Mission and Books

Since mentioning recently that I’ve been battling to find missioligists who combine great missional insight with sound exegesis I’ve got my hands on three helpful books in this area. It’s going to take me some time to get through them all, but I think the authors involved in these books make up some of the most reliable names in missions:

The Mission of God – Chris Wright

The Face of Urban Mission – Harvie M. Conn and others

Salvation to the Ends of the Earth – Andreas J. Kostenberger & Peter T. O’Brien 

BTW – If you’re in Cape Town this coming week then don’t miss out on hearing Chris Wright speak at the Easter Convention. 

Cape Easter Convention 2007

“Cross Examination”
Monday 2 April – Wednesday 4 April, 7:30 – 9:00 pm

Speakers:

Dr. Chris Wright is an Irishman who lives in London. Chris, with his wife Liz, has pastored a local parish church, taught at a top seminary in India, served as President of a key Christian college, and authored a dozen books. He will be speaking on the Cross of Christ and the Love of God.

Lee Marshall is one of the ministers at St. Paul’s Church Stellenbosch. He enjoys spending time with his wife Helen and three children – Lauren, Caitlin and Aidan – as well as listening to music, playing the guitar and waiting for any Australian sports team to be knocked off their perch. He will be speaking on the Cross of Christ and the Christian Life.

Geoff Gertzen is team leader at St. Stephen’s Church in Claremont. He is married to Tracey and they have two children, Tim and Caris. He loves teaching the Bible, cricket and has a weakness for chocolate. He will be speaking on the Cross of Christ and the Wrath of God.

Venues:

St. James, Kenilworth

Monday 2nd April – Lee Marshall

Tuesday 3rd April – Geoff Gertzen

Wednesday 4th April – Christ Wright

Emmanuel, Bellville

Monday 2nd April – Geoff Gertzen

Tuesday 3rd April – Christ Wright

Wednesday 4th April – Lee Marshall

St. Paul’s Stellenbosch

Monday 2nd April – Christ Wright

Tuesday 3rd April – Lee Marshall

Wednesday 4th April – Geoff Gertzen

If you’re in the Cape Town area then make an effort – its FREE!

Tale of Two Colleges

Today I registered as a part-time student with George Whitefield College (GWC), which is my denomination’s official training institution. On Monday I’ll register as a full-time student for my final year at the Bible Institute of South Africa (BI) which is an inter-denominational training college. When I complete this final year, and a few part-time courses at GWC I’ll be doing some further post-graduate studies for another year at GWC before I begin my curacy in the Church of England in South Africa (CESA).

Meeting a whole bunch of new students today reminded of the great privilege I’ve had of being able to study the Bible in these two institutions. I’m not sure that the apostle Paul would have had the diverse and complicated world of seminaries and Bible colleges in mind when he thought about raising up Christian leaders, and, whilst I’m very pro holistic church based ministry and training, the pragmatist in me is very grateful for quality colleges and the work they’re doing.

Chris Wright points out in his CT article the vast numbers of Christians here in Africa, and whilst those high numbers are a great cause for rejoicing they also pose huge problems regarding the massive lack of quality church leadership on this continent. And while there are sterling exceptions to this, overall there are masses of church goers who have very little in the way of real pastoral oversight like many of us in western churches are used to.

To this end, BI and GWC are faithfully labouring to train up Africans for the sake of the gospel. One of the great examples of this is BI’s Christian Leadership Programme where the college is training pastors and Christian leaders mainly from under-developed or low income areas who have had almost no theological training in the past and yet are pastorally responsible for many church goers in the Cape Town area. The remarkable stories of growth and positive change in these pastor’s ministries could fill a volume of books. There is really a great work of God going on here.

Pray for these colleges, whilst we reach as many as we can there are still overwhelming numbers of church leaders who we are not able to reach, largely because of financial reasons. Pray that God would grant us the resources and finances to make a significant impact upon the Christian leadership of Southern Africa, for his sake and glory.

An Upside Down World – C. Wright

Christianity Today is launching a new series of articles in 2007 to answer the question: What must we learn, and unlearn, to be agents of God’s mission in the world? This is all still part of the Christian Vision Project. The January edition contains an article by renowned missiologist and Old Testament scholar, Christopher J. Wright entitled, ‘An Upside-Down World’. Here’s a quote to whet your appetite so you can follow the link and read the whole article:

So another piece of unlearning we must do is breaking the habit of using the term mission field to refer to everywhere else in the world except our home country in the West. The language of home and mission field is still used by many churches and agencies, but it fundamentally misrepresents reality. Not only does it perpetuate a patronizing view of the rest of the world as always being on the receiving end of our missionary largesse, but it also fails to recognize the maturity of churches in many other lands.

For anyone in the Cape Town area, Chris Wright will be speaking at the Cape Easter Convention and the Young Adults Crossword Easter Convention in April. Both are open to anyone – so if you’re interested in attending then contact me and I’ll see what I can do for you.