Mission Leaders Research Articles

The role of emotions in discerning God’s will in missions: A comparison of the approaches of Ignatius of Loyola and J. Hudson Taylor

Discernment of God’s spiritual leading and an authentic basis for participation in missionary service is a vital foundation for resilience in missions. Additionally, emerging studies on emotions within Christianity demonstrate their being integral to human identity and behavior. The role of emotions in discernment for decision-making in missions has significant implications for motivation for missionary service. Analysis of the role of emotions in decision-making in the spiritualities of two leading historical mission leaders, Ignatius of Loyola and J. Hudson Taylor, reveal five key aspects of discernment. Passion for God and others, indifference to self, spiritual-emotional maturity, the ability to discern and confirm God’s voice, and knowing how to test external signs are all essential for correctly discerning the source of any revelation. Specifically developing these key aspects of discernment would be beneficial for missionary preparation and ongoing spiritual formation.

Leadership Agency in UN Peace Operations

ABSTRACT There is a growing interest in the role of individual mission leaders in UN peace operations in peacekeeping studies. However, the concept of ‘agency’ has remained latent in much of this literature. This omission presents a risk of concept stretching and concept ambiguity as scholars continue to explore this topic. In this paper, I analyse the different ways in which the agency of mission leaders has been (implicitly) conceptualized thus far and argue that the existing literature pays insufficient attention to how the scope for individual agency can be context-dependent. Furthermore, I contend that mission leaders are too rarely seen as real human beings, with personalities, background experiences and values. I build on sociological and principal/agent-theories to develop the concept of ‘personal identity’ and then formulate a set of conditions under which the room for individual agency in UN peace operations is enhanced or reduced. Subsequently, I demonstrate the added value of this approach by conducting an illustrative case study of Patrick Cammaert’s tenure as Commander of MONUC’s Eastern Division between 2005-2007. The article shows that investigating the interaction between structure and real-world agents leads to a more holistic and sophisticated understanding of the behaviour of peacekeeping leadership.

Catalysts are more likely to start a movement the more they grow

This article examines the traits and competencies that characterize effective move-ment catalysts, based on a study of 147 effective movement catalysts from around the world. It goes on to examine how pioneer mission leaders develop these qualities over time. Interestingly, the overwhelming majority of their traits and competencies show no correlation with ministry longevity or with life maturity. Irrespective of age and experience, a pioneer leader can develop these vital catalytic qualities to a high degree. Also, research shows that effective catalysts continue to grow them over time, whereas other pioneers who did not start a movement not just plateau, but seem to decline. As a whole, this is a call to make personal growth and development a central task in ministry.

""САТУРН” ПОЧТИ НЕ ВИДЕН" (НЕИЗВЕСТНАЯ СЕМИНАРИЯ)

The article analyses the history of the Tokyo Orthodox seminary, established in 1875 at the Russian Orthodox Mission in Japan (the Russian Spiritual Mission to Japan). The study was inspired by the most interesting document that was found by one of the authors of the article in the State Archives of the Russian Federation while examining the archival fund of the well-known church figure Archpriest P.I. Bulgakov (GA RF, F. Р597, Inv. 1, D. 135). The document is entitled “The School of the Imperial Russian Orthodox (Tikhon) Church for Educating Japanese Spies” and signed with a penname of “Ivan Goremyka” (Luckless Ivan). It considers from a completely new perspective the activities of the Tokyo Seminary, which in Russian historiography has always been positioned as one of the highest achievements of the “soft power” exercised to promote the Russian influence on the Japanese archipelago. Such an approach necessitated a thorough analysis of all the aspects of the functioning of the described educational institution, to which most of the proposed article is addressed. Special attention is given to the activities of seminarians after seminary graduation and the extent to which mission leaders are held accountable for the charges. A special attention is given to the seminarian activities after the graduation from the Seminary as well as to the degree of responsibility of the Mission leaders for the accusations brought against them. It should be mentioned that the noninvolvement (except for some naivety) of Saint Nicholai of Japan, the Primate of Eastern Orthodoxy in Japan, glorified as Equal-to-the-Apostles (secular name Ivan Dmitrovich Kasatkin) was questioned neither by the “whistle-blower” himself nor by any other representative of the Russian colony in Tokyo. However, his successor as the ruling bishop of the Japanese Orthodox mission Sergii (secular name Georgiy Alexeyevich Tikhomirov) aroused certain suspicions, so that “Ivan Goremyka” merely accused him of aiding the Japanese intelligence agencies. Finally the authors came to the conclusion that despite being too negative and categorical, “Ivan Goremyka’s” arguments are not far from the truth: indeed, the Japanese authorities somehow managed to even use the Russian Orthodox seminary in their anti-Russian actions. The article considers separately the fate of the Russian seminarians, the father of the Russian Sambo martial art V.S. Oshchepkov among them, who helped the Russian counterintelligence in its attempts to mitigate the negative aspects in the activity of the Seminary.

Luís Fróis’s História de Japam: Rhetorical additions and the silencing of facts

This paper considers Portuguese Jesuit Luís Fróis (1532-1597) and his magnum opus the 5 volumes História de Japam, the first of the histories of the Jesuit mission in the archipelago by authors who took part in the evangelization of this country. Through close reading of this text and comparing it to fellow missionaries’ letters as well as Fróis own previous letters, the História is analysed. Following the advice of the pioneer of the mission, Francis Xavier (1506-52), anything unedifying was omitted from the missives and the missionaries’ letters from Japan continued to focus on the success of the mission, avoiding to mention the negative issues. In doing so the image of the mission was glossy which led to mission leaders such as Visitor Alessandro Valignano (1539-1606) and Superior of Japan, Francisco Cabral (c.1533-1609), to complain that the Jesuit’s letters contain errors and gave misleading information.I contend that Fróis not only attempted to rectify previous ‘errors’ made by earlier Jesuit epistolary accounts, and argue that his real intentions go beyond attempting to diminish over-enthusiastic reports and presenting a more accurate and complete picture of the Japanese mission. Fróis wrote with a clear agenda, sometimes deliberately altering information, and creating a narrative that suggested a more coherent and sequent enterprise than existed in reality.

Reformed theological education and formation

This article will hold up a mirror to the Reformed tradition’s theological education past and present, specifically in the context of the DRC. This paper will also make proposals for the future, peering through the window towards possibilities for theological education and formation and the reformation of Reformed spirituality. The Reformed tradition has always maintained a high academic standard when it comes to theological education and the formation of its clergy. The curriculum used by the DRC, modelled on the European system, still to a great extent reflects the needs of the church decades ago and is challenged by the DRC’s current ecclesiological understanding. A missional church, as portrayed by the DRC’s policy document, requires missional clergy, or missional leadership, and thus theological education that supports this type of formation. This article proposes a more holistic spiritual formation programme that cultivates a sound Reformed spirituality and enables the formation of these missional leaders.

Church Finances for Missional Leaders: Best Practices for Faithful Stewardship

Church leaders have a corporate social responsibility (CSR) to their communities and congregations. In this context, CSR is used as a business model to hold church leaders accountable to themselves, stakeholders, and the public. In Church Finances for Missional Leaders: Best Practice for Faithful Stewardship, Bonnie Marden analyzes how churches can steward growth in their congregants and church finances. The author expresses how the practices of church stewardship and financial stewardship must come together and form a continuous joint relationship for the success of the church.

Leaps in the womb of Asia: Transformative intercultural discipleship in a sacred space

The 21st century is marked by the explosive growth of Christianity in the Global South. While discipleship is identified as the key to success in the missional movement in the western church, it has been inherently embodied in the indigenous church movement in Asia in the endeavor of evangelism and mission. In addition to the traditional gospel proclamation through church planting strategies, spiritual companionship, a ministry of accompanying someone in a sacred space through deep listening and discernment, has been gradually recognized as an effective one-on-one discipleship in recent years among groups who are receptive to the untamed movement of the Spirit. Using the metaphor of a pregnant mother carrying a baby and experiencing leaps in the womb (Lk 1:41), this article traces the engagement of intercultural discipleship through listening to the sacred stories of several mission leaders in Asia. Following the transformative narratives of their divine encounters, it discerns three key movements of the Spirit, metaphorically speaking, the “leaps” in the womb: listening with trust; turning with symbols; and kicking with expectation. Drawing from the works of anthropologists, theologians, and missiologists, it interacts the contemporary Asian experience with ancient Confucian texts and the Christian Scriptures, nuancing the traditional understanding of intercultural discipleship and evangelism. It aims to show that prophetic spiritual companionship is an integral part of discipleship and evangelism, therefore indispensable to the indigenous church mission movement. It is hoped that it also provides an impetus and resources for teaching and practice of the global church in its endeavor to revitalize faith in a post-Christendom and post-secular world.

Catholic Health Care and the Mission Leader: A Religious Exercise.

Inspired by the Divine Healer Jesus of Nazareth, Catholic healthcare has been a religious exercise since its inception. First practiced in the setting of the monastery in the earliest centuries AD and incarnated over two millennia by a variety of religious orders of consecrated men and women, Catholic healthcare today faces a crisis of identity. The role of the mission leader, envisioned by the religious brothers and sisters who founded various Catholic healthcare organizations, was a primary conduit to preserve the charisms of the founders and ensure the identity of Catholic healthcare as a religious exercise and ministry of the Church. With data from a recent survey of Catholic healthcare mission leaders, a number of critical challenges currently confront the role of mission leader and will potentially inhibit that role from fulfilling its original mandate. This article will present the findings of this survey, analyze the resulting challenges and present specific recommendations to strengthen the role of the mission leader and ensure Catholic healthcare will remain true to its ethos as a ministry of the Church and religious exercise.

“Can Men Have Hearts?”: Susa Young Gates's Divorce, 1878

“Can Men Have Hearts?”: Susa Young Gates's Divorce, 1878

The International Missionary Council

AbstractThis article reflects on the 40‐year history of the International Missionary Council (IMC) from its formation at Lake Mohonk in 1921 to its integration within the World Council of Churches at the WCC's 3rd Assembly in New Delhi in 1961. It does so by analyzing the explicit or implicit answers that were given within IMC circles to three fundamental theological questions. The first question is: What is the theological basis and justification for the Christian mission to all of humanity? A second question came to be regarded by the first IMC secretary, J. H. Oldham, as of primary importance: What is a Christian view of race and racial justice? A third question lay at the heart of the changing relationship between the IMC and the WCC: To what extent does the mission of the church require its visible unity? In investigating the various answers to these questions given within IMC meetings between 1921 and 1961, the article also pursues a fourth question: What answers did non‐Western church and mission leaders give to these three questions, and were their answers heard by the white Europeans and Americans who directed the IMC throughout its history? The article pays particular attention to the Jerusalem meeting in March–April 1928 and the debates supporting and opposing integration within the WCC at what was technically the first assembly of the IMC in Ghana in December 1957–January 1958.

“Their Deeds Shall Be Made Manifest”: The Scandalous Mission of Joseph W. Clements to Great Britain, 1848–1851

“Their Deeds Shall Be Made Manifest”: The Scandalous Mission of Joseph W. Clements to Great Britain, 1848–1851

Missional Church Leadership in the Pneumatological Perspective

This study intends to find missional leadership in the pneumatological perspective by focusing on bibllical, historical, missiological and theological appraoches. God send us to His mission fields and He is also doing mission with us. Missional church is about the nature and purpose of the church. The church is sending public spheres as well as individual people as an alternative community. For this reason, the missional leaders also needs to fulfill the public calling in their public and social roles for mission and evangelism in the Holy Spirit. In this study, I concentrate on a biblical, historical, missiological and theological understanding of the missional leadership through the Holy Spirit. I attempt to deal with the concept of ‘missional church in the missiological perspective. The mission of Trintarian God is crucial for practicing missional church leadership because the Son and the Spirit through the Father are doing mission as missionary God. In the Bible, Jesus’ Great commission is fulfilled in the Holy Spirit. Harry R. Boer recognizes the Great Commission and missions on Pentecost. Roland Allen is an great model of practicing missionary task in the doctrine of the Spirit as a missionary. Craig Van Gelder also develops a biblical and historical approach for a missional ecclesiology in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit encourages the missional church leaders to fulfill God’s redemptive reign in the world. Theologically, Jürgen Moltmann’s pneumatology is important for understanding missional church leadership through the Holy Spirit. He deals with the Church in the Power of the Holy Spirit: 1) the church of Jesus Christ, 2) the missionary church, 3) ecumenical church, and 4) the political church. The missionary church emphasizes “Missio Dei in the Trinitarian history.”

Missional metanoia: Missional spirituality in holistic theological education

Theological education is in crisis having lost an important dimension with its main focus on quality academics often abstracted from real life. This study aimed to propose that the formation of spirituality is fundamental to theological education and that theological education should be a holistic formation. The setting of this study is re-imaging theological education in the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC), a denomination in the process of missional transformation, but it is also applicable to theological education in general. This study focused on the relation between theology and spirituality, the significance of missional spirituality in theological education and a probable model for the formation of a missional spirituality. The study found that theology and spirituality are interdependent, and theological education should thus focus on all the different areas of learning and formation, that is, minimum knowledge base, pass-on-able habits and skills, and attitudes and beliefs. Theological education should ultimately cultivate a missional spirituality, forming missional leaders for the church. Leaders who are equipped are able to equip others for God’s mission. Theological education is not about obtaining a degree but in essence a process of formation and transformation. Wright asks: if the gospel is not transforming you, will it transform anything else? Transformation to be able to transform – a missional metanoia.Contribution: This study provides a probable model for holistic theological education and the formation of a missional spirituality.

Polycentric mission leadership: Toward a new theoretical model: OCMS Montagu Barker Lecture Series: “Polycentric Theology, Mission, and Mission Leadership”

As the world faces rapidly increasing cycles of disruption, challenges, and disorder, mission leaders are stretched to adapt, trying to catch up with the pace of change and provide leadership to further the mission God has given his Church. This paper, presented at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies Montagu Barker Lecture Series: “Polycentric Theology, Mission, and Mission Leadership,” focuses on ways leadership is changing, suggesting a new theoretical model for mission leadership. It reviews the idea of polycentrism through mission history, mission and church organizations, movement theory, and governance, identifying themes of an emerging theory of polycentric mission leadership.

CẢM THỨC CỦA NGUYỄN DU VỀ TRUNG QUỐC THANH TRIỀU TRONG BẮC HÀNH TẠP LỤC

Nguyen Du (1765-1820), with courtesy name To Nhu, poetic name Thanh Hien, and other pseudonym Hong Son Liep Ho, was born into the noble Nguyen clan of Tien Dien village in central Vietnam. Many of his family members served in high positions in the imperial mandarin system of the Le-Trinh dynasty. Inheriting honors from his father, Nguyen Du was bestowed the titles: Hoang Tin Great Man, Guard Commandant of Origin, and Thu Nhac Count. Therefore, deep within his conscience, Nguyen Du always felt indebted to the Le dynasty. However, the rapid replacement of the Le-Trinh by the Tay Son and then by the Nguyen dynasty during the chaotic years of the eighteen century seriously challenged his beliefs and emotions, pushing him into a reclusive lifestyle during his reluctant service to the Nguyen dynasty. In the 12th year of Gia Long (1813), Nguyen Du was appointed the mission leader on a yearly tribute trip to China, during which he wrote a collection of poetry titled “Bac hanh tap luc” (Trivial Notes on the Northward Trip). His “trivial notes” revealed his complicated thinking and feelings about the Chinese landscape, people and culture under the rule of the Jiaqing emperor. This article analyzes Nguyen Du’s rational and emotional perceptions of China, especially Chinese culture as implied in “Bac hanh tap luc”, to better understand a case of direct interaction of a Vietnamese Confucian scholar with imperial China.

Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum: Kepedulian Dan Kerjasama Gerejawi Untuk Tanah Misi Dan Di Tanah Misi

The concern to the situation and condition to all other members of the Church and the collaboration for the welfare of the entire Church is the expression of communio (communion) which is the character of Christ Church. The arise of Church in the mission land and its development which like the mustard seed is the fruit of the concern and collaboration of the missionaries showed by the community and Church which have been founded along the history. Considering Church resources are always limited, every form of across continents concern and collaboration should be done effectively. In the process of the evangelization in the mission land, these concern and collaboration encounter various forms of initiatives; starting from the simple, spontaneous, sporadic and individual to the consistent, coordinated organizations. These concern and collaboration often find frictions, conflicts of interest, impartialities, and injustice; especially concerning the implementation of the power of jurisdiction in the mission land and the submission to the superiority of the mission leaders. The negative excesses are seen and observed objectively and corrected to attain the more effective concerns and collaboration for the sake of the development of the mission work. The apostolic see is the central organ has explored and successfully founded an effective and sustainable missionary collaboration system, from the commissio to the mandate system. Nowadays, the missionary concern and collaboration across particular churches have not been centralized, but assigned to each local communities and particular Churches, to develop mutual collaboration according to the mutual need and projects through the written agreement to mutual minister

Missional appropriation of human trafficking for the sex-work industry

This article explores the possibility of the involvement of the ecumenical church in addressing the complex issue of sex trafficking. It is done through a glocal theological theory built on missional theology and social ethics as human trafficking is reinterpreted to be a theological issue which could lead to a life-giving mission. Research takes place within the transformative paradigm using a mixed-methods approach, and the theory and praxis are examined with the fullness of life, human dignity, hope, justice and healing in mind. As a destination for sex trafficking, empirical research was done in Rustenburg, South Africa, among victims and survivors, missional workers and church leaders, and experts in the field. This assisted the investigation into the viability and content of this theory. It is then argued that a missional appropriation based on hope, liberation and justice adds a new dimension to being church and leads to a transformative mission to victims.

Sowing in tears, reaping with joy: The power of joy in missional thinking

This chapter offers an invitation to embrace a missiology of joy that reflects the contexts and cultures of emerging missional leaders in the global south. As a way to deconstruct western cultural values of colonial missions, an emerging missiological enterprise from the Latin American context must be liberated from western values of productivity at the expense of relationships and embodied liturgy. A brief introduction to the “sociology of emotions” and participant observation will demonstrate the social nature of joy and how significant it becomes when detached from individualistic connotations, and imposed biases. Thus, a missiology of joy that is embodied in the communal engagement of women and indigenous leaders will open new pathways of missiological thinking and practice ready to challenge the positivism of western missions and, in solidarity, embrace the suffering of the land and its people with the joy of the gospel.

Intercultural, postcolonial, experiential: A case study in forming congregational mission leaders in seminaries

This article describes the objectives, methodology, and outcomes of a course designed to accompany seminary-organized intercultural learning trips. The course is framed around race as a primary marker of difference in US society which has exercised a profound and lasting influence on the conceptualization and practice of mission. By inviting students to observe the construction of racism in other cultural contexts (Philippines, Cuba), they were able to better understand racism in our own context and consider its impact on our engagement in mission. The article describes the course methodology as intercultural, postcolonial, and experiential and the impacts of the course/trip are summarized, along with some reflection on the questions which arose out of the experience.