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Reviews

Books I Have Read: Constructing Mission History

Mission history shouldn’t all be about missions. This book provides a nuanced and thoughtful approach to the way in which the church has grown through history.

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Observations

Everything You’ve Learned About Church History is Wrong

So does this mean that everything we have learned about church history is wrong? In a sense, I believe it does. Your understanding of the fine details of the English Reformation, say, may be detailed and accurate. However, if the broader framework that you fit those events into is Eurocentric, rather than reflecting the global history of the church, then you will get a distorted picture of the place of the English Reformation. Without the full picture, we won’t grasp the meaning of the pieces of the jigsaw, even if we know those pieces intimately.

Categories
Observations

The Failure of the First Protestant Missionaries

A great watch, listen or read for anyone interested in the history of mission or the history of the Reformation.

Categories
Observations

The Problem With Our Theology?

The problem is that our churchmanship and our theology developed a at a time when mission was not a central concern.

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Observations

Books I Have Read: Evangelicals and Social Action

A short review of a very good book indeed.

Categories
Observations

The Complexities of the Church

All over the Western world, ministers are being trained and future theological scholars are being identified and taken to doctoral level and beyond without any idea of what the church of today, in which they are called to serve, is really like.

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Observations

Things Western Christians Need To Know: The Church Was Always International

Church history books tell us about the way that the faith moved from the Middle East, to Europe and then out to the rest of the world through the efforts of Western missionaries. It’s a great story – but it didn’t happen like that.

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Observations

Mission Is: Problematic

Mission isn’t a term which is found in the Bible. This means that people are able to read all sorts of meanings into it. This is a problem!

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Observations

I Am Not Exceptional

If I have learned one lesson from history it is that far from being the pinnacle of church history, my tradition is just another branch in the long story of the faith.

Categories
Observations

This Is (Not) Who We Are

The church is multicultural! The question is whether or not we live up to our own reality.