Missions

“In the year 1901 the latter rain began to fall in different parts of the
world,” trumpeted the Missionary Manual of the Assemblies of God
published three decades later. More importantly, the evangelistic zeal of
“waiting, hungry-hearted people,” who had been baptized in the Holy
Spirit, signaled the resumption of “the Lord’s Pentecostal missionary
movement.” It had been halted at the end of the first century when the
Holy Spirit was “largely rejected and His position as leader usurped by
men.” Consequently, Spirit-led missions ceased and the Dark Ages
commenced.2 Now, in the remaining days before the imminent return of
Christ, Pentecostals would jubilantly carry the apostolic banner down the
parade route of modern mission.

This article appears in _Asian Missions Advance_ 35 (Jan. 2013): 3-7. It describes perhaps the largest "denomination" (which never will become due to their theological conviction) in Asia, perhaps double the combined membership of all Christendom/denominations (incl. Roman Catholicism) in Asia!

God's Missional Nature The important term Missio Dei (Mission of God) needs a biblical foundation. The sending of God by God is a foundational motive in the New Testament. Even at the very beginning of salvation history, shortly after creation, God became the first missionary. In Jesus, God is the missionary par excellence, and in the Holy Spirit, God is the most successful missionary. Mission is part of the nature of God, and therefore mission can only be described holistically and in a manner that transforms human mission into the image of God's mission.

This study for the sake of space will limit its scope to the book of Acts. We will look at Paul’s missionary theology and practice as seen through Luke’s writing in Acts. Thus this paper will be a sort of biographical sketch of Paul’s development of a biblical theology of mission. There are two questions I aim to answer in this paper. First, what impact do we see that Paul’s Jewish background had on his missiology? Second, and related to the first question, we will look at what Paul’s mission and method to find out what they were. Through an overview of Luke’s account of Paul and his mission, we will see that Paul was sovereignly prepared and chosen to be a witness to the nations by preaching Jesus as the Christ and planting churches that would carry on the mission in their local context.

My argument proceeds in three layers, which move from the more particular to the more general and from the concrete to the speculative.  In a first, preliminary discussion, I briefly survey recent developments in Christian missiology that have significantly complicated our understanding of “mission” as an interpretive category, suggesting that history reveals no singular understanding of Christian “mission,” but diverse—even incommensurable—missionary paradigms, models or types.  In the second section, I attempt to apply this insight to the historical development of Advaita Vedānta by highlighting what I judge to be three major “paradigms” of Advaita mission: the compassionate teacher depicted in Ādi Śaṅkarācārya’s eighth-century, independent treatise Upadeśasāhasrī, the image of Śaṅkara himself as a conquering avatāra of Śiva in the late medieval hagiographical tradition (dig-vijaya) and the image of the Buddha as the first “Hindu missionary” in the speeches of Vivekānanda.  Without claiming to be comprehensive, I argue that these three idealized paradigms reveal both significant historical continuity and substantive diversity in advancing Advaita as a missionary movement.  Finally, in a more speculative vein, I suggest that the distinctive profiles of the four disciples depicted in the most prominent hagiography, Mādhava’s Śaṅkaradigvijaya, might serve to rationalize different forms or styles that Advaita mission has taken, and can take, in the modern and contemporary periods.  Throughout, my interest in the essay is both historical and constructive.  That is, I hope to add clarity to what it might mean to refer to Advaita as a distinctive missionary movement in the history of South Asia, as well as to bring to light fruitful interpretive tools for more fully understanding the diverse missionary activities of Advaita traditions in the present day.

Entre les VIIIe et IXe siècles, une volonté de convertir les païens du Nord de l’Europe s’affermit et de nombreuses initiatives missionnaires (politiques, religieuses et individuelles) sont lancées. Or, être missionnaire induit le risque de mourir martyrisé, comme c’est le cas du célèbre saint Boniface (v.680-754), massacré par les païens près de Dokkum en Frise. Cependant, en raison du succès du cénobitisme, mourir loin de ses frères, en dehors des murs du monastère posait le problème du respect de la règle de clôture. Rimbert, hagiographe de saint Anschaire (801-865) propose de faire de ce dernier un martyr qui, bien qu’ayant été missionnaire lui-même, meurt dans son lit entouré de ses frères.
Rimbert puise très souvent dans le registre des émotions pour justifier le martyre de son héros (notamment à travers la tristesse et l’inquiétude), le martyre d’Anschaire ne sera pourtant jamais reconnu par l’Église, ce qui rend pertinent l’étude de la façon dont l’usage du registre affectif peut servir la légitimation du « martyre blanc » par rapport au « martyre rouge » dans le discours hagiographique. Pour ce faire, il convient d’évaluer la part prise par les émotions dans le processus de fabrique du martyr, à travers leur mobilisation dans la formulation des deux aspects fondamentaux du martyre que sont le témoignage et le sacrifice. La mobilisation des émotions dans le texte, qui vient renforcer la stratégie consciente de persuasion, agit alors comme un moyen implicite pour faire reconnaître un martyre.

Thousands of dollars are spent on Christian events and mission conferences globally. Very little has been researched on their impact. If results are discussed, they are often short-term goals. This article examines the long-lasting impact that mission events for young people can produce, what should be measured, and tools to measure desired impact and outcomes. Data will be drawn from four European youth mission conferences called Mission-Net, including findings from conference surveys.

El Patronato de Misiones Pedagógicas desarrolló una importante labor de recuperación y difusión de la cultura musical, especialmente del folklore musical español, en los primeros años de la II República española, al poner en marcha un servicio de música y un coro que se encargaron de acercar diferentes estilos y géneros musicales a los habitantes de las zonas rurales más deprimidas. En este artículo se presenta un estudio documental sobre el trabajo llevado a cabo por los integrantes del coro y por las personas que se encargaron de custodiar los recursos musicales cedidos por el Patronato y de programar las diferentes actividades musicales en los municipios que gozaron de dichos recursos. A su vez, se recogen diversos testimonios que dan fe del cometido realizado por esta institución y del impacto cultural y musical que supuso en los habitantes de las localidades donde se desarrollaron las diferentes actividades misionales.

How might Christians from one honor-shame culture effectively serve as missionaries in another honor-shame culture? By answering this question, churches and mission organizations can better train cross-cultural workers whose cultural backgrounds offer advantages not enjoyed by many Western missionaries. Due to the sheer scope of the topic, his essay sketches only a preliminary proposal.

Short-term mission trips (STMs) are service trips, typically lasting from one week to a few months, which entails an individual travelling to a distant place to engage in a type of voluntary social service, often in tandem with proselytization. Given the rapid increase of STMs since the 1980s, they have arguably become a rite of passage for devout evangelicals. In an age where conservative congregations are looking to stave off the threat of secularism for its next generation, STMs have been regarded one of the most compelling religious experiences available to its laity.

While many have studied second-generation Chinese Christians in North America, few have examined this population from a transnational frame. My multi- sited ethnography follows four STM teams deployed to China by Chinese evangelical churches from across Canada in 2015. One STM sending congregation in the Greater Toronto Area was also observed for almost two years. The research participants are highly religious Chinese Canadians, most being second-generation children of Cantonese Chinese immigrants from Hong Kong. Many have limited mastery of the Chinese language and little knowledge of their ethnic homeland. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted before the STM, immediately after the STM, and a year after the STM.

This paper examines the STM’s impact upon the short-term missionaries’ (STMers) sense of social solidarity, broadly defined. I specifically interrogate the intersections of their religious (i.e. evangelicalism), ethnic (i.e. “Chinese”), and national (i.e. “Canadian”) identities by examining how they give meaning to their STM experiences. I accomplish this by applying the theoretical tools from the sociology of emotion’s interaction ritual chains theory by Randall Collins that follows the microsociological lineage of Durkheim and Goffman.

My findings reveal that the second generation negotiate complex meanings to their transnational STM experiences. Several interconnected contradictions emerge. First, being in China, the participants are forced to negotiate their Chinese and Canadian identities; that is, to come to decide the extent they are Chinese or not- Chinese. This is relevant given previous scholarship has identified ethnic identification to be an important variable to one’s religiosity. Second, while claiming solidarity with local Chinese Christians under the global umbrella of Christendom, they struggle to come to terms with their Canadian socioeconomic privilege when juxtaposed with the people they seek to serve abroad. Third, despite the STMers’ desire to ‘experience God’ to strengthen their faith, this motivation is inherently based on modern Enlightenment values of empirical verification.

Over the past eight years I have been researching various aspects of leadership to gain a deeper understanding of how to lead mission movements within the globalized ecosystem in which we now live. This article presents a new theory on polycentric leadership to help missional leaders effectively traverse this modern landscape.

This collection of studies by social anthropologists describes the complex and often controversial processes of religious change occurring in the postsocialist world. By critically examining the influx of missionaries, the adoption of ‘new’ faiths, and the reactions to these unanticipated shifts in religious landscape, the authors offer valuable insight into the fate of state supported secularism as well as providing fresh critiques of anthropological studies of conversion.

This article assesses the role of late nineteenth- to early twentieth-century Afrikaner missionaries in their ecological positioning in Nyasaland. As envoys of South Africa’s Dutch Reformed Church, they were predisposed to self-identify with the dominant colonial culture as representative of ‘‘European civilization.’’ However, their own environmental sensibilities were also shaped by the rural agricultural background from which many of them had come. This article considers their role in the ecological values they directly or indirectly propagated. The theme of ‘‘hunting’’ is especially emphasized here, as well as the planting of trees. A following section concerns indigenous environmental concerns, especially dealing with the theme of rain, and the missionary
response. The argument is made that the missionary discourse was implicitly infiltrated by the indigenous point of view, to the point that missionaries were occasionally convinced to go along with the indigenous perspective in order to get their message across. In the final analysis the suggestion is made that the missionary discourse effectively
became hybridized, and that this historical example might in fact serve as an analogy for the kind of methodological conversion that this article suggests as something that
might helpfully challenge dominant contemporary globalization norms that threaten the environment.

The seminary was established in 1964 by the Division of Foreign Missions of the (US) Assemblies of God under the name of Far East Advanced School of Theology (FEAST). The founding president was Harold Kohl. In 1989 the name was changed to Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (APTS) to better demonstrate the nature of the institution. This school has had a clear regional intent as its mission: “The goal of APTS is to provide advanced leadership training and equip Pentecostal and Charismatic ministers for the Asia Pacific region. APTS offers academically sound educational programs that are sensitive to the cultural issues and needs of the Asia Pacific region while providing opportunities for students to learn through hands-on ministry experiences.”1 Specifically, the school provides training and learning opportunities to produce missionaries, theologians, educators and pastoral leaders. The students come from a variety of Asian countries and beyond. Often the student body is represented by North America (often missionaries working in Asia), European countries and also African nations.

Sir George Williams had a profound impact on the youth and business people of the 19th century.  Out of this renewal movement was birthed the YMCA movement which has reached around the globe.  This article explores the faith and values that shaped this world-changer.

Discipleship is fundamental to developing Christian leaders. A discussion on Christian leadership requires we consider the importance of the church and personal character. Some people might not realize that these two topics correspond with prominent themes in honor-shame cultures; namely, collective identity and a practical approach to ethics. Many Asian religions and philosophies tend to emphasize the importance of community yet veer away from abstract doctrines that do not affect one's daily life. Therefore, this paper considers how honor and shame can and should influence our approach to discipleship and thus Christian leadership in general.

A igreja já aprendeu a ir para a rua. Agora precisamos aprender a entrar na sociedade. Como? Oferecendo serviços relevantes às comunidades ao redor das nossas igrejas e instituições. Para fazermos isso, provavelmente precisaremos utilizar a internet, pois atualmente esta é a ferramenta mais usada para manter comunicação direta com as pessoas, onde quer que elas estejam. Não vamos abandonar os métodos evangelísticos que temos utilizado até aqui. Ao contrário, vamos utilizá-los ainda mais à medida que aplicarmos esta nova abordagem. O objetivo deste artigo é oferecer uma proposta de como esse processo pode ser desenvolvido.

ÖZ Bu araştırmada, Türk Savunma Sanayi Firmalarının vizyon ve misyon ifadelerinde hangi ögelerin kullanıldığı ile bu ögelerin ulusal savunma sanayi yönlendirici dokümanlarıyla uyumu incelenmiştir. Bu amaçla 148 savunma sanayi firmasının internet sitelerinde yer alan 87 vizyon ve 79 misyon ifadesi analiz edilmiştir. Çalışmada nitel araştırma desenlerinden olgu bilim (fenomenoloji) araştırma deseni kullanılmış ve veriler içerik analizi tekniği ile analiz edilmiştir. Analiz sonucunda Türk Savunma Sanayi Firmalarının vizyon ifadelerinde 14 ögenin, misyon ifadelerinde ise 13 ögenin kullanıldığı tespit edilmiş ve bu ögelerden bir kısmının bazı firmalarda milli yönlendirici dokümanlarda ifade edilen ögeler ile uyumlu olduğu tespit edilmiştir. ABSTRACT In this research, components used in mission and vision statements by Turkish Defense Industry Firms and their relations with national defense industry guidance documents are examined. For this reason 87 vision and 79 mission statements which mentioned on the web pages of 148 Turkish Defense Industry Firms' are taken into consideration. A qualitative research design phenomenology was used and the data were analyzed through content analysis in this study. At the end of the analysis, it is identified that there are common 14 components in vision statements and 13 common components in mission statements. Also it is discovered that some of the components are relevant with components mentioned in the national defense industry guidance documents.

A number of recent books examine the presentation of the gospel through the lens of honor-shame. This article assesses some of the arguments given in these books to see what they have to say is of valuable and what should be questioned from the perspective of anthropology, the Bible, language, and mission history.

With this edition, the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (APTS) begins a year of celebrating its fiftieth anniversary which we are calling a Year of Jubilee. Like the biblical concept, APTS’s Jubilee will include a number of activities throughout 2014 designed to thank God for his great faithfulness to this institution.

As we reflect on the past century, then, the stories of the evangelical world church deserve to be heard. In this volume, we do not have space to even begin to scratch the surface. Being forced to choose an orientation, we collected stories and thinking related to the way evangelicals have idealized, operationalized and organized in light of the remaining frontiers of mission.https://scholar.csl.edu/edinburghcentenary/1005/thumbnail.jp

Dr. E Stanley Jones through his Kingdom of God perspective had a lasting impact on racism both in India and North America.  Through his formation in India of the Christian Ashram movement in 1930 and transplanting it worldwide, Jones modeled a christian community in which divisions of class and cash had no place.  His book on his good friend Gandhi was instrumental in encouraging Martin Luther King Jr in the formation of the nonviolent civil rights movement.

Missionaries seek to be credible to the people whom they try to influence with the message of the gospel. Although Christ first and foremost calls missionaries to be humble servants who love and serve him, empirical evidence from the behavioral sciences indicates that missionaries who are perceived as experts, who attract people to themselves, and, most importantly, who are trustworthy are most likely to be deemed credible. To be perceived as experts, missionaries need to demonstrate their knowledge of a topic and to speak with confidence. To be perceived as attractive to others, missionaries should have frequent contact with others, demonstrate appreciation to others, and take care with their physical appearance. To come across as trustworthy, missionaries need to demonstrate long-term integrity, trustworthiness, open communication, and concern for others.

European Space Policy (ESP) in May 2007  put as priority the need to improve coordination and synergies between defence and civilian space programmes and technologies, in a user-driven approach and to set up a structured dialogue with all actors involved.Has the  responsible for the ESDP body the necessary means to address these challenges?

Mission Round Table 15:1 (Jan-Apr 2020): 42-43.

In this insightful interview, Scott Callaham highlights key challenges issued in World Mission: Theology, Strategy, and Current Issues. The book was written not only for mission practitioners, mission agencies, and seminaries, but for all biblically- and theologically-engaged Christians. Covering themes not seen in contemporary books on mission, the contributors to the book are not merely advocating returning to the Bible as a guide for the theology and practice of mission (although these aspects of mission clearly need to be reformed) but are aiming for a complete rethinking of world mission that takes us back to the source—the Bible.

Today's generation of young adults in Central and Eastern Europe do not remember the events of 1989, let alone what came before.  Their life experience has been wholly different from that of their parents, their educators, their politicians and their spiritual leaders.  The passing of communism and  concurrent advances in technology have resulted in a generation which in many ways is culturally further removed from its elders than from its peers around the globe.  This paper will seek to identify some characteristics of what sociologists have termed “Generation Y,” utilising both reflection on personal experience and literature of CEE to examine the relevance for our region of studies carried out in Western Europe and North America.  We will then draw out some missiological implications for CEE.

This dissertation seeks to provide a solution to the declining Evangelical influence in the United States, particularly among Generation Z. The rise in number of those who do not subscribe to a particular religion (“nones”) has doubled in the last five years even amidst a steady church attendance and participation in religious activities. The popular Evangelical evaluation of this problem includes the idea that the cause is a lack or an insufficient amount of theology taught and learned. The popular response has been to increase theological knowledge churches and other places of learning. I am proposing, however, given the post-modern structures and commitments in our culture, that exclusive cognitivist solutions no longer work and something else must take its place. Research shows that theory and practice are both essential pedagogical tools for learning. This general principle is true and applicable, not only in secular settings, but in sacred settings as well. So, to inculcate a strong, flourishing, and God-honoring faith, Christian leaders must commit to deploying this theory-practice pedagogy aimed at Generation Z who happen to already be predisposed to accepting it.

This article seeks to discover a common goal between inductive Bible study and “Mother-Tongue Biblical Hermeneutics” and will propose a viable biblical interpretation for Pentecostal/Charismatic ministries in Ghana. African Christians accept the Bible as the “Word of God” without critically engaging in some of the issues raised in Scripture. Biblical interpretation is a critical enterprise in biblical studies and is the essential element that nurtures the Christian church. However it is often influenced by denominational biases and the priority of the interpreter. Pentecostal/Charismatic ministries in Ghana attempt to interpret the Bible by seeking to find internal evidence and support for their interpretation. My thesis is that in view of the fact that Pentecostal/Charismatic ministries do not consciously interpret the Bible to agree necessarily with ecclesiological council decisions or dogmatic philosophies, but respond to the existential needs of their audiences, the adaption of ...

In this paper, King Artaxerxes’ action against Queen Vashti (Esther 1:1-2:1-18) is examined,
and moral and ethical lessons for contemporary Christian morality are drawn. One can
describe the decision of the King as contemptible, despicable, barbaric, and a violation
of Queen Vashti’s self-value and dignity. A further challenge can be thrown to the popular
notion, which seems to suggest that Queen Vashti was disobedient, arrogant, and not
submissive. Contrary to the traditional popular derogatory assessment of Queen Vashti’s
rejection of the King’s demand, it is argued that she is a contemporary model for Christian
Morality. Rhetorical criticism and historical narrative criticism were used for the study.
An analysis of the moral and ethical factors that underpinned Queen Vashti’s rejection of
the King’s demand and found that she demonstrated high moral and ethical values worth
emulating was conducted in the study. It is, therefore, recommended that Christian women
emulate Queen Vashti and maintain high moral and ethical values in society.

AS MISSÕES INTERNAS* « T O D O S COM TODA A ALMA SE ENTREGARAM à salvação dos próximos e a arrancar maus costumes e a meter os bons. Curaram-se e m toda a parte tantas palavras e mais que tudo com o exemplo.» 1 Pese o seu tom apologético esta perícope da carta ânua jesuítica, enviada para R o m a relatando a actividade desenvolvida pelos padres dos colégios de Jesus, no ano de 1592, expressa fielmente muitos dos objectivos e meios que várias congregações religiosas prosseguiram, no imenso esforço de missionação interna desencadeado entre os meados do século xvi e os finais do xvin.

The Franciscan missions of California have long proven a symbol for polarized portrayals of the Hispanic colonization of the region. Whether by virtue of the Spanish colonial legacy in other areas of the Americas or the founding narratives of the US as the world's first Protestant nation, Hispanic contributions have long been deemed secondary to an authentic American history. Despite recent efforts to interrogate the archaeology, ethnohistory, and social history of the missions, Castillo fails at all levels of analysis to acknowledge contemporary scholarship in an effort to vilify California's founding communities. This work is rife with politicized misinformation; the conflation of ethnohistorical traditions, chronologies, and cultures; an ethnocentric narrative of Hispanic, Californio, and, thereby, Latino traditions; and specious characterizations of indigenous peoples. The author's narrative of victimization reduces American Indians to helpless pawns in their own destruction while demonizing those Indian alcaldes or magistrates charged with maintaining order and administering corporal punishment. Ultimately, Castillo's narrative only further diminishes the Hispanic and indigenous heritage of California by constructing yet another pulp fiction borne of a thorny thicket of contradictory claims, illogical historical constructs, and anti­Hispanic/Catholic perspectives best left to blog posts.