timjdavy Bible and Mission

Action plans or missio Dei? – the 2012 Redcliffe Lecture in Bible and Mission

This is from a press release that we have just sent out about Prof Steve Walton’s forthcoming public lecture on Acts. See more on our Annual Lecture in Bible and Mission

Action plans or missio Dei – the 2012 Redcliffe Lecture in Bible and Mission

Action plans are frequently used to develop a churches’ mission strategy, but are they the right approach to take? Who really drives mission in the church – God or people?

Professor Steve Walton from LST will be exploring possible answers to this question in the 2012 Bible and Mission lecture on the topic of The Acts of the Apostles as the Mission of God at Redcliffe College on Tuesday 15 May from 7.30-9.30pm.

Using the Acts of the Apostles as a framework, Professor Walton will reflect on the work of God in the early church in driving the story of Acts forward, in the light of the contemporary emphasis on Christians joining God where he is already at work (missio Dei).

Tim Davy, Lecturer in Bible and Mission at Redcliffe commented, “We’re really excited to be turning our attention to the book of Acts in this year’s lecture. At the cutting edge of New Testament scholarship, Steve Walton will bring fresh thinking to this familiar ‘missionary’ book and enlarge our horizons for understanding its place (and ours!) in the mission of God.’

The lecture is free, but pre-booking is required – you can book online at www.redcliffe.org/bible-and-mission-lecture-2012 or phone 01452 308 097.

Prof Walton’s lecture is one of the events organised by Redcliffe’s Centre for the Study of Bible and Mission.  From the 1-7 July 2012, there is also the opportunity to learn Biblical Hebrew or New Testament Greek in a week. The two short courses are aimed at people who want to get to know the Bible in deeper ways and who are looking for a friendly environment in which to learn.  There is a 20% discount on the costs for people working with churches or mission agencies. Booking deadline is 1 June.

For more information about these and other Redcliffe College events, visit www.redcliffe.org/events

timjdavy Bible and Mission

2012 lecture in Bible and Mission – Steve Walton on the book of Acts as the mission of God

Each year we host an Annual Lecture in Bible and Mission at Redcliffe. Following previous lectures by Chris Wright, Gordon Wenham and Eddie Arthur, Prof Steve Walton from LST will be speaking on Tuesday 15 May on ‘The Book of Acts as the Mission of God’.

Here are some further details taken from the main Redcliffe website:

The Acts of the Apostles as the Mission of God

Tuesday 15 May 2012  7.30pm-9.30pm

Delivered by Prof Steve Walton, Professor of New Testament at London School of Theology

Steve WaltonAction plans for mission are widely used today: but are they right? Who really drives mission? In the Acts of the Apostles, the church is frequently slow to recognise and get on board with what God is doing. Mission among the Gentiles happens slowly and is a result of God’s initiative, not the church’s plans – and this reflects the wider point that it is God who drives the story of Acts forward, not the believing community. This challenges some modern emphases on the role of the church in mission.In this lecture, Steve Walton will explore the work of God in Acts, and reflect on this key feature of Acts in the light of the emphasis on missio Dei (the ‘mission of God’) in contemporary missiological thinking.
Prof. Walton has taught at LST since 1999 and has a special interest in Luke-Acts, Paul and New Testament Greek. Among other publications, he is the co-author of a popular textbook on the Gospels and Acts (in SPCK’s Exploring the New Testamentseries) and is currently working on the Acts volume in the Word Biblical Commentary series.  He is a retired international volleyball referee and now works in training and developing other referees, which takes him around the world from time to time.
The Lecture is free but pre-booking is required. Please visit Redcliffe’s website for more details on the 2012 lecture in Bible and Mission
For more details on previous annual lectures, visit the Public Lecture page.
timjdavy Bible and Mission

Dan Beeby on the Bible, mission and Christendom

Canon and Mission - Dan BeebyJust a short quote to kick off the week. In his fantastic little book, Canon and Mission Dan Beeby asserts the following:

Christendom left us with a church that does not realize that the church exists for mission. It presented us with a God who is not the God of the missio dei. It obscured and concealed the fact that God is a missionary God and that the church exists for mission. It obscured the fact that theology is the handmaid of mission. And it obscured the fact that the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, if taken as a unity, is a handbook of mission. Unfortunately, we have a theology in Europe that is almost completely innocent of mission.

Beeby packs in a lot here. I would agree with what he asserts but would be interested to know if his final point (written in 1999) would still hold up, and whether readers would have agreed with him then or now. Perhaps my colleagues at Redcliffe’s Nova centre for research in European Mission would like to wade in? 🙂