Mission spiritualityGood for all of us...

Speak only if you can improve on silence...

Jesus did not leave an

organised host of followers, for

he knew that a handful of salt

would gradually work its way

through the mightiest empire in

the world.

Philip Yancey

There is not a place to which

the christian can withdraw

from the world, whether it be

outwardly or in the sphere of

the inner life. any attempt to

escape from the world must

sooner or later be paid for with

a sinful surrender to the world.

David Smith

it is not in our choice to spread

the gospel or not. it is our

death if we do not.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

if we only have the will to walk,

then God is pleased with our

stumbles.

CS Lewis

it seems what is required

of us is not new ideas, but

obedience to those God has

given us already.

John V Taylor

The spiritual life does not

remove us from the world but

leads us deeper into it.

Henri JM Nouwen

social development is spiritual

warfare as we battle against

‘the principalities and powers’

that uphold the systems of

social evil.

James Pender

What should young people do

with their lives today? many

things, obviously. But the most

daring thing is to create stable

communities in which the

terrible disease of loneliness

can be cured.

Kurt Vonnegut Jr

prayer does not fit us for the

greater work; prayer is the

greater work.

Oswald Chambers

if my private world is in order,

it will be because i have

chosen to press sabbath peace

into the rush and routine of my

daily life in order to find the

rest God prescribed for himself

and all of humanity.

Gordon MacDonald

i am no fool to give up what

i cannot keep to gain what i

cannot earn.

Jim Elliott

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yes lent edition. published by cms. General secretary: canon Tim Dakin editor: John martin Designer: seth crewe

printers: cpo printed on a sustainable paper that is elementary chlorine free and can be traced to bona fide sources.

cms: sharing Jesus, changing livesviews expressed in yes are not necessarily those of cms.

church mission society, Watlington road, oxford, oX4 6BZ registered charity number 220297

04 from our correspondents

05/6 cms news

07 Interview: Jenny mcintosh by naomi rose

10 unlocking the Bible’s grand narrative by christopher Wright

12 10 habits of mission spirituality by sue Hope

14 mission spirituality for kids by Dr Keith J White

16 The view from the road by Dr cathy ross

18 returning mission to the majority by mark oxbrow

20 crowther centre news

22 recommended Daily dosage by Tim Dakin

23 notebook by John martin

John Martineditorjohn.martin@cms-uk.org

3 yes lent 2009

Mission spirituality: yesterday, today and everyday“We are being made to expect too much. We are taking

too much. We are scrapping too much. We are paying,

and compelling others to pay, far too high a price.”

The writer of these words could have been analysing

the causes of the current economic crisis. in fact they were penned nearly 40 years ago by John

v Taylor in his groundbreaking book Enough is Enough (scm press, 1975). one of Taylor’s ideas

was to encourage christian people to explore life in community. He wrote: “i believe that the small,

purposeful commune, dedicated to a particular kind of witness, has immense potential today as a

new form of missionary presence in many situations that are impervious to more traditional forms

of mission.”

This issue of yes goes to press at a point where cms has committed itself rediscovering life as a

spread-out community, living out the kinds of principles that Taylor foreshadowed more than a

generation ago. These things have always been at the heart of christian discipleship.

in the new cms Daily resource, members of the community are invited to regularly consider how

the following key points of mission spirituality are being worked out in their lives:

How have I recently explored boundaries?

How have I recently met the stranger?

How have I given hospitality?

How have I received hospitality?

How have I been missional?

What am I doing about living simply?

What has been a recent source of spiritual nurture?

mission spirituality is for everyone. in this issue we pick up on some of its dimensions. chris Wright

takes us to the biblical roots. susan Hope shares examples of mission spirituality in practice. mark

oxbrow shows how it’s not merely the preserve of the Western world. and Keith White shows it’s for

children too.

4 yes lent 2009

Jean and paul Dobbing write from nepal

Tescoisation and happiness“credit crunch”, “economic slow down”, “global downturn” and “financial crisis” are all terms we’ve

been hearing recently in the international news. Then, just the other day, a fellow scot used the term

“Tescoisation” to describe what appears to be happening in many parts of asia.

people here in nepal mostly have never heard of – and are not much impacted by – these terms. most

don’t have mortgages, pensions, insurances, stocks, shares or investments. That isn’t to say that nepalis

aren’t becoming more global, and some more prosperous. many have mobile phones, surf the net and

go abroad for work and study (especially to labour in Gulf countries). This seems to happen in tandem

with what is essentially a premodern type of existence, where most live from the land without much

education or good health facilities. life is more “hand to mouth” for many living around us. one of the

main changes to impact people this past year has been the price hike of staple foods such as lentils and

rice, and many still cook with wood.

some friends have commented to me about nepali people that “they seem happier and more content

than many at home are. They’ve got less to worry about.” How to compare or judge the happiness of

another, especially from such a different world? We know that many here suffer from grinding poverty,

ill health and have had little or no opportunity to be educated, yet perhaps do not suffer from the

pressures of time and money that many in the West do.

are they happier than someone in the uK hit hard by the current credit crunch? We don’t know. We

suppose that there is some kind of a middle ground that some have achieved – whether it’s in nepal

or the uK, but is elusive to most. it does strike us, however, that the more simple your lifestyle is, the

less affected you are by outside factors. perhaps many people here are less anxious about tomorrow

because they are too busy managing for today.

Bible translation: finding the right word as the Bible is written in three languages, when translating it into one it is important to connect the key

ideas by translating them consistently. ideas that appear in one place in Hebrew, another in aramaic and

a third in Greek, may not look connected. But they can and should be translated in the same way in the

local language wherever possible. This helps the reader recognise themes in the Bible and lay the basis

for biblical reference books that may be developed in the future. since a new translation of the new

Testament is planned for 2009, we need to make sure that it won’t be too different from the old when

that finally comes out. The key themes that are shared between them need to be recognisable as such.

one example of this is the idea of the redeemer. The Book of ruth contains a vivid picture of the role of

the Kinsman redeemer – Boaz – who buys back into the clan the property that the widow naomi was

forced to sell, and marries her bereaved daughter-in-law into the bargain.

so far we have a verb meaning to ‘buy back’, which can be used as a ‘key term’ for redeem. But we have

no noun for redeemer, so recently we visited the local university in search of one. in the end they came

up with a rare word that meant ‘buyer backer’. Will it catch on? We will find out very soon when a group

of widows meet to hear the story. To them, the way God worked in the lives of naomi and ruth could

speak volumes. if only it could be expressed in terms they could understand.

..from our correspondents...

a mission partner (name withheld) writes from a top-secret location

Jane Shaw writes from lahore

Making ends meet in pakistanso how is it in pakistan at the minute? according to the newspapers we are trembling on the brink of

possible war with india. During christmas lunch in the gardens of the local christian hospital, the air was

hideous with the screeching of fighter jets, apparently patrolling the skies over lahore. There have been

one or two small bombs going off in lahore, in government areas. But otherwise all seems calm here at

present, unlike the Tribal areas and frontier province. The anniversary of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination

passed off peacefully; the next potentially difficult time is the muslim commemoration of ashura, next

week, when shias take out mourning processions and it can be an occasion of sectarian violence.

The christian celebrations of christmas have been noted with interest and respect by the media, both

newspapers and television, with many pictures of candlelit services, worshippers outside churches,

decorated christmas trees and so on. i was greatly encouraged by this evidence of religious tolerance

and mutual respect, but one friend suggested that since the news from india is all of christians being

massacred, tortured and forcibly converted, pakistan’s leaders wish to emphasise to the world that

pakistan is different – that here christians are respected and can worship freely. Whatever the motivation,

i pray that this freedom and respect will be maintained in all parts of the country.

The greatest affliction for most people currently is “load-shedding” – frequent and unpredictable power

cuts because not enough electricity is being generated to meet demand. low water levels in dams

constrain hydro-electricity generation, and non-payment for fuel imports has led to shortage of fuel for

thermal power stations. for many people no power means also no water, as it is either pumped direct

from tube wells or has to be pumped up to roof tanks from ground level supply.

now there is also a shortage of fuel for transport, with long queues at filling stations. Without power

or water people can’t wash or cook, can’t iron clothes to wear, and without fuel cannot travel – so

getting to work is difficult and church attendance also suffers. in the current cold weather lahore is also

experiencing thick fog, which has led to many throat and chest infections as well as travel difficulties.

and with the price of food continuing to rise, many pakistanis find it very difficult to make ends meet;

according to one report, 40 per cent of pakistanis live below the poverty line.

5 yes lent 2009

To find out more and keep in touch with all our mission partners, log on to www.cms-uk.org/linkletters for the latest reports

..and all the latest newsTea and empathy From Phil Simpson, CMS Asia director

in addition to developing a creche for the children of sex workers in pune, india’s red light district, cms co-mission partner Dr lalita edwards also has a special ministry to the local hijra or kinnar (eunuchs), whom she calls “my special people.” she befriends them and serves them however she can. They call her uma (mum or aunty).

on a recent visit, i met penna, Koelli and Keralla; all three have come out of the sex trade. in her small one room flat over a cuppa chai, penna showed me pictures of her dancing days. With all her make

up, she looked like Greta Garbo. Then, she earned 10,000 rupees a night dancing. But she wouldn’t go back. now she has a sense of peace and purpose. at one point she sang me a song: Koi bhi chore mujhe, Jesus kebhi nehin chorega (‘even if others leave me, Jesus will never leave me’).

Keep up with Phil Simpson’s wanderings and musings on his blog:

wandering4loveofgod.blogspot.com

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Dr lalita edwards

6 yes lent 2009

all in the familyon 20 January, at a special general meeting held at cms in oxford, cms members voted overwhelmingly – 99 per cent – in favour of cms integrating with sams (south american mission society). sisters virginia patterson and caroline Baynes were particularly happy with the result. virginia and her husband michael were sams mission partners in argentina from 1963–80 and from 1995–2002. caroline and her husband simon were cms mission partners from 1963–80 in Japan.

Buddhist encouragementmark Berry’s pioneering work in Telford was recently the subject of a BBc radio 4 programme presented by Jolyon Jenkins. among the feedback mark received was this email from a Buddhist:“i have just listened to the BBc programme The most Godless Town in Britain and found your views very refreshing. i was attracted to the programme on the BBc’s listen again service, mainly because i was brought up in Telford, rather than out of any spiritual curiosity. Though i do not share your christian beliefs, i found myself agreeing with a lot of what you said. i thought your openness and willingness to discuss spiritual issues was very a refreshing change from the more established christian churches. as a Buddhist i was interested that you also used meditation in your practice. Despite Jolyon Jenkins’ implicit scepticism, and his attempt to conflate your ideas with the things like crystal healing, i thought you gave a very positive message. i very rarely comment on radio or television programmes, but thought i would like to wish you well for the future of your project.”mark comments: “for me [this] embodies some of the generosity we try to engender in our encounters with others... the author clearly acknowledges our different beliefs but is generous in spirit...”Keep in touch with Mark and the Safespace community: www.markjberry.blogs.com

prison breakthroughon prisons sunday in november 2008, the Bishop of liverpool, said, “The fundamental question facing our society is whether we see prisons as warehouses to store the incorrigible or greenhouses to restore the redeemable.” cms partners with a charity called Zarebi, in the republic of Georgia, which is developing constructive training activity in a prison in rustavi, about 30 miles south of the capital, Tblisi. The prison holds nearly 2,000 men. However, apart from Zarebi’s computer training programme, there are no opportunities for education, work or vocational training for prisoners. This is the case in most Georgian prisons.recently, prebendary Bob payne, a prison chaplain with 37 years’ experience, visited the rustavi prison as a consultant for cms. He was challenged by the sight of so

many men with nothing creative to do – circumstances so far from what God would have them be. Bob was very impressed by merab Bolkvadze, the founder of Zarebi, and his commitment to improving the situation. He works 30 hours a week as a minibus driver to support his family so that he can lead Zarebi. it was also encouraging to discover others who wanted to follow merab’s example, particularly within the Georgian orthodox church, including Bishop anthoni Bulukhia, a former prisoner who is now an orthodox church leader in western Georgia. as the church in Georgia has flourished in the years since independence from the soviet union, so too, it is hoped, will the work of Zarebi in bringing dignity and purpose to prisoners. cms is glad to be part of this effort to convert warehouses into greenhouses.

The greening of RattanabadFrom CMS mission partner Maurice ConnorBoth the threat of environmental degradation and the splendour of God’s creation are vivid in rattanabad, the village in the sindh, south of pakistan, which was our home for nearly seven years. Though birds, reptiles and insects adorn the irrigated, densely farmed areas, their numbers and variety are rapidly diminishing. people even dig up roots of trees for fuel.rattanabad serves as base for several christian-led development organisations. We invited the leaders of these organisations to form a committee to establish and run the rattanabad environmental project.The leaders of these well-respected development projects have felt challenged by God to do something to restore people’s relationship with the environment. as christians, they look to Jesus for inspiration – he being the ultimate creator, restorer and sustainer. i feel that finding out what he is doing, and then joining in, is vital to this area of God’s mission.all five organizations are now running rural development initiatives. Two of the five have a specifically environmental element.one leader, padre shamoon, was inspired to protect a mature tree by building the conference centre he runs around it. The trunk is the centre-piece of the entrance hall and the branches provide shade for the roof. more significantly, it stimulates positive conversations among visitors. another development expert, Zahid, is pioneering organic farming on his land, which adjoins his organisation’s compounds. The rattanabad environmental protection project committee has chosen to officially protect the area within which the five organisations’ compounds lie. land will be used for organic farming, experimenting with coppicing the local trees, increasing biodiversity and a class-room will be built as a field-study centre.

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6 yes lent 2009

Mark Berry

IT support: new skills for prisoners

CMS special general meeting

Maurice & laura Connor

7 yes lent 2009

This line, spoken by Catholic priest Father

Flynn in John patrick Shanley’s play, Doubt, runs

through my head as i sit down to have a conversation

with Jenny mcintosh, one of the founders of spirited

exchanges — an umbrella name for a variety of

initiatives designed to support people grappling with

faith and/or church.

spirited exchanges first began in Jenny’s homeland of

new Zealand. she recently moved to the uK to help

foster the network here. When asked how it’s going so

far she says with a smile, “Well, pioneering is always

slower than you’d like.”

Despite the Damaclesian statistics indicating that

traditional church isn’t working for many, Jenny says

that often, churches don’t see a need to get on board

with what she’s doing.

“There’s this perception that i’m taking people away

from church,” she says. “Which i’m not.” But nor is she

trying to convince people to return, and it’s that kind

of open-endedness that Jenny says sometimes makes

churches uneasy. “many want to know what results

they can expect; they want to know people will come

back and i have to be honest: spirited exchanges

doesn’t say that people will return to the same church,

or that they will come back to church at all. What does

happen for people is that they grow into something

new and will look for places which allow for a more

diverse faith expression.

“We hope that people will find life in faith again but

we realise that some won’t. We don’t have an agenda;

we allow people space to make those decisions

themselves.”

according to Jenny, spirited exchanges is organic in

that it’s identifying and working with an existing reality:

“The more we try to control people they more we will

lose them.”

unfortunately, some people’s experience with

church has been akin to a child-parent relationship.

“Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are lost, you are not alone.”Jenny McIntosh interviewed by naomi rose

8 yes lent 2009

spirited exchanges is about accompanying people

on a journey to spiritual adulthood “that can be quite

painful.”

Jenny speaks from experience. she started following

Jesus in her mid-teens and became active in her local

church, noticing early on that sometimes systems

and keeping the rules seemed more important than

people’s actual needs. still, she tried to work within

the system, volunteering where she could and helping

her husband, who was in full-time christian work. “it

was very much a doing phase of my life. That’s what

i understood being a christian was. it always seemed

about activity and striving.”

she and her husband’s eagerness to serve took them

and their four children to india, where they continued

working with young people. and it was during her

eight years as an overseas missionary that certain

issues became impossible to ignore.

“i started facing questions about pluralism, about my

culture and attitude. i found i didn’t want to go to

church. i wanted to spend time with God, yes, but

i didn’t find it the least bit helpful to be in church. it

seemed boring and irrelevant.” Jenny remembers

what it was like being home on leave during that

time and struggling with deputation. “people put

missionaries on a pedestal so you needed to be wise

about what you said publicly.”

Jenny and her family returned to new Zealand in

1994, and her husband became minister of a church

they’d been involved with before moving to india. But

Jenny felt like she didn’t fit there anymore.

eighteen months after returning to new Zealand,

Jenny’s husband died suddenly, catapulting her into

grief and disorientation. “When life gets difficult or

traumatic, people start asking questions. and a lot

of churches don’t have a developed theology of

suffering. They want you to keep a stiff upper lip.

They may be good at offering practical support, but

they often aren’t equipped to help you emotionally or

spiritually with real grief or despair.”

Her husband’s death wasn’t the only thing that

challenged Jenny’s faith paradigms. around the same

time a couple in the church made the agonising

decision to have an abortion because the child would

be born with cystic fibrosis. Their first child, only

seven months old, also had the disease. The way

they were treated by some in the church was terrible;

they were ostracised. “it wasn’t the issues themselves

that challenged me. Difficult stuff happens. it was

the deeper assumptions and culture that i started

to question and that left me feeling like i was dying

inside. The understandings i had needed to be

expanded. God was surely bigger than all this.”

around this time, Jenny made the difficult decision

to leave her church and also read an early article

on church leavers and faith stage transition by alan

Jamieson who later authored a churchless faith.

“Talking to alan and reading a new stream of books i

was gradually able to process some of my faith issues.

“up until then i’d never heard about the idea of faith

development. But it became an extremely helpful

language for me to deal with what i was going

through.”

alan Jamieson had done considerable research into

faith development theories, such as those proposed

by James fowler, as a way of perhaps explaining why

people left church.

according to fowler, there are six stages of faith

development, a la Jean piaget’s theory of cognitive

development or erik erikson’s theory of social

development. These stages relate to how an individual

experiences his or her faith holistically.

The first stage fowler calls intuitive-projective faith.

This is when the imagination runs wild and the “child”

or “new believer” begins to absorb strong taboos.

stage two is called mythic-literal faith, where symbol

and ritual begin to be integrated. The world becomes

linear. people in stage two can have a strong sense

of fairness and cause-and-effect, which can drive the

person into a strict, controlling perfectionism

or legalism.

The third stage is synthetic-conventional faith.

The majority of people stay in this stage, which is

characterised by conformity. a person finds his or her

identity in a certain viewpoint and is reluctant to think

critically about it. There is an adherence to hierarchy

and majority opinion, which somehow becomes

inseparable from “goodness.” if a person’s life situation

becomes difficult, it can drive them to despair, or to

the next stage, which is individuative-reflective.

This fourth stage consists primarily of angst and

struggle, in which one must face difficult questions

regarding identity and belief, as an individual. people in

this stage are prone to disillusionment and bitterness.

But most will allow for increasing complexity and

enter stage five – conjunctive faith. people in this

stage acknowledge paradox and transcendence. They

allow for mystery, though it may scare them. They

move from deconstruction to reconstruction and

begin to see a bigger picture of justice beyond their

own culture. it is a stage involving new possibilities

“There’s this perception that I’m taking people away from church. Which I’m not”

9 yes lent 2009

spiritual adulthood rather than depend on the church

like a parent. Where diversity and questioning and

realising our full potential are encouraged, and where

doubt is an acknowledged part of a growing and life-

giving faith.”

until that time, spirited exchanges is here to help

those who are struggling. “it’s exciting to see hope

come into people’s eyes as they reframe their faith.

God becomes bigger and faith becomes deeper

and more integrated into all of life.” i’ve been told by

people that they wouldn’t be in faith without spirited

exchanges.

“i’m not saying i have all the answers. But i am

saying it’s ok to have questions. and if you do have

questions, you’re not alone. one of the guidelines

of spirited exchanges is that ‘We let God defend

God’. if God is all encompassing, then God can cope

with anything we might think or say no matter how

heretical it might sound.”

CMS is glad to partner with Spirited Exchanges

which has a newsletter, website and other resources

for individuals or groups. For more information, see

www.spiritedexchanges.org.uk

and a sense of wonder. stage six is what fowler calls

universalizing faith. This is where people not only see

a bigger picture, but live their lives – or often risk their

lives – for the sake of others.

spirited exchanges is fuelled in part by faith-stage

theory. Jenny says, “We help people process what’s

happened in church, re-examine their faith paradigms

and help them see what they’ve adopted as part of

the christian package that they may not actually agree

with or has even been oppressive. at the beginning,

when people first become christians they tend to take

on everything, not just beliefs but certain behaviours

and values. at some point many begin to say, ‘This

doesn’t make sense…’” she cites an example: “like

the idea that someone became sick or died because

we didn’t pray enough. We look at parts of our faith

that have become distorted and create space for

people to find life and faith again.”

During a spirited exchanges meeting, there is no

leader, though there may be a facilitator to make

sure the atmosphere is safe and respectful. There

is no set prayer or Bible study; people are free to

talk about whatever issues they like. all sorts of

viewpoints are heard. says Jenny, “There’s no tie-

up at the end. people come away with their own

views and sometimes those are different from

where they started. When you hear different views

in conversation, it helps you decide what you think.

people draw on their knowledge of the Bible, their

understanding from teaching they have had, books

they have read and their life experience and they start

to integrate those together. The challenge is to keep

it all genuinely open-minded and to rely on the Holy

spirit to help people process. We have to bear in mind

that not everyone is at the same faith stage.”

criticisms levelled at fowler include the fact that the

faith stages are sometimes perceived as hierarchical,

so one is “better” than the other. also, people

sometimes perceive that they are a step beyond

where they actually are. citing Jamieson’s image of the

stages set in a circle in conversation, Jenny says, can

be a more helpful way of understanding it, with one or

other stage being dominant at different points in life.

Jenny points out that in these postmodern times,

people are likely to hit the stages earlier in their life as

believers. “That’s because the questions people used

to start having around mid-life are surfacing much

earlier.”

What could help mitigate the necessity of

deconstruction and reconstruction? “imagine a church

setting where people are actively encouraged to reach

“Up until then I’d never heard

about the idea of faith

development. But it became an extremely

helpful language for me to deal

with what I was going through”

The mission of God: unlocking the Bible’s grand narrativeBy Christopher JH Wright

demands no radical concern for the social, political

ethnic and cultural implications of the whole

biblical faith here and now, has led to massive and

embarrassing dissonance between statistics and

reality. some of the states in north-east india, such

as nagaland, are held up as outstanding examples

of the success of late-19th and early 20th-century

evangelism. The state is recorded to be around 90

per cent christian. yet it has now become one of

the most corrupt states in the indian union and is

riddled with problems of gambling and drugs among

the younger generation. naga students at the union

Biblical seminary, where i taught in the 1980s, would

tell me this is a proof of the fact that successful

evangelism does not always result in lasting social

transformation. others will point to the tragic irony

of rwanda – one of the most christianised nations

on earth and birthplace of the east african revival.

and yet whatever form of christian piety was taken

to be the fruit of evangelism there could not stand

against the tide of intertribal hatred and violence that

engulfed the region in 1994.

i write as a son of northern ireland. as i grew up,

almost anybody i met could have told me the

gospel and “how to get saved.” yet in my protestant

evangelical culture, the zeal for evangelism was equal

only to the suspicion of any form of christian social

concern or conscience about issues of justice. That

was the domain of liberals and ecumenicals, and

a betrayal of the “pure” gospel. The result was that

the de facto politics of protestantism was actually

subsumed under the gospel in such a way that

all the political prejudice, partisan patriotism and

tribal hatred was sanctified rather than prophetically

challenged (except by a very brave few who often

paid a heavy price).

as James would say, “this should not be” (Jas 3:10).

But it is. and it is one reason why i beg to dissent

from the notion that evangelism by itself will result

in social change, unless christians are also taught

the radical demands of discipleship to the prince of

peace, are seeking first the kingdom of God and his

justice, and understand the wholeness of what the

Bible so emphatically shows to be God’s mission for

his people.

evangelism and social involvement; chicken or

egg? another way the issue is sometimes framed is

this: surely the best way to achieve social change and

all the good objectives we have for society on the

basis of what we know God wants (justice, integrity,

compassion, care for his creation, etc.) is by vigorous

evangelism. The more christians there are, the better

it will be for society. so if you want to change society,

do evangelism. Then those who become christians

will do the social action part. i have often heard this

as an argument for prioritising evangelism over social

action, and it has serious flaws.

first (and i think i owe this point to John stott),

there is flawed logic that says, if you are a christian,

you should not spend time doing social action;

instead give all your time to evangelism because

the best way to change society is to multiply the

number of christians. The logic is flawed because

(1) all those new christians will, following the same

advice, give time only to evangelism, so who will

engage in social action? and (2) you ought to be

engaging in social action since you are the product

of someone’s evangelism. The argument becomes

an infinite regress in which real social engagement

as part of christian mission in the world is inevitably

postponed.

This view also overlooks the importance of

example. if someone comes to faith through the

effort of a christian or church that endorses only

the evangelistic mandate and has a negative and

non-engaged attitude to all things social, cultural,

economic or political, then the likelihood is that the

new convert will imbibe the same dichotomised

attitude. We reflect the kind of mission that moved

us into faith.

and tragically, this view is simply not borne out

in history. now of course there is such a thing as

conversion uplift. When people become christians,

they tend to shed some harmful habits and acquire

some positive ones. This can certainly benefit a

community if enough people are affected in this way.

However, there are other instances where rapid

conversion of whole communities to a pietistic

gospel that sings the songs of Zion to come, but

“yet in my protestant evangelical culture, the zeal for evangelism was equal only to the suspicion of any form of Christian social concern or conscience about issues of justice”

10 yeslent 2009

11 yes lent 2009

Holistic mission needs the whole church. a final

question that is often raised in the context of

teaching holistic mission arises from unavoidable

personal limitations. “you are saying that christian

mission involves all these dimensions of God’s

concern for total human need. But i am finite, with

finite time, finite abilities and finite opportunities.

should i not stick to what seems most important –

evangelism – and try not to dissipate myself over

such a broad range of objectives?”

The same thought doubtless occurred to God,

which is why he called the church into existence.

Here is another reason why our ecclesiology must

be rooted in missiology. The mission of God in the

world is vast. so he has called and commissioned a

people – originally the descendants of abraham, now

a multinational global community in christ. and it is

through the whole of that people that God is working

his mission purposes out, in all their diversity.

There are different callings, different giftings, different

forms of ministry (remembering that magistrates

and other government officials are called “ministers

of God” in romans 13, just as much as apostles and

those who organised food aid). individuals must

seek guidance from God regarding their calling.

some are indeed called to be evangelists. all are

certainly called to be witnesses, whatever their work

context. The apostles in acts recognised their own

personal priority had to be the ministry of the Word

and prayer. But they did not limit their ministry to

such work, as philip’s evangelistic encounter with the

ethiopian shows.

is the church as a whole reflecting the wholeness of

God’s redemption? is the church aware of all that in

which God’s mission summons them to participate?

The ringing slogan of the lausanne movement

is: “The whole church taking the whole gospel to

the whole world.” Holistic mission cannot be the

responsibility of one individual. But it is certainly the

responsibility of the whole church.

i can do no better than endorse the words of Jean-

paul Heldt:

There is no longer a need to qualify mission

as “holistic,” nor to distinguish between

“mission” and “holistic mission.” mission is,

by definition “holistic,” and therefore “holistic

mission” is, de facto, mission. proclamation

alone, apart from any social concern, may

be perceived as a distortion, a truncated

version of the true gospel, a parody and

travesty of the good news, lacking relevance

for the real problems of people living in

the real world. on the other end of the

spectrum, exclusive focus on transformation

and advocacy may just result in social and

humanitarian activism, void of any spiritual

dimension. Both approaches are unbiblical;

they deny the wholeness of human nature

of human beings created in the image of

God. since we are created “whole,” and

since the fall affects our total humanity in all

its dimensions, then redemption, restoration,

and mission can, by definition, only be

“holistic.”

Adapted from The Mission of God by Christopher JH

Wright. Copyright©2006 by Christopher JH Wright.

Used by permission.

afte

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Imagine standing on a hilltop overlooking

a great plain. Below, covering a vast area of the

ground is a camp. you know, instinctively, that it’s

been there a long time. There’s the fluttering flag on

the pole. Buildings have been constructed: offices,

storerooms, you can even see the smoke rising from

the kitchens. some people are off-duty, playing in

the river, while others are engaged on some intense

formal activity.

suddenly, the scene is interrupted. a vehicle roars

in to the camp, the driver gets out and hurries off.

Time elapses, then there’s a buzz of excitement.

Groups start emerging from everywhere, things

start happening. The camp is being broken up.

Decisions have to be made about what can travel

and what belongs to the time of ‘settlement’. There

are fresh demands and requirements. everyone and

everything is suddenly on the move.

sometime towards the end of the last millennium,

the tide turned for the churches’ mission in england.

There was a fresh wind blowing; parts of the church

seemed to be waking up, getting ready. people

were talking about mission again, but in a different

way, and right across the different traditions and

denominations of the church. it wasn’t wholesale,

but patchy, a bit like rock pools filling up while the

main tide is still some way out. and this tide of

mission has continued to make its way in. it’s been

accompanied and encouraged by various initiatives

on mission and evangelism, including 2004’s

mission-shaped church by the church of england’s

mission and public affairs council; fresh expressions,

the shared anglican-methodist initiative was also

notable.

These things are helping find new shapes and

patterns which can assist mission and evangelism in

10 marks of mission spiritualityWhere does the passion to re-engage with evangelism come from? Sue Hope offers some pointers

12 yes lent 2009

13 yes lent 2009

a post-modern world. But the passion to re-engage

with evangelism in our culture, where is that to

be found? is there such a thing as a ‘spirituality for

mission’ that will engender and support mission

– an apostolic spirituality? and if so, what are its

characteristics? Here are 10 indicators of people

living in a mission spirituality:

1. knowing what they are for and about They

are called and sent. They know why they are on the

planet and what they are to do while here. They are

supremely focussed on their task.

2. living with trust Being called to mission

means leaving the safe and knowable and locating

your identity and security in another place. like

Jesus, whose public ministry was kick-started by an

experience of being deeply and dearly loved (luke

3:22), mission-motivated people have to learn to

graft themselves deeply into the love of the father

and to minister out of that love.

3. Contemplative activists “When he saw the

crowds, he had compassion on them” (matt 9:36).

Those who are fired with the love of God are

those whose eyes have been opened and who

see brokenness and pain. They also see God’s

possibilities, and God’s promise. contemplation, true

seeing, leads to action.

4. Travelling light ‘Take nothing for the journey’

(matt 10). Too many possessions can inhibit speed

of response to shifts in culture. Too much money

can belie our faith in God’s provision. packaging the

gospel into doctrinal formulae limits the way that

people are able to receive it. We’re invited to go

empty-handed, becoming less anxious and more

free.

5. Two by Two Jesus sends his friends into mission

‘two by two’. community, koinonia, participation in

the spirit, is the gospel lived. others are invited in to

it. Those first missionaries were instructed not to live

in a ghetto, but to lock their community onto that

of the person of peace, so that there could be what

post-moderns call ‘flow’. missional community is a

key factor in apostolic spirituality.

6. Dependence: prayer and the Holy Spirit Those

who go in mission need to go in deep dependence

upon the Holy spirit. “stay in the city,” said Jesus, “until

you are filled with power from on high” (luke 24:49).

learning dependence often happens through the

wilderness experience, because in the brokenness

and the emptiness of our own lives we learn to lean

on the Beloved (song of songs 8:5).

7. Branded with a message There is ultimately

one message from which all others spring. it informs

and shapes those who go in mission, it burns onto

them, they are branded with it and changed by it.

The message is that Jesus is alive.

8. Robust faith The message is transmitted in word

and in deed. “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse

the lepers, cast out demons.” (matt 10:8) The deeds

are indicative of a new order. They bring life and

transform communities as well as individuals. They

require confident engagement with the powers of

darkness and are activated by a robust faith.

9. Joyfully serious and seriously joyful The

mission is supremely important. and yet there is a

light-heartedness about those who go in mission.

apostolic spirituality means both serious intent and

joyful detachment. outcomes are left to God.

10. embracing adventure and risk Whereas a

ghetto mentality shrinks people, the adventure of

mission stretches us. The risks of adventure are great,

but the rewards are high. and those who were first

sent out by Jesus discovered that their lives were

never the same again.

Susan Hope’s book, Mission-Shaped Spirituality:

the transforming power of mission, looks at the

attitude of mind required to engage in mission,

through a combination of real-life case studies

and observations from her own experience. It is

published by Church House Publishing.

The Rev Susan Hope

14 yes lent 2009

While in India researching the life of pandita

Ramabai (1858–1922) one of the great Christian

activists of all time, I was surprised to learn

about her daughter, Mano. Mano is invisible

in all accounts of pandita’s story to date, but

it turns out she tirelessly shared her faith with

other girls her age, so much so that they gave

her the nickname, “Missionary Mano”.

i wonder if one day it will dawn on us that babies,

toddlers and children have been some of the most

effective mission partners. i think of the enigmatic

words of psalm 8:2:

from the lips of unweaned infants

and suckling babes you have ordained

praise (strength) to silence the foe and

the avenger.

The world has been undergoing a quiet yet seismic

revolution when it comes to the way we view

children and young people. a useful date to bear

in mind is 1989, when the united nations adopted

the convention on the rights of the child. While

our consciousness regarding women, the poor and

ethnic minorities had shifted, it took time for children

to be seen as fully human, rather than as “human

becomings” or “adults-in-waiting”.

yet, throughout history, children have been agents

of hope and change in movements such as the

abolition of slavery; the fight for civil rights and

spiritual revivals. The recognition of this has led to

further study into the area that’s become known

as “child theology”. The child Theology movement

is an international group that links creatively with

other groups engaged in fields such as godly play,

children’s spirituality and children’s ministry. our eyes

are continually being opened to formerly hidden

insights in the Bible regarding children and mission.

These new insights are impacting mission practice

for children and by children in all five continents.

in Brazil, churches are being planted through

children’s work. in the philippines, cms mission

partners Kate and Tim lee, who started Jigsaw

Kids ministries, are involved in rethinking children’s

ministry and evangelism. The viva network are

actively encouraging children to engage in prayer for

mission, no matter how young. in Kuala lumpur, a

church has started a new school for stateless and

muslim children; now the school’s emphasis on

child theology, godly play and cultural sensitivity is

syourhtnq

as you were: what we can learn about mission spirituality from children?

By Dr keith J White

15 yes lent 2009

helping reform the church’s theology and mission.

This year is also the 30th anniversary of the

international year of the child and it seems a fitting

time to re-discover the place and participation of

children in mission. after all, when his disciples were

having a heated discussion about mission spirituality,

Jesus placed a child in their midst with the injunction:

“unless you change and become like little children,

you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (matt

18:3). How we will view the children among us?

Dr Keith J White is Director of Mill Grove where,

with his wife Ruth, he is responsible for the

residential community caring for children who have

experienced separation and loss. He is former

president of the UK Social Care Association and

Chair of the National Council of Voluntary Child Care

Organisations, and of the Child Theology Movement

and founder of the Christian Child Care Forum.

Further resources

from the author: ‘rediscovering children at the Heart

of mission’ in G miles and J Wright, eds, celebrating

children (paternoster, carlisle 2003); The Bible,

narrative and illustrated (WTl, 2008); caring for

Deprived children, ed, (palgrave macmillan, 1979);

a place for us, editions 1 and 2 (mill Grove, 1981);

“I was shocked to discover the

vital strategic role that

children played in the unfolding

story of God’s saving acts. and everything since

has confirmed the truth of

this insight”

qurhtnl mp

in His image (Tell, 1977); The art of faith (John

Hunt, 1997); children and social exclusion, ed,

(ncvcco, 1999); The Growth of love (Brf

Barnabas, 2008).

marcia Bunge, The child in christian Thought

(eerdmans, 2001); The child in the Bible

(eerdmans, 2008)

margaret saunderson, lights in the Darkness:

planting churches through children’s work in lima’s

shantytowns (Zoe, 2003)

The child Theology movement: www.childtheology.org

fresh understandings of church planting and

formation beginning with babies, children and

toddlers (for example, pepe projects in Brazil):

www.bmsworldmission.org

love to pieces: cms lent resource produced in

conjunction with cms mission partners Kate and Tim

lee with the Jigsaw project in metro manila:

www.cms-uk.org/lent

cms World to rights schools theatre project,

encouraging children to lend their voices for justice:

www.worldtorights.info

children’s engagement in prayer for local, national

and world mission: pray@viva.org

Dr keith J White

16 yes lent 2009

author David Bosch once said that we are

called to live a spirituality of the road, not

of the balcony.

a spirituality of the road evokes images of

movement, change, journeys, new places,

discovery, and crossing borders. it can also

suggest feelings of weariness and disorientation.

But the idea is that we grow more as participants

than as observers. i personally found this to

be true; it was during my time in uganda that i

began to more fully understand the goodness

of God.

When it comes to a spirituality of the road, we

must ask a couple of questions. one, at what

pace should we travel? should we rush from

point a to point B, ignoring the scenery along the

way? or should we travel at the speed of love, as

Kosuke Koyama suggests in Three mile an Hour

God? Koyama writes:

love has its speed. it is an inner speed. it is a

spiritual speed. it is a different kind of speed

from the technological speed to which we are

accustomed. it is ‘slow’ yet it is lord over all

other speeds since it is the speed of love. it

goes on in the depth of our life, whether we

notice or not, whether we are currently hit by

storm or not, at three miles an hour. it is the

speed we walk and therefore it is the speed

the love of God walks.

Koyama says that Jesus’ pace was not rapid; it

was more like this speed of love. Think of the

journey along the emmaus road and what riches

those followers of Jesus (and all of us since)

would have missed out on had they rushed past

Jesus and ignored him. What is our pace? are

we so busy engaging in mission that the scenery

and relationships pass us by? are we so caught

up in achieving and doing that we do not pause

to engage with the stranger and listen to the

promptings of the Holy spirit? if so, we may as

well be in the balcony.

a second, related, question to ask is, in our rush

to do more ‘important things’, are we missing

out on what Bosch calls the spirituality of the

commonplace?

it’s easy to be captivated by the spectacular, by

wonderful meeting and powerful ministry – we

sing about “more love, more power”– but is

that really what God calls us to? is that really the

experience of most people?

The view from the roadIt’s as you engage in mission that your spiritual life develops, says Dr Cathy Ross

17 yes lent 2009

people underestimate how challenging, yet

rewarding, it is to discover spirituality in daily life.

yet, kingdom life is ordinary life lived in the real

world: in things like earning a living, bringing up a

family, having fun, enjoying parties, building cities,

mourning loved ones, healing sickness, making

music, playing sport, studying and travelling. it’s all

about doing these things to the glory of our creator

and redeemer, and resting in who we are meant to

be in christ.

as we engage in mission wherever we are, i suggest

some characteristics or disciplines that we might

observe in order to develop our spirituality of

the road. They’re disciplines because they take

some effort.

1. Inquirer

ask questions about every facet of life – the political,

the economic, the industrial, the social, the spiritual.

2. learner

We need to learn the culture and subcultures of

where we are. in learning from others, we begin to

learn more about ourselves, what makes us function,

how we can grow and develop. as we learn let us

maintain a self-awareness and practise humility

under God.

3. listener

We must listen to the assumptions behind the words

and worldviews of others and learn to hear Jesus

speaking through them. This will challenge our own

understanding of how God works in the world, which

will in turn deepen our spiritual life.

4. lover

as we learn to love others with patience and

gentleness, we will find our hearts being opened

out and softened. as we grow in christ-like love, our

spiritual life will be enhanced. ask yourself, “How can

i live at the speed of love? What will that look like in

my life?”

5. Disturber

What does it mean to be a disturber? i think it

means questioning the status quo, and engaging

with people who may have very different ideas to

ours. We are inviting others to see Jesus and live

in relationship with him, so this will likely disturb

their lifestyles, relationships and futures. as Ts eliot

expressed in Journey of the magi, the three kings,

those enigmatic wise men, returned to where they

had come from “no longer at ease here, in the old

dispensation, with an alien people clutching their

gods.” once they had seen Jesus, they knew. They

knew this baby, this King of the Jews, was one to

adore. They knew that somehow Jesus changed their

lives. as followers of Jesus, we must allow people to

see another way of living and being.

This will have profound implications for our spiritual

lives. We may indeed be out of synch with the world

in which we live, we may be uncomfortable, and this

will force us to rely on God more.

6. Sign of the end

We are to live as visible signs of hope that God’s

kingdom is reality, that we are living on the frontier

of a new heaven and a new earth, and that will have

profound implications for our spiritual life.

Conclusion: not “how to” but “where to”

you may be surprised that i haven’t yet spoken of

reading the Bible and prayer. yes, we do need God’s

word to nourish us and we need to develop a deep

and ongoing life of prayer, as John Taylor explained in

The Go-Between God: “To live in prayer, therefore,

is to live in the spirit; and to live in the spirit is to live

in christ…. prayer is not something you do; it is a

style of living.” prayer is both our privilege and our

responsibility as we engage in the missio Dei.

a spirituality of the road embraces prayer as an

integral part of the journey. it is not all about living a

life of relentless activism (though this may be part of

it); the end to which we strive ultimately is, as roland

allen has expressed it so beautifully, “the unfolding

of a person” – the revelation of christ. The heart of

mission is communion with christ – daily, constant,

ongoing – through the enabling of the Holy spirit.

further, a spirituality of the road realises that models

and “how to’s” only get us so far. There is no

blueprint, or map or sat nav that contains every turn,

bump or unexpected circumstance. We will have our

challenges and disappointments, our dark nights of

the soul. We will have our feelings of betrayal, and

thoughts that God has left us to struggle on this road

alone. are we willing to face that? is our spiritual life

robust enough to face the heartache and brutalities

of a broken world? as we give up our seats in the

balcony and step out along this road, committed to a

long obedience in the same direction, maybe some

of the above qualities can help us live life in all the

fullness to which Jesus has called us.

Dr Cathy Ross is the

manager of the Crowther

Centre for Mission Education

and JV Taylor Fellow in

Missiology at the University

of Oxford

pain

ting

by D

r. H

e Q

i

18 yes lent 2009

In one arabian peninsula city, an ethiopian

pastor trains every one of his church members

as a missionary. There are 35,000 ethiopians working

in that country; 96 per cent of them are young, female,

domestic workers living on a few dollars a week.

The christians among them, like every other young

ethiopian woman, are hoping to send home a little

money to support their families. They also discover that

God has placed them in a key mission context.

in just 11 months these young women have taken

the Jesus film and arabic new Testaments into 800

homes where they are able to share the film with

children and read the Bible with their mothers. sadly,

these women, who are actively engaged in evangelism

in one of the most closed mission contexts in the

world, will never appear in any statistics of ‘foreign

missionaries’. They will attract little prayer or financial

support from minority world (Western) churches so

concerned to “reach the unreached.”

This is why we need to radically revise our

understanding of who a missionary is in the

contemporary, globalised world. in fact, we also need

to revise much of our mission history in order to take

a much more realistic account of who really have

been the ‘midwives of the gospel’ over the past 2,000

years. samuel escobar writes,

another missionary force is also at work today,

although it does not appear in the records of

missionary activity or the databanks of specialists.

it is the transcultural witnessing for christ that

takes place as people move around as migrants

or refugees, just as in new Testament days….

They are missionaries ‘from below’ who do not

have the power, the prestige, or the money from a

developed nation, and are not part of a missionary

organisation. They are vulnerable in many ways, but

have learnt the art of survival, supported by their

faith in Jesus christ. (The new Global mission,

ivp, 2003)

mission from ‘below’ has always been a highly

significant aspect of christian mission; it becomes more

significant in the 21st century for three reasons.

most christians today are financially poor, politically

marginalised and socially restricted by their gender,

age, or ethnicity.

The increasing prevalence of migration has radically

increased the opportunities for migrant christians to

be effective in cross-cultural mission.

in a world where international travel and

communication are becoming easier, even christians

with very modest financial resources are able to share

the gospel with those without faith in different parts of

the world.

Returning mission to the majorityMark oxbrow explains why we need to radically revise our understanding of who is a missionary

“We need to revise our mission history to take a much more realistic account of who really have been the ‘midwives of the gospel’ over the past two thousand years”

Photo: Jonathan Self/CMS

19 yes lent 2009

The professional vs the voluntary missionary?

although one band of actors might have predominated

or been ‘historically visible’ during particular periods, five

categories of missioners have all engaged in effective

mission side by side. The five groups i identify (although

there are obviously more) are:

refugee evangelists witnessing traders and entrepreneurs monastic communities in mission imperial philanthropists professional missionaries

These five groups can represent some key stages

in christian history. However, they also represent

significant movements in mission that can and do co-

exist within the contemporary church. my contention

here is that the experience of majority world christians

in mission today could help us recover a much

broader understanding of what our missionary God is

doing among and through his people.

reading the accounts of the early church (eg, acts

8:4), it is clear that some of the very first cross-cultural

missionaries were fleeing for their lives. in each century,

faith in Jesus christ has been taught by those fleeing

from persecution, war, ethnic cleansing, famine,

and drought. it seems that those who have known

suffering and found God to be faithful are often the

best evangelists. The challenge for the global christian

community is to discover how we might best support,

equip, and encourage ‘refugee evangelists’ today.

Business as mission has become a popular concept

in recent decades and a way in which those with

entrepreneurial skill and business acumen can

discover their vocation in mission by serving the

holistic needs of communities who lack employment

or faith. The idea of christian business people in

mission, however, is hardly new. in the early centuries

the news of salvation in Jesus was carried along the

silk roads of central asia and into china. nestorian

christians were especially effective at planting

churches while bringing communities the advantages

of international trade.

for many centuries, religious communities carried

the christian faith from village to village, tribe to

tribe, to india, china and beyond. Today, we see the

rise of a new monasticism and renewed interest

in missional communities. in the 18th and 19th

centuries, european empires, rising from the heart

of christendom, brought religiously-motivated

philanthropy (as well as other things considered

destructive and evil). civil servants, ship owners,

and school teachers saw the gospel as part of their

‘civilising’ programme for subject peoples. only in the

last two centuries have we seen the rise of what i call

‘professional missionaries’ who are recruited, trained,

deployed, and financially-supported for a life of full-

time mission.

a new kind of dance

i have rehearsed this mission history because

it is not only Western christians who forget that

refugees, merchants, monks, and civil servants can

be missionaries. addressing the mission community

of the World evangelical alliance in 2006, Duncan

olumbe, director of Kenyan-based mission Together

africa, warned his majority world colleagues of

the dangers of seeking to join the european-

choreographed “power dance”, “imitation dance”,

and “position dance”. in other words, the professional

missionary paradigm has become so pervasive that

even those who have a much stronger missional

rhythm in their spiritual bones feel constrained to do

mission in the european style.

many majority world churches would struggle to

support one traditional, ‘professional’ missionary family,

but how many of their members could be resourced

as refugees, migrants, business women, overseas

students, or traders in cross-cultural mission? olumbe

continues, “i long for a different dance! However, how

can we allow space for the different dancers – african,

asian, european, american, etc – with all their different

rhythms, beats, and paraphernalia?”

olumbe’s question is addressed to mission leaders

in north america and europe, as well as those in

asia, africa, and latin america. While rejoicing in all

that ‘professional’ missionaries continue to achieve

for christ’s kingdom, we need to create space for the

other dancers. This will involve reallocating resources,

for example, to fund the training of the 400,000

filipino christians currently working as migrants around

the world.

This requires partnership on a global scale, where

power relationships are renegotiated and resources are

pooled. my greatest hope is that as the majority world

begins to control the dance tune and discover new

steps and rhythms, that we in the minority world will at

last escape our blinkered professionalisation of mission.

The Rev Canon Mark Oxbrow is the international

coordinator of the Faith2Share network, which brings

together 16 international mission agencies from five

continents to share resources in mission. A slightly

longer version of this article first appeared in the

January 2009 issue of Lausanne World Pulse

(www.lausanneworldpulse.com). Published with permission.

“The challenge for the global Christian

community is to discover how

we might best support, equip, and encourage ‘refugee evangelists’ today”

Crow

ther

Cen

tre

new

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20 yes lent 2009

7 May, 8pmpublic lecture by Dr atola longkumer

(pending visa)

“religious conversion: re-thinking religious

encounter in modern india.” a survey of

discourse and events in the country

pertaining to conversion, mission and other

dominant religions.

16 May, 10am–3.30pm “Does Faith Work?” Workshop day on the

role of faith in the public space with paul

Woolley from the THeos think-tank.

a series of four workshops on faith in the

school, faith in the Hospital, faith in the prison

and faith in the market. £10 (£8 concessions)

rsvp before 2 may: cathy.ross@cms-uk.org or

helen.cameron@ripon-cuddesdon.ac.uk

28 May, 8pm St Thomas lecture by Dr Joshva Raja

“mission challenges from contemporary india:

‘that they may be one, that the world may know

…’” consideration will be given to such issues

as being a minority, conversion, internal unity

and contribution to development.

11 June, 10am–1pmMission and Mediation in a Consumer

Culture conference with peter Ward

hosted by Jonny Baker and cathy ross.

£5 payable at the door

16 June, 10.30am–3.30pm

“Britain – a Christian Country?”

Faiths, Identity and Insecurity

With richard sudworth and others.

faith to faith, Global connections and

crowther centre.

There will be a small charge.

look out for our forthcoming lectures in

the autumn on Mission in Context, with

Stephen Bevans. This will be a series of four

lectures, using case studies from oxford (both

town and gown).

for more information email

berdine.vandentoren@cms-uk.org

Missiologists in Residence

The crowther centre is looking forward to

hosting two missiologists in residence.

from 17 february to 16 may Dr parush

parushev is with us. He was born in Bulgaria

to an atheist family and became a christian

in 1990. He obtained his first phD in 1977 in

applied mathematics at the Technical university

in st petersburg. He completed his second phD

from fuller Theological seminary in california

in 1996. at fuller, he studied theology, with

specialist interest in christian ethics and moral

philosophy. currently he is the Director of the

institute of systematic study of contextual

Theologies at the international Baptist

Theological seminary in prague.

Dr atola longkumer will be at the crowther

centre for two months, from 25 april (pending

visa). she was born in north-east india, in naga-

land. at the moment she teaches in a school for

theology in Jabalpur. she specialises in mission

studies and the interface of christian mission

with the local naga culture and the multi-

religious culture in india.

Visiting Student

Together with Wycliffe Hall, the crowther centre

has started a programme that aims to invite

students in mission studies, mainly from the

majority world, to oxford for one academic

term. The goals of this programme are to give

the invited student the experience of theology

in a Western university context, and to receive

their input for a better understanding of the

global church.

Vija Herefoss is a young missiologist from

latvia currently living and working in oslo,

norway. from 2007 she has been employed

as a research fellow at the norwegian school

of Theology and is working on her doctoral

thesis, which aims to analyse the challenges

for mission in a post-communist context. Her

interest in missiology is influenced both by her

own experience of coming from a non-christian

background as well as by the need for reflection

on the specific situation of churches in a post-

communist framework.

Raiding the archives

21 yes lent 2009

neXT ISSUe oF yes DUe June ‘09

Forthcoming monographs:

Johan p Velema

a Biblical Basis for

project evaluation

Tim Dakin

christian mission in a

pluralist context: on the

margins and in competition

“Christianity is a religion for all mankind.”it may appear extraordinary to christians today that

this statement had to be made as late as the 19th

century. in fact, this quote, from Henry Brunton’s

Grammar and vocabulary of the susoo language

(1802), caused much controversy.

This book proved groundbreaking in two ways:

firstly, in its linguistic value as one of the earliest

attempts to translate an african tribal language; and

secondly, as a significant contributor to the

re-shaping of mission strategy.

Brunton’s Grammar is the earliest grammar of

a West african language and one of the earliest

grammars for any african language. The susoo

language is spoken by the susu people who live

on the rio pongas in modern day Guinea. Henry

Brunton was a scottish missionary who worked

among the susu people between 1798 and 1799,

when he returned to scotland due to ill-health.

perhaps as important as the susoo grammar

itself is Brunton’s discussion of mission strategy

found in the preface. at the close of the 18th

century, a debate still raged within the context of

colonialism over the necessity of translating tribal

languages. Brunton notes that “some seem to be

of the opinion that barbarous languages ought to

be rooted out, and better ones introduced in their

stead.” in response, Brunton argued strongly that “if

missionaries wish to do any good, they must either

speak the languages of the heathen miraculously…

or they must learn them with great labour.”

Henry Brunton’s Grammar shows the fruit of this

labour and helped shape a mission strategy that

worked with local cultures, languages and traditions

as opposed to against them. The crowther centre

is lucky enough to hold a first edition of Brunton’s

Grammar in its archives and has done so since

it was published by the society for missions to

africa and the east – later called the church mission

society.

James Donaldson is an intern in the CMS

communications team. His recent contributions

include articles for the Unsung Heroes section of

the CMS website.

a few years back, Simon Barrington-Ward,

CMS general secretary 1975–85, chaired a

CMS review on mission spirituality.

it involved wide-ranging discussions

where we sought to discern what was at

the heart of the spirituality that’s fuelled the

cms movement for over two centuries. The

main outcome was a proposal to push ahead with

the possibility of cms being recognised as a mission

community acknowledged by the wider church

(of england).

During an interview given when he opened the

new cms building in oxford, the archbishop of

canterbury was asked about what he saw as the

most important recent developments in the life of

the society. He pointed to a rediscovery “that where

it all comes from is sharing a discipline of prayer, a

real community.” cms, he said, “is first and foremost

a community of christians and ought to be learning

to live together in a disciplined way.”

We’ve been developing the means to enable a

community-wide discipline of prayer, one that

reflects cms mission spirituality. This year we’re

launching cms Daily. This resource for daily prayer

includes a simple liturgy, daily reflections and items

for prayer from cms around the world. as this issue

of yes went to press, about 300 people had agreed

to try out a pilot version on a daily basis for

two months and offer us feedback on

the resource. We will be taking

their comments into

account and hope to

launch a fuller version

of cms Daily later in

the year, as members of

cms re-enrol in the new

combined community of

cms and the south american

mission society (sams).

sams supporters will have an

opportunity to enrol as members.

in the last edition of yes, cms

mission leadership and communities

team leader Jonny Baker reflected on

the importance of networks. This is a

helpful way to understand the spread-out

nature of the cms community — we work

in networks. The key to networks

is participation; for the most part,

people participate on a minimal, but

sustained level. at a recent meeting of

cms managers and directors, Jonny gave the

example of someone who contributes a Wikipedia

entry; Wikipedia relies on often-minimal, but

sustained participation.

The daily discipline of prayer using cms Daily may

only take a few minutes, but it captures the heart of

what it means to be a community that’s participating

in God’s mission. and it’s a very good basis for doing

a lot more.

as we go forward in this journey of discovery and

participation in what it means to be a community

of people in mission, the trustees and senior

management team of cms will need to put a

number of new things in place. some of our

communications will need to be modified. We’ll

learn things from fellow travellers headed in the

same direction, though they may be doing some

things differently.

all in all it’s an exciting time to be putting our

mission spirituality into practice in a new way. it is by

participation in mission that we most keenly explore

the height, depth, breadth and length of the love of

God which is in christ.

See the CMS website for the full interview with the

Archbishop of Canterbury. For more information

about CMS Daily, contact 01865 787400

or info@cms-uk.org

Recommended Daily dosageBy Tim Dakin, cms general secretary

22 yes lent 2009

23 yes lent 2009

The winter issue of Share, magazine of the

south american mission society (sams), carries

a fascinating story about charles Darwin, which

coincides well with the 150th anniversary of the

publication of The origin of species. Bob lunt, editor

of share, writes:

“not widely known…is that from 1867 Darwin made

an annual subscription to sams funds in recognition

of the society’s work in transforming the lives of the

fuegian indians, the collective name of the tribes

of Tierra del fuego. sams annual reports used to

include names of donors and subscribers and tucked

away in the long list for 1867 is that of ‘charles

Darwin esq., per admiral sulivan’.”

apparently sir James sulivan, a longtime friend of

Darwin, sailed as second lieutenant on the Beagle.

Darwin had initially expressed serious doubts as to

whether the Tierra del fuego mission would do any

good. But by 1870 he changed his mind and sought

election as an honorary member of sams.

Still on the subject of anniversaries, andrew

Walls, one of the foremost mission historians,

has written: “The World missionary conference,

edinburgh 1910, has passed into christian legend.

it was a landmark in the history of mission; the

starting point of the modern theology of mission;

the high point of the modern Western missionary

movement and the point from which it declined; the

launch-pad of the modern ecumenical movement;

the point at which christians first began to glimpse

something of what a world church would be like.”

plans are underway for edinburgh 2010 (2–6 June)

which will celebrate the earlier event and address

the future of mission. cms is involved through Dr

cathy ross of the crowther centre for mission

education, who is helping shape the theme track on

“mission spirituality and authentic Discipleship”. full

information from the edinburgh 2010 website

www.edinburgh2010.org

For a sterling example of mission spirituality

and authentic discipleship in practice look no further

than the testimony of Jean Waddell. as this issue of

yes went to press, we passed the 30-year anniversary

of the release of three cms people in mission, Jean

Waddell with Dr John and audrey coleman, who were

imprisoned in the tumult of the iranian revolution. at

one stage Jean, secretary to the bishop, was shot and

had a close encounter with death. years later Jean

said, “Throughout the troubles of the middle east,

especially the revolution in iran and my wounding

and imprisonment, i was sustained by the continuing

awareness of God’s presence with me. i hope that my

response to these events helped others to seek his

presence in their lives.”

I never cease to be amazed by the variety

of ways cms people live out their day-to-day

discipleship. alison Blenkinsop (nee fookes) once

served in pakistan as a nurse at Bannu christian

Hospital. now in retirement, she devotes lots of

energy toward campaigning to limit damage caused

by inappropriate infant feeding. alison, who bills

herself as an “international Board certified lactation

consultant”, has published fit to Bust (pen press,

£9.99, isBn 978-1-906206-89-5). as anyone who’s

engaged with campaigns against firms promoting

baby formula as better than natural feeding will

appreciate, it’s a serious theme. But the book takes

a light-hearted route with a collection of memorable

poems, songs, cartoons and stories.

by John Martin

“Darwin...changed his

mind and sought election as an honorary

member of SaMS”

on 20 January, cms members recorded their overwhelming support for the plan to merge with sams. for the next few months cms and sams will work in close cooperation, with Henry scriven serving as mission director for south america and Tim Dakin providing overall leadership as general secretary of cms and sams. The new legal entity should be in place towards the end of 2009.

A family, sharing Jesus changing lives for over 200 years. Help enable the work of the CMS family to continue beyond our lifetimes. For more information, Mary Smith, our legacy administrator, is available on 01865 787513 or mary.smith@cms-uk.org

As my parents planted before I was born,

so do I plant for those who come after me.

A legacy...

...continuing the family of CMS