School of Christian Mission 2010
School of Christian Mission
SAVE THE DATE FOR 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
Highlights
All Africa Dress for International Dinner on Thursday and Saturday evenings
Three “Mom and Child” scholarships PLUS free nursery for children ages 5 and under at the weekend event
Watch for more information!
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 CHRISTIANITY
Mission 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.