A Japanese scholar put forward a new approach to preaching the gospel to Asians—witnessing—instead of following the historical ways of evangelism or social service.
In Plenary 6 of the Asia 2022 congress themed “Penetrating Asia's Cultural Heartlands with the Gospel”, Dr. Yoshiyuki Nishioka, research director at the Tokyo Mission Research Institute, contrasted the current two types of gospel transmission— propositional approach and social service approach, and presented the new approach, witnessing.
From October 17 to 21, the Asia 2022 Congress gathered about 600 Christian leaders from across Asia under the theme of "Rethinking Church and Mission: God’s Agenda for Today ", convened jointly by the Lausanne Movement in Asia, Asia Evangelical Alliance, and Asia Theological Association.
Addressing the participants from more than 40 countries on October 20, Dr. Yoshiyuki Nishioka first said that the propositional approach is the verbal proclamation of the gospel which is considered absolute universal truth. However, Nishioka stated four problems with this approach.
Firstly, this approach gives an illusion that there is a culture-free, pure gospel. But the fact is the gospel that brought by the incarnated Christ is deeply related to the very human reality that exists in the culture.
Secondly, the gospel expressed as a proposition is reductionist, and cultural superiority lurks under the reductionist conviction. “The enlightenment pursuit of objective and absolute knowledge distorts the understanding of the gospel and its presentation into excessive rationalism leads to evangelizing a sense of cultural superiority,” he said.
Thirdly, the worded gospel detached from people’s lives. The conceptualized gospel allows it to be separated from the communicator, being uninvolved in believers’ lives.
Fourthly, the conceptualized gospel and the gospel enveloped by foreign narratives may cause a discrepancy between the message that has been unconsciously transmitted and the words being spoken. Biblically correct words may no longer resonate in people's hearts.
Nishioka pointed out that the Lausanne Covenant issued in 1974 changed the course that evangelical churches only focused on preaching the correct gospel and neglected the response to social needs and affirmed evangelism and socio-political involvement are both parts of Christian duty.
But he observed that the church has become “a set of actualizing organizations, seeking quantitative growth and its maintenance”, and the social responsibility is fulfilled by the organizational group outside the church.
Nishioka described the social services Japanese churches do and the challenges they face. His own church sets a support group for mothers with infants who are easily isolated from society; provides a space for children to study or fellowship; give food assistance for children or needy families; etc.
Though churches respond to the needs of others, they cannot communicate the gospel directly to them, especially after tsunamis and earthquakes. So words conveyed through social actions are common to all humankind, like “we need to help each other in the time of distress”. Meanwhile, the invisible barriers between the help giver and the recipients can prevent the gospel from being shared. Even if they receive the gospel, they fail to grow in faith.
After contrasting the two approaches, Nishioka proposed a new approach—"witnessing".
He said, “The culture proclamation tends to be confrontational, even judgmental to the culture. Social service is more likely to be inceptive and sympathetic. The witness is presenting a new way of life while living in the culture, creating the new culture together.”
Nishioka explained the mechanism of the witness approach: the power of questions, rumors, and shared witnesses.
The propositional approach presents the gospel as an answer, but the communication of the witness raises questions in the recipient.
Rumors spread through the surprise of discovery of the recipient, and they are boiled up from within and spread from below, not from a force from above all, or pressure from outside. Nishioka named it as “an invisible force that moves people's hearts”.
Then the witness penetrates after the confusion of value.
“The living witness of believers raised certain questions among those who believe in other religions or secular gods, the question can never be meaningfully answered without the truth revealed in the light of the gospel of the cross and the resurrection of Christ,” he explained.
Nishioka clarified that the importance of the witness does not neglect the importance of the proclamation and social service, rather, the question raised by the witness draws people to the puppet table where the gospel is proclaimed and services given by people who love Jesus raise a great question among recipients.
“Word without deed and deed without word do not have a penetrating power. This is why the witness is crucial in which the word is not detached from the deed,” he concluded.
2022年10月17日至21日，来自全亚洲600名基督教领袖齐聚泰国曼谷，参加洛桑运动举行的主题为“重思教会与事工：上帝给今天的议程”（Rethinking Church and Mission: God’s Agenda for Today）的“亚洲2022大会”（Asia2022 Congress）。本次大会从三个方面明确体现亚洲教会的健康状况：活力、团结和深度。
在过去的一百年里，福音传给了亚洲数亿人，但亚洲更成熟的宗教的中心地带如同亚洲的文化腹地一样，尤其是佛教、印度教、伊斯兰教和神道教，则更难进入。2022亚洲大会第六次全体会议以“让福音穿透亚洲的文化腹地”（Penetrating Asia's cultural heartlands with the Gospel）为主题，探讨福音如何在亚洲的多元宗教文化中更好地传播、发展和繁荣。
东京宣教研究所研究主任、东京圣经神学院院长西冈义之（Yoshiyuki Nishioka）做了主题演讲，泰国湄公河福音宣教团（Mekong Evangelical Mission）主席赛亚克博士（Chansamone Saiyasak）针对演讲做了回应。
西冈首先分析了当今存在的两种传福音方法—命题真理和社会服务—存在的问题，而后提出新的方法——见证，并以具体的故事说明见证为何能更好地将福音传播开来。
命题真理
命题真理的方法以口传福音、直接话语宣讲为主要传福音方式，将所认为的绝对普遍真理告诉其他人。长期以来，福音派教会将此视为其使命的核心。
西冈认为这种方法存在四个方面的问题：
首先，他认为和文化完全无关的纯粹福音是一种幻想。因为福音是道成肉身，和文化中的人性息息相关。
其次，这种做法会让福音传播者生出潜藏的文化优越感，导致对其他文化和宗教缺乏尊重，注重私人领域而失去公共性。
此外，以话语为主的福音与人们的实际生活分离。传福音专注于短时间内将福音传给更多人，而不是人们被福音改变，活出福音。
最后，这样的福音是概念化的，而且是用外国的叙事方式表达的。
社会服务
1974年的洛桑信约改变了福音派教会只注重传播福音的做法，悔改了将传福音和社会关怀视为互相排斥的行为，声明传福音和社会政治参与都是基督徒生活的一部分。
西冈对洛桑信约的实际影响态度并不乐观。他观察到教会已经形成了自己固定的模式，社会服务更多是机构而不是教会在做。而机构和教会之间的合作并不如预期的顺利，所以传福音和社会服务变成了由两个机构做的两种不同的工作。
据西冈反映，日本教会的情况是，虽然努力做社会服务，但通过这种方式传福音很难。原因主要有三点：
一是言语和行动相分离。教会做社会服务，用行动回应他人的寻求，但在日本的情况下，很难直接开口传福音，尤其是在地震、海啸之后。
二是教会所做的社会服务最终只能归结为道义性的话语。比如，重要的是困难时期大家要互相帮助，生命比什么都重要。社会服务最终只能传播一些跨越年龄、国籍、文化和宗教的道义性话语。
三是帮助者和受助者之间还有看不见的障碍。受助者处于接受、被动的位置，即便真的接受了福音，信心也很难成长。
新的方式——见证
基于上述分析，西冈提出了他认为合适的方式——见证。
他认为，命题真理是外来文化对抗原有文化，社会服务容易受制于现有文化，而见证是让生活在一种文化中的人共同创造出新的文化。
西冈通过一则故事讲述了见证如何在群体中发挥强大的作用。日本一间教会以与政府完全不同的方式帮助某艾滋病高发地的人们脱离了感染艾滋病的危险。那个教会的一位妇女去到当地，和妇女们一起生活了几年，了解他们感染的原因，之后提出了帮助阻断艾滋病传播的三个做法。这些方法在他们中间广泛流传最终控制了当地艾滋病的传播。政府方面也组织了会议，告诉人们应该采取的措施，但出于日本当地对政府的不信任，他们不愿意参加会议。
在这个故事中，信息如何传播开？西冈认为疑问、传闻和共同的见证三者一起发挥了作用。见证在群体中引发疑问；传闻出自内部，常常有非常好的传播效果；在人们混淆之际，见证再次发挥力量。见证解决了言语和行为分离的问题，可以讲信息很好地传播出去。
特写 | 洛桑2022亚洲大会第六次全体会议：为何“见证”是让福音真正进入亚洲文化的好方式？
A Japanese scholar put forward a new approach to preaching the gospel to Asians—witnessing—instead of following the historical ways of evangelism or social service.
In Plenary 6 of the Asia 2022 congress themed “Penetrating Asia's Cultural Heartlands with the Gospel”, Dr. Yoshiyuki Nishioka, research director at the Tokyo Mission Research Institute, contrasted the current two types of gospel transmission— propositional approach and social service approach, and presented the new approach, witnessing.
From October 17 to 21, the Asia 2022 Congress gathered about 600 Christian leaders from across Asia under the theme of "Rethinking Church and Mission: God’s Agenda for Today ", convened jointly by the Lausanne Movement in Asia, Asia Evangelical Alliance, and Asia Theological Association.
Addressing the participants from more than 40 countries on October 20, Dr. Yoshiyuki Nishioka first said that the propositional approach is the verbal proclamation of the gospel which is considered absolute universal truth. However, Nishioka stated four problems with this approach.
Firstly, this approach gives an illusion that there is a culture-free, pure gospel. But the fact is the gospel that brought by the incarnated Christ is deeply related to the very human reality that exists in the culture.
Secondly, the gospel expressed as a proposition is reductionist, and cultural superiority lurks under the reductionist conviction. “The enlightenment pursuit of objective and absolute knowledge distorts the understanding of the gospel and its presentation into excessive rationalism leads to evangelizing a sense of cultural superiority,” he said.
Thirdly, the worded gospel detached from people’s lives. The conceptualized gospel allows it to be separated from the communicator, being uninvolved in believers’ lives.
Fourthly, the conceptualized gospel and the gospel enveloped by foreign narratives may cause a discrepancy between the message that has been unconsciously transmitted and the words being spoken. Biblically correct words may no longer resonate in people's hearts.
Nishioka pointed out that the Lausanne Covenant issued in 1974 changed the course that evangelical churches only focused on preaching the correct gospel and neglected the response to social needs and affirmed evangelism and socio-political involvement are both parts of Christian duty.
But he observed that the church has become “a set of actualizing organizations, seeking quantitative growth and its maintenance”, and the social responsibility is fulfilled by the organizational group outside the church.
Nishioka described the social services Japanese churches do and the challenges they face. His own church sets a support group for mothers with infants who are easily isolated from society; provides a space for children to study or fellowship; give food assistance for children or needy families; etc.
Though churches respond to the needs of others, they cannot communicate the gospel directly to them, especially after tsunamis and earthquakes. So words conveyed through social actions are common to all humankind, like “we need to help each other in the time of distress”. Meanwhile, the invisible barriers between the help giver and the recipients can prevent the gospel from being shared. Even if they receive the gospel, they fail to grow in faith.
After contrasting the two approaches, Nishioka proposed a new approach—"witnessing".
He said, “The culture proclamation tends to be confrontational, even judgmental to the culture. Social service is more likely to be inceptive and sympathetic. The witness is presenting a new way of life while living in the culture, creating the new culture together.”
Nishioka explained the mechanism of the witness approach: the power of questions, rumors, and shared witnesses.
The propositional approach presents the gospel as an answer, but the communication of the witness raises questions in the recipient.
Rumors spread through the surprise of discovery of the recipient, and they are boiled up from within and spread from below, not from a force from above all, or pressure from outside. Nishioka named it as “an invisible force that moves people's hearts”.
Then the witness penetrates after the confusion of value.
“The living witness of believers raised certain questions among those who believe in other religions or secular gods, the question can never be meaningfully answered without the truth revealed in the light of the gospel of the cross and the resurrection of Christ,” he explained.
Nishioka clarified that the importance of the witness does not neglect the importance of the proclamation and social service, rather, the question raised by the witness draws people to the puppet table where the gospel is proclaimed and services given by people who love Jesus raise a great question among recipients.
“Word without deed and deed without word do not have a penetrating power. This is why the witness is crucial in which the word is not detached from the deed,” he concluded.
Japanese Scholar Shares 'Witnessing' as New Missionary Approach at Asia 2022 Congress
