School of Christian Mission 2010
School of Christian Mission
Introduction to School of Christian Mission
Centennial and Lake Harriet United Methodist Women/ Twin Cities District are planning an Introduction to School of Christian Mission, sometimes known as a Mini School, on Saturday, October 30, 2010 at Centennial UMC. The day is intended to introduce this year’s 3 United Methodist Women studies.
Persons who would enjoy this event are those who were unable to attend this summer’s Conference School of Christian Mission, those who plan to teach one of the studies or folks who just like to be well informed. Men, youth, as well as all women, not just UMW, are encouraged to join us.
The day begins at 9:00 AM with welcoming coffee. There will be one hour sessions for each study; 2 in the morning and 1 after a delicious lunch. We plan to finish by 2:30 PM.
The geographic study this year is the second year of “The Beauty and Courage of Sudan”. The Mission Study is “Joy to the World: Mission in the Age of Global Christianity”. “For the Love of God: The Epistles of John” is the Spiritual Growth study. Study leadership is currently being sought. That information will be posted on the TC District UMW web site ( www.myumw.com) as soon as it is available.
The registration fee of $20 includes lunch. Scholarship funds are available.
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REGISTRATION FORM:
Please return this form and the registration fee of $20 by the Deadline--Monday October 26
Make checks payable to Centennial United Methodist Women and mail to:
United Methodist Women Centennial United Methodist Church
1524 West County Road C-2 Roseville, MN 55113 -1635
Questions? Contact Marge Spannaus at gmargie61@earthlink.net or 952-831-1965
Pauline Richards at Richardsgp@aol.com or 651-633-7437
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SCHOOL OF CHRISTIAN MISSION 2010
at St. John’s University
Collegeville, MN
Weekday July 13-16, 2010
Drive-in Day July 15, 2010
Weekend July 16-18, 2010
Studies
For the Love of God: John’s Letters
Joy to the World: Mission in the Age of Global Christianity
The Beauty and Courage of Sudan
FAITH • HOPE • LOVE IN ACTION
2010 Schools of Christian Mission Theme
As people of FAITH, we trust in the promise of Christ to bring light into darkness and
new life to brokenness and death.
As people of HOPE, we celebrate and share the good news of Jesus Christ. Together in
the world we are partners in God’s mission of healing and wholeness so that all might
have abundant life.
As people of God, we LOVE because God first loved us. It is out of that love that we
welcome all into community, unite what is divided, mend what is broken, call for peace
where there is war, make just what is unjust, and offer hope where there is despair.
FAITH • HOPE • LOVE IN ACTION: All God’s people in mission together in the
world!
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD: JOHN’S LETTERS
2010 Spiritual Growth Study
Written by Justo L. and Catherine Gunsalus González, this study offers an in-depth study of John’s Letters. It seeks to answer key questions such as “Who wrote the Letters?,” “To whom were they written originally?,” and “What do these Letters mean today to us?” Further the study explores the common references such as the polarity between life and death, light and darkness, truth and falsehood in John’s Letters and the Fourth Gospel. The study also examines the resemblance of images and phrases that appear in John’s Letters and the Fourth Gospel, including the view that salvation consists in “having life,” God being “light,” Christian life as “walking in
light,” and many others.
1 John, rather than a letter in the strict sense, was a resource intended to be read to
gathered congregations as they prepared to celebrate the Lord’s Supper. The partakers are being told that they are partners with God. This partnership or koinonia also meant communion—the celebration of the Lord’s Supper that was the high point of Christian worship. Communion was named koinonia because through it, Christians became partners in the body of Christ, and also because the early communion services were occasions of sharing in which all brought what they could, and in that particular moment, as in a foretaste of the Reign of God, none would be hungry.
John Wesley found the simplicity of 1 John quite valuable, and he deplored the manner
in which many preachers in his time confused complexity with profundity, and form with
substance. Wesley said, “If any man speak,” in the name of God, “let him speak as the oracles of God;” and if he would imitate any part of these above the rest, let it be the First Epistle of St. John. This is the style, the most excellent style, for every good preacher. And let him aim at no more ornament than he finds in that sentence, which is the sum of the whole gospel, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”
In 1 John, the emphasis lies on love of God and of one another—a love that expresses the hope of believers for what is to come. Different age groups in the community of faith—and, by implication, other groups on the basis of gender, culture, etc.--are all part of the same community, and the commandment of love applies to all of them—particularly across group lines. 1 John draws the readers to the close bonding between Christ and his church. The followers of Jesus who are joined to Christ in baptism are anointed as he was anointed—they were made christs, anointed ones, by virtue of the Christ, the anointed One. In ancient baptismal services, the newly baptized were anointed with oil on the forehead as a sign that they were part of the holy, priestly people of
God. If this was already the practice in John’s time, what he was telling his readers sounds familiar in today’s context: “Remember your baptism.” They will not be led astray by the antichrist because they have received the chrisma of Christ. The authors explore how 2 John talks about truth and love, and 3 John about unity in love. Together, 2 John and 3 John show the complexity and difficulties inherent in the unavoidable task of “discerning the spirits.” Keeping both truth and love—or even better, knowing that truth without love is false, and that love without truth is not love—is the constant calling to which we, the readers of the Letters, must return today.
The study guide by Mary Kathyrn Pearce offers a variety of methods of facilitating the study, examples of love in action and models of beloved community. Examples are from the
writings and impact of persons such as Martin Luther King, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letty M. Russell, Wesley Ariarajah, Wahu Kaara, and others.
JOY TO THE WORLD: MISSION IN THE AGE OF GLOBAL CHRISTIANITYMission Study 2010-2011
Dana Robert, author of the mission study text and Professor of World Christianity and
History of Mission at Boston University School of Theology, says this in her
introduction:
“Joy to the World” is a shout of celebration, penned by the great hymn writer
Isaac Watts in 1819. Although it is a beloved Christmas carol, its message does not stop
at Christmas Day. Its deeper message is not about the birth of a baby, but about
fundamental changes brought into the world by the coming of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to bring “abundant life” in place of human limitations ,brokenness and death(John
10:10)…The title of this mission study reflects the conviction that for United Methodists, mission and evangelism flow from the joyous gratitude for the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
Joy to the World: Mission in the Age of Global Christianity by Dana L. Robert, with
study guide by Toby Gould, explores the theology of mission and evangelism in the
twenty-first century context of Christianity as a world-wide religion. The study invites us to look at why we are involved in mission and how we proclaim the Good News in Jesus Christ. What are the biblical mandates for mission? Does Christ call each of us to be his evangelist?
The study sets the biblical and historical context for the reality that Christianity is now the largest world religion and explores the theological foundations for Christian mission, drawing upon the New Testament model of Jesus Christ and on Methodist history as sources for United Methodist understandings of mission and evangelism. Contemporary practices of world mission will be examined through models of mission rooted in both scripture and history: mission of hospitality, mission of healing and mission of reconciliation-all ways of celebrating God’s intention to bring hope and wholeness to the world through Jesus Christ.
One hundred years ago, in 1910, the first World Missionary Conference was held in
Edinburg, Scotland. At the same time, church women were celebrating a 50 year jubilee
of the first women’s missionary society. In 2010, there will be a follow-up to the
Edinburgh conference and celebrations of 150 years since that founding of the women’s
missionary society. Joy to the World: Mission in the Age of Global Christianity gives
us the opportunity to “catch up” with the changes in direction, goals, and methods of
mission work in these 100 years.
Joy to the World! The Lord is come! We know there is much hard work before us, and yet God is with us. It is time to celebrate! (Dana L. Robert)
The Beauty and Courage of Sudan: Why a Dream of Peace Is Possible
2009-2010 Mission Study
For most of the past twenty years the country of Sudan has been plagued with severe
drought. Desertification is apparent in the west, where thorn bushes dominate the savanna landscape of South Darfur and are killing out the native acacia trees. The shortages of food due to drought have sometimes reached famine proportions. Climate change in Sudan is not just a looming crisis; it is the reality on the ground. And then there are the wars of Sudan: unremitting, for nearly all its history.
Yet at Sudan’s core is beauty. Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski captured it well:
“More than anything one is struck by the light.” Aside from the landscape’s beauty, there is an interior beauty: The spirit of courage. A richness of tradition, antiquity, cultures, and natural resources. Human interchange and endurance in all its mystery. The Mission Study for 2009-2010, The Beauty and Courage of Sudan: Why a Dream of Peace Is Possible, written by Linda Beher, with study guide by Maxine West, offers an extended portrait of Sudan. Explored are an overview of history that began in Bible times; the country’s main ethnicities, religions and languages; touch points and possible causes for the wars; the way Sudanese women are contributing to the peace process and to the culture as a whole; a critique of the severe impact of colonialism and current challenges; and some ways in which people of faith can embrace and affirm the Sudanese people. Sudan is “other” in ways that disconcert Westerners who struggle to understand. The theologian Sally McFague encouraged us to view differences with others with a “loving eye” rather than the “arrogant eye” sometimes brought to such discourse. Using our loving eye in this study, we can see that Sudan and its people embody and inspirit many of the issues of the 21st Century continent of Africa. Their beauty and courage promise the hope that eventually they will realize the dream of peace.