MOSCOW DECLARATION ON CHRISTIAN WORLD MISSION

The Eighth Convention Of The Asia Missions Association, Moscow, Russia, 2003

We gathered in Moscow, the capital of the Federal of Russia at the heart of Eurasia, for the Eighth Triennial Convention of the Asia Missions Association and to commemorate the Thirtieth Anniversary of the All-Asia Consultation, Seoul ’73.

We 350 participants, representing North-East Asia, from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea and Taiwan; South-East Asia/South Pacific, from Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam; South-West Asia/Middle East, from Bangladesh, India, Iran, Jordan, Nepal, and Pakistan; Eurasia from Byelorussia, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Rumania, Slovakia, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and Uzbekistan; Africa from Egypt, Ghana, and Nigeria; and North and South America, from Canada, United States, Guatemala, Paraguay, and Peru: in total, more than forty nations.

The participants include executives of mission associations and mission agencies; missiologists, mission educators, and mission researchers; missionaries, and leaders of missionary supporting churches, and Russia/CIS Christian leaders.

The Convention was held at the Convention Hall of the Izmailovo Hotel, Moscow, from September 9 to 12, 2003.

The theme of the Convention was “The New Global partnership for World mission.”

After the Opening Ceremony, a Keynote Address was given, which overviewed the history of the AMA and the outlook for world mission in the 21st century.

The program of the Convention began each morning with a Bible Exposition on mission, followed by two Plenary Sessions. The speakers were three Asian missiologists, and three mission theologians from the Western world.

Afternoon programs consisted of National Reports from six continents, and four from the meetings of the Missiologist Track; Church and Mission Relationship Track; Asian

Missionary Fellowship Track; and Third World Missions Advance Track.

The evening programs were World Mission Rallies for Russian churches, led by Russian church leaders, while the speakers were Asian mission leaders from Indonesia, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Through the four days of the AMA 8th Triennial Convention, Moscow 2003, we the participants reached a consensus on how to cope with the turbulent world of the 21^stcentury, as follows:

1. Ever since the Second World War, through the later part of the 20th century, Christian mission has struggled with the cold war order of confrontation of ideologies. And now at the beginning of the 21st century, ‘terrorism’ and militarism, from the Islamic world and the Christian world, has become the obstacle and hindrance to Christian world mission. How to break through these awful barriers is an essential and heavy burden, which is laid on the shoulders of missionaries from Asia and the rest of the Non-Western world.

2. We, as the non Anglo-American mission force, coming from Asia, Africa, and other areas of the Non-Western world, should be position at the front of world mission, in as much as we are not considered to be the enemies of Islam, allowing us to go to their lands as the ambassador of the Prince of Peace of the world, to proclaim the Gospel of love and peace.

3. The mission in the 21st century should not be portrayed as militant, invading the poorer nations, or developing and modernizing them, but to save them by giving them hope, sacrificial love, and true peace in God.

4. We, the new forces of mission, who have sprung up from Asia and other parts of the non-Western world, resolve to build a new global partnership for world mission, as partakers of the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, and to become fellow workers together on the basis of the following principles:

a. Sharing resources reciprocally;

b. Sacrificial service to the nations;

c. Solidarity with fellow workers;

d. Succession of global leadership.

5. We also resolve to form Functional Commissions under AMA, as follows:

a. Asian Missiological Commission

b. Church and Mission Relations Commission

c. Asian Missionaries Fellowship

These three commissions will be developed as autonomous units by their own initiatives.

6. We agree to plan realignment and repositioning of our mission forces according to the most urgent needs, and as needed for effective operation in a changing world to avoid over-convergence in one area or inattention in another area.

7. We finally, pledge not to emphasize growth in the number of missionaries, or in missio-metrical statistics and the market research-oriented mission strategies of modern missiology, but to restore the biblical apostolic Mission Principles, which were given through the incarnation of the Son of God as the Son of Man, and by the power of Holy Spirit to the apostles. Our witness should be eschatological, anticipating the Lord’s return on earth.

Amen.