Tribute to Charles Van Engen

Abstract

This short essay is a tribute to missionary and scholar Charles van Engen on the occasion of the conferral of ASM’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2023 Annual ASM Meeting.

On the occasion of the conferral of the 2024

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

from

The American Society of Missiology

It has been such an honor and a privilege to be asked to offer a few words of tribute to a fellow scholar, dear friend, and brother Christian, Chuck van Engen, as he receives the American Society of Missiology’s (ASM) 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award. Chuck embodies in an outstanding way everything that our Society values and promotes, and so he richly deserves the honor that we confer on him this evening. He is a missionary to the core—bi-lingual, bi-cultural, a committed member of the Reformed Church of America, and yet joyfully and graciously ecumenical. He is a renowned teacher and mentor, indefatigable and accessible to hundreds of students over the years. He is a renowned scholar of mission with 46 books to his credit and a seemingly endless list of articles on his CV. He is an educator and administrator of a major program of Latin American Theological Studies. And he is a main of deep faith, a minister of the gospel, and a loyal member of our Society and its elder brother, the Association of Professors of Mission.

Chuck is the quintessential missionary. Born of missionary parents in Chiapas, Mexico, he and his beloved wife Jean also served for 12 years in Chiapas. Through the years he has made many trips back to Mexico and other countries in Latin America, teaching and preaching. In 2000 founded Latin American Christian Ministries, and in 2004 was instrumental in launching PRODOLA, the Latin American Doctoral Program in Theology. He has lived most of his life in the United States, but I think that his heart has always been in Mexico.

Chuck is a devoted member of his church, the Reformed Church of America. His education was at Hope College, he is an ordained minister of the RCA, and he served as president and moderator of the church from 1997 until 1999. But, like many Christians who are comfortable in their traditions, he is amazingly open to other Christian traditions as well. On first meeting Chuck in 1987 at Association of Professors of Mission (APM)/American Society of Missiology (ASM). I was immediately comfortable with him, and he with me. Through the years there has been a marvelous bond, expressed perhaps symbolically by his invitation very early in my own career to contribute to the Festschrift for Arthur Glasser that he edited in 1993.

Chuck discovered early on that he had the gifts of an effective teacher. This was a talent that he did not bury in the ground, whether at Western Theological Seminary, in his 27 years at Fuller’s School of World Mission/Intercultural Studies, or in his many trips to Latin America. He taught 15 different courses over the years at Fuller and other places, and successfully directed 75 doctoral students. No doubt his enthusiasm and energy were infectious in the classroom. Well done, good and faithful servant!

In all of this, Chuck has been an amazingly productive scholar. Earning the doctorate in Evangelism and Missiology at the Free University of Amsterdam under the direction of eminent missiologist Johannes Verkuyl, he has gone on to become one of the most important scholars of missiology in our day. In 2015 his academic excellence was recognized by Fuller Seminary when he was installed as Arthur F. Glasser Senior Professor of Biblical Theology of Mission, a title he still holds with Emeritus status. He is particularly distinguished by the fact that he does not always write alone, but with other scholars and particularly with his doctoral students. On a personal note, his work God’s Missionary People has been essential for my own work in ecclesiology, particularly his reframing of the “marks” or “distinctives” of the church in a more dynamic way. His writing is clear, passionate, and profound.

Most importantly, Chuck is a marvelous human being. Rooted in faith, deeply devoted to his wife Jean and his children Amelia, Anita, and Andrew, and a generous friend to so many of us, Chuck has lived a rich life of service and love. When I think of Chuck I think of his joy, a joy that just seems to overflow to those around him. As he wrote in the essay on his pilgrimage in mission, “I have lived a life invested in forming people as leaders, paying forward what others did for me.” This award, honoring his life achievements, but especially his person, is a fitting expression of gratitude from his colleagues in mission for such a life so joyfully and fully lived.