Peter Rowan is the lecturer who has influenced me the most, over the course of my crawlingly slow part-time studies in Malaysia Bible Seminari. While he was in CDPC, I always look forward to his sermons on mission and biblical theology. Miss him much since he's back in Ireland.
He got some of us to do some surveys for his research on mission in Malaysia, and I'm glad he finally got a version of this fantastic article online.
Where Is The Racially Reconciled Community?
Peter Rowan
"Here is an issue that is always current and potentially explosive but which is only occasionally discussed in theological circles, and rarely addressed in the congregational setting of many Malaysian protestant churches: racial integration. The diversity of Malaysian society is well known: a majority Muslim country with significant Chinese, Indian and indigenous communities. On the verge of celebrating 50 years of independence, Malaysia has much to be proud of. But substantial racial integration remains illusive...
since reconciliation is at the heart of the gospel, and since the gospel transcends the barriers of race, ethnicity and culture, and since the church is the most inclusive community on earth, the local church is a community of hope in a fragmented world.
In Malaysia, the church has the task of not only proclaiming the message of reconciliation to all Malaysians, but of embodying the concrete implications of that message in its community life, so that Malaysians of all races can look at a local church community and see the gospel fleshed out in a racially reconciled group of people who can work, worship and witness together."
Continue: A MUST READ!
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