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Observations

Whose Mission? Taxonomy of Mission 3

Whose mission is it anyway; ours or God’s?

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Observations

What is Mission for and When Will It Stop?

Do missions really exist because worship doesn’t? John Piper’s famous statement is widely quoted, but does it tell the whole story?

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Mission

An (Updated) Overview of Missiology

Union Theology have posted an updated overview of missiology on their website. It is well worth a read.

If western missionaries still approach mission from the perspective that their way of doing things is the right way or the best way they risk being guilty of a kind of ecclesiastical colonialism. One of Bosch’s main emphasises is that mission will be practiced in partnership. In essence, mission can no longer be thought of as “from the West to the rest” but rather as being “from everywhere to everywhere”.

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Observations

You’ll Never Get Me Up In One of Those Things

“But it is tragic if Christians take their beliefs more from fictional novels and even comics and Hollywood movies than from a careful study of the Bible itself and of the solid tradition of Christian faith through the ages of the church. we need to ask whether our beliefs in these matters are shaped by the recent popular “folk Christianity” in our surrounding culture, or by thoughtful understanding of the Bible for ourselves.” Chris Wright, writing about the ‘rapture’ and related ‘end times’ teaching.

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Observations

An Overview of Missiology

I have been following the launch of the Union Theology website with interest over the past couple of weeks and today, I finally had a chance to glance at it. From the quick look that I’ve taken, it seems to be a very worthwhile resource. Those who are students of theology either by profession or […]

Categories
Observations

Mission Strategy I

Mission agencies need to take into account Biblical and theological considerations when they shape their strategies and goals. This is not a case of providing ‘proof texts’ to give a justification for what we are doing, but to consider our activities in the light of the broad message of Scripture. When there is an apparent conflict between a Scriptural position and ‘conventional wisdom’ or accepted ‘best practice’, we must be prepared to be guided by our Scriptural convictions, even though that might be counter-cultural or counter-intuitive.

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Observations

Church People

I heard some amazing stories last week. There was the large South African church which was running social involvement and evangelistic programmes across the country and in other African nations. A small church in Singapore is planting churches and running schools in Cambodia; this may not sound much, but when you learn that the pastor’s wife […]

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Mission

Sending, Mission, The Trinity and Us

Theologically speaking, mission begins with the begetting of the Son and the procession of the Spirit from the Father. It starts with the Trinitarian life of God before it ever involves the creation, let alone the human part of that creation. We have discovered a doctrine of mission and so far, humanity has not even come into the picture.

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Theology

Whose God: Whose Theology?

“… until recent years, systematic theology has at its best tolerated interpretations of Christology from outside the mainstream academic quarters, that is, mostly Euro-American and predominantly male theologians. Toleration has meant paying lip service to the role of “exotic” interpretations of Christ stemming from the soil of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and non-dominant cultures in […]

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Reviews

The Best Books On Mission (Again)

A subjective, but not entirely uneducated, list of the most useful books for anyone interested in studying world mission.