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School of Christian Mission 2010

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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.