Is it possible to read the Bible in missional sense? Are there any proper method to study the Bible in Missiology? The Bible is very essential to Missiology. God of mission has sent the church, the koinonia he called, into the world. The basis of the commission is strictly based in the Bible. Hence, from the time of the early church, there were unique trends that the church treat certain verses as the premise of missions. Even without the direct citations, those verses implicitly express the missional paradigm of the age. However, ‘missional hermeneutic’ on the Bible not just provides a biblical foundation of Mission but supports the mission as a whole. Which that the Bible, from cover to cover, it is constructed into the grand narrative, the mission of God.The study describes the mission of God by focusing on the concept of ‘covenant’ which is the repeating biblical narrative. The Idea of covenant is a major subject that forms the identity and the world view of Israel. From the covenant of Noah to the New Covenant in New Testament including the covenant of Abraham, Mount Sinai, and David, the idea is integrated into the grand narrative, the mission of God. Each covenant is not discontinuous from another but related since they were given according to the context of Israel. They were reconfirmed and reapplied in a large extent. In the Bible, the idea of covenant, the mission of God forms the core like the central nervous system. This paper proves the consistent idea of mission of God in the Bible by briefing the formation and the reconfirmations of the covenant. Jesus Christ was sent to ‘Yes’ all the promises(Cor II 1:20). God in Jesus of the Nazareth gave the suffering servant who is the descendent of Abraham blessing all races, who is the prophet overwhelms the Moses in bringing the grace and the truth into the world, who is the son of David reigning with righteousness endlessly, and who is the covenant gathering his people to him. Jesus who resurrected indeed reflected his identity to the Bible and also opened the eyes of his disciples who shall go forth to all nations with the power of the spirit(Lk 24:45-47). He is the only one who has the right to open the scroll that represents the entire history for he completed the mission of God(Rev 5:9). Therefore, every hermeneutic readings on the Bible must be messiahnic and missional. The ultimate object of the grand narrative must be found in Jesus Christ who died on the cross and resurrected from the deads. Missional hermeneutic overcomes multi-cultural hermeneutic and post-modern hermeneutic. Christian missions has experienced the challenges from post modern world for decades. The Bible rejoices diversity and approves the various human cultures with praise. Post-modernism also welcomes such characteristics of the Bible(cultural, local, relational, narrative). However, it limits those contexts into local and particular and generalize those as a whole. There are no narrative that includes all of them. There are no concept of the truth that integrates all the meaning of life with wholistic consistence. Diversity in hermeneutics does not affirm to a free licence to pluralism or relativism. Missional hermeneutic is different from them for it integrate the diversities, localities, and particularities into the grand narrative. The mission of God is a enormous story that clearly shown from the creation to the new creation in the Bible. It is the universal narrative that affirms the ultimate meaning to the human race that carries the particular cultural diversities. Missional hermeneutic is also a ecumenical hermeneutic since it contributes in church unity through biblical interpretation.

In the wake of September 11, 2001 the word Jihad became well known in the non-Muslim world, especially, in western societies. Some politicians and media have used it to conjure up terrifying images of rabid Islamic fundamentalists. The word Jihad come from a religious context, and has a long history and has been used for a range of complex meanings. However these days it tends to be translated “holy war” from its association with the medieval Crusades. Because of this, there is a current debate whether the usage of the term jihad without further explanation refers to military combat. Some apologists and some western scholars insist that jihad is primarily nonviolent. On the other hand, some Islamic fundamentalists turn the confusion over the definition of the term to their advantage. In this article the author examines how the concept of Jihad was developed in the Quran and the Hadiths and how each of the sub-groups of Islam defines its meaning in their historical contexts. The author begins with the hypothesis that the common mistake made in the study of Islam by outsiders, as in the study of other religions, is to treat Islam as a unified religious system. The reality is that all Muslims are not same in their manner of thinking, believing, and living. Historically proto-Sufism began to add nonviolent concepts into the meaning of Jihad in the context of the conversion of ascetics. This became the understanding of Sufism. For them the concept of greater jihad and lesser jihad were used to imply the meaning of inner spiritual discipline. On the other hand the main streams of Islam, Sunni and Shia, do not reject the use of violence in when they performing jihad. In fact they seem to have added additional kinds of jihad, as well as to develop some preconditions for waging holy wars. Though some pacifistic groups, particularly Ahmadiyya, reject the violent aspect of jihad, modern fundamentalists insist that every Muslim should engage in militant jihad and destroy indiscriminately everything which is in opposition to Islam. In conclusion, the author suggests that we should not expect monolithic answers when we pose questions of Muslims. Instead, we should begin to ask what kind of worldview each particular Muslim person and community have. We will see that each group in Islam, including secular Muslims, have quite different perspectives on the meaning and practices of jihad. To serve Muslims effectively, we need to begin with an informed understanding of each of them if we are to establish a respectful and trustful relationship with them.

This paper is to study the missionary reflection of social service mission in Korea church after the 1945 liberation of Korea. When reflecting social service of Korea churches according to the historical features, it could be divided as before and after the 1945 liberation of Korea. The social service before the liberation could be summed up as ‘un-structural service period’ that had been conducted to Korean people in poverty, diseases and ignorance during the beginning of mission by the missionaries. The other could be summarized as ‘structural service period’ that is recognized the ideological conflict and the suffering from the division of Korea into north and south and the Korean war and ‘holistic service period’ that tried to avoid a crisis into social service mission as Korea churches in quantitative growth were experiencing stagnation. The mission before the l945 liberation was an education and a medical service as the approaching method in Korean society. But those services were one method for evangelism because they were based on conservatism theology of early missionaries. So, there was no missio-theological reflection for the extension of God’s Kingdom that Jesus Christ proclaimed in the world. Therefore early Korean churches are ‘un-structural service period’ that emphasizes only individual's spiritual salvation in the absence of society. During the Japanese colonial period social service of Korea church was ‘solidarity period’ that tried to find a clue of national problem solution from a rural community movement. Korean churches in the 1920s began to recognize social salvation and the world’s structural problems. The rural community movement also developed actively for about 10 years from the 1920s to the mid of 1930s, but it should be stopped due to the oppression in and out of church in the late 1930s. Even though there were many believers who died of dire persecution, many main religious associations in Korea found the way to live in sympathy with the visit of Japan’s shrine. After the 1945 liberation Koreans experienced both the joy of liberation from Japan and fratricidal war. In this period the duty of Korea churches was to save Clients in want and received financial support from the western churches because of economical poverty and impoverishment. And the April 19 pro-democracy movement in 1960 was happened due to the political corruption, but the democratization retreated because of the May 16 military coup in 1961. Industrialization and urbanization are promoted as focusing on the economic development, and UIM that helps the human rights abuses of workers origins. In this period Korean churches begin to open their eyes about the evil of social structure and illegality and corruption stemming from the huge gap forming between the rich and the poor, materialism and the negligence of humanity. So this is ‘structural service period,’ for Korean churches that are focusing on the individual’s spiritual salvation become to recognize the evil of social structure and injustice as mission work. Finally, since Korean churches after the 1970s are interested in the church’s growth and expansion, they are not into social service. The economic growth by the military regime caused trouble such as the gap between the rich and the poor, environmental disruption and materialism and formed urban slums. And also Korean churches that disregard these problems are contaminated by growth-oriented theology, but they surprisingly growed with the military regime. In this period the large scale gathering and revival are lively held, and churches closely cooperate in turning the concern about human rights and democratization into individual’s spirit salvation and blessing. As a result, Korean churches after the 1990s have been put aside in the society and stagnated constantly. Now Korean churches stand in between temptation of growth and responsibility of social service. The early Korean churches created the way to mission through social service building up many hospitals and schools as a method of evangelism. Therefore, Korean churches should revive a tradition of holistic mission with both evangelism and social responsibility.

If a missionary does not fully comprehend the concept of the mission of God, he can be said to live a second or third dimension of a missiological life. Thus, he always worries about what to eat, what to drink, or what to wear, and the mission of God cannot be fulfilled when he is tempted with these worries. The Will of God which constantly processes from the Genesis until present day surpasses the third dimension, meaning that it exceeds a line formed by connecting a dot and dot, the surface formed by these lines, and the space formed through those surfaces. In the midst of this, the Will of God should be comprehended under the universal concept that surpasses the time and space. The writer names this as the Holistic Missio Dei, or something that goes over, for “finite human mind cannot fully comprehend infinite and eternal God.” When the Will of God comprehended under the universal notion is applied to His creatures, the true mission of God can be accomplished. Through this, we can find out every element relating to mission, such as the principal agent, purpose, direction, strategy, and more. The first chapter of Genesis, which belongs to the introduction of the Old Testament, clearly demonstrates that God is the agent of mission. In the Holy Bible, New Korean Revised Version, the subject of every sentence is God. For 32 times, God is expressed in subjective or possessive. Considering that the first chapter of Genesis consists of 31 verses, every verse includes the word ‘God,’ and here, the word ‘God’ indicates Elohim. In this point of view, the Bible and church history clearly demonstrate us that God created the world and that in the midst of this, the Church was developed. The writer acknowledges that “Today’s Salvation,” which was discussed together with conservative mission perspective in the late 20th Century, should be established as the theme of mission. The conservative mission perspective always was ‘God ⟶ Church ⟶ World.’ Yet, as this proceeded to the modern mission perspectives, it was changed to ‘God ⟶ World ⟶ Church.’ In the conservative mission perspective, modern church was always a community of people with callings and an agent of dispatch. Nonetheless, in the mission of God, the agent of dispatch is God the Trinity, and Church is a community that gathers and scatters as Charles Van Engen asserts. The writer perceives that, by going one step further from the conservative mission perspective and by interpreting the mission in a declaration and participation perspective of the Gospel, the true mission can be erecting the church in the world—where Gospel is declared and God exists— and changing the world through Church. The chart based on the comparison of aforementioned mission of God and biblical foundation of the Old Testament with conservative mission perspective illustrates how missionaries should carry out the ministry work in 21st century mission field.Moreover, God’s work of salvation can not be restrained by a continent, cultural characteristic, or group. Thus, the incarnation of Christ or the declaration of Gospel should be accomplished in a place where includes all nations and races, from one person to the whole ethical group and the world. There, people who confess Jesus as Christ the Lord should have a relationship and love in the name of the Lord by establishing a community of faith such as ל 󰕗󰙌(Kahal) or ekv klhsia, and should live for the glory of God by rejoicing in the grace of Salvation. To understand the mission of God, the comprehension of the Gospel is required. The mission which Jesus Christ, who is the Gospel Himself, claims is the mission of God. Jesus Christ had a clear recognition of both the concept of God and the mission of God. Hence, that same God and the mission of God which Jesus comprehended should be appreciated. Jesus Christ perceived God as Elohim. Especially, based on Deuteronomy 6:4, He said, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God [is] one LORD”. From the beginning, Jesus Christ incarnated to accomplish the mission of God manifested in Elohim. Philippians 2:6-11 illustrates God the Father who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped and incarnated. Jews did not understand Christ who descended to the world with the heart of God the Father. They did not apprehend the heart of Elohim, but rather said, ‘Luke 23:21.’ Christ prayed at the cross, ‘Matthew 27:46.’ Jesus Christ did not pray to God Yahweh but to God the Father Elohim. With the heart of God and through the Will of God the Father, the mission of Christ can be comprehended. The ministry of accomplishing the Will of God the Father, who earnestly desired the salvation of the world even before the Old and New Testaments were determined as Scriptures, is indeed the mission of God.

The theology of religions, which examines theologically the meaning of other religions and their relationships, is important, but controversial issue in theological world. In the religiously pluralistic society, Christians who are participating in the interaction with other religions should be attentive to the theology of religions and have rules and principles. In the era of the Enlightenment and modernism, the radical continuity between the natural and supernatural and between God and humans was also connected to continuity among religions, and relativity and the seeds of pluralism were highly fostered beyond Augustinian exclusivism. However, Karl Barth rejected mancentered theology in modern context and liberalism, which made religion a matter of this world by magnifying humans at the expense of God. For Barth, there is no natural theology as a point of contact between God and humanity, and rather there is total discontinuity between them standing in opposition to each other. This article especially focuses on Barth’s theology of religions which is described as complex and self-contradictory and gives some missiological implications. On the one hand, in Barth’s rejecting natural theology or general revelation and regarding religion, which is contradicted to revelation, as unbelief, his theology does not seem to be helpful for the dialogical basis with other religions. However, on the other hand, by the view in his later writings, Barth’s theology provides for a more positive and implicit view of the religions. In the doctrine of reconciliation of Barth, God’s self-revelation could not be confined to the realm of the Christianity, and other lights and words which come from outside the Christian church are in some sense represent a view on God’s revelation. Furthermore, relational aspects in Barth’s theology based on imago Dei builds a common ground for inter-religious interaction. On the whole, Barth is not only in commitment to the Christian faith, but also in profound openness toward other religions beyond outright denial. However, in making theology relevant to contexts, Barth cautions against losing the faithfulness to the Word of God or the distinctiveness of the Christian message. Barth’s theology of religions is a guidepost in this respect today.

The purpose of this article is to investigate the understanding on the workers of mission in ecumenical theology. Since mission is an action for the Kingdom of God, it is important to understand who is in charge of this work for an effective ministry. In the past, the church thought that the major agents of mission are ‘the church’ or ‘the chosen people.’ However, after the second world war, the ecumenical theology started to see the worker of mission more in a wider view including various organizations in the world. In this paper, first I tried to find out from what motivation the new view came out. They were the following perceptions: 1) the church realized that the church, the major agent of mission, committed serious sins especially during the two world wars, 2) due to the impact of Missio Dei, the church came to see that the workers of mission are not just the church but also many other institutions in the world, 3) the church came to change its view on the world from a target of mission to a coworker of mission. With this kind of background, the ecumenical theology tends to see the workers of mission as the triune God himself, the various institutions in the world used by God, lay people, and the poors. This kind of understanding contains various strengths and weaknesses. It might be helpful for the church to break its arrogance and self-centered attitude. Also it can help the church to cooperate with the world in carrying out the mission, and to keep going forward toward the ideal direction of mission. However, this view contains some weaknesses as well. As it emphasizes God as the major worker of mission too much, it can reduce the church's responsibility and enthusiasm for mission. As it pursues cooperation with the world, it can bring a result of weakening the identity of the church also. As it includes the world, which is not concerned and interested about God, as a major worker of mission, the church can fall into a trap of idealism and as a result of this it can cause enfeeblement of mission. If these kinds of weaknesses are compensated properly, the ecumenical view on the workers of mission would be helpful for building up the church for world mission.

Aiming to examine the understanding of the foreign social service and religio-culture of the Korean religious organizations, the article analyzes the foreign social services of the American religious organizations and those of the Korean religious organizations comparatively, which have been practiced in Cambodia. Further the article compares how the Korean faith-based organizations understand the religio-culture among the cross-cultural social services in Cambodia with how the American faith-based organizations understand that in Cambodia. The research on the understandings is achieved through 3 methodological tools: critical method of literatures, visiting and surveying offices and field sites, and interviews with the persons in charge of the organizations. First, the article starts with discussing the religio-cultural context in Cambodia of which Theravada Buddhism has dominated lives of the people historically. Also Cambodian authority for the NGO/CSOs including Christian organizations and the NGO Forum on Cambodia are analyzed to impose requirements on the international NGOs. Second, the research discusses the theological policies to understand the religio-culture among the cross-cultural social services of the 7 Christian NGOs in the U. S. such as AFSC, CRS, CRWRC, CWS, MCC, MKLM, WVI which have maintained different traditions. Third, the article deals with the religious policies for understanding the religio-cultural social services of the 7 Korean religious organizations such as Catholic OBOS, Dail Community, Korea Food for the Hungry International, World Vision Korea, Buddhist JTS, Buddhist Goodhands, Won-buddhist NGO. Most of the Korean organizations show that they do not keep the policies to the cross-cultural issues. Fourth and Conclusively, the article compares the characteristics of the policies of the American FBOs with those of the Korean FBOs. Briefly speaking, the former focuses on the humanitarian and development issues as the NGO do, however the latter keep no policies, which are oriented to mission works to expand their religious identity. Therefore the Korean FBOs are asked to arrange theological or religious policies to be open to other religions and cultures. Inclusive of other religio-cultures the FBOs may do their mission-oriented development works. CRWRC can be a good model for Korean FBOs to contribute to exercising the holistic perspective development mission.

The Korean Church is well-known as the Church which conducts missionary works. Despite the short church-history, the Korean Church has not only considerate passions and dedicated attitudes toward Mission, but also human resources and material resources needed to the missionary works. Thus it goes without saying that the Korean Church stands on the rank of countries that are responsible for the World Mission. The Korean Church’s Mission has several distinct features, which are church-centered, Denominational Mission Department-centered sending-missionaries and then not setting up enough infra-structure. Upright Mission is accompanied by administrating and caring missionaries as well as gathering and choosing suitable people, sending and supporting them as missionaries, and making them settle in the mission field and grasping their missionary works. However, the Korean Church’s Mission is, so to speak, to be doing ‘Sending-centered Mission.’ Mission is recognized only to send missionaries and supporting their living expenses. Because of these reasons, Denominational Mission Department or Missionary Society beyond the Denomination don’t consider setting up intra-structure as the principal assignment. Currently, the Korean Church’s missionary model seems the Church-centered Mission model but, in fact, sending missionaries is carried on each church-centered events, for which primary structures and systems needed in conducting the missionary works are not equipped. Each church-centered sending-missionaries and Mission on the basis of sponsorship structure causes various problems in the choice of missionaries and their missionary activities. In many cases, to choose missionaries and to support them is done impromptu rather than designedly. There is no long-term missionary policy to supervise, manage, and take care of missionaries. The responsibility of all the missionary works is left to the missionaries alone. In order to perform the right Mission continuously, it is not sending many missionaries but establishing and operating frames and structures to support the working missionaries systematically that is the most urgent task. This article is to suggest the real alternative by recognizing the problems of Mission and realizing heartfelt the need of the infrastructure on Mission. After seizing pros and cons between each church-centered Mission model and Mission Society-centered Mission model, it is to search for solutions on structural problems which have been revealed in each church-centered Mission system in Korea Church now.

Revelation was written by the apostle John during the reign of Roman emperor Domitianus(AD 81-96). This book is an epistle to seven churches in Minor Asia. The book of Revelation was written to encourage Christians to have victory over Satan and the evil powers during times of persecution. The Roman Empire required Christians to worship the emperors. Christians were persecuted because they refused to worship the emperor as lord. Revelation is relevant to missions in that Jesus Christ died for all humankind whether Jews or Gentile. All tribe, tongue, people, and nation will gather together to praise the Lord, the Lamb of God. Jesus’ death provided atonement for sinners regardless of race, tongue, people, and nation. Jesus’ death and resurrection provided the way for all people groups to enter the kingdom of God. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ will enter the new earth and the heaven. Revelation highlights martyrdom in the midst of persecution and suffering under the rule of Roman Empire. Christians endured persecution by keeping faith in Jesus Christ and expecting His second coming with the holy angels to judge the evil and destroy Satan’s reign. As Tertullian said, “martyr’s blood is the seed of church,” Revelation encouraged Christians to maintain their eschatological faith and spread the gospel in the midst of persecution by the Roman Empire. Revelation maintains that the slaughtered Lamb of God is worthy to open the scroll and break it’s seals. Jesus Christ is praised and worshipped by angels, living creatures, and elders. Jesus is glorified because He was slain to save the sinners. He is worthy to receive power, wealth, wisdom, honor, glory, and might because His blood provided a ransom for humankind providing propitiation to God. Jesus will be worshipped by all the saints from every tribe, language, people, and nation. Revelation shows that God’s cosmic sovereignty has been challenged by Satan and his demons since Adam and Eve fell. Likewise, the church has been challenged by Satan when carrying out its mission mandate. Satan deceives the body of Christ causing the church to doubt God’s power and justice as well as God’s grace. The church must struggle with Satan in the world; however, God has the final victory over Satan. Revelation reveals that the history of salvation began with Eden but will end with the new earth and the heaven. God’s promise in protevangelium will be fulfilled in the city of New Jerusalem. The seven churches in Asia Minor had a strong hope that they would overcome Satan’s power although they struggled with Satan in the midst of persecution and affliction. The church today needs to endure necessary hardships in the course of carrying out God’s mission. God is always with Christ’s church. The Holy Spirit is working to accomplish God’s will for the church.a

With the assumption that Christian mission should be a holistic mission that includes responsible society and with a consideration that Diakonia should be re-recognized as the original mission of the church for the holistic mission, the aim of the present thesis is to explore a directionality as a means of implementing the social service for a ministry of the proper mission through leadership. In this research, an attempt was made first to review how Diakonia has been implemented as the mission of the church in history and examine the linkage between Diakonia and the mission, and its relation to social welfare through a bibliographical study. Lastly, an analysis of leadership in nonprofit organization was carried out to apply the findings to the leadership in a Christian social welfare institution that is to realize the Diakonia. In the harmony of Kerygma that is the basic mission of the church, Koinonia of love within Christ, and Diakonia, the Diakonia should be so constituted with the mission rather than just restricted activity area of the church and should also be properly defined. As such, Diakonia cannot be thought of separately from mission, which is befitting for the ministry of the present Korean church and social mission. As for social service itself, Korean Christian church has regarded it as one of the important missions of the church but acknowledging at the same that the past record cannot be regarded as satisfactory, thereby suggesting the importance and the necessity of forming Diakonia through an institution. If this can be implemented, it is expected that it will bestow a proper view of faith for Christians by forming proper Diakonia through a social welfare institution and bring about a change to proper mission as the mission of the church. However, at a time when powerful mission is required for participating in social welfare, a necessity for more professional approach has been emphasized. At this point in time, it seems that the time has come for Korean Christian church to re-establish Diakonia as the holistic mission and for Christian workers who are participating in social welfare work to think more in depth on the future tasks with a re-thinking of the past in an effort to reveal their love for God in a changing environment. Accordingly, as a practical and efficient means to implement the Diakonia as a community life while living the present era, our focus was placed on empowerment of leadership. And for the purpose, we have introduced the leadership method of nonprofit organizations that have been growing considerably for the past several years. The reason is, partly because we have discovered many common aspects in-between church organizations and nonprofit organizations. Especially, personnel management among operation methods presented us with factors that can be applied fruitfully to Christian social welfare institutions. Accumulated experiences and researches on nonprofit organization could present a directionality of change for many Christian social welfare institutions to construct and manage an organizational structure from existing welfare organization practices. In other words, the social welfare institutions that have religious identity could be of help in implementing Diakonia to local residents. This can be called Diakonia through mission or the holistic mission that is badly needed in the contemporary world. Therefore, in this thesis, certain measures have been presented that can be utilized as the basis for designing an organizational structure through which Diakonia could become more effective in implementation through Christian social welfare institutions.