sustain:if:able kiwi

global missiology and church change: updated with visuals

Updated: For those interested, here is my powerpoint (mission and innovation for web) and (here) are my notes. There was a LOT of energy around especially the mission stories in history.  It is so easy for Westerners to slip into mission as definitions and yet the use of stories in history brought a lot of energy and challenge into the room and ensured that discussion of innovation and leadership had a global God of mission framework.

Question: Where was the best place to train as a missionary in the 5th century?

I’ve had a wonderful few days, weaving up some new material for a pastors training day tomorrow. The theme is mission and innovation and I’ve had some time to do two things.

First, to integrate some current reading around innovation, change and leadership (see here for more).

Second, to add a global mission framework. It is so easy for church ministers to focus on church and so I’ve enjoyed exploring some global mission. Specifically to add a quiz, using the first thousand years of church history, which is an Asian, African and Middle Eastern history. And to add some stories, of wandering Celts and the first missionary to Vietnam in the 16th century. It is important to see fresh expressions and church change as powered by missio Dei and I’m hoping that this global mission horizon does that. This is in 4 pieces, so for those interested

One, A missio-what? By definition
Mission is the creating, reconciling and transforming action of God, flowing from the community of love found in the Trinity, made known to all humanity in the person of Jesus, and entrusted to the faithful action and witness of the people of God who, in the power of the Spirit, are a sign, foretaste and instrument of the reign of God.

A missio-what? A “global missions” quiz

• Like: What was the largest missionary sending city in the 10th Century?
• Like: Where was the best place to train as a missionary in the 5th century?
• Like: When did the first missionary go to Vietnam?

A missio-what? Some stories of mission

• John 4 in art (14th century Gladzor gospels) – which shows the woman at the well sharing the Jesus story with neighbours, one of whom has a pointed Mongolian hat. Such is the work of mission, faith sharing across cultures.
• Brendan the Navigator – model of peregrinato, pilgrimage in mission, founder of monasteries that offered life to the full to the whole of society
• Alexandre de Rhodes – father of Vietnamese Christianity. As a result of his work, there were over 300,000 Christians in Vietnam by 1650!

A missio-what? The (Anglican) marks

• To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom
• To teach, baptise and nurture new believers
• To respond to human need by loving service
• To seek to transform unjust structures of society
• To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth

Answer: Merv, in what is now Turkmenistan. One of largest cities in the world at that time, by 500 it had its own Bishop and its own Bible College that included the study of Greek thinkers like Aristotle. This was some 600 years before universities began to emerge in Europe!