Theos Report on the Church and the Integration of Refugees

A report from Theos has recently been published:

George Lapshynov, From Strangers to Neighbours: The Church and the Integration of Refugees (London: Theos, 2025).

Here’s a summary:

‘Migration dominates political discussions, but the focus typically remains on reducing net migration rather than enabling those who have already arrived to settle and flourish. What if we told a different side of the story?

‘From Strangers to Neighbours explores the significant yet frequently overlooked role of churches across the UK in supporting the integration of refugees and asylum seekers. Addressing misconceptions and challenges surrounding church activities, the report highlights how churches complement the work of voluntary and statutory organisations. It identifies the strengths that enable churches to play a pivotal role in refugee integration, particularly their ethical framework based on Christian teachings that rejects the alienation and commodification of immigrants.

‘Ultimately, it calls for an improved national integration strategy, urging policymakers, charities and churches to collaborate more effectively. By recognising and supporting the unique contributions that churches can make, Britain can better welcome refugees – not merely as strangers living on this island, but as neighbours who belong, thrive, and contribute meaningfully to our society.’

A pdf of the full report is available here.

Mission Frontiers 47, 1 (January–February 2025)

The January–February 2025 issue of Mission Frontiers, published by Frontier Ventures, contains a number of articles devoted to ‘Mission and Migration’.

Here’s the issue blurb, which sets the scene:

‘People are on the move more than ever! In this issue of Mission Frontiers, we join the journeys across continents looking at where people are going, what is motivating them, how they are surviving, and what the church can do by God's leading. Acts 17 tells us that God is sovereign over people movements, so join us in reflecting on what he is doing in these volatile times. Most likely, the peoples of the world are in your neighborhood; are you ready to receive them with the love of Christ?’

The issue is available here, from where individual articles can be downloaded, and the entire issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Theology and Ministry 8 (2022)

The latest issue of Theology and Ministry, an open-access journal from Cranmer Hall, St John’s College, Durham – and containing the below articles – is available from here.

Samuel Tranter and Nicholas J. Moore

Editorial

Sebastian Rab

Christ and Church as Temple in John 14.2–3: And Implications for Eschatology and Funeral Ministry

Temple is a key biblical-theological theme, especially in the Fourth Gospel. A case is made that the farewell discourse employs this theme at its outset to introduce its key priorities. If the ‘Father’s house’ is the body of Jesus and its ‘many dwelling-places’ are the disciples, then John 14.2–3 uses the theme of temple to speak to the relational nature of both being a disciple of Jesus and the reconciliation of all things to God in Christ. This has implications for our eschatology, which are related particularly to funerals, where this scriptural reading is enduringly popular.

Paul J. Wilson

Rethinking Refujesus: Biblical Perspectives on a Popular Icon

The claim that ‘Jesus was a refugee’ or that Christians follow a ‘migrant messiah’ has become a shibboleth among those who advocate a more benevolent response to migrants. This manner of identifying Jesus has gained traction in the past decade, even being promoted by politicians and pop stars. In response, ‘Refujesus’ has been criticized by those who view migration as a threat. Proponents on all sides of this debate refer to the ‘escape to Egypt’ (Matt. 2.13–23), but are often more concerned with reading contemporary questions about migration into the text, rather than the text itself. This paper will argue that while describing Jesus as a refugee does have exegetical merit, the New Testament has more to offer ethical responses to migration by offering a fundamental shift in perspective though a migration-informed exegesis.

Anthony Bash

Remorse, Emotions, and Moral Transformation

Despite popular thought, repentance and remorse are not synonyms. Repentance is both affect and action, whereas remorse is always only ever affect, though remorse can lead to repentance. Surprisingly, there is no word that obviously means ‘remorse’ in the Bible, though people were evidently remorseful, especially towards God for sin. Remorse is different from regret, though it includes elements of regret in its meaning. In 2 Corinthians 7, Paul lays the linguistic and theological foundation for what later became known as ‘remorse’. Remorse is an affective disposition, and we consider how the New Testament approaches the way dispositions can be transformed from being sinful to godly.

Robert Russell

From Enmity to Reconciliation: Reflections on the Theology of Vernon White and Forgiveness Research of Marina Cantacuzino

The journey leading from enmity to reconciliation is beset with complex challenges for parishioners en route and for pastors offering guidance. Concepts and principles are selected from the theology of Vernon White, the forgiveness research of Marina Cantacuzino, and theologies of other authors, which may prove helpful. Two major issues are considered here: 1) reconciling with each other, involving offering and receiving forgiveness, and 2) reconciling with God. These are examined theologically and practically to include differences and connections between forgiveness and reconciliation, theodicy (particularly instrumentalism), freewill, strategies for counseling, and common parishioner concerns with possible pastoral responses to them.

Oliver Blease

This is My Body: A Qualitative Study into Sociological and Theological Experiences in Local Parish Eucharistic Worship

The theology and praxis of the Eucharist is often discussed by academics and theologians, yet most people engaged in the act of celebrating the sacrament rarely have a published or widely heard ‘voice’ with which to share their experience of these Holy Mysteries. This article investigates the direct experience of communicant members of the Church of England across a wide range of theological traditions. Idiographic qualitative data yielded from semi-structured interviews is analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). These results are reflected upon using the Theological Action Research model to generate relevant and practical outcomes from the data. Three key themes emerge from the participants’ experiences: the significance of the gathered community; a pre-existing and dynamic reflective praxis amongst communicants; and a diverse but prevalent focus on ‘mission’ particularly relating to the unique nature of the rite.

Reviews

Lausanne Global Analysis 10, 3 (May 2021)

The latest issue of Lausanne Global Analysis, from The Lausanne Movement, is available online from here, including pdfs of individual articles as below.

Harvey Thiessen and Alena Popova

Passing the Baton to Evangelical Migrants

Jojie Wong

Why Mission Mobilizers Need Foundational Training

Joseph Handley

Polycentrism as the New Leadership Paradigm

Jennifer Javed Khan, Rebecca Yin Foo, Paul Lewis, Susan Ann Samuel

Racism and the Great Commission

The Bible in Transmission (Spring 2018) on Challenging Church: Growth, Change and Diversity

The latest issue of The Bible in Transmission, from Bible Society, is available online here, offering a collection of articles on the theme of ‘Challenging Church: Growth, Change and Diversity’.

I have taken the ‘tasters’ of articles below from Chine McDonald’s editorial.

Chine McDonald

Editorial

David Goodhew

The Theological Foundations for Church Growth

The prevailing narrative coming from research into church attendance suggests that the Church in the UK could now be in irreversible decline. In our opening article, David Goodhew, the Director of the Centre for Church Growth Research in Durham, raises the disturbing question as to whether this decline has, in part, theological roots. Goodhew argues that we need to be liberated from such thinking. As he says, ‘Having a nuanced theology of church growth will assist churches in growing numerically, but doing so in a godly way.’

Rhiannon McAleer

Church Growth – The Numbers

Although the prevailing narrative is of a Church in decline, the picture is perhaps a little more complex than we might think, as Dr Rhiannon McAleer, Bible Society’s Head of Research, explores in her article. McAleer’s statistical overview of the UK Church demonstrates that although there is decline, there are also pockets of hope, in which denominations are seeing signs of flourishing in terms of church planting and growth. 

Israel Olofinjana

The Impact of Black Majority Churches in Britain

Israel Olofinjana, a member of the training team at the Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World, explores the impact of black majority churches in Britain and world mission.

Harvey Kwiyani

Monocultural Churches in an Age of Migration

Dr Harvey Kwiyani, lecturer in African Christianity and Theology at Liverpool Hope University, explores growing churches, migration and multiculturalism in more detail.

Ashley Beck

Church on the Move: A Theological Reflection

Examining the issue of migration from a theological and biblical perspective, Father Beck challenges Christians to properly understand migration so that the Church as a community may more closely reflect what it means to be the people of God.

Linda Rayner

Re-imagining the Church in a Rapidly Changing Culture

Growth is a sign of life. As Linda Rayner explains, the Fresh Expressions movement is just one of the ways in which churches are adapting to the times, changing where they meet and the way in which they do things in order to fulfil the Great Commission.

Jenny Sinclair

Fostering a Culture of Encounter

Another movement that has begun to emerge in recent years is Together for the Common Good. In her article, Jenny Sinclair explains how the principle of seeking the common good can untap the potential of churches, build relationships and strengthen communities.

Jill Hopkinson

Church Growth in Rural Communities

A story we seldom hear in discussions about church growth is the signs of hope and flourishing taking place within rural churches. But it is time to tell a new story, writes Jill Hopkinson.

Growth, Relationship and Action in the Church of England

Introducing the GRA:CE (Growth, Relationship and Action in the Church of England) Project

Paul Williams

News from Bible Society

Mission Frontiers 38, 4 (July-August 2016)

The July-August 2016 issue of Mission Frontiers, published by the U.S. Center for World Mission, contains a number of articles on ‘International Students: Planting the Seeds of Movements’.

Editor Rick Wood writes:

‘Today, more people are traveling more widely and freely than ever before. Never in history has it been easier to communicate the gospel to those from unreached people groups...

‘One of the most strategically important of these human migrations is that of international students. ere are currently around 750,000 international students in the U.S. and they come from nearly every country in the world, many of which missionaries cannot enter. These students are the best and brightest the nations of the world have to o er and these countries are choosing to send them to us at their expense. These students will return to their host country to become the future leaders and influencers in their society. is is a God-ordained opportunity for us to reach the peoples of the world through these students.’

Individual articles can be accessed from here, and the whole issue (5 MB) can be downloaded as a pdf here.

The Asbury Journal 71, 1 (2016)

The latest issue of Asbury Journal, containing the below main articles from a Colloquium held on ‘The Church and Its Expansion’, is available from here.

Kenneth Cain Kinghorn

A Tribute to Ellsworth Kalas

Christine D. Pohl

Personal Reflections on Christian Endeavor

Brian Hull

Sending Silent Missionaries: How One Man’s Writing Helped Transform Youth and the Global Church

Robert A. Danielson

Floating Christian Endeavor as a Model for Mission to Migrants

This article explores how the little-known history of the Floating Societies of Christian Endeavor can provide a useful model for modern mission approaches to mission among transnational people, especially migrant workers, who seldom settle in an area long enough to be effectively reached by traditional church planting methods. Evangelizing and discipling people on the move is not a new problem for the church, but one which was addressed in the late 19th century and early 20th century in attempting to reach sailors for Christ. The model developed by the Floating Societies of Christian Endeavor were flexible, lay-led movements that leveraged traditional mission outreach to sailors coupled with the innovative youth organization of Francis E. Clark and the Christian Endeavor Movement. A similar model is suggested for work among migrant worker communities for today’s church, albeit with some warnings from the historical problems of the Floating Christian Endeavor.

Art McPhee

The Kingdom Life and the Witness of the Church

This paper was presented in Asbury Theological Seminary, on October 9, 2015 at the Advanced Research Program’s Interdisciplinary Colloquium on the subject, The Church and Its Expansion. This paper explores the role of the kingdom of God in Jesus’ teaching and its potential impact on the Church for the work of evangelism and church planting. As a central theme of Jesus, it becomes a metaphor and a model for how the Church should be involved in ministry to the world around us.

M. Andrew Gale

Justice and Truth, Theology in the Context of Emerging Young Adults

Emerging young adult church planters face challenging epistemological shifts within their congregations. With the proliferation of postmodern critique, the word truth has lost sway and is being supplanted by the concept of justice. In this article the author details this shift, looking at truth within postmodernism and justice as understood by the emerging young adult generation. He then offers a call for a rediscovery of an evangelical theology of justice and suggests helpful actions emerging young adult church planters can engage in that bridge this linguistic gap to their peers.

Benjamin J. Snyder

From Jerusalem to Jerusalem: Essential Contours of the Modern Messianic Movement

The modern messianic movement is only beginning to be noticed and is often met with confusion by Gentile believers. In an effort to promote better understanding and positive engagement with a view toward mutual collaboration between Jew and Gentile within the modern Church, this paper outlines the essential contours of the movement. Additionally, it appeals to a missiological model that offers a framework to aid the Gentile believer in understanding the movement. As a result of this awareness, this author hopes to see concrete engagement on the part of Gentiles with this expanding work of God among Jewish people.

Thomas Lyons

Praxis, Phenomena, and Spirit Reception in Luke-Acts: A Study of Shared Elements in Luke’s Corporate Baptism of the Holy Spirit Accounts

At the center of pneumatological Luke-Acts discussions is the function and purpose of Holy Spirit Baptism. Central to these debates is the relationship of water baptism, the laying on of hands, and glossolalia to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This study will explore each of these elements in the Holy Spirit reception accounts of Acts 2, 8, 10, and 19 by considering each element in their historical and literary context before surveying scholarship on the relationship between these elements and Spirit reception. The study concludes by evaluating to what degree any of the elements may appropriately be considered normative.

Sheryl Marks-Williams

Globalization and its Effects on the Expansion of the Church: Doing and Being Church Among Immigrants in the USA

At any given time, three percent of the world’s population is on the move. These migrants travel across regions and continents due to various push and pull factors, and do so with their systems of belief. With approximately 106 million of the 232 million global migrants being Christian, churches in the twenty-first century recognize that the church continues to expand not as it crosses new frontiers to new lands, but as it crosses personal boundaries to include all people. As the number of Western Christians decline, so will their influence in global missions. Consequently, it will become necessary for people living in diaspora to be in Christian ministry to, through, and beyond the diaspora. This paper discusses the need to create Kingdom communities among immigrants in the United States of America (USA) by being intentional about understanding immigrants so as to include them in an existing congregation, or by planting new congregations with, for, and by immigrants. It also seeks to identify the type of church or community that might be successful in helping immigrants to connect in meaningful ways to God and God’s people.

William Price Payne

Folk Religion and the Pentecostalism Surge in Latin America

Latino Pentecostalism and the Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement have experienced massive numerical growth since becoming viable options for the masses in the late 1960s. Contextualization theory suggests that they have experienced exponential growth because they have become indigenous faith systems that mesh with Hispanic cultures and give folk practitioners functionally equivalent alternatives to the syncretistic practices associated with popular religion. Specifically, as a native religion that engages all aspects of the Latino worldview, Latino Pentecostalism operates at the level of a popular religion without being inherently syncretistic. In this regard, it can be described as “folk Christianity.”

The entire issue is available as a pdf here.