December 2011 Letter to Sponsoring Congregations

Dear friends,

Christmas changes things…When ordinary (and terrified) shepherds went to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger in a stable …  they became extraordinary missionaries of the Good News.  According to Luke 2:8-20:  "When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them."

There were similar emotions of doubt and excitement among 60 seminary students at a recent workshop entitled "Christian Education for Mission" held at the Lutheran Theological Institute (LTI) in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.   (The ELCA supports theological education at LTI and scholarships for graduate students in theology at the University of KwaZulu/Natal.)

I was invited by the seminary to lead the workshop which took place at the end of the school year just before students returned to their homes for the Christmas summer break.

We started by talking in small groups about our personal experiences of Christian education as children, youth and adults.  The reports were both negative and positive.  Then, working in groups, the students prepared and presented lessons for Sunday School and Confirmation based on the new Lutheran Communion in Southern Africa (LUCSA) Christian education resource books "Living Together in Christ."  (www.lucsa.org)  The lessons were lively as was the critique in plenary.

What really got the students excited and talking was the discovery that the Triune God is a Missionary God revealed in the way of Christ's incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection and that it is not a plane ticket but our baptism that affirms that we are all, by God's grace, claimed, gathered and sent to participate in God's mission for the sake of the life of the world. 

Some students did a role play at the end of the workshop to demonstrate what they will be saying when they return to their communities and home congregations over Christmas.

They responded to the question "What did you learn?" saying:

“I learned that we are all missionaries through baptism and that we are all learners and teachers.  I learned that mission is the work of the Triune God.  I learned how to be a missionary in the mission of the Triune God.  I learned about the three dimensions of mission: transformation, reconciliation and empowerment.  I learned what I did not know, that we are all missionaries and do not need to wait for missionaries from outside Africa.  I learned that mission needs participants not spectators. I learned that Christian education is for the whole church and the way of evangelism.”

Christmas and the Good News of  "Immanuel" - God in, with and for the life of the world -  does change things. 

Thank you for your participation in the mission of the Triune God locally and globally.

Yours faithfully,

Philip Knutson

ELCA - Global Mission

Regional Program Assistant – Southern Africa

Cape Town, November 2, 2011

www.southernafricaconnections.org