Resulting in churches being afraid of
death and all the punishments of our
proclaiming the gospel of the Refor-
sins and are saved eternally” (Kolb and
mation (Jn 17:3). It is only appropriate
Wengert 2000, 585).
and true to the spirit of the Reformation that we Lutherans and our churches ought to rediscover and reclaim the gospel the way our founder, Martin Luther, did 500 years ago, which led to the Protestant Reformation. There is no sustainable and accountable mission without the gospel. The gospel is the foundation of all our mission enterprises. Not any gospel, but the gospel that Martin Luther has rediscovered, which is clearly hammered out in the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration paragraph V, 20: “Human beings have not kept the law of God but have transgressed it. Their corrupted human nature, thoughts, words and deeds, battle against the law. For this reason they are subject to God’s wrath, to death and all temporal afflictions, and to the punishment of the fires of hell. As a result, the gospel in its strict sense teaches what people should believe, namely, that they receive from God the forgiveness of sins; that is, that the Son of God, our Lord Christ, has taken upon himself the curse of the law and borne it, atoned and paid for all our sins; that through him alone we are restored to God’s grace, obtained the forgiveness of sins through faith, and are delivered from
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What will the next 500th anniversary of the Reformation be like? And where will it have travelled to? At this point of time, it is anybody’s guess. Mission as proclamation and church planting is the carriage in which the gospel of the Reformation will be carried from one person to another, one house to another, one city to another, one state to another, one country to another, and one generation to another. We and our churches are the horsemen that drive it. The Trinitarian God will be the guard that will accompany us on our journey. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it (Matt 16:8).
Bibliography Greater Mekong Subregion Secretariat, Asian Development Bank 2017 ”About the Greater Mekong Subregion” (Retrieved May 29) Kolb, Robert & Timothy J. Wengert 2000 The Book of Concord. Fortress: Minneapolis Lutheran World Federation (DMD) 2004 Mission-in-Context
Noter 1. In its landmark publication, Mission-in-Context, in 2004, LWF (DMD) provided its missional modus operandi and
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