Learning Objectives

Upon successful completion you should be able to:

• Identify major changes in global Christianity over the past 150 years and describe how these changes have impacted assumptions regarding missions and approaches to missions by Western missionaries and mission agencies

• Discuss the importance of theologies that have emerged from the global South and from other non-Western cultures

• Summarize missions tactics that hamper the independence of indigenous churches

• Identify examples of subtle residual attitudes of paternalism, racism, and colonialism that may linger in Western missionaries and mission organizations

• Describe the opportunities presented by business as mission (BAM)

• Evaluate the resource consumption and overall effectiveness of short-term missions

• Discuss the impact of spiritual conflict on the effectiveness of missionaries and describe various approaches to engagement in the conflict

• Identify theological matters that are currently being debated as the world moves toward cultural and religious pluralism

• Analyze approaches to contextualization and consider the matter of potential syncretism

• Present the leading positions in the debate over the roles of evangelism and social justice in missions

Course Outline

Introduction

• Introducing the Speaker and the Course

Unit 1: Transforming and Transitioning World Missions

• The Changing World

• The Difference a Hundred Years Makes

• From Edinburgh to Cape Town

• Growth in Global Christianity

• A Snapshot of Global Christianity

• 20th-Century Changes in Global Christianity

• Whose Religion Is Christianity?

• Previewing Global Theology Resources

• The Impact of Globalization

• The Changing Global Context

• The Changing Missionary Movement

• Emerging Leaders in Global Missions

• Changing Roles for Western Missionaries

• 21st-Century Paternalism

• Listening to the Global Church, Part 1

• Listening to the Global Church, Part 2

• Transforming Missionary Training

• Search for Articles on Missional Scripture Reading

• The North American Church’s Future Role in World Missions

Unit 2: Tent Making and Business as Mission

• Introduction to Business as Mission (BAM)

• Exploring Trends behind Tent Making and Business as Mission

• Reasons for and Models of Tent Making and Business as Mission

• Biblical and Historical Examples of Tent Making and Business as Mission

• Understanding the “T” Scale

• Positive Aspects of Tent Making and Business as Mission

• Negative Aspects of Tent Making and Business as Mission

• Basic Search on Protestant Clergy-Laity Dualism

• The Effect of Affluence on Mission

• Attitudes toward Affluence

• Barriers to Mission Created by Affluence

• Living in Intentional Simplicity

Unit 3: National Missionaries and Short-Term Missions

• National Missionaries from Indigenous Churches

• Positive Characteristics of National Missionaries

• Cautions regarding Use of National Missionaries

• Evaluating Support of National Missionaries

• Short-Term Missions

• Challenging Some Short-Term-Missions Presuppositions

• Listening to the Hosts

• Cautions regarding Short-Term Missions

• Potential Benefits of Short-Term Missions

• Your Role in Short-Term Missions

Unit 4: Ethics in Missions

• Run, Walk, Limp, Fall, or Finish Well

• Ethical Guidelines and Guard Rails

• Areas for Ethical Consideration

Unit 5: Theological Issues in Missions

• Theological Drift?

• Starting a Study on “Hell” Using the Bible Word Study

• Views Held on Hell and Salvation

• Defining “Hell” from Scripture

• Performing a Morphology Search on Jesus’ Use of “Gehenna”

• Do Theological Views Diminish a Passion for Evangelism?

• Is the Problem Solely Theological?

Unit 6: Spiritual Conflict and Missions

• Models for Spiritual Conflict

• The Mass Marketing of Spiritual Warfare

• A Warning and Some Observations

• Animism and Secularism

• Territorial Spirits

• Evaluating Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfare

• Demonization and Deliverance

• Using the Bible Sense Lexicon to Study Demons

• Encounters with Demons in the New Testament

• Avoiding Demonic Influence

Unit 7: Dreams and Missions

• The Underappreciated Importance of Dreams

• Dreams in the Bible

• Using the Bible Sense Lexicon to Find Dreams in the Bible

• How Dreams and Visions Are Used by God

• Current Research on Dreams Leading to Conversion

Unit 8: Contextualization

• Contextualized Mission to Muslims

• Defining Contextualization

• Contextualization or Syncretism?

• Contextualization in Scripture

• Researching Contextualization in the Lexham Bible Dictionary

• Guidelines for Contextualization

• Creating a Faithlife Group for Missionaries

• Contemporary Evangelism and Contextualization

• Searching Themelios for “Insider Movement”

• Cautions regarding the Insider Movement

Unit 9: Words and Deeds

• Finding the Balance

• Three Approaches to Words and Deeds

• A Brief History of the Debate

• An Evangelical Debate

• The Primacy of Evangelism

Unit 10: The Local Church in Mission

• Can “Small” Succeed where “Big” Fails?

• Christ, Church, and Kingdom

• Changing World, Changing Missions

Details

• Title: MI102 Current Issues in Missions

• Instructor: Timothy Sisk

• Publisher: Lexham Press

• Publication Date: 2014

• Product Type: Logos Mobile Education

• Resource Type: Courseware, including transcripts, audio, and video resources

• Courses: 1

• Video Hours: 6