Becoming a Global Disciple

Here’s a new and helpful-looking resource from the Lausanne Movement – ‘Becoming a Global Disciple’.

From the blurb:

‘Global discipleship begins with God's heart for the nations and takes shape through the life of the local church.

‘This five-part video series is designed to help believers take small but meaningful steps into God's global mission. Through biblical teaching, global insight, and intentional spiritual practices, this resource invites followers of Jesus to catch God's heart for the nations, learn from the global church, grow in prayer and friendship, and live out God's mission where God has placed them.

‘Our series features insights from global leaders and practitioners who are deeply committed to fostering a wider understanding of Christian faith and mission.’

A trailer for the series can bring watched here, and the resources (videos, discussion guide, and devotional plans) can be accessed from here.

Status of Global Christianity 2024

Every year the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary present an annual snapshot of global Christianity, a summary of which can be downloaded here.

The 2022 version of the fuller article can be accessed from here.

Evangelical Review of Theology 46, 3 (August 2022)

The latest Evangelical Review of Theology, published by The World Evangelical Alliance, is now online and available in its entirety as a pdf here.

Editor’s Introduction

Rupen Das

What the Majority World Is Saying about Mission Today

With the centre of global Christianity shifting to the Majority World, what do church and mission leaders in the Global South think mission should be about today? This article describes the situation through the eyes of some prominent mission leaders from across the globe.

Emmanuel Oumarou

A Strategy for Christian Missions in Primary Oral Cultures

Nearly one-quarter of all people on earth today are illiterate or rely primarily on oral communication. Standard, text-dependent outreach and discipling methods do not work with these communities. This article, based on considerable first-hand experience as well as academic study, describes the distinctive thinking modes of oral cultures and how to reach them effectively.

Daniel Wiley

Moving Beyond the Bounds: A Response to the Segregationist Interpretation of Acts 17:26

Conflicts over Bible interpretation frequently threaten to undermine the evangelical worldview, as sceptics claim, ‘You can make the Bible say anything you want.’ This article resolves a classic conflict that arose when people holding opposite views on racial segregation used the same Bible verse to defend their positions. It provides an excellent illustration of what can happen when we let cultural convictions guide our biblical studies rather than the reverse.

Ron Lindo, Jr.

From Blackpain to Much Gain: A Biblical Reflection on Dealing with Racial Injustice

We are all called to oppose racism, but reconciliation requires both change by the oppressors and victims’ ability to move beyond bitter focus on their victimization. This article finds, in the exodus story and in Deuteronomy, a pattern by which God uses remembrances of past injustices to spur us towards providing justice for all.

Anna Droll

Toward Healing the Cataract of Racial Segregation: Spaces and Places for Spiritual Formation

Notions of race which promote segregation constitute a present-day cataract that distorts the vision for true spiritual formation in the church. The remedy, as presented in this article, is a theology of belonging which contradicts racial segregation by promoting spaces and places where biblical intimacy can be enacted.

Dennis P. Petri

Political Advice from Three Great Christian Political Philosophers

In this essay, one of the world’s leading advocates for religious freedom shares what he has learned from three of modern history’s greatest Christian political philosophers: 17th-century French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, Dutch lawyer and statesman Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer, and British apologist C.S. Lewis. The article offers practical principles with plenty of application.

Leah Farish

By the Same Token: How Communion Can Heal Communities

Every Christian practice, even those that have been long forgotten, had a purpose. This article looks at the historical practice of requiring tokens for admission to communion, encouraging us to recapture the individual and communal benefits of taking communion seriously.

Geoffrey Butler

Building Bridges: Luther, the Lord’s Supper and the Ethiopian Church

Luther and other Reformers, especially Zwingli, had passionate disagreements over the theology of the Lord’s Supper. Surprisingly, Luther seemed to have more in common on this topic with an Ethiopian Christian who visited him in 1534. This article places that interaction in its historical context, suggesting that Ethiopian Christianity in that time period had significant theological similarities with and may even have influenced the European Reformation.

Bruce Barron

Itching Ears and Willing Learners: Balancing the Clarity and Complexity of Scripture

The popularity of the ‘prosperity gospel’, despite its tendencies toward simplistic and unbalanced theology, epitomizes one of the biggest problems in contemporary Christianity: how to provide adequately trained leaders for the global Christian movement, especially in the Majority World. This essay explores reasons why the problem exists, summarizes the contours of what all Christian leaders need to know, and identifies the Re-Forma organization cofounded by Manfred Kohl as a strategic solution.

High-Level Religion Forum Planned Alongside G20’s 2022 Meeting

Book Reviews

Lausanne Global Analysis 10, 2 (March 2021)

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

Gina A. Zurlo and Todd M. Johnson

Is Christianity Shrinking or Shifting?

Since November 2012 when our first LGA issue was published, Christianity has become even more truly global. The center of the church has shifted from the North to the South, and there’s a growing influence of non-western Christianity. Todd Johnson and Gina Zurlo, editors of the World Christian Encyclopedia, 3^rd edition, have written about what a truly global Christian family means in our first article, ‘Is Christianity Shrinking or Shifting?’

Steve Sang-Cheol Moon

Reaching Generation Z with the Gospel

There’s another demographic trend in recent years, and this is the rise of Generation Z. This is the youngest – and perhaps final – generation in our world to have distinctive characteristics. But who are the Gen Z-ers – and how can they be reached with the gospel? Steve Moon, Founder and CEO of Charis Institute for Intercultural Studies, suggests three concrete steps to help us progress from knowledge to action in his article, ‘Reaching Generation Z with the Gospel’.

CJ Davison & Richard Coleman

Racism and the Great Commission

Our next article, ‘Racism and the Great Commission’, is part one of two articles from the Lausanne YLGen Empower team. This article brings together a wide range of voices from across the world on the globally pressing topic of racism, and especially how it relates to the Great Commission.

Jenny James Taylor

The Holy Responsibility of Journalism

Unconscious biases, whether generational, racial, or vocational, impact the practice of journalism. But as a Christian journalist, Jenny Taylor uncovers the roots of journalism in the Christian values of freedom, justice, and truth in her article, ‘The Holy Responsibility of Journalism’. What would it look like to restore journalism ‘as a sacrament of all that we value’?

Dave Deuel

A Workplace for Mephibosheth

The final article in this 50^th issue of LGA is by Dave Deuel, Lausanne Catalyst for Disability Concerns and Academic Dean Emeritus for The Master’s Academy International. In ‘A Workplace for Mephibosheth’, he shows how only a small fraction of persons with disabilities globally are employed. How can we transform workplace culture – and the world – by employing those with disabilities?

Global Transmission, Global Mission

Jason Mandryk and the team at Operation World have produced a short e-book which is being made available at no charge – Global Transmission, Global Mission: The Impact and Implications of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

According to the blurb, it seeks to offer ‘a sweeping overview of the implications of the coronavirus for the global Church, and specifically, its impact on global mission’.

Drawing from several global networks – International Prayer Connect, the Lausanne Movement, and the World Evangelical Alliance – the document reflects perspectives shared by many Christians ‘in every region of the world, getting input on how to pray for different nations afflicted by CoVid-19 as well as strategic considerations from a wide array of missiological contexts’.

The book can be download in several formats here.

In addition, check out the Operation World website dedicated to praying through the Covid-19 crisis, here.

Lausanne Global Analysis 9, 3 (May 2020)

The latest issue of Lausanne Global Analysis, from The Lausanne Movement, is available online from here, including pdf downloads.

In the issue overview, editor Loun Ling Lee writes:

‘In this issue of Lausanne Global Analysis, we have authors from different parts of the global church addressing strategic issues relating to world mission. Melody J. Wachsmuth is a mission researcher living in Croatia. She is passionate to see Roma and non-Roma together engaging in healthy partnerships for mission, to ‘share our diverse gifts while manifesting the new humanity in Christ’...

‘In the same spirit of unity in the body of Christ, Dan Sered and Simon Stout, serving with Jews for Jesus, sharpen our awareness of the spiritual problem of antisemitism around the world...

‘The legacy of Lamin Sanneh, a distinguished historian, scholar of World Christianity, and advocate of interreligious dialogue, could not be more relevant in our complex world today. Wanjiru Gitau, senior research scholar at St. Thomas University, has highlighted his legacy, especially on the theme of translation of the message of Christ into the language and culture of the recipients...

‘In “The Uncertain Future of China’s Urban Churches’” Thomas Harvey’s analysis of the urban church and mission trends in modern China gives us a fresh insight into the thriving mission movement there despite the hostile environment.’

The GlobalChurch Project

With the strapline ‘Follow Jesus Locally and Globally’, the GlobalChurch Project seeks ‘to help local Christians and churches, learn from diverse, multiethnic, and global voices and trends, so that they experience renewed mission and revitalized churches’. It ‘invites often unheard voices from around the world to enter into a powerful global conversation about the shape of church and mission in the 21st century’.

The founding director is Graham Hill, Vice Principal of Morling Theological College (Sydney, Australia) and author of (among other books) the substantial volume, GlobalChurch: Reshaping Our Conversations, Renewing Our Mission, Revitalizing Our Churches (Downers Grove: IVP, 2016).

The website contains a number of resources, including video interviews, podcasts, and study guides. These are freely available, though with an opportunity to donate to the ongoing ministry.

Lausanne Global Analysis 4, 6 (November 2015)

The latest issue of Lausanne Global Analysis, from The Lausanne Movement, with three of the articles looking at the impact of the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation held in Cape Town in 2010.

In the issue overview, editor David Taylor says:

‘In this issue we focus in three of our articles on the impact and legacy – five years on – of the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation held in Cape Town in 2010. Our Executive Director/CEO Michael Oh and Director of Executive Projects Justin Schell analyse the fruit of the Congress, emphasising particularly taking a long view of the work of global mission; Michael’s predecessor Doug Birdsall, who organised Cape Town, offers his personal reflection on the conference’s legacies; and Rudolf Kabutz focuses on the impacts of it in Africa, as well as the key issues for Christians in Africa going forward.’

The executive summary is available here, and the full issue is available here.

Journal of Global Christianity

The Journal of Global Christianity, published twice a year by Training Leaders International, ‘seeks to promote international scholarship and discussion on topics related to global Christianity’, addressing ‘key issues related to the mission of the Church in hope of helping those who labor for the gospel wrestle with and apply the biblical teaching on various challenging mission topics’.

Two issues have been published so far (in five languages), containing a variety of essays along with several book reviews. The current issue is available here, from where individual essays or a pdf of the whole issue can be viewed or downloaded.

The Asbury Journal 70, 1 (2015)

The latest issue of The Asbury Journal contains several essays devoted to the theme of intercultural hermeneutics, arising out of an Advanced Research Interdisciplinary Colloquium held at the seminary last October.

Robert Danielson

From the Editor

Lalsangkima Pachuau

Intercultural Hermeneutics: A Word of Introduction

This paper introduces the theme of intercultural hermeneutics for the Advanced Research Programs interdisciplinary colloquium. By focusing on recent literature in the field of intercultural hermeneutics, this paper distinguishes this field of study from traditional cross-cultural communication and indicates its relevance to the current field of biblical studies and missiology. The importance of postcolonial studies to the field of intercultural hermeneutics is also addressed.

Craig S. Keener

Scripture and Context: An Evangelical Exploration

The first section of this paper addresses contextualization and scripture, suggesting the value of hearing texts from multiple cultural settings. The latter section offers two concrete examples where many majority world readings could help western readers to hear biblical texts more sympathetically and in ways closer to what the first audiences would have heard. In both sections, the two groups participating in the interdisciplinary colloquium – biblical studies and intercultural studies – are invited to learn from one another.

Jeremy Chew

I am Kneeling on the Outside, but I am Standing on the Inside: Another Look at the Story of Naaman through the Lenses of Kraft

The story of Naaman in 2 Kings 5 has been a popular mining ground for theological positions and missiological perspectives. How one views Elisha’s response to Naaman in verse 19 is inevitably affected by one’s view regarding the appropriateness of how Naaman intends to resolve the conflict between his new relationship with Yahweh and his former pagan practices. Based on the movement of the story, and the use of comparison and contrast of characters, Elisha’s answer should be seen as a positive affirmation, rather than a negative or indifferent response. Using Kraft’s model for conversion helps us see the positive benefits for doing so. Combining biblical studies and intercultural research methods, we discover that Elisha’s answer to Naaman is the most propitious response to a new convert returning to his former pagan culture.

Moe Moe Nyunt

Hesychasm Encounters Lectio Divina: An Intercultural Analysis of Eastern and Western Christian Contemplative Practices

Two ancient Christian spiritual practices have emerged in their appropriate cultural contexts throughout the complex history of Christianity. Various cultural contexts in hesychasm and lectio divina enlighten us 1) to be balanced in religious culture and social culture between solitude and communal spiritual practices; 2) to notice the ways people achieve spiritual fulfillment in various cultures; 3) to propose a verbal practice in meditation to those who belong to oral culture and a silent and visual practice to those who belong to a more literate culture; or to practice both if the culture is mixed; and 4) to recognize the meaning of spirituality defined by people of Eastern and Western culture.

Adrian Reynolds

Intercultural Hermeneutics: A Step Towards Its Effective Practice as a Clash of Perspectives on John’s Revelation

This paper calls Christian biblical scholars to engage in rigorous intercultural hermeneutics for the edification of the worldwide Church by careful appropriation of adverse perspectives. It proposes a method whereby scholars implement their interpretive method of choice and then, within boundaries thus set, carefully read from the perspectives of other scholars toward the enrichment of their own work. By way of illustration, the paper offers an example of such an interpretive struggle by the author with postcolonial scholar Stephen Moore. Thus the author’s approach of choice (Inductive Biblical Study) both informs, and is informed by, a postcolonial view.

Hunn Choi

Multicultural Hermeneutics and Mission

In this article, presented at the 2014 Interdisciplinary Colloquium, held at Royal Auditorium on the Kentucky Campus of Asbury Theological Seminary, October 10, 2014, the author examines multicultural hermeneutics in relation to mission and presents multicultural hermeneutics as a dialogical, hospitable, border crossing, marginal, liminal, and missional reading of the Bible in solidarity with others. He uses the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan as an interesting example for multicultural hermeneutics.

Benjamin D. Espinoza

“Pia Desideria” Reimagined for Contemporary Theological Education

Phillip Spener’s pivotal work, Pia Desideria (1675), though written hundreds of years ago, still speaks to today’s Christian contexts, and creative engagement with the text can yield fruit when seeking to form sound ministry and educational practice. The purpose of this article is to creatively engage and re-imagine Pia Desideria in such a way that allows Spener’s six proposals for church reform to speak to theological educators today in Christian colleges and seminaries, specifically in the area of pedagogy.

J. Derrick Lemons

Communitas at the Tables: Jesus, the Marginalized, and the Modern Church

The field of the anthropology of religion would be incomplete without the theory of communitas, developed by Victor Turner (1920-1983). This paper outlines the liberating communitas experience of table fellowship utilized by Jesus to include sinners, outcasts, and the marginalized in the Kingdom of God. In particular, Jesus’ invitation of communitas at Jewish cultic meals is explained in order to recapture the original understanding of the Abrahamic covenant to be a blessing to the margins of society. The paper concludes by calling Christians to invite the marginalized to the gathered table at church and the dispersed table at home.

Features

From the Archives: Ernest F. Ward: The First Free Methodist Foreign Missionary

Book Reviews

Matt Jenson on World Christianity

There’s a nice piece here by Matt Jenson very briefly highlighting some of the contributions (by, for example, Philip Jenkins and Mark Noll) to the discussion of World Christianity from a largely North American context.

‘We can – and do – take our experience for granted as “normal,” oblivious to the fact that American [and UK?] Christian experience is no more universal than, say, Indonesian Christian experience.’

The Bible in Mission

Pauline Hoggarth, Fergus Macdonald, Bill Mitchell and Knud Jørgensen (eds.), Bible in Mission, Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series (Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2013).

The team at Scripture Engagement make notice of the free availability of the above collection of essays as a pdf here. This is well worth checking out by all those interested in the nexus of relationships between Scripture, hermeneutics, mission, and the global church.

Like others in the ‘Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series’, the volume flowed out of the discussions at the Edinburgh 2010 conference. I bought it when it came out; it felt, at the time, like an expensive but important purchase. Hopefully the free availability of the book online will give it a much wider readership.

Here’s an outline of the contents:

Introduction

Editorial Introduction: The Bible in Mission

The Bible in Mission – and the Surprising Ways of God (Ole Christian Kvarme)

The Bible as Text for Mission (Tim Carriker)

Section 1: The Bible in Mission in the World and in the Church

The World

The Bible in Mission: The Modern/Postmodern Western Context (Richard Bauckham)

The Bible in Mission in the Islamic Context (Kenneth Thomas)

The Bible in Christian Mission among the Hindus (Lalsangkima Pachuau)

Children, Mission and the Bible: A Global Perspective (Wendy Strachan)

The Church

The Bible in Mission: Evangelical/Pentecostal View (Antonia Leonora van der Meer)

Bible Hermeneutics in Mission – A Western Protestant Perspective (Michael Kisskalt)

Orthodox Perspectives on Bible and Mission (Simon Crisp)

‘Ignorantia Scripturae ignorantia Christi est’ (Thomas P. Osborne)

Section 2: Case Studies

Africa

Baku Bible Translation and Oral Biblical Narrative Performance (Dan Fitzgerald)

The UBS HIV Good Samaritan Program (David Hammond and Immanuel Kofi Agamah)

The Bible and the Poor (Gerald West)

The Bible and Care of Creation (Allison Howell)

Asia–Pacific

‘Text of Life’ and ‘Text for Life’: The Bible as the Living and Life-Giving Word of God for the Dalits (Peniel J. Rufus Rajkumar)

Bible Missions in China (Pamela Wan-Yen Choo)

The Impact and Role of The Bible in Big Flowery Miao Community (Suee Yan Yu)

Bible Engagement among Australian Young People (Philip Hughes)

Latin America

The Bible and Children in Mission (Edseio Sanchez Cetina)

Bible Translation, the Quechua People and Protestant Church Growth in the Andes (Bill Mitchell)

The Bible in Mission: Women Facing the Word (Elsa Tamez)

West

Biblical Advocacy – Advocating the Bible in an Alien Culture (David Spriggs and Sue Coyne)

Scripture Engagement and Living Life as a Message (Steve Bird)

Reading the Bible with Today’s Jephthahs: Scripture and Mission at Tierra Nueva (Bob Ekblad)

Lessons Learned from the REVEAL Spiritual Life Survey (Nancy Scammacca Lewis)

Glazed Eyes and Disbelief (Adrian Blenkinsop and Naomi Swindon)

Information Management and Delivery of the Bible (Paul Soukup)

Conclusion

The Bible as the Core of Mission: ‘...for the Bible tells me so’ (Knud Jørgensen)

Lausanne Global Analysis 2, 4 (September 2013)

The latest issue of Lausanne Global Analysis, from The Lausanne Movement, is now available online.

In the overview, editor David Taylor says:

‘In this issue we analyse the widespread persecution of Christians, as we look ahead to the annual International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, and examine the lessons that can be learned from the work of the Holy Spirit in quietly building the church in North Korea and in developing peace in the wake of post-election violence in Kenya. Additionally, the implications for theological education globally are explored through a focus on ministerial education in Russia over the last
20 years.’

The executive summary is available here, and the full issue is available here.

Christianity in its Global Context

Researchers at the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, have produced a report – Christianity in its Global Context, 1970–2020: Society, Religion, and Mission – on the changing demographics of Christianity and the activities of Christians over the past 40 years while looking forward to the next ten.

Here is the closing paragraph from the Executive Summary:

‘Christianity in its Global Context, 1970–2020: Society, Religion, and Mission illustrates that fundamental shifts in the demographics of global Christianity and religion are continuing into the twenty-first century. The percentage of Christians from the global South is still increasing, but the personal contact gap between Christians and non-Christians continues to be very wide. Christians are also struggling, along with the entire development community, to address critical social and economic issues. A central problem appears to be uneven resource distribution in a multitude of areas. Christian resources are poorly deployed and not reaching those who could benefit most from them, in terms of both mission and social action. Yet, Christian involvement in spiritual and social transformation has never been greater, and it remains to be seen how effective Christians in both the North and the South will be in carrying out global, integral mission.’

More information is available here, and the full report is available for download as 14.8 MB pdf here.

Stuttgart Theological Topics

Thanks to Tim Davy over at Bible & Mission for the heads up on Stuttgart Theological Topics, the publication of the Eusebia conference for Bible, Theology and Mission, Stuttgart.

Volumes 2 to 5 are available online here, and contain essays devoted to the following topics:

• Volume 2 (2007) – The Impact of Christian History and Theology on Judaism and Islam and its Significance for Missions Today

• Volume 3 (2008) – Currents in New Testament Interpretation on their Effects on Theology and Missions

• Volume 4 (2009) – The Interchange of Christianization and Islamic Expansion in Historical and Missionary Perspective

• Volume 5 (2010) – Bible Interpretation in the Horizon of Old Testament Theology and in Interaction with the Islamic View of Scripture

Pew Forum Report on Global Christianity

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has published a report on Global Christianity, on ‘the size and distribution of the world’s Christian population’.

For those who are really interested the full 130-page report is available as a 11.7 MB file here. Meanwhile, here are the first few paragraphs of the Executive Summary:

‘A comprehensive demographic study of more than 200 countries finds that there are 2.18 billion Christians of all ages around the world, representing nearly a third of the estimated 2010 global population of 6.9 billion. Christians are also geographically widespread – so far-flung, in fact, that no single continent or region can indisputably claim to be the center of global Christianity.

‘A century ago, this was not the case. In 1910, about two-thirds of the world’s Christians lived in Europe, where the bulk of Christians had been for a millennium, according to historical estimates by the Center for the Study of Global Christianity. Today, only about a quarter of all Christians live in Europe (26%). A plurality – more than a third – now are in the Americas (37%). About one in every four Christians lives in sub-Saharan Africa (24%), and about one-in-eight is found in Asia and the Pacific (13%).’

Anvil 27, 2 (2011)

The latest issue of Anvil is available online (requiring a pain-free registration process), with a set of essays looking at theology from a global perspective.

Editorial

Stephen Bevans

A Theology for the Ephesian Moment

Stephen Bevans writes of what he has learned as he tries to engage in theology from a global perspective – some of the joys and the challenges. He reminds us that not only are all theologies contextual but also that they are all limited. He explains that the problem with contextual theologies is just that – context – but that we have to grapple with this in our diverse world.

Timothy C. Tennent

Theological Translatability in the New Global Context

Timothy Tennent is President of Asbury Seminary in Kentucky with previous mission experience in India. He tells us that theological reflections from the Majority World church need to be a normal part of our theological study in the West and not just an adjunct from exotic climes. This is important because it exposes some of our blind spots and heresies and reminds us of the theological translatability of the gospel on many levels – including the theological.

Atola Longkumer

Witnessing Together: Christian Mission and Global Partnership

Atola Longkumer is from India and teaches at Leonard Theological College in Jabalpur. Her article on partnership deals with the realities and complexities of this vital theme in our global context. For those of us located in the West, or global North, it is good to read how our sisters and brothers from other parts of the world understand partnership and our part in it.

Julia Cameron

John Stott and the Lausanne Movement

John Stott died on the afternoon of 27 July 2011, in the College of St Barnabas, a home for retired clergy, in Surrey. Obituaries appeared in all four leading UK newspapers on 29 July, where he was afforded more space than is given to most cabinet ministers. His global influence can be described only as colossal.

Miroslav Volf

Interview with Miroslav Volf

Rowan Williams

Martyrs’ Memorial, Namugongo

We are very grateful to the Archbishop of Canterbury for allowing us to use his moving poem on the Ugandan martyrs, which does, after all, restore a proper perspective – that God is God and we are not and that the loving God of our Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of the loyalty and fealty of people from any and every culture – even if it cost us our life.

Reviews

Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 15, 2 (2011) on Global Christianity

The most recent edition of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is devoted to Global Christianity.

In addition to the Editorial (‘Reflections on the Great Commission’) by Stephen Wellum, and the book reviews, some articles are available as samples.

One of them is an essay by Chris Wright – ‘Truth with a Mission: Reading All Scripture Missiologically’ – which (from a quick perusal) looks very similar, if not identical, to a Grove booklet he wrote with a similar-sounding title.

Also available is an article by M. David Sills and Kevin Bagget on ‘Islam in Latin America’.

Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World

The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), the World Council of Churches (WCC), and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council on Inter-religious Dialogue (PCID) have released what is being billed as ‘an historic document’ on the ethics of Christian mission – Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct (available here).

It is the result of a five-year collaboration of the WEA, WCC and the Vatican, who are together said to represent over 90 percent of the world’s total Christian population.

The document comes in three main parts:

• ‘A Basis for Christian Witness’ – laying out the biblical foundations for mission, asserting that Jesus is the example for Christians in witnessing to others, and outlining the church’s participation in God’s mission.

• ‘Principles’ – outlining 12 principles Christians are called to follow in witnessing to Christ in a manner consistent with the Gospel, including acting in God’s love, rejection of violence, mutual respect and solidarity.

• ‘Recommendations’ – to Christians, church bodies, mission organisations and agencies, including study of the document, building relationships of respect and trust with people of all religions, strengthening issues of identity and faith while at the same time deepening knowledge and understanding of different religions, advocating justice and respect for the common good, calling on governments and representatives to ensure religious freedom for all people, and praying for the well-being of neighbours.

The WEA also publish some comments from Geoff Tunnicliffe, Secretary General of the WEA, who claims that the document ‘is a valuable resource for church and ministry leaders for reflection and practice on how to best witness in ways faithful to the call of Christ and in line with the life and Spirit of Jesus’.

2011 Wheaton Theology Conference on Global Theology in Evangelical Perspective

The 2011 Wheaton Theology Conference (held on 7-9 April 2011) was devoted to ‘Global Theology in Evangelical Perspective’, exploring the past, present and future shape of biblical interpretation and theological engagement in the Majority World. Audio and video recordings of all conference sessions are now available for free download here.