In the traditional mission the goal of mission was rather simple and clear. It was no other than world evangelization. Since the goal was simple, the methods of achieving the purpose were composed of rather simple ones such as gospel spreading, church planting, and various services for the poor as well.
However, ecumenical mission pursues a rather broader goal such as shalom which goes beyond world evangelization. As the ecumenical mission seeks this comprehensive target, its methods were also expanded widely so that it can include all kinds of ways which can bring shalom in the world. Of course, since the ecumenical mission is so complicated, there are some difficulties in simplifying the methods of ecumenical mission. However, in this paper I was able to point out following traits in the ways of ecumenical mission.
First, the ecumenical mission tends to emphasize peaceful harmony with others pursuing peaceful presence among them, while the traditional one tried to transform the life of the people in the mission fields more actively. Secondly, the former shows a tendency of seeking truth through dialogues with other religions, while the latter emphasized proclaiming the gospel. Thirdly, while the traditional methods tended to think that the gradual change of individuals would bring transformation of a society after all, the ecumenical one shows an inclination of pursuing practical actions for changing evil structures of a society. In a word, while the traditional one was interested in the ways of drawing people toward the church, the ecumenical one is focusing on the methods of achieving shalom in the world through transforming social structures.
These kinds of ecumenical mission methods have various strengths; but it contains limitations as well. First of all, as it accentuates dialogues, concession, and quiet presence, it can be helpful for corporation among religions and conflict settlement. But it can weaken
the identity of Christianity and enthusiasm of evangelism which are basically founded on the salvation through Jesus only. Also, while the interest of actualizing the Kingdom of God on this world has a strength of making the church to become more participative in social actions, it has a weakness of indifference in the work of improving the relationship with God, the basic motivation of social participation, and thus of making the church to become weak. The ecumenical mission needs to inquire the way of overcoming the above limitations to make it a more desirable one.