This was a real-time interactive consultation, therefore we did not offer a hybrid or online option.
The 2023 Mission Commission Global Consultation was going to be held in 2020 but, as we all know, the global pandemic paused everything. The theme of “Our Missions Future” was decided in 2019. The original objective was to explore changes in missions thinking and activity as we entered a new decade. The pandemic, however, has greatly altered the conversation we originally thought would happen! Some issues are no longer valid, others are accelerated, and new issues have emerged.
GC23 will continue to build on the conversation held in Panama at GC16, the theme of which was “Polycentric Mission”. At GC16 we explored the concept of “polycentricity” (many centres of
Global Consultations are opportunities for missions practitioner-leaders to share wisdom and learn together in collaborative conversation spaces, influencing the future of missions.
authority) and particularly listened to the Latin American experience of receiving and sending missionaries. The Mission Commission has long understood that missions includes people from everywhere going to everyone but, as we heard from the stories of missions to and from Central and South America, some missions movements have not always been well recognised or received, and others rightly critiqued in hindsight.
The study of World Christianity helps shed new light on the impact and effects of cross-cultural missions and the missionaries who have sacrificially served to nurture gospel impact in nations that had little or no access to it. We see that expatriate (outsider) initiatives can be wonderful catalysts for gospel growth, but historic investigations and contemporary research data show that it is an indigenous (local) church that spreads most effectively and remains over time, and indigenous theology that sustains and matures new movements to Christ, especially in contexts of persecution. Yet, indigenous movements of local churches do not exist in a vacuum. All churches and all believers everywhere must remain in conversation with one another as we learn to understand the ways of our Lord and live in the Kingdom of God for God’s glory as faithful disciples of Jesus for our contemporary contexts.
The image that has emerged to guide this Global Consultation is that of pebbles dropped into a pond which create ripples that spread from multiple impact points (centres) and intersect with one another. Where gospel impact is felt in one area (the pebble dropping), the effects ripple out, and as they interact with ripples from other centres it causes waves (points of difference, tension and conflict). So we get, “local impact, ripples & waves” in a polycentric (multiple centres of authority) world.
The challenge for cross-cultural ministry is, how can we best work together when we come from different ‘centres of authority’ (or cultural understandings), which influence the way we know and relate to God, one another, our neighbours and our habitats? As we listen to keynote presentations and to one another around tables, in breakout rooms and hallways, and over food/drink, we anticipate the Spirit of God will speak to us in such a way that we can collectively discern (perceive/see) the “new thing” that God is doing in our day for “Our | Missions | Future”.
Many of our Global Leadership Council, Lead Cohort of Deputy Leaders, and special issues Synergists will be identifiable on site to serve consultation participants. In addition we will be hearing from:
Ruth is the Chair of the Mission Commission’s Global Leadership Council. She is a an educationalist specialising in communities of learning with particular interest in applying communal learning methods in missions contexts. Her identity is protected because she is a missions practitioner in a security sensitive part of the world. Ruth alternates between her field service location and UK.
Jay is the Director of the World Evangelical Alliance’s Global Witness department and Executive Director of the Mission Commission (which sits within the Global Witness department). Jay is of mixed Māori and British/European heritage. and has served in cross-cultural missions since 1995, His indigenous heritage increasingly informs his understanding and experience of God’s mission. Jay is based in New Zealand.
Someone wise once noted, “prayer is the real work, the rest is just collecting the results“. If the global pandemic has taught us anything, it should be that God’s mission continues often in spite of our grand strategies and plans. We want to ensure we tap into God’s plans for Our Missions Future, not our own. We will be led in multi-cultural worship by a wonderful team from Proskuneo. We encourage participants to participate in prayer at the start of the day, enter into congregational worship, and be sure to prioritise our “concert of prayer” evening. These are foundational to our time together.
Peter Oyugi serves the MC as a Deputy Leader and is part of the Coordinating Core Team at Movement Of African National Initiatives (MANI). Originally from Kenya, he has previously served as the Director of African Mobilisation with AIM International, as a Pastor in the UK for 10 years, and as a student worker with both the Fellowship of Christian Unions in Kenya and the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship in the UK. Peter is one of the founding directors of the Centre for Missionaries from the Majority World, UK and a member of the Global Connections UK Council. Peter is based in the UK.
Claire serves as an MC Deputy Leader too. She lived in Cambodia as a missionary and tentmaker for 15 years. Her passion and work revolve around the re-thinking of an Asian missiology through research, resource development and training. She is an associate of the Singapore Centre for Global Missions, a country (Singapore) co-ordinator with SEANET, an innovation catalyst of the CBWt.co.lab (in collaboration with Winter Launch Lab), and a research scholar with the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. Claire is based in Singapore.
Jan serves the MC as a member of its Global Leadership Council and its Executive Committee. He leads the Faith2Share network and is co-General Secretary of the European Evangelical Alliance. He has been a Dutch Missions Pastor of the Christian Reformed Bethelkerk in Veenendaal, the ‘Buckle of the Dutch Bible Belt’ and he and his wife Beppie served for nearly 18 years in Botswana (Africa), as well as in the Netherlands, as missionaries. Jan is based in Netherlands.
Nosa also serves on the MC Global Leadership Council and its Executive Committee. She is the Deputy International Director (Resource Development) at Missions Supporters League (MSL), as well as on the Coordinating Core Team of MANI, alongside her responsibilities as Executive Coordinator of the African Women in Missions Network (AWIMN) and Coordinator of the Children in Missions Network (CIMN) for MANI. She is also a member of the Facilitating Team of Ethne. Nosa is based in Nigeria.
The objective of keynote speakers (some longer, some shorter) is to prompt round-table discussions. Our agenda ends there. In the true meaning of a consultation, the conversations around the table will be the most important aspect of our time together. But we’re not just inviting you to the table, we’re inviting you into the kitchen! GC23 participants will effectively be chefs co-creating a collaborative recipe for the future of missions. Be prepared to bring your own ingredients (passions, experience and ideas about God’s mission and our missions) to share. Let’s see what the Spirit of God cooks up in our midst.
Gina is a scholar of the history of mission and world Christianity. She holds a Ph.D. from Boston University School of Theology (Boston, MA) where she studied under the direction of Dana Robert. Her dissertation researched the work of David B. Barrett. She is also a demographer of religion and studies every religion in every country of the world in the past, present, and future. She serves as Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary as well as Visiting Research Fellow at Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs, founded by sociologist Peter Berger. Gina is based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Bijoy is the International Director of Interserve. He worked as a General Practitioner (medical doctor) in India for 13 years before joining Interserve India in 1994 and became National Director in 1996. Over 10 years he grew the organisation in size and diversity. He became Regional Director for the Americas and North Pacific in 2006 and South Asia in 2013 before accepting the appointment as International Director in 2015. He is eager to encourage missions innovation that requires us to look afresh through the lenses of Community, Kingdom, and Powerlessness, thus opening us up to greater diversity and inclusivity. Bijoy is based in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Nataliya is the National Director of Missions Interlink Australia, she also serves on the MC’s Global Leadership Council. Before moving to Australia in 2013, she served in a number of senior leadership roles in Moscow, Siberia and Ukraine. Her areas of service were in church planting, organisational development and Christian education, including with the largest mission organisation and church planting body in post-Soviet Union countries. For four years, as the Director of a Bible College in Moscow, she cast a new vision, innovated, and established a sustainable financial system that resulted in significant growth. Nataliya is based in Melbourne, Australia.
Craig is the founder and director of Alongsiders, an international grassroots youth discipleship movement. As a New Zealander, he is “an outsider who helps insiders become alongsiders” and engages directly with the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable children in the developing world. After developing a community based approach to orphan care in Cambodia, then ministering in an inner city residential outreach community in Canada, Craig and his family returned to Cambodia to create the international, reproducible, youth discipleship movement that became Alongsiders. Craig is based in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Ken is an MC Deputy Leader and the President for Crossover Global, a church planting organization committed to honouring God by providing gospel access to unreached people groups. He was born in Brazil and began working for Crossover in 1999. He and also served as a Vice-Chair of the board for COMHINA (The USA arm of COMIBAM) and, currently serves as a board member of Missio Nexus (the USA missions alliance) and Columbia International University in South Carolina. Ken is based in Columbia, South Carolina.
Dave is MC Synergist for Church Planting and Movements. He serves with BEYOND as an encourager and resourcer of Church Planting Movements among unreached groups. He has served as Lead Facilitator for the Bridging the Divide network since 2011, and is a member of the leadership team of the Motus Dei network. After pastoring for 10 years in the US, he served among Muslims in Southeast Asia for 24 years. Dave has published widely on topics related to contextualization, reaching Muslims, and the nature of the church, and Church Planting Movements. Dave is based in Buffalo, New York.
JP (John Paul) is the MC Synergist for Tech. A Filipino, he pastors a culturally diverse congregation in the USA. JP is actively conversant in digital theology discussions in social media and is involved with major Evangelical networks exploring digital/virtual evangelism and missions. His vision is to see churches, ministries and missions all around the world reaching out to non-Christians who live and relate inside virtual/digital worlds. JP is based in New Jersey.
Jo serves the MC as a Deputy Leader and Synergist for Creation Care. She is passionate about the impact of consumerism and individualism on the Western church, the planet and the lives of people in poverty. Her focus is on environmental and economic sustainability, practically leading to a zero-waste lifestyle. Jo has a passion for young people and whole-of-life mission (integral or holistic mission), theology and equipping churches, theological colleges and organisations concerning a broader Biblical understanding of God’s mission. Jo is based in Wales, UK.
We have the capacity to host 13 concurrent issues conversations on site, during 6 different afternoon time slots. These will be conversations focused on a particular missions issue, facilitated by either a Mission Commission Synergist or another practitioner involved in the issue being discussed. To help focus the conversations, participants will be asked to explore a few key questions related to GC23’s over-all theme (Our Missions Future), towards innovating some practical applications to help resolve challenges related to their issue.
Tentative Issues (subject to addition and/or change)
Caring for Life
(Anti-Exploitation, Engaging the Traumatised, Protecting the Vulnerable)
Centring the Local
(Indigenous Missions & Movements)
Co-Creationships
(For Effective Cross-Cultural Collaboration)
Communication Innovations
(Bible Translation, Gospel Transmission, Story-Telling, Media & Advances in Communications Tech.)
Conveying God’s Grace
(communicating the gospel with contemporary cultural relevance)
Creation Care
(As an Act of Worship and a Witness to the World)
Critical Mission Studies
(Paradigm shifts in missions thinking)
Culturally Informed Care
(in Complex Contexts)
Dislocation & Density
(Urban Missions Challenges)
Fellowship Across Borders
(Sending Churches and Trans-border Church Relationships)
Gospel Future in Hostile Contexts
(Advocacy and Solidarity in the midst of Persecution)
Missions in the Marketplace
(Work, Worship, Witness
in the World)
Missions Motivations
(New Era Implications for Mobilisation)
Missions on the Move
(Missions Implications of Migrants, Refugees, International Students)
Pathways to the Heart
(Living the Gospel Through Arts & Music)
Public Engagement
(Biblical justice advocacy, political influence, activism, and wellbeing development)
Research Priorities
(Crafting Investigations to Enhance Our Missions Future)
Tech rEvolutions
(Missions in Our Digital Future)
Theological Training
(For Local Church & Missions Leaders)
Training Missionaries
(for the New Era of Missions)
Young Leader Development
(Missions Implications for Leaders Emerging in Contexts of Uncertainty & Crisis)
We are working on the possibility of arranging an afternoon group excursion to a Chiang Mai attraction. Information about this will be made known to participants closer to the time.
It is always difficult to strike a balance between directed engagement (in session) and free/networking time. We want to maximise our time together in both respects and we have arranged the programme so that there is free time available to connect more socially with friends old and new and explore opportunities for greater collaboration. Please make the most of the times allotted, but also honour the speakers and your round-table colleagues by being present when the programme requires it.
The programme is still being developed and is subject to refinement.
“OUR” (Who are ‘we’? Who does missions include? Who is being excluded from missions?)
“MISSIONS” (What is missions in the new era? How are we to respond to what God is doing?)
“FUTURE” (What challenges are we facing? Where is the hope? How shall we better convey our biblically faithful gospel?)
(Checkout of rooms by 10am)