The Future of Christian Missions (i.e., the presentation of the gospel around the world)

Last fall, New College Madison held a conference celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Haystack prayer meeting, the beginning of foreign missions in the United States.

Besides helping us recover a very important, but neglected, part of the history of the Christian church in the United States, the conference also provided us with an opportunity to survey the health of the Christian church around the world. One of the results of the conference was that some of us decided that there was more we needed to know about Christian missions, and our discussion group is the result.

We meet once a month at the National Service Center of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (we are not sponsored by IVCF, but we want to make it easy for anyone working there to participate in the discussion). If you're interested in joining this group, send us an email at newcollegemadison@tds.net. Join us!

Dialogue schedule for the fall:

Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 12 noon to 2 p.m., National Service Center of Inter Varsity Christian Fellowship: MacLeod's C. Stacey Woods and the Evangelical Rediscovery of the University.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007, 12 noon to 2 p.m., NSC of IVCF: Jenkins's The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007, 12 noon to 2 p.m., NSC of IVCF: Globalizing Theology: Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity, Edited by Craig Ott and Harold A. Netland (pub. by Baker Academic, 2006, paperback 336 pgs).

Wednesday, December 19, 2007, 12 noon to 2 p.m., NSC of IVCF: Book or article to be slected (see Ned's note below).

Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 12 noon to 2 p.m., NSC of IVCF: Tentative. Book or article to be selected (see Ned's note below)

A note from our leader, Ned Hale:

October 17, 2007

We had an excellent discussion on Philip Jenkins book, The New Faces of Christianity, yesterday led by Vern. Eric Seaborg joined us this time and shared some of his insights from his Sami background.

Looking ahead, our next discussion will be Wed. Nov. 14, noon-2:00 pm, in the Exec. Room at the IV offices. We agreed to the coming week's reading: GLOBALIZING THEOLOGY, Belief and Practice in an Era of World Christianity, Edited by Craig Ott and Harold A. Netland (pub. by Baker Academic, 2006, paperback 336 pgs).

I have tentatively reserved this same room available for December's discussion, Wednesday, Dec. 19 (check your calendar and see if that date works for you, and let me know back by email). As for what book to discuss then, we can select one when we meet on Nov. 14. Yesterday we did look at a couple of books by authors we know are at the cutting edge of missions/theology thinking these days and who also have articles in the "GLOBALIZING THEOLOGY" book we're reading currently: Andrew F. Walls and Vinoth Ramachandra.

I will read ahead a little ahead by Nov. 14 to be able to give us a little insight into one of the Walls books entitled: THE MISSIONARY MOVEMENT IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY: Studies in the Transmission of Faith (pub. in paperback, 1996, by Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY and T & T Clark, Edinburgh). This book won a Christianity Today book award in 1997 and focuses on conversion and culture, the different types of mission work and their impact, with special attention to Africa (with which Walls is most familiar from his earlier hears as a missionary-teacher in W. Africa). We can decide Nov. 14 if we want to read this one for December.

This is the first of a series of two books by Walls, the second being THE CROSS-CULTURAL PROCESS IN CHRISTIAN HISTORY: Studies in the Transmission and Appropriation of Faith (same, pub. 2002). We can read this another time perhaps, as well as Vinoth Ramachandra's The Recovery of Mission, beyond the pluralist paradigm. By the way, I have a series of Walls' lectures (11 CDs!) on missions history, given at Regent College, which is being passed around among us (Vern and I have heard it and John Henry has it at the moment). You'd be welcome to borrow it but you'll have to stand in line.

Also as possibilities, John Henry brought along a few of his choice selections of books yesterday in case we'd like to read one or more of them for our discussions (or just privately). Thanks John! Bring them Nov. 14 again so we can decide about them!

For a change of pace, perhaps we briefly can get a little futuristic or eschatological too - another book we mentioned reading and discussing at one point might be a good choice for January 2008 (in light of the New College Madison conference coming on C. S. Lewis at the end of January): The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis. What do you think of that idea? Also, would Wed. January 16 work for you?

The above bold sections are things for you to respond about, especially the dates. Okay? Thanks! Ned

Email Ned at nhale@intervarsity.org.