadays, it has become very easy to travel anywhere. People

from all over the world are conglomerating in the big cities of

32 Gushee, David P. The Sacredness of Human Life: why an ancient vision is key to the world’s future, 352-387.33 Ibid., 388-410.

the world, which is changing the focus of missions to include the

multicultural cities. I do not think it is a challenge, from the

way history has registered that the gospel was always able to

break cultural and dividing barriers. I see two challenges

though. The first one has to do with church, state and society.

The modern Society and State tried to divorce itself from God,

and Christian ethics tried to find an atheistic ground for

ethics. History showed that this principle took humanity into a

bloody mess. It is necessary for the church and society to work

together towards making created life sacred again. Either we can

work together or we’ll perish together. I think that the

relationship between the church and State has always caused the

church to lose, but we need to take the risk of influencing the

state by having politics and society live together, otherwise we

will end up in a perverted and indwelled world. The second

challenge is the individualistic lifestyle promoted by the big

cities. The individualistic life can create multicultural ghettos

in the cities, where each one will have a representative on

different levels of society. Because we will need to respect each

other’s individuality (religion, gender, and so on), we will not

be able to do anything anymore. I call it “freedom in shackles”.

It is important to note that “lessons from history” are

always between quotation marks, because of what gives us the

seven principles as mentioned above. They are disciplines such as

Ethics, Biblical Studies, Theology, Sociology, Anthropology, and

so on. I did not develop the relationship between principles and

disciplines because of the missiological approach that I decided

to take from the beginning. Whoever gave us those principles, we

are thankful to history for keeping them alive.

Index

Lessons from “History”

#1. The gospel crosses and destroys dividing barriers;

#2. Evangelization belongs to everyone in the church;

#3. The gospel challenges all other powers in this world;

#4. When the church and the state become one, the church

loses;

#5. Some mission efforts fail: Even failure can succeed;

#6. Mission is part of the church’s identity: whenever they

are separated the church becomes sectarian;

#7. Renewal and liberation comes from the periphery of the

church.

Bibliography

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Gheerbrant, Alain. The Rebel Church in Latin America (Markham,

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Gushee, David P. The Sacredness of Human Life: why an ancient vision is

key to the world’s future (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, c2013).

Noll, Mark A., Turning points: decisive moments in the history of

Christianity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books; Leicester, England:

Inter-Varsity Press, c1997).

Pierson, Paul E., The Dynamics of Christian Mission: history through a

missiological perspective (Pasadena, CA: Willian Carey International

University Press, c2009).

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Ltd., c1996).

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(Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, c2002).

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