Church in Motion: The History of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission in Bavaria: 8 (Missional Church Public Theology World Christianity)

Mission is nothing but the one church of God in motion. With these words the famous German Lutheran theologian Wilhelm Loehe described the essence of missionary work. Mission moves the church and crosses boundaries to form the one universal church. In 1842 Loehe started missionary work in the small Bavarian town of Neuendettelsau in southern Germany as he sent two young men as emergency helpers to North America. He supported the formation of Lutheran congregations that later joined together to become the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS). Together with Friedrich Bauer he founded a mission seminary that sent until 1985 nearly 900 graduates as pastors and missionaries not only to the USA but also to Australia Papua New Guinea Brazil Africa Eastern Europe and Palestine. From this the present center Mission One World of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria developed which maintains partnership relations to churches in Africa Asia/Pacific and Latin America. This book describes the history of this missionary movement up to the present time and puts the Bavarian missionary work into the context of mission theology and strategies in the twentieth century.