NEWS STORY: Looking for Kinder, Gentler Missionary Language

c. 2000 Religion News Service (UNDATED) Target. Crusade. Conquer. Words like these have been used not only by the military, but by missionaries. Now, a group of mission leaders and scholars has issued a ground-breaking statement asking colleagues to look for gentler metaphors to reflect their desire to convert others to their faith. “`Warfare’ metaphors […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) Target. Crusade. Conquer.

Words like these have been used not only by the military, but by missionaries.


Now, a group of mission leaders and scholars has issued a ground-breaking statement asking colleagues to look for gentler metaphors to reflect their desire to convert others to their faith.

“`Warfare’ metaphors and terminology, while biblical in the cosmic/spiritual sense, have been misused in Christian mission communications,” according to a statement from the Consultation on Mission Language and Metaphors held recently at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

“They have become increasingly counterproductive to mission work, sometimes endangering the lives of local believers, and are being used by opponents of the church to indict and impede its work. We therefore advocate an immediate end to the inappropriate use of such words.”

The consultation, from June 1-3, was the first of its kind, according to several participants.

“It came about because a number of mission leaders began to realize that some of the metaphors we used were needlessly offensive to our Muslim and Hindu friends,” said Paul Pierson, dean emeritus of Fuller’s School of World Mission. “The basic issue is we do not want to create an impression with our friends of other faiths and cultures of arrogance or imperialism.”

The meeting included leaders of two large umbrella groups of evangelical missionaries _ the Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies and the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association _ as well as representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Association of Vineyard Churches and the World Evangelical Fellowship.

The statement, ratified by all 31 participants in the meeting, affirms that participants are “not ashamed of the gospel,” but want to prevent misunderstanding.

“We make no apology at all for the belief that Jesus Christ needs to be communicated to people of every race, language and culture,” said Pierson. “We just acknowledge that sometimes our language has been offensive for no good reason.”

The statement is nonbinding but those who signed it anticipate it will eventually affect the wording chosen for promotional literature distributed by missions agencies.


Pierson said he would no longer recommend that missions organizations use the word “crusade” to describe evangelistic activities, particularly those led abroad.

“A crusade, of course, to a Muslim brings up the memory of a very, very tragic incident in European history,” he said. “I would not use the word now personally because we have Muslim friends in our culture.”

The statement points to Jesus as “a great master of redemptive metaphors,” and urges missions leaders and local churches to search the Scriptures for different language to describe their goals.

“Alternate words and images include blessing, healing, inviting, sowing and reaping, fishing, restoring family relationships, becoming reconcilers, peacemakers and ambassadors,” the statement reads.

John Orme, executive director of the Interdenominational Foreign Mission Association in Wheaton, Ill., said many of the 94 agencies affiliated with his umbrella group were founded around the time of World War II, when military lingo was popular.

“There is a spiritual warfare going on, but our relationship with Hindus and Muslims is not warfare,” Orme said. “We’re hopeful that agencies will broaden their appeal by a rich and even deeper use of the multiplicity of biblical metaphors.”


Paul McKaughan, president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Mission Agencies in Atlanta, cited India as a country where some metaphorical language has been taken literally.

“There has been language appearing in newspapers, public newspapers, intimating very clearly that people felt that certain Christian organizations wanted to make physical conquests of the culture and the people,” said McKaughan, whose umbrella organization includes about 100 missions groups.

Consultation participants said it was particularly important to address the language issue as their words cross the globe via the Internet.

“The technology that opens the world to us also opens us and our words to the world,” the statement reads. “The world, we must assume, will read or hear whatever we say to our own.”

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