October

4 What is Mission?

This class will offer an overview of the course. We will concentrate on particular stories, seeing what they can tell us about how to understand mission. But first we begin by offering definitions of mission – what kind of images, thoughts, expectations, fears, hopes, etc., does the word evoke? In order to progress further in the class, what will we need to consider, what do we need to know, what do we need to confront?

11 Studying Mission

Like all disciplines, missiology has a history. So we will look at some of the people who have marked that history, what they have been trying to do, what they contributed, what they neglected? What are the current trends and practices, where and why is mission studied?

18 Missional Hermeneutics

In this course, we are looking at mission as an encounter of stories. For Christians, the defining story is always the story of God’s self-revelation to and interaction with the world, culminating in the coming of Jesus. This story is told in the Bible. So how do we encounter the Bible as a story about mission, about the Father sending the Son and the Holy Spirit, about God sending Israel, about Jesus sending out his disciples. But before we look in more detail at the particular stories, we consider a way of reading the bible from the perspective of mission, that is, a missional hermeneutics.

25 No Class

November

1 The Old Testament: Please note: This class will take place in the Mála posluchárna

This week’s class will take the story of Jeremiah, not normally regarded as being primarily about mission. We will read this story, using the missional hermeneutics we examined previously, to see what the story might have to tell us about the nature of mission, of being sent by God. We consider the person of the missionary, the techniques, word and deed, the necessary involvement in politics, the tasks of the missionary to proclaim truth against lies, and so on.

8 No Class

15 The New Testament

The focus this week will be the mission discourses of Matthew and Luke especially, and what they suggest about the task of mission. We will also consider Jesus’ own encounters with the other, especially the non-Israelite other, and what that tells us about how we go about encountering people on the journey.

22 Mission Histories

We look at some histories of missionaries, looking at how they encountered the other. This week we will look at some missionaries from different traditions to see what they can teach us.

29 Mission Histories

We continue, this time taking the story of women missionaries, and considering to what extent there are differences in the way men and women engage in mission and what each can learn from the other.

December

6 Where Do We Meet? Places and People

One of the most fundamental claims of modern mission studies is the importance of paying attention to local cultures and contexts. In this class we will examine this aspect, discussing what the role of culture and context is, how both to affirm and challenge it, and what we need to learn from the other in order to communicate with them. We will examine some models of contextual theology, considering which might be most appropriate for our own home contexts.

13 Why Do We Meet? Aims of Mission

This week’s class will look at the reasons for doing mission and the ends it has in sight. What these are will influence greatly how the missionary acts. It may be conversion, or evangelisation, or it may be about deepening one’s own faith in contact with others, or it may be an innate belief in the superiority of one’s own faith and culture (or indeed in the inferiority of one’s own faith and culture). But how do these different beliefs and starting points and desired end points influence mission and how it is done?

January

3 What Do We Bring?

To do anything requires certain skills and the ability to make use of the talents we have for the purpose in mind. This is true for mission. So what are the skills required to do mission and how can they be developed? What are the different talents that can be used? How do we encounter the giftedness of the other, so that the other can also be a co-traveller on the journey to God? These questions force us also to consider who the missionary is, and what it means to suggest that all Christians are called to mission.

10 What Do We Do?

This week we will reflect on what it means to engage in mission, reflecting concretely on what is involved, the different ways of engaging in mission.