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Pentecostal/Charismatic Missiology for the Twenty-First Century L. Grant McClung, The Pentecostal/Charismatic labeled over the years movement,” 11 Perspectives on a Jr. movement” or a “tongues in the communions’ have been mistakenly as a “Spirit and therefore bereft of a firm, biblical Christology tradition of historical theology. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the Pentecostal/Charismatic confession that the presence of the Holy Spirit will only give more and more honor to the unique and indispensable revelation of God in the powerfully present person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Arthur F. Glasser relates this witness of the Holy Spirit to the Lordship of Christ in Pentecostal/Charismatic willingness spirituality: Many evangelicals have been challenged by the immediacy and reality of God that Pentecostals reflect along with their freedom and unabashed to confess openly their allegiance to Christ. The achievements of their churches are equally impressive, reflecting their settled conviction that the full experience of the Holy Spirit will not only move the Church closer to Jesus at its center, but at the same 2 time, press the Church to move out into the world in mission.2 Pentecostal/Charismatic theology Christian mission (Luke maintains the necessity of the is the Baptizer in the Holy of Peter, baptism in the Holy Spirit as the indispensable enduement of power for 24:49; Acts 1:8), that Jesus, the exalted mediator between God and humankind, Spirit (Matt. 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:33), and that Jesus Christ continues today to do all that he began in his earthly mission (Acts 1:1 ). They would confess the Trinitarian proclamation “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, [Jesus] has poured out this which you see and hear” (Acts 2:33). for the twenty-first century needs the preeminence Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Training for the future must Missiology Pasadena, of ‘ This article, slightly revised, was presented as a paper at the “Missiological Education for the 21 st Century” conference, held at Fuller Theological Seminary, California, from October 31-November 2, 1992. This conference was held in conjunction with the installation of Dr. J. Dudley Woodberry as Dean of the School of World Mission. ‘Foreword to Paul A. Pomerville, The Third Force in Missions (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1985), vii. 1 12 follow the pedagogy and paradigm of the Spirit in a Spirit-directed, Spirit-driven missiology that openly confesses with Moses: If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth? (Exodus 33:15-17). David Barrett’s description of the Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition, now numbering more than 400 million and growing by 19 million a year and 54,000 a day, is that it comes in an “amazing variety” of 38 major categories, 11,000 Pentecostal denominations and 3,000 independent Charismatic denominations spread across 8,000 ethnolinguistic cultures and 7,000 languages. A cross section of worldwide Pentecostalism reveals a composite international Pentecostal/Charismatic who is more urban than rural, more female than male, more Third World (66%) than Western world, more impoverished (87%) than a$luent, more family-oriented 3 than individualistic, and, on the average younger than eighteen.3 To ask for Pentecostal/Charismatic perspectives may take us across the landscape of Barrett’s five umbrella categories first used in his World Christian Encyclopedia (Nairobi/Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 1982): a. Classical Pentecostals (with North American/European b. Neo-Pentecostalism (mainline Protestant), c. Catholic Charismatics, d. Independent Charismatic Churches, and, e. Indigenous non-white Pentecostals/Charismatics in the Southern World (especially Africa). roots), Obviously, with this backdrop, it is difficult to bring a monolithic, homogeneous view but the following seven perspectives would be generally representative of Pentecostal/Charismatic missiology.’ ‘ David B. Barrett, “The Twentieth-Century Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal in The Holy Spirit, With Its Goal of World Evangelization,” International Bulletin Research 12 of Missionary (July 1988): 119-129; see also L. Grant in Global Jr., Pentecostalism,” World Pentecost 28 McClung, “Interdependence (Spring 1991): 18-20. 4 In addition to Pomerville (1985), recent expositions on an emerging Pentecostal/Charismatic missiology include: L. Grant McClung, and Beyond. Missions Jr., Azusa Street Pentecostal and Church Growth in the Twentieth Century (South Plainfield. NJ: Bridge Publishing, 1986); Gary B. McGee, This Shall Be Preached: A History and Gospel 1 (Springfield, Theology of Assemblies of God MO: Foreign Afissions to 1959, Volume Gospel Publishing in the Earth: House, 1986), Volume 2 appeared in 1989; David Shibley, A Force The Charismatic Renewal 2 Mission is Experiential This experiential characteristic 13 and Relational has long been the millstone the Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition has had to carry. Pentecostals and Charismatics have been perceived as too emotional, placing experience revealed truth. A few Latin American Pentecostal leaders openly critiqued their own movement over objective, American Congress on Evangelization They felt, says reporter John representing evangelicals, have overemphasized an estimated 75 percent during the recent Latin (CLADE III) in Quito, Ecuador. Maust, that Latin Pentecostals, of the 40 million Latin subjective experience 5 as over churches, it is because believers have seen first-century against God’s objective truth as revealed in the Scriptures. As a generic assessment, this charge of experiential imbalance may be questionable. If this is true, however, of the rank and file in the pulpits and pews of Latin American Pentecostal Christians experiencing the power of God on the pages of the book they have so diligently sought to obey and emulate as God’s objective expectations of the normal Christian life. It seems to me that there will be no relevant and pungent missiology in the twenty-first century unless it is fired with the passion and of the first century and so desperately needed in the present, final days of the twentieth century. presence of God so characteristic Mission is Expressly Biblical and Theological “The Church of the Dirty Pentecostals and Charismatics are “people of ‘The Book. “‘ Eugene Nida called Latin American Pentecostals, the Bible is used frequently in worship services, being read along by the poor with their soiled fingers as a Bibles.” There, he observed, reading guide. For Pentecostals/Charismatics, their understanding biblical authority will be central to and of mission for the twenty-first century, rightfully so. Due to the rising deterrence from non-Christian religions Dempster, Byron 1991). and World Evangelism (Altamonte Springs, FL: Creation House, 1989); Murray W. D. Klaus, and Douglas Petersen, eds., Called & Empowered: Global Mission in Pentecostal Extensive Perspective (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, bibliographical references are included in the following articles by L. Grant McClung: “Mission in the 1990s,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 14 (October 1990): 152-157; “The Pentecostal/Charismatic Contribution to World Evangelization,” Mission in the Nineteen 90s, eds. Gerald H. Anderson, James M. Phillips, and Robert T. Coote (Grand the Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991); Church Future of Pentecostal/Charismatic Global Church Growth 28 (October-December 1991): 4-6. “Forecasting Growth,” 5 John Maust, “Latin American Church Graduates from Evangelization Crash Course,” Pulse, 9 October 1992, 4. 3 14 and lifestyles and the alarming drift toward theological “slippage” on community, Pentecostals-and the part of some in the Christian Christians everywhere-will exegesis and theological scholarship missiology. Exegesis and evangelization mutually exclusive. In this light, it is encouraging, regional meetings need the ballast and the balance of biblical conducted under the rubric of need not, and cannot, be and the as one case in point, that national and of the Evangelical Theological Society Evangelical Missiological Society in the United States are held in the same venue with integrated plenary arrangement, besides departments happy, unity. With increasing interaction between Christian faith, discussions of revelation, making school administrators makes a fundamental sessions. This “piggy back” and accounting theological statement of those within and outside of authority, hermeneutics, and I submit to you that our high tech methods of the primary missiological methodological, but theological. and questions of eternity, demographic movement to find the lost-even eschatology are inevitable. Given this development, issues of the 1990s and beyond will not be In the case of the lostness of humanity for example, research have now allowed the Christian missions pinpointing the numbers and locations of people groups-but, surprisingly, some are not sure that those who have been found are lost. Mission is Extremely . Eschatological urgency missionary fervor of Pentecostals, movement Ambulance Station. Repeatedly, cleansing” Urgent the in the early days of the Rescue Squad and it must be allowed that our “ethnic twentieth century totalitarianism is at the heart of understanding producing what historian Vinson Synan calls, “missionaries of the one-way ticket.”6 I am reminded daily of this urgent missiology by the fact that my office sits next to our county sirens and flashing lights atop rushing rescue vehicles remind me of yet another emergency in our community. Regardless of one’s views on eschatology, world community is currently filled with urgent emergencies: in the Balkans; famine moving south from Ethiopia and Somalia; and continued unrest and political violence in virtually every comer of the globe. We began the first year in this last decade of the encouraging signs in Eastern Europe, advances in human rights in South Africa, and encouraging political developments 6 Vinson Synan, The Spirit Said “Grow” (Monrovia, CA: MARC Publications, with 1992), 39. . of hope: the end of in Central America. 4 Christians in the capitalistic democratization 15 There remain crying needs States. West breathed a triumphal sigh of relief that the Cold War was over and communism had been weakened. Euphoria tends to hide reality, however. One must be reminded that is not evangelization. across Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent Third World debt, ecological disasters, the squalor of deplorable urban and the despair of the poor-also continue to be powder kegs ready to explode. These social time bombs will form the context of mission for the twenty-first century, should environments, there be one. . , in the United States- Mission is Focused, yet Diversified PentecostaUCharismatic limited to, the prioritization traditions articulate and church planting. from these that missiology is obviously focused on, but not of evangelization What will come to light as more inside interpreters a self-definition of their mission (a process began to mature in the 1980s) is that the “broader mission” of the church has been part and parcel of the Pentecostal/Charismatic branch of the family as an automatic outgrowth Commission” states: missions. Pentecostal of its prioritization pastor Juan Sepulveda of “Great of Chile life-meaning Pentecostalism-in spite of its popular origin-did not develop a social ethic which would encourage the participation of believers in social, labor union or political organizations, which promote social change. This does not mean that Pentecostalism failed to have any social impact. Rather, to the contrary, the Pentecostal communities meant a powerful offering of for wide sectors excluded from our societies.’ 7 “What is overlooked,” says William Menzies, “is that Pentecostals have quietly gone about social renewal in unobtrusive ways, working with the poor of this world in unheralded comers.”‘ When social activist Ronald Sider gathered representatives evangelical and Pentecostal/Charismatic from the communities for a dialogue on Wonders’ social action, there was an interesting blend of ‘Words, Works, and in the Pentecostal/Charismatic seen _ churches.’ The ‘ Juan Sepulveda, “Reflections on the Pentecostal Contribution to the Mission of the Church in Latin America,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 1 (October 1992): 105. 9 “Words, 8 William Menzies, “Current Pentecostal Theology of the End Times,” The Pentecostal Minister 8 (Fall 1988): 9. Works and Wonders: Papers from an International Dialogue Between the Pentecostal/Charismatic Renewal and Evangelical Social Action,” An International Dialogue on Evangelical Social Ethics 5 Transformation: (October/December 1988). 5 16 non-Pentecostal world cannot afford to typecast all Pentecostals and Charismatics, especially internationally, into the affluent Hollywood media images we saw during the heyday of American TV charisma in the 1980s.’° Pentecostals and Charismatics are more politically and socially involved than most casual observers suppose, but evangelization and church multiplication will continue as the main priority.” Mission is Aggressively Opposed Future mission efforts will not go unchallenged, both from within and from outside the Christian community. Sending churches from any region or country will have to swim against the rising tides of nationalism and isolationism that foster non-supportive attitudes in parishes, denominational headquarters, and, unfortunately, in many training institutions. There is an aggressive “to the gates of hell” mentality in true Pentecostal/Charismatic lifestyle. Contrast this assertiveness with an equally determined missionary fervor and growing intolerance from cults and non-Christian religions and one result appears in the making: religious persecution.’2 Sociologist Peter Berger has observed in his ‘° See Quentin J. Schultze, “The Great Transmission,” in Pentecostals From the Inside Out, ed. Harold B. Smith (Wheaton, IL: Victor and entries on Books/Christianity Today, 1990), 93-104, “Evangelism,” “Bakker, James Orren (Jim) and (La and “Swaggart, Lee” in the Pentecostal and Charismatic Tammy Faye Valley),” Jimmy Dictionary of Movements, eds. Stanley M. Burgess and Gary B. McGee (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1988). ” See the for PentecostaUCharismatic social involvement: just following a sampling of reports and case studies on Margaret M. Poloma, “Pentecostals and Politics in North and Central America,” in and Politics: and the Political Prophetic Religions Religion Order, Vol. 1, eds. Jeffrey K. Hadden and Anson Shupe (New York, NY: Paragon House, 1986), 329-52; Paul Brink, “Las Acacias Evangelical Pentecostal Church, Caracas, Venezuela,” Urban Mission 7 (January 1990): 46-50; Brian Bird, “Reclaiming the Urban War Zones,” Christianity Today, 15 January 1990, 16-20; Ron Williams, ed., A Theme Issue on Social Concerns, Foursquare World Advance 26 (January/February 1990); Irving Hexham and Karla Poewe-Hexham, “Charismatics and Apartheid,” Charisma and Christian Life 15 (May 1990): 62-70; Thomas Fritch, “It Started at the Dumpster,” Urban Mission 7 (May 1990): 54-57 (dealing with an Assemblies of God local church ministry to the homeless); “Church Mission and Social Concern: The Changing Global Face of Classical Pentecostalism,” A Special Theme Issue under the Guest Editorship of Murray W. Dempster, Transformation: An International Ethics 11 (January/March 1994): 1-33. Evangelical Dialogue on Mission and ‘z Chris Woehr, “The Horror of Being a Mexican 26 October Evangelical,” Christianity Today. 1992, 68-69; Robert D. McFadden U.S. Nuns Shot Dead Near Liberia (New York Times News Service), “Five Convent,” Pasadena Star News, 1 November 1992, 1; Don McCurry, “Trouble in The Harvest Fields,” Intercede 8 (November, 1992): 1. 6 17 Foreword to Tongues of Fire, David Martin’s study of the growth of Protestantism in Latin America, that there are two global movements of enormous vitality on the religious scene today: conservative Islam and Both missionary expansion. This combination makes for a potentially volatile conservative Protestantism.’3 mix. Pentecostals and Charismatics Neuza Itioka that, “Certainly are expressly committed to believe, however, that the primary issues source of deterrence is spiritual. They would echo the sentiments of one of the most important worldwide missions must face in the 1990s is how to confront the evil forces that expect on spiritual warfare currently one of the most frequent topics in PentecostaUCharismatic destructive enterprise.”” literature” supernatural For this reason, and publications publications. 15 Mission is Interdependent growth oppose the missionary the proliferation of “power to continue. It is of their With the dramatic Charismatics elitism, says Pentecostal will need to avoid the twin perils of triumphalism insider, Russell churches, Pentecostals/ and Spittler, who relates the insights of church historian Martin Marty. Marty, says Spittler, “once observed that Pentecostals used to argue God’s approval upon them because they numbered so few. But more recently he said the proof has shifted to the fact that there are so many.”‘6 David Shibley has urged (Cambridge, (San Taking Reddin, “David Martin, Tongues of Fire : The Explosion of Protestantism in Latin America MA: Basil Blackwell, 1990), vii. “Neuza Itioka, “Mission in the 1990’s,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 14 ‘-‘Kevin (January 1990): 8. Springer, ed., Power Encounters Among Christians in the Western World Francisco, CA: Harper and Row, 1988); John White, When the Spirit Comes in Power: Signs and Wonders Among God’s People (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988); Don Williams, Signs, Wonders, and the Reluctant Kingdom God: A Biblical Guide for the Skeptic (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant of Publications, 1989); Charles H. Kraft, Christianity With Power: Your Worldview and Your Experience of the Supernatural (Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Publications, 1989); John Dawson, Our Cities for God (Altamonte Springs, FL: Creation House, 1989); Opal L. ed., Power Encounter: A Pentecostal MO: Central Bible College Press, 1989); Steven Perspective (Springfield, Lawson, “Defeating Territorial and John Spirits,” Dawson, “Winning the Battle for Your Neighborhood,” in Charisma and Christian Life 15 (April 1990): 47-61; C. Peter Wagner and F. with Dark Angels (Ventura, CA: Douglas Pennoyer, Regal Books, 1990). The title may obscure the contents of this compilation of papers and the Academic Symposium on Power Evangelism at Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission on December 13-15, 1988. scholars representing some twenty institutions of higher learning attended. ‘6Russell P. Spittler, “Maintaining Distinctives: The Future of Pentecostalism,” in eds., Wrestling spectacular responses presented during Forty 7 18 the cooperation of Charismatics and Evangelicals saying that neither without the other.” I can complete the task of world evangelization would broaden that to say that the Pentecostal/Charismatic tradition and all the other major traditions-Eastern Protestant, and Evangelical-need Orthodox, Roman Catholic, one another, and that Pentecostals and Charismatics need each other. Not until the North American Congress on the Holy Spirit and World Evangelization Louisiana did mainline Pentecostals around the task of world congresses internationally in Brighton, evangelization (July 1987). were held in Indianapolis, England (July, Pentecostals and Charismatics have been more recently engaged in the Lausanne participated and the AD2000 and in common projects in New Orleans, and Charismatics meet together Subsequent Indiana (August, 1990) and 1991). In addition, Beyond movements and have with the Commission on World Pentecostal/Charismatic type Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches.” Missiological training programs could also benefit by reaching out to growing many of which are mega and meta churches; missions agencies; and, media ministries. three additional rapidly ministries: local congregations, Local Congregations Seminary produced the landmark congregations, Spreading Missions Today (Zondervan formed the fastest-growing Charismatic Churches and study found that more In the United States alone, there have been scholarly estimates of more than 100,000 new independent Charismatic congregations during the decade of the 1980s, representing segment of American Christianity this past decade. Fuller Theological School of World Mission researcher Edward K. Pousson study on the missions involvement of these the Flame: 1992). Pousson’s and more charismatic churches are hiring mission directors and sending This trend is one that missiological educators cannot ignore. The growth of these churches has also resulted in the growth of missions agencies, many of them now linked together in a Association of International out missionaries. Charismatic network called Services. AIMS-the “Shibley, Missions Pentecostals From the Inside Out, ed. Harold B. Smith (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books/Christianity Today, 1990), 122. A Force in the Earth: The Charismatic Renewal and World Evangelism, 26-27. 18 See International Review of Mission 75, Numbers 297-298 Pentecostals and Charismatics (1986?–special issues on in coordinated Walter J. and Chapter 2, “A Passion for mission, by Fullness,” Pentecostal Pastor Jack address to the Lausanne II Conference in Manila, in his A Passion For Fullness (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing 1990). Hollenweger; Hayford’s 8 19 Missions Agencies Whereas the number of indigenous Pentecostal/Charismatic mission agencies in the non-Western world grew to some 40% of the total of non-Western agencies by 1988, researcher Larry D. Pate is concerned that many more need to be created to keep pace with the general growth of Pentecostal/Charismatic churches, expected to represent 85-90% of the Christians in the two-thirds world by the year 2000.’9 As these agencies grow, they will look for help in training. Thus, the need for interdependence. Media Ministries A third type of “growth ministry” among Pentecostals and Charismatics is outreach through the media, both print and electronic. Tracing the growth of “mega-media” ministries and their potential for missiological education is a doctoral dissertation waiting to be written. Since the early days of this century, when no less than thirty-four Pentecostal periodicals came into existence between 1900 and 1908,’o Pentecostals have seized the popular media as an instrument of evangelism and discipleship training. Imagine the potential of the major Pentecostal/Charismatic television and publishing networks in providing basic missiological education to their viewers and readers through a variety of innovative “distance learning” type instructional formats. The time is ripe for older established missiological training programs to explore creative training cooperatives. Mission is Unpredictable The understatement of the decade for the international roller coaster ride that began in Eastern Europe in the Fall of 1989 could have been provided by Habakkuk 1:5, “Look at the nations and watch-and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” The last decade of the twentieth century has brought a new wave of evangelical futurists, eager to update the rest of us on trends, at the touch of a computer keyboard. There are some things in the information age, however, that the Lord of mission sovereignly intends on keeping to himself, including the “times and dates the Father has set by his own authority” (Acts 1 :7). ‘9 Larry D. Pate, “Pentecostal Missions from the Two-Thirds World,” in Called & Global Mission in Pentecostal Empowered: Perspective, eds. Murray W. D. Klaus and Dempster, Byron Douglas Petersen (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1991), 242-258. Azusa Street and Beyond: Pentecostal Missions and Church Growth in The Twentieth Century, 78. zo McClung, 9 20 alone of God in mission cannot be contained. For that Should we, in God’s mercy, be granted the remainder of this decade and see a new century before that day when time shall be no more, the glory of the Christian mission and harvest will be God’s (Matthew 9:38). All branches of the Christian family will be awed by the initiative (Acts 13:1-4) and the unpredictability (Acts 8:26ff; 9:10S; 10: 9ff). Charismata and wonders be reduced to a mere or curriculum elective. “All these are the work of one and the same Spirit,” Paul instructed, “and he gives them to each one, just as he determines” (I Corinthians 12:11 ). matter, neither can signs methodology A Concluding Challenge The seven “Pentecostal/Charismatic identified in this article represent with all Christian traditions. so-called “affective domain.” Perspectives the positive on Missiology” contribution the also share in education is passion-a toward “spiritual formation” usual-statistics and structures, and methodologies, executive officers of multinational Pentecostal/Charismatic movement has made to church mission. They also surface an honest concern that I believe Pentecostals Simply stated, the missing ingredient mission and in much of today’s missiological passion for God and God’s glory, and a passion for the lost. Now, we will find technical terms to call for this dimension in our training-the We will even schedule in a chapel or convocation here and a Bible reading or meditation there as a nod and then go back to business as curriculum and consultations, news and networking. minutes We may as well be chief corporations or lecturers on mechanical engineering. These misplaced priorities tend to leave us dry and wanting, as was one of William Booth’s who wrote to his General with ineffectiveness. Booth’s two word prescription “Try Tears.” cultures being captivated Salvation Army officers complaints about his own by return telegram: and of our technocratic toward subtle dependency dependence latest educational procedures upon western business-style missiological strategizing. We complain about the rise of modernity by secularism, making them resistant to the gospel, without realizing our own captivity to the same. As helpful as they may be, and given by God as wider gifts to all humanity, we move upon the “arm of the flesh” with too much upon the social sciences in church extension, or upon the and techniques in leadership training, or management One marks the encroachment, of a management/marketing paradigm in recent North American church growth emphases such as “marketing the church.” by objective in our for example, 10 My question is, 21 in all of this cultural “Where is Jesus accommodation?” As Lord of the Church he said, “If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32) and “I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). A missiology for the twenty-first century must enter into the passion of our suffering King described by the prophet Isaiah: “He will see the result of the suffering of his soul and be satisfied; by his knowledge my servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11). Some Pentecostals and Charismatics are quick to point but the heart of missiology begins in and proceeds to Golgotha before getting to the Upper righteous to the Day of Pentecost, Gethsemane Room. This “burden of the Lord” in missiology simple slogan, motto, or catchword this Generation,” “Reaching Israel” (Romans 9:2-3). cannot be reduced to a such as “The Great Commission in grand and true these cry of “A Church for Every People by the Year 2000,” or Into The 10/40 Window”-however are. The passion for God and God’s mission is expressed in the deep pathos of Paul, “I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of It is the plaintive and desperate Jeremiah, “Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears!” (Jeremiah 9:1 ). These were the servants, said one Jewish writer of the Old Testament prophets, who could hear the ‘silent sigh of God.’ This is the passion carried over a hurting world by the one whose ministry manifesto must continually be made our own in the closing days of this century: recovery year The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the of the Lord’s favor (Luke 4:14-19). 11
