Look at Christian mission work through the centuries
Some notes from Stephen Neill's book, "A History of Christian Missions," regarding early missions: A. Neill speaks of three things that occurred in the first century that radically affected the expansion of the church. 1. The first was the realization the Jesus was not going to return quickly. After a fairly frenzied attempt to evangelize …
Continue reading Quotes and Notes on Early Christian Missions
"The secret of success in this work lies in beginning at the very beginning. It is the training of the first converts which sets the type for the future. If the first converts are taught to depend upon the missionary, if all work, evangelistic, educational, social is concentrated in his hands, the infant community learns …
Continue reading Another Roland Allen Quote. Missionaries and Leadership
Quote from John Ryland in his book, "The Work of Faith: the Labour of Love, and the Patience of Hope, Illustrated in the Life and Death of the Rev. Andrew Fuller, Late Pastor of the Baptist Church of Kettering, and the Secretary to the Baptist Missionary Society from its Commencement, in 1792". The book was …
I have to confess this a bit. I really enjoy missions work much more than church work. I am not alone in this. <I will put my confession in a follow-up post.> The Monastic movement in the early churches (Orthodox, Coptic, Nestorian, Roman Catholic, Celtic and Abyssinian... at least) was a rejection, in part, of …
The following is a great quote from "Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries" by Adolph von Harnack (1851-1930), from 1908 translated edition. This quote is from Volume 3, chapter 1 (section 366-369). The broader passage and related passages are available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (see http://www.ccel.org/ccel/harnack/mission.v.i.html#fna_v.i-p2.1) Passage emphasizes the …
<I am part of a mixed race marriage, and our children are (not surprisingly) mixed race and mixed culture. As such, I have a particular interest in mission’s attitude to racially mixed marriage and the role of race in missions in general.> For those who don’t know the term, miscegenation refers to “marriage or sexual …
“I am not reaping the harvest; I scarcely claim to be sowing the seed; I am hardly ploughing the soil; but I am gathering out the stones. That, too, is missionary work; let it be supported by loving sympathy and fervent prayer.” -Robert Bruce, missionary to Iranian Muslims in the late 19th century. <Quoted by …
One of the two most popular posts on this blog is: From Power Encounter to Love Encounter In that post, I argued that the common missiological model of encounters, Truth Encounter, Allegiance Encounter, and Power Encounter, is flawed. Power Encounter, the challenging of the powers of evil with the power of God for missiological purposes …
Continue reading Power Encounter, Love Encounter, and Pandemic Love
16th Century Cross-cultural Missions? Almost none Leading Sending Nation: None Primary Concepts? State Protestant Denominations. Theological development. Political/Religious survival 17th Century Cross-cultural Missions? Limited Leading Sending Nation: Netherlands Primary Concepts? Local missions. Migration. Bivocational missions 18th Century Cross-cultural Missions? Yes. Leading Sending Nation? German states Primary Concept? "Tentmaking missions" 19th Century …
Short Story #1. Years ago in my engineering days, I walked into Lifeway Bookstore. I saw they had a copy of Eusebius’ Church History. I brought the book up to the check out counter and the cashier said, “Oh, I’m SO glad you bought that. My manager wanted to discontinue selling that book because Baptists …