Mission as Prophetic Dialogue: A Case Study from Colombia

Over the last 100 years we have seen dramatic changes in the ways that Christian churches have approached mission. In the United States, mission is now dominated by activities such as short-term immersion trips, church-to-church global partnerships, young adult volunteer programs, or lay mission programs that send individuals or families for temporary assignments. In this context of rapid change, Steve Bevans and Roger Schroeder published their groundbreaking work, Constants in Context, which provides guidelines for mission-summarized by the term prophetic dialogue-that acknowledge that Christianity is by its nature mission-oriented, and that the nature of our mission must take into account centuries of wisdom and at the same time modify itself with changing times. Based on a case study in Colombia, this article proposes that the practice of international accompaniment in zones of violent conflict is an example of prophetic dialogue in practice, and thus can serve as a model for other twenty-first-century mission activities.