estrellaON by John Driver
 | By the very embodiment of Christ, the apostolic poverty became central to the life and mission of the church. Judging from the New Testament emphasis on this subject, the early church understood well this visión.La messianic mission of Jesus was directed mainly to "the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind" (Luke 14.21) |
messianic mission of Jesus was directed mainly to "the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind" (Luke 14.21). This is the thread that runs through the ministry of Jesus in the Gospels and a theme in the Old Testament. Lord himself was the protector of orphans, foreign, poor, widows and all the dispossessed and disinherited in ancient Israel.
In the same order of importance presented by this concern for the poor and oppressed in both testaments, is the image of the church as "poor." One thread that runs throughout the Old Testament presents Israel as "the least of all peoples" (Deut. 7.7), "strangers and aliens" (Lev 25.23), "a people humble and lowly" (Sof 3.12 ) and "their poor" (Isaiah 49.13). The Gospels on the other hand, they also have the Messianic community as "poor" and in the epistles the term applies to the Christian church.
By the incarnation of Christ, apostolic poverty became central to the life and mission of the church. Judging from the New Testament emphasis on this subject, the early church understood well this vision. Christian virtues of humility, gentleness and generosity stood out among the believers, and economic practices of this community have strong links with their evangelistic witness (Mt 5.13-16, Acts 2.42-44, 47b, 4.32-33; 5.12-14, 6.7).
However, after Constantine change caused by this vision survived only in certain times and outside the official church. The mendicant orders were entrusted with the mission, while the church increasingly enjoyed power, prestige and wealth. In this context, emerged a number of missionary renewal movements, among which, the Vaudois missionaries, who have freely assumed an apostolic poverty to communicate the gospel with greater authenticity.
According to Jesus, and the early church, the good news can be better communicated by a poor church, in fact, subsequent experience of the people of God in evangelism ratify it. It seems that the gospel can be communicated with clarity and credibility to those who are victims of the temptation to power, prestige and wealth from a position of weakness, humility and poverty.
modern missionary movement arose among the Protestants during the expansion period of the great imperial powers of the Northern Hemisphere, so often Protestant missionaries have been received in the third world as agents these powers and economic interests. Fidelity to the biblical image of the church and its mission requires that this perception is changed, then the methods which in effect deny the economic implications of the incarnation are difficult to communicate the gospel with effectiveness and integrity.
No doubt the most authentic methods of evangelism in the coming years will not be those characterized by technology and electronics, or by modern sociological theories of communication nor a part of pragmatic activism of the missionary enterprise, but, following the model of Jesus, by the weakness and apostolic poverty solidarity with the assumed oppressed and in the interests of a genuine communication of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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