I father your love and grace towards us truly is far greater and deeper and wider and higher than anything that we can fathom or formulate. We praise you and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your devotion to your people, need your devotion to redeem and remake this world that is rebelled against you and is a dark and fearful place to be and yet one which has hope because of the Lord Jesus Christ, his life and death and resurrection and ongoing presence and sure coming again to remake the cosmos. We thank you, O God, that you've called us by your grace and mercy to be a part of your people. We thank you, our Father, for calling us into your service as well, to serve the cause of the gospel, to walk before you each day in our families, among friends, among neighbors, in the particular places where you have us. Our Father's, we head into this class together. We look to you to guide us and lead us, store us in our hearts to be gripped by your love and mercy and calling to serve you. Take us to where we have deeper understanding and deeper appreciation of your goodness, of your glory and of your grace. We do look to you to guide each one of us, help us as we think and study and read and talk together and we'll give you all the praise and honor in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, as that song indicates, I trust that the grace and mercy of God as we see us especially in the cross of Jesus will grip us and will demand us fully to give ourselves to serve Him. And this course, God's Royal Mission, is designed to bring to bear on each one of us the demands of the gospel to serve Him and walk before Him. I don't know exactly what you may have heard about this course or what you come into this course expecting, but one thing that I think the subject manner will demand is an opening up to who God is, an opening up to know further who we are before Him, to be called again, to be shaken at our foundations, to be challenged, a fresh, to embrace a fresh, the gospel, to understand the gospel and to serve Christ in His ongoing mission in the world. Let me go ahead and pass out the course guide and we can get started with some of the logistical concerns of the course. I hope that we have enough copies if we're one or two short, maybe you can look on and I can get some further copies for you. We'll look at the purpose and objectives later and at the requirements as well. What I would like to do first is just verify as best we can who we are together in this room for this class because it is going to be a matter of working together and studying together, and that's part of what the glory of the class like this is. I'm Nelson Jennings and I teach world mission here have been now at the seminary for a couple of years moved here from Japan at the center of my own self understanding is that God sent me here as a missionary from Japan and this part of the mission field is where he happens to have us laboring right now. For each of you quickly if we could just go around and let you say your name and your degree program we don't have a great deal amount of time and after that I'll start to pass around the attend to see but just so that you'll know who each other is we can start here name and degree program. Okay. Thank you. Tell you what then. Let's go to the requirements page of your course guide. You probably have already turned there anyway and let's look at that together. First requirement of the course is class attendance school regulations say that we need to pass around an attendance sheet and you need to initial and register your presence and so the sheet will go around at the beginning of each class and you need to do that. If your name is not on this list that means as far as the time when this sheet was printed off from me you were not registered and you need to do that at the registrar's office if you're not on this list please and you'll note that I have on here that you need to be here. If you can't be here in no advance like a couple of people did before this first class please let me know so we can verify an excused absence. If there are multiple unissues absences I'll need to doctor grade just a bit as attempted to be defined on that sheet a little bit. So the point is to be here that's a major part of the course obviously. Second requirement for the readings we will look at some of the readings here in just a little bit. Some of you may have heard that this course is fairly demanding in the amount of readings. I suppose that's true believe it or not I've cut back the readings from what I originally had and what I would like to have and so you don't have it as bad maybe as you might but I hear from students normally that yes the readings are heavy but they appreciate the readings and they're hard pressed to identify what they would like cut out. I do expect you to have readings done according to the schedule and if you want to take a quick glance back at the course schedule because everyone have a copy of the course guide by the way. Who doesn't? Anyone not have a copy? Perfect. And no extra copies. You'll see by the particular topics listed for that day readings that are due to have been read by the beginning of class period for that day and you'll note that because there's no way to have expected you to do readings for the class period today readings that are listed for today are due at the next two class periods as defined and I hope that's clear enough for you. And as noted in your requirement sheet if you do 80% of the readings you know make a note of that. If you do the readings late, dock yourselves down as mentioned in your requirement sheet. All that is to be incentive to you for even if you don't get the readings done in time for class which I hope you will still pursue the readings and finish them even after the fact because the readings are an integral part of this course. Much of what we do in class is going to be in interaction with those readings. I've tried to introduce you to some new people, some particular people that I think you'll find stimulating and interesting. Any questions about that requirement about the readings again I'll show you the particular readings in just a minute. Okay. Third requirement is to meet twice during the time periods defined and these are to be in self-selected group groups of three to five students. I would encourage you to get with some people you don't know, pursue people who maybe are different from you ethnically and gender wise as well. That adds to the stimulation and insights that come from the group and you're to discuss in those groups those two meetings what is suggested on the requirement sheet and meet during those times two and there will be a place on your, I should have mentioned this, a sheet will go around beginning next period for you to know how much of the readings you've done and there will also be a couple of columns in there for you to say yes or no I took place, I took part in the meeting of other students. Okay. Fourth requirement is to write a one page essay answering the question what does Dr. Jennings like and dislike about a certain article. I've listed the URL where you can find that article it's in the December 99 issue of Christianity today. Point of this assignment is to help us all listen and think together and it's also to give you a fairly early assignment so you have a sense of how it is I grade and what I'm looking for so you're not totally in the dark and worried about that. I don't think you have any problem finding the article. If you do ask someone or come ask me. One assignment for requirement number five do it a particular time as I note at the end of requirement four when you send me your assignments you are welcome to email them to me or hand me a hard copy that may be on the course guide I don't know so you're welcome to do that and in fact I welcome your emailing that information to me that's no problem at all and I'll just grade it email it right back to you. Number six is to write another one page essay on some particular readings that are on reserve. This one text global sociology for the 21st century is one that I considered using as a required reading decided not to just because it would be a little confusing to make an adjustment but a number of things in the book as a whole and particularly the articles by Samuel Escobar who is from Latin America potatoes in the United States and now I find extremely insightful and perceptive and I think you'll find them helpful so I want you to be exposed to those two papers in particular better in this particular volume. Seventh requirement is to peruse I've been called by some students on the meaning of the word peruse dictionary has different definitions one means to look at very carefully another one says just a glance over I'm using it in a second sense I just want you to get an idea of some of the missiology type journals that are out there and this is a partial list but a representative list of the important journals that are there they all are in the seminary library and the point is is to spend about an hour total so four minutes each for 14 of them just to open any of these that you want to up look at it see what's there just to become familiar with it could be that there'll be a few you'll want to subscribe to a few you'll already know about already and that's just to give you an idea of what's out there don't forget those at the bottom of the list I've gone an alphabetical order I think reverse alphabetical order on there the ones at the bottom are just as good as the ones at the top so that's the point of that and that's to do towards the end of the semester again just if you look at it check it and give me that sheet back by the certain date on these requirements I have noted for you on your course schedule I think for most of the requirements when they're due but I'm not going to be reminding you regularly when things are due I'm expecting you to make note of that and have a jot reminders on your calendar whatever requires to get the get these assignments in your single biggest assignment is number eight after at the end of class in October the 11th I will give you a list of six topics you will take those can discuss those in your small group which will be meeting at the second time at that point and then you will write a one page essay on each of any four of those six topics it's kind of like a take home final open note final it's not a research paper just look at the notes you have call upon your own resources and write a one page essay on any four of those six topics so it'll be four pages that you'll again email to me your hand back into me at the at the designated deadline that's your single biggest assignment then your take home final exam will be distributed at the end of the final class period which is November the 6th that's a close note take on your own final that you get back to me by Friday afternoon I think at three o'clock November the 9th a wonderful feature of this course if you haven't noted it already is that therefore by November at November the 9th you're finished with this course and that takes the load off of you going into the rest to the end of the term I think that's a great feature for you and for me we go with the pace of a three-hour course but it's a two-hour course and therefore we only go through two-thirds of the course some of you I suspect are signed up to take an additional one-hour elective call God's Royal Mission 2 for the rest of the term some of you won't take that that's just an additional elective that's up to you whether or not you'll take that we'll continue some of the themes we do in this course but is its own course in its own right as well I hope these requirements are clear I hope they're not and don't think that they are too terribly demanding I hope that they will prove helpful for you to consolidate material and process things that we're going through any questions or concerns we'll look again at the readings here in just a minute okay let's go ahead and look then at the readings and those are listed for you starting on page one of your course guy first required text which is due to be read in a few weeks I think is on reserve the often readings are on reserve they are not in your reader there are multiple copies on reserve and hopefully you will not have any trouble getting time to good into those the that reading by the way is designed as it says in the title four foreigners coming to the United States to understand mainstream American people and for those of you who are mainstream American people hopefully it'll be helpful for you to understand what you're like as a human being second book which is required a little bit later in the course is this small purple volume Jesus and African culture are going to be respected by Dr. Kwame Vedyako again there are plenty of copies of this in the library and I think you'll find this a stimulating third should also be in the library and this will be due much later in the course as well establishing in fact a missions program for your church this is designed and we'll talk about later to be an example for how you do a missions program in a church that's going to be important for many of you already and this is mission to the world's suggestion on how you sit up and run a missions program a mission to the world is the four missions sending agency of the Presbyterian Church in America for those of you who might not know I think there are copies of this in the bookstore and this is quote unquote free quote unquote I say because it's always not there is a there is a small charge for that okay all right thanks for letting me know that Wilbert Shanks book changing frontiers of mission we'll be reading this in its entirety we will not be reading it in order in this order the pages to be read are again are listed in your course schedule I think Dr. Shanks who is now at Fuller Seminary has his finger on a number of issues related to where we are historically in world mission how to understand that how to move forward constructively in light of that and I appreciate very much him and so many others who have had their formative influences in a culture other than the one that is native to them and he mentions this for example and his introduction when beginning in the mid-50s he had what he called a formative four-year apprenticeship in Indonesia and that was the kind of experience that shook him to be able to look at things inter culturally cross culturally which is so very basic to understand God's mission and missions in general so I hope you'll find this I helpful read and I had one student tell me after he went through the course previously that he wishes that we had gone through this book in order there's Merit reading this book on its own terms in so in order to but for this course I've elected just so it fits in this course to go a certain order then you have a reader which is kind of the monster read for the course I apologize for the price copying and copyright charges jack these sorts of things out it's much less expensive than it would be if I had given you all the books portions of which are contained in this reader if you've noted if you have it noted already in the table of contents there are a number of different authors that I've included in here from various representative volumes and again basically we go through the reader that you have in order if you have for some reason a reader from a previous course there have been a few slight adjustments basically the same but a few slight adjustments so if you have a previous addition you'll need to be careful along the way if you have the reader for this false course we're going to be going through the reader in order except at one point there's one piece that it's noted in your schedule that it's at the end of the reader it's one of the Nunez readings concerning Latin America so just don't miss that okay and again the often readings are not in the reader I've had people get confused on this before those are on reserve in the library I also have on your course guide listed only one page of some recommended readings these are for your own long term reference and for building a resource library for yourself for for your church these are and this is just to let you know that I'm aware of and you should be aware of many of these very important missions related textbooks and what I will do throughout the term is to bring as many of them as I can to give you a brief introduction to each one of them so you'll have an idea of these works listed on I think page of your course guide I've brought a couple today beginning with Roland Allen's book missionary methods St. Paul's or ours this is often used as emissions tax in many courses it was first published as noted in 1912 when it was first published it was not terribly well received it was quite critical of the missions movement of the day it's important to note the date 1912 that is right before world war one which is at the height of western confidence and confidence amongst the western missionary movement I mean the world is going to become Christian they could see it they could taste it it was right in the wake of the important 1910 and burrow missionary conference Roland Allen comes along he says wait a minute what can St. Paul do in comparison to what you all are doing we're going out building up all these institutions building up all these edifices putting ourselves as expatriates in control of programs and ministries but what did Paul do Paul went in and Paul got out well it wasn't well received then but with a shaking of confidence in the missionary movement and a shaking of confidence within the west especially after world war two this book made a great comeback and so now it's it's quite popular and very important and very influential in missions thinking and so this is a must for any basic missions library second one on your list is David Barrett's and others world Christian encyclopedia the one that I have listed has just been published if you'll note in two volumes Dr. Barrett and his colleagues wanted three volumes but locked for the university press that no two is going to be hard enough to sell as it is and so Barrett and others are going to publish the third volume under a different title through a different publisher this is the first one published in 1982 the first edition if you want statistics this is where to go country by country information multiple religious information some of the graphics I'll be showing you through the course come out of this work this is foundational for all statements that should be made about worldwide Christian particularly and religions in general status for example you've probably heard it said and you may have said yourself that currently there are more international cross cultural missionaries from the non-western world than from the western world you may have heard that stats say that's not true although the majority of Christians in the world live in the non-western world fact is a majority of missionaries who go internationally still come from the west and it's those sorts of hard statistics that Barrett and others have put together that keep us from kind of going from what they call our G-I-O-T our general impression of things which all the times aren't right on something like that for example and so this book it takes a while and I haven't done it all the way yet it takes a while to become familiar with how to use it has all these codes on how to interpret different graphics that they have but if you really want to get into the stats you need to take the time to go through the graphics and again our library has the two new volumes and I would encourage you at least to locate it in the library so you can know where to go and if you're going to do anything on any country this is going to be one place you need to go okay I don't have these listed on your recommended reading list but I brought for you because they send them to me to do so free copies of mission frontiers this is put out by the US Center for All Mission in Pasadena again these are for you to keep you can also get mission frontiers online if you want to after class this is the latest issue that's just come out I have a few copies of the issue before that that is really devoted to intercultural worship I'll put this right here and you may come and get those if you want I have the latest journal put out by Wickliffe Bible Translators in other words I'll put these here you may get these after class as well and when these copies come in for mission frontiers I will bring them to you they asked me to ask you to sign up to subscribe it's they send it free of charge and note that if you like to send a donation they'll welcome that to help cover the cost that's up to you but they're happy to send these out and again you can go online I get this too as we will note during the course the US Center for All Mission Pasadena is at the forefront of formulating missions thinking strategic thinking they're behind the perspectives course 82,000 they're related to all those sorts of movements of which you've heard people groups unreached people groups adopted people all those sorts of things are connected to the US Center for All Mission and you really can't be familiar with up-to-date missions thinking in North America particularly but worldwide actually without being connected to the guys in Pasadena okay any questions about texts reading materials course requirements the course schedule we're going to be looking in a minute at purpose and objectives but yes yes the required texts minus the orphan the beddiaco shank and reader are available in the bookstore I I've sent last time I checked there were still copies plenty copies of all those in the bookstore yes and some of these other recommended books will be in the bookstore mill most will be in our library or just for you to get as you wish I'm not requiring those by any means the required readings I don't have a copy of the reader in the library in the in the library I think there's a copy of shank in the library there's a copy of beddiaco in the library the reader though is not in the library all right I'm looking forward to having a good time this term and again a challenging time and let's talk a little bit about the challenge that comes with this course as we look further at the course purpose which is listed for you on page one of your course guide course purpose as listed the purpose of this course is to be gripped in a personal and integrated way by world mission as the triune gauge redemption of the cosmos or in he grants among all the world's people's faith in Jesus Christ but touring of the church and four tastes of the new heavens and the newer let's break that down phrase by phrase first to be gripped of course like this can't just simply be an intellectual exercise exercise that is interesting simply a requirement for some of you it is a requirement to take this course and we will all be coming into this course with different understandings about missions about world mission whatever the case my prayer and hope as that as we're together in this course god will press on us if you will by his spirit as we meet together through his word to to be gripped by his grace and his mercy and his commitment to carry out his mission and that's something that demands your soul your life your all as as we just say and so for that to be a further deep overriding gripping factor in your life a center relic of your life is what this course is aiming at is to be gripped in a personal and integrated way this course is aimed at you saying that me and each of us is involved in what god's mission is about one way or another it's not something that we can hold at arm's length but we're all involved there's a danger and a threat and a wonder and a glory as far as that's concerned to be gripped personally and in an integrated way one of the easiest things that happens to missions whether in a theological curriculum or in a church or in someone's individual life one of the easiest things to happen is to have missions be off on the side and to have that be something that if you're eccentric or somehow specially called or can't do this over here or whatever might be then you're involved here again this course seeks to integrate god's mission into all of your thinking all of your life and as you go on in ministry as you're involved in ministry now whether it be in your local church whether it be in working in a particular company whatever it might be to see missional thinking and missional lifestyle really be a centering point for who you are and so what you study in systematic theology what you study in practical theology what you study in biblical studies what you studied in economics previously for example that all needs to be brought to bear and encountered by the kinds of things we'll run across in this course so as to be gripped in a personal integrated way by world mission world mission is kind of the integrating phrase that I'm using god's world mission we'll talk in just a minute as to why I've selected that phrase and not the specific term missions missions is a good word and they're interrelated but world mission for me is a more comprehensive term and phrase for how god is intent on redeeming his world in short missions to my mind fits under that missions describes much of what we do as god has called us to move cross culturally in ministry but god's comprehensive world mission again is to buy back to recreate to remake to make right his world that has become lost in sin and turn its back on him in that sense then world mission by this final inherent definition this is just a working definition but one that I find helpful at this point world mission is first the triune god's redemption of the cosmos mission first of all basically fundamentally is god's work it's god's mission we participate with him but it's his work and it's the triune god's work god the father god the son god the Holy Spirit from creation forward have always been about making and then remaking and redeeming the entire world to say that it's the triune god's work also has another implication specifically related to recent developments in worldwide Christianity because in recent centuries for many parts of the non-western world the christian faith has come into their settings from the west christians in the non-west have faced the challenge of integrating their new found identities as christian people in so far as the christian faith has come via the west their automatically have been western associations with christianity speaking in general terms but people who live outside the west or not western people so you have to integrate your own identity one way that people have tended to do that in certain settings in the non-west is to say all right god is triune is a Greek construct only reason the doctrine of the trinity developed was because that was taking place in western Greek and in Latin settings for us we don't need that western construct so some people have tended to brush aside god is triune in wanting to understand the god of the bible and more indigenous contextual terms okay i'm speaking in general terms and this has by no means always happen but it has tended to happen at certain points that's throwing the baby out with the bath water and that also is falling prey to the temptation to overlook two thousand years of christian history we are firmly aligning ourselves with traditional evangelical orthodoxy by understanding god as triune sure some of the formulation of the trinity took place in their intricacies in particular Greek and Latin settings granted but god is triune is with the god of the bible is so we're affirming that and placing ourselves squarely within traditional orthodoxy world mission then is the triune god's redemption of the cosmos he's buying back in the lord Jesus Christ the entire creation it's a full embracing redemption of everything yes there's judgment on the wicked doesn't mean that everyone's going to be saved but god is about more than simply religious spiritual saving of individual souls god is about remaking the entire cosmos Romans 8 says that all of creation is groaning in anticipation of the forward bodily redemption of the sons of god and that cosmic redemption points towards the fact too that an important reality in god's mission is the defeat of satan and his hosts the whole awareness of the spiritual world is something that many of us who have scientific backgrounds don't see as much as other people see and it's what we see in the bible but when you read the bible and when you realize the full scope of god's redemption the defeat the crushing of the head of satan the cross and resurrection is central to what god's redemption is all about and the ongoing tussle with the forces of satan principalities and powers that's part of part and parcel of what god's redemption is all about trying god's redemption to the cosmos wherein he grants that's grace what god is about in redeeming his world is all out of his grace it's all out of the goodness of his heart god makes a good world the representative heads adam and eve sin fall rebel god to put it this way had every right to bring immediate judgment instead he brings yes consequences but immediate commitment out of his grace to send the seat of the woman to crush the serpent's head recorder right there in genesis three and then the bible records for us that ongoing goodness of god to make the world right to bring his people by his grace not by anything that we can do not by anything that we really want to do but it's all out of his grace and love that he brings it about so what is he grant well what he grants takes place among all the world's peoples and this is extremely important in understanding all of christian living and all of christian ministry and particularly when you talk about christian mission you are already discussing multiple cultures multiple peoples cross cultural ministry the christian faith is at its heart inherently involving multiple cultures the fact that you and i are followers of jesus christ and talking about gods will mission this course in the english language is testimony to the multicultural reality of the christian faith jesus did speak english god didn't give his word to us originally in english just the fact that we're here that's already testimony to that and as we see in looking at christian history we'll talk about this later in the senior readings the christian faith has often been on the brink of destruction as it's been confined to one culture then you see it passed into another culture and the christian faith flourishes there much of what we're seeing in our day in contemporary macro history has been a recession of the christian faith out of europe but instead of the christian faith therefore being choked out look what's happened in the rest of the world and you see that movement that's really the essence of the christian faith and what paul is saying for example and he says all of sinned and all are saved by faith he's talking about all sorts of people and paul fought tooth and nail for that multicultural reality of the christian faith against the judisers who wanted to confine god to being the god of only one sort of people and wanted to make god a travel god
and all religions i think it's safe to say all religions including the christian faith are going to have a tendency because we're simple human beings avoiding to confine god to be a tribal god to be the god only of my kind of people that's going to be a tendency and god will not let that happen so he works by his grace among all the world's peoples to grant faith in jesus christ proponents in faith and trusting in jesus christ is safer jesus christ is the exclusive way to know god i am the way the truth in the life jesus said no one comes to the father but by me it's by repentance and faith by individuals and sometimes by peoples those of us who live in a part of the world that instinctively stresses in many good ways the importance of the individual don't see as readily as some other peoples do the place of household baptisms for example we see in the scriptures or whole peoples coming to faith that you hear about or see in other parts of the world but we can allow for the way god works in different peoples to bring about faith in jesus of nazareth now risen from the dead and raining and evident but he grants faith in jesus christ i put the comma separately on here just to note that these three elements of redemption of you will faith maturing of the church and four tastes of the new heavens and the new earth we can look at them and think of them separately but they're always going to need to begin to relate it you don't just trust in fallen jesus christ apart from from example the organized christian church and neither of those takes place totally apart from wider socio-political economic public concerns that's referred to in the third element of redemption so that's the point of the comma to note that separate but always connected maturing of the church is always a part of god's mission that is going to need observable objective numerical growth of the church god is concerned about that it also is going to mean god's intent on maturing refining rebuking nurturing his people where we already are that's a part of his ongoing mission just because there are churches and there's the church living and existing in a certain place in the world certain among the certain peoples in the world that doesn't mean that's not a part of the mission field god is always concerned about his people growing and learning in maturing without that perspective without that reality if you go into a place cross culturally where the christian church is not as strong or not as prominent you're just going to assume that you have little to learn or nothing to learn and you're taking the whole truth and nothing but the truth into this new setting but you unwittingly we're going to be taking imperfections cultural realities that won't be pertinent to the new setting and that is what gives rise towards cultural imperialism and unhealthy relationships across cultures etc etc god is always concerned about his people and that's a part of his ongoing and what you see in cross cultural mission activity is change that results in the target culture yes but more than that you see change in the people who go and who learn maturing of the church then and then four tastes of the new heavens and the new earth part of god's mission is his wider concern for for example public matters of justice wider economic matters for example it's it's beyond me to think that it's outside of god's missional concern for his world in thinking about the north south economic gap in the world today the affluence gap that is a part of god's missional concern that's not the only thing about god's missional concern which some people want to reduce gods missions to but it's certainly a part racial relations socioeconomic relations justice for workers justice for business owners gasoline prices those are a part of god's full orbed wide missional concern for his world so that in general terms is the purpose of this course as we look at god's mission any particular questions or comments about that much of the course is going to involve breaking down and talking about particular side all right then let's look at course objectives listed six one simply to become more aware of the world god's mission and the church therein that's meant to be taken at face falling value very simply just to be become more aware of what's happening in various places in the world and what god is up to there and of the church of Jesus Christ in all over the world that's one objective therefore we'll be doing readings about Latin America for example secondly to hear a fresh the biblical meaning of world mission and of the gospel cross cultural interaction intercultural interaction is going to bring fresh insights into the word of god and we hear the scriptures differently as we're located in different cultural settings and I think we all can stand a fresh hearing of what world mission is about and what the gospel is all about that's another objective thirdly we're talked about this a bit to integrate world mission with the reformed and covenantal theology and world view what reformed thinking is about needs to be informed by world mission and vice versa so we are here at covenant theological seminary we think is reformed people but that's not all the way necessarily setting concrete is what that looks like that's going to inform how we think missionally and vice versa fourthly and this is particularly important I think they all are but this one particularly I think to identify the current historical situation of world mission many of the questions and issues that arise in connection with world mission matters are related to where we are in history and if you know the kind of the macro mission situation of where the world Christian church is and where world mission is that can help you locate those questions and attack them and answer them constructively so to look at where we are historically it's going to be important fifth to become conversant or become more conversant I should say with influential missiological concepts and terminology people groups unreached people groups three self church et cetera sixth to reconsider and plan towards our necessary particular involvements and world mission we are involved necessarily in a particular ways so we want to look concretely at such things as cultivating world mission emphasis and programs in the local church looking at such things as going as or sending out or receiving short and long term cross cultural missionaries you know some of us send missionaries some of us receive missionaries and more and more in our world that's becoming that all of us send and all of us receive we're going to look at a good bit of money matters and various facets very important looks on site tactics methods and issues and in general look at living as Christian people so those are specific objectives I see so we head into this course all right then a few further definitions and clarifications first the term missions again it's a good term but I think the way that normally it's used it's referring to our various activities and just out of curiosity and to help us think about this in terms of a theological curriculum and let me say let me take a step back just a second about your syllabus some of you will I'm noting have a copy of the print in syllabus some of you don't right now I'm on page two the second page of the syllabus those are also available in the bookstore if they're not you can ask for more to be printed if you would like me to send you a copy of the syllabus electronically I can do that you need to email me and request give me the syllabus for the first few days of class or something like that to send it all to you would be too much the drawback in that is it's cumbersome to send you the various images and graphs that will be using but I'm happy to send you electronic versions of the text portion of the course syllabus so it's up to you whether or not you want to purchase a copy have me send you portion and then you work on copying something from someone else a syllabus that's up to you what you would like to do okay missions where in the covenant seminary theological curriculum does missions or mission studies fit for example practical theology systematic theology biblical studies where do you think missions fits where do you think the courses are located within their curriculum you want a venture of guess yes practical theology you know the guesses that is the instinctive guess and it's there for good reason when you look at a typical evangelical view of how theology is skamed out you have biblical studies at the foundation of the verbally and error Bible then you have a biblical theology systematic theology and out of that you have a theology of mission that you formulate and then you have practical mission principles that you apply from this established mission theology and so that puts it within practical theology department I have a note in your syllabus to see a comment by shank I think it's in a footnote on page 9 of his text where he notes for us that it was Friedrich Schliermacher in the early 19th century who set the pattern of putting mission studies within the practical theology division of a theological curriculum that's the way we usually think about it interestingly enough had covenant seminary mission studies is within the church history department now when you ask why and I've asked why because I came here to teach permission and I didn't set up the pattern when you ask why most people say just kind of happened that way I think that's a good place for mission studies God's mission has been taking place within the history of the Christian church actually mission studies is one of those theological disciplines that doesn't really have a home it leaches onto and draws from all other departments you need systematics you need biblical studies you need church history you need practical studies really as you're doing mission studies the reverse I believe is also true systematics needs input for mission studies so mission studies has its own particular characteristics but it also relates and interacts with other disciplines in the in the theological curriculum what the author of this particular text indicated in your printed syllabus therefore tries to do is um is to note that more creative and constructive mission studies interacts meaningfully with various levels of theological study your exegesis is going to interact with mission life and practices your theology and mission is not going to be all the way set how do you how do you know what mission is about from one cultural location only the old a New Testament even your theology that comes out of there is going to be affected by intercultural and cross cultural interaction um etc etc and yes the Bible is set yes God uh is unchanging at the same time how we even understand God and relates to him is going to be affected by uh intercultural interaction that is intermindive related to what mission is all about this is to show you this is simply to illustrate how mission studies interacts with the rest of our theological thinking missions as commonly used refers more to practical activities and that's okay and it's a good term now don't want you to hear me say don't use that term anymore because I use it and you should use it but again in this course we're looking at God's world mission in a more comprehensive sense and mission studies in a similar way in ways that interact with other theological disciplines missiology then as a discipline becomes perhaps a little bit more complicated than we might originally think this is one breakdown by Alan Tippet who in North America is one of the originators really of missiology as a theological discipline to where you have the theory and theology of missions at the center as theology anthropology and history intersect and similarly as ethno theology or theology's all different peoples are theologies done by certain peoples ethno history similarly histories all particular peoples and the expansion of the church is all those things interact then really you're talking about the theory and theology of mission that begins to show how demanding missiology is as a theological discipline he then expands on that does Tippet to give us a better idea of what really is involved and you don't have to be able to make that out really to get an idea of how most anything comes into play here we're talking about repair work and discrimination and Chinese studies and church relations and administration and economics interacting all around and complicated ways with each other as we think about missions mission and ministry in particular cultural settings that just serves to illustrate how demanding missiology is I will for you to Verkyle's text you have some readings in your reader from Verkyle you don't have his text and don't have these particular pages at the beginning of his text where he talks about missiology as a discipline and how for example when you look at the very term missiology you already have missio a Latin term combined with Lagos a Greek term you're already getting into something that's more complicated than you realize it's a demanding academic exercise mission theology in a related sense is mapped out this way by Charles Van Engen who's written a number of influential works when you talk about a particular integrating theme you want to think in a missional way about race relations in your town or church planning an xyz community you're talking about the interaction of the foundational biblical text that relate to that the faith community church of which your apart churches and the particular mission context that will then lead you into that particular theme in thinking missionally about that theme Van Engen expands on that in a way that shows us again how all these different areas interface focused on Jesus Christ you have to think about sociology leadership issues in women and ministry so many times in approaching various issues mislead logically urbanization how can you think about race relations in a town for example without realizing urbanizing trends and thinking in a Christian way in a mission a way about how God would have a smooth and think and pray in labor that again serves to illustrate the intricate demanding nature of mission studies re quotation is well from Andrew Walls this is from your readings he'll encounter him a number of times in your readings culture is the workplace of theology that is not to say as some would want to assert that religious understanding in general and Christian theology in particular is confined to particular cultural locations that's what some people want to say and if you're involved in this culture you have nothing to say to this culture and if you're in this culture you have nothing to learn from any other culture that is absolutizing human culture that's not what that's to say it is to say that Christian theology does not take place in a vacuum Christian theology is intercultural but it's taking place as formulated by human language by particular people who have particular concerns within particular settings cultures and that's where Christian theology takes place finally then in going through this course we're looking at world mission in a comprehensive way as the triune gods redemption of the cosmos where he grants among all the world's peoples faith in Jesus Christ maturing of the church and glimpses foretaste of the new heavens and the new earth as we go through the course and we'll close with this we're going to be weaving our way through in some order that won't make a whole lot of sense we're going to be weaving through approximately 37 topics as some handles for going through the course let me point you towards these matters I'll give you four of them to come to grips and a personal integrated way with world mission means one you're going to need to integrate the theology of mission or missiology with other theological disciplines yielding mission or mission theology as we will see during the course one of the pitfalls of the practical modern missions movement is that we have not had enough theologians involved the reverse is also true one of the pitfalls of the development of modern theology is there there has not been enough missional input we need to integrate and interact similarly we need to take on a mission life style and what that means for ourselves as people secondly as we go through the course generally speaking we'll be going from theoretical matters to more applied matters we'll get some concrete things right at the start but we'll be moving gradually into more concrete matters as the course progresses so hang in there if you're more concrete visually oriented just tell me how many missions conferences to have in my church each year if that's where you are you know hang on the answer that question needs to be informed by more theoretical matters if you're more of a theoretical bent you need to realize to that you know what happens in caring for this two-month-old child who's been abandoned in this suburb in Nairobi that is a deeply theological matter so the two are going to work together thoroughly historical thinking is going to be very important to realize there's been a past we're in the present we're heading somewhere and within God's overall redemption that historical progression within his providence is very very important finally then and this might make the course most demanding is I hope that as we encounter different readings as we meet together as we have interaction together there's going to be a measure of cultural decoupling and broadening that you're going to be forced to take a step back from yourself from your own setting and gain a critical distance and that will hurt that'll be uncomfortable but that's going to be an integral part of the course for next time we didn't get to our second topic which is global christianity we'll start with that next time but as you look for the readings go through the readings for next time let me give you the following question to consider as you go through your readings do next time here it is this is not in your syllabus I'm not going to quiz you on this this is just to help steer you jury what are the critical elements or who are the critical players in the process of contextualizing the christian faith you think about contextualization what's involved in contextualization what are the really critical parts of that who are the most important players in that whole process of contextualization that's one guiding question that I think will help steer you as you go through some of your readings for next time any last questions or thoughts please thank you