Director of Cross-Cultural Training @OakHillLondon Tweeting on all things Africa, mission, & global Christianity. Doctorate @fullerseminary. Founder @F_E_Nnet
Joined April 2012
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Very sorry to hear about the death this week of Dr. Michael Pocock, long-time Senior Professor Emeritus of Missiology and Intercultural Studies (Dallas Theological Seminary).
Google Earth is the coolest, most mind-blowing idea of the last few decades.
When I was a kid I wouldn't have dreamt that such a thing would be available to me...not least in my pocket and entirely free!
To this day it still makes me giddy with excitement to 'walk' down a street in Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Kinshasa, Sydney or Jakarta.
Helpful thoughts on the 'two-structures' conversation from yesterday.
There's been a lot of ink spilled about this two-structures model when, in reality, there are lots of different structures being used in "the church."
What we really mean when we do this two-model thing is to attempt to shoehorn all structures into a dichotomy between local church versus all other structures. And if that's the way we are going to go, let's accept that theological institutes are not the church, nor are our denominational structures. That would be a consistent application of the dichotomy.
I think God makes people that are apostolic in their gifting, and what they do is create things, including structures. Many different structures are a part of the church. The local church is consist, but God raises up and removes other structures as he sees fit. He has done this throughout history.
I had found it to be a great exercise to use more specific language in this discussion. Insert the word "universal" or "local" before the word "church" when it's used, and you will begin to see what I mean.
This is one reason why I don't believe the word "parachurch" is helpful. It should be "para-local church." The scriptures use the word "church" in these two ways, universal and local, but this gets lost in the two-structures discussion.
Last year's Christmas Offering for one single US sending agency (IMB) was almost 3 times larger than the entire annual giving for 10 of the largest, most established UK evangelical mission agencies combined (MAF, OM, OMF, UFM, SIM, CMS, Crosslinks, AIM, WEC, Latin Link).
The financial power of the US in the evangelical missions movement is staggering.
Very much looking forward to this. Out in Jan.
For those not familiar, it involves asking if the voluntary cooperative structure (i.e. the 'mission agency') is
...a fundamental, biblical, God-ordained, Jesus-initiated structure/sodality of mission - extra to (albeit synergistic with, dependent on, complementary to) the church as modality,
...or just a historically-contingent, pragmatic, contextual moment in mission history - or worse, a subversion of God's plans in/for the church.
I've not seen a sustained book-length treatment of the concept before.
Podcasts for tomorrow's run. I'm gonna see if I can do 13 miles... It's been months since I got to that distance.
Helpful from Harvey Kwiyani. Changing the primary protagonists/direction of interntional mission movement doesn't automatically deolonise it. It requires a renewed missionary imagination.
Just in case anyone's missing my collection of yellow-orange hued 'back to the camera' missionary book covers, here's some released this month to go with the others....
(the 3rd one is a very good example of how you really need to check your AI images before publishing them...)
Chris Howles retweeted
A natural complement to the Christian Book Endorsement Awards, it's time for the Yellow-Orange Hued 'Back to the Camera' Missionary Book Awards:
Disturbingly true for a disturbingly high number of articles.
See also book introductions v whole book.
How many tickets will I need to buy to give me a 99.9% of getting Paul?
All four 'BEATLES' biopics are set to release on the same day in April 2028.
The member of the band you watch will be randomized when you buy your ticket.
(Source: hollywoodreporter.com/movies…)
Always pleased to see other evangelical colleges in the UK doing good things in good ways and I'm delighted to see this. All the best to our friends at Union in this exciting Research Conference ahead!
Union is pleased to announce its first Evangelical Theological Research Conference in Bridgend, Wales, 20–21 May 2027.
Established to facilitate the growth of evangelical scholarship, this new conference provides an opportunity for pastors, scholars and PhD students to share their own research, and hear keynote addresses from Professor Donald Fairbairn, Dr Steffen Jenkins, Dr Peter Sanlon, Dr Kirsten Birkett and Dr Eben Adu.
Really enjoying this new podcast from @TheUpstreamC the first two episodes have been great. They're short (<20 mins), engaging, straight to the point (they respect people's time) and rich in gospel-soaked practical missions thought. Comes straight from the heart. Love it.
A wonderful, humble, passionate, faithful and faith filled talk from a dear Christian brother. Well worth a listen.
A joy to have Blessing Chishanu with us in chapel today preaching from Lamentations 3. Check out the full talk on the Chapel Talks Podcast feed - a reminder that Christ Is Enough! #maketimetothrive
