DOCSLIB.ORG

Duke University 2002-2003 Divinity School the Mission of Duke University

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Duke University 2002-2003 Divinity School the Mission of Duke University bulletin of Duke University 2002-2003 Divinity School The Mission of Duke University James B. Duke’s founding Indenture of Duke University directed the members of the University to “provide real leadership in the educational world” by choosing indi- viduals of “outstanding character, ability and vision” to serve as its officers, trustees and faculty; by carefully selecting students of “character, determination and application;” and by pursuing those areas of teaching and scholarship that would “most help to de- velop our resources, increase our wisdom, and promote human happiness.” To these ends, the mission of Duke University is to provide a superior liberal educa- tion to undergraduate students, attending not only to their intellectual growth but also to their development as adults committed to high ethical standards and full participa- tion as leaders in their communities; to prepare future members of the learned profes- sions for lives of skilled and ethical service by providing excellent graduate and professional education; to advance the frontiers of knowledge and contribute boldly to the international community of scholarship; to promote an intellectual environment built on a commitment to free and open inquiry; to help those who suffer, cure disease and promote health, through sophisticated medical research and thoughtful patient care; to provide wide ranging educational opportunities, on and beyond our campuses, for traditional students, active professionals and life-long learners using the power of in- formation technologies; and to promote a deep appreciation for the range of human dif- ference and potential, a sense of the obligations and rewards of citizenship, and a commitment to learning, freedom and truth. By pursuing these objectives with vision and integrity, Duke University seeks to en- gage the mind, elevate the spirit, and stimulate the best effort of all who are associated with the University; to contribute in diverse ways to the local community, the state, the nation and the world; and to attain and maintain a place of real leadership in all that we do. Adopted by the Board of Trustees on February 23, 2001. EDITOR Judith Smith PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR Rob Hirtz DIVINITY SCHOOL LIAISONS Reed Criswell, Department of Communications Mary Collins, Divinity Registrar STAFF SPECIALIST: COURSE CATALOG MASTER Jim Salerno PHOTOGRAPHS University Photography The information in this bulletin applies to the academic year 2002-2003 and is accurate and current, to the extent possible, as of May 2002. The university reserves the right to change programs of study, academic requirements, teaching staff, the calendar, and other matters described herein without prior notice, in accordance with established procedures. Duke University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin, disability, sexual orientation or preference, gender, or age in the administration of educational policies, admission policies, financial aid, employment, or any other university program or activity. It admits qualified students to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students. The university also does not tolerate harassment of any kind. Questions, comments or complaints of discrimination or harassment should be directed to the Office of the Vice-President for Institutional Equity, (919) 684-8222. Further information, as well as the complete text of the harassment policy, may be found at http://www.duke.edu/web/equity/. Duke University recognizes and utilizes electronic mail as a medium for official communications. The university provides all students with e-mail accounts as well as access to e-mail services from public clusters if students do not have personal computers of their own. All students are expected to access their e-mail accounts on a regular basis to check for and respond as necessary to such communications, just as they currently do with paper/ postal service mail. Information that the university is required to make available under the Student Right to Know and Campus Security Acts may be obtained from the Office of University Relations at 684-2823 or in writing to 615 Chapel Drive, Box 90563, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708. Duke University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097; telephone number 404-679- 4501) to award baccalaureates, masters, doctorates, and professional degrees. For information concerning Duke University’s alcohol and drug policies, please refer to the Bulle- tin of Information and Regulations. Volume 74 June 2002 Number 5A The Bulletin of Duke University (USPS 073-680) is published by Duke University, Duke Station, Durham, North Carolina 27708 as follows: monthly May; semimonthly March, April, June, and August; thrice-monthly September. Periodical rate paid at Durham, North Carolina. Contents Calendar 4 University Administration 6 General Information 12 History 13 The Role of the Divinity School 13 The Relation of the Divinity School to Duke University 14 Divinity Library 14 Faculty 16 Admissions 28 Student Life 36 Corporate Worship 37 Student Activities and Organizations 37 Living Accommodations 40 Student Health 41 Motor Vehicles 42 Financial Information 44 Fees and Expenses 45 Student Financial Aid 47 Field Education 68 International Programs 74 Black Church Studies 78 Continuing Education 80 The Center for Continuing Education 81 Additional Study Opportunities 84 Curriculum 90 Degree Programs 91 The Basic Theological Degree-Master of Divinity 94 The Master in Church Ministries Degree 100 The Master of Theological Studies Degree 102 The Master of Theology Degree 104 Duke Summer Session 105 Courses of Instruction 106 Appendices 142 For further information about the Divinity School, call (919) 660-3400 or e-mail [email protected] Visit our Web site at www.divinity.duke.edu or for current bulletin information, 2002-2003 Divinity School Bulletin http://registrar.duke.edu/bulletins/Divinity Contents 3 Academic Calendar of the Duke Divinity School Fall 2002 August 4 Summer assignments conclude 7 Summer Term II and III classes end 10 Summer Term II and III final examinations end 11-16 Project Bri(ddd)ge 12 All Final Reviews due 19 Field Ed. Placement Interviews begin 20 Orientation program for MTS students 21-23 Orientation for all new students 21 Advising and Registration for New Students 26 Fall semester classes begin. Drop/Add period continues 28 Divinity School Opening Convocation (Duke Chapel) September 2 Labor Day — Classes are in session 4 Last day for Field Ed. applications 6 Drop/Add period ends 7 Field Ed. Placement Interviews end 14 Field Ed. Orientation — academic year 15 Field Ed. Assignments begin — academic year 27-28 Friday — Saturday, Board of Visitors October 11 Fall Recess begins at 7 p.m. 14-16 Convocation and Pastors’ School 21 Fall Recess ends. Classes resume at 12 p.m. 21 Field Ed. Learning-Serving covenants due 30 Registration for Spring 2003 semester November 22 Registration for Spring semester ends 23 Drop/Add period begins. Last Day to withdraw with “W” 27 Classes end at 9 p.m. 29 Reading period begins at 7 p.m. December 9 Final examinations begin 13 Final examinations end Spring 2003 January 6-7 Orientation/registration for new students begins. 8 Make-up day for Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday (Monday classes only) 9All other classes begin 20 Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday (no classes) 22 Drop/Add ends at 5 p.m. February 1 Deadline for incompletes taken in Fall semester 2002 March 3 Deadline for Field Ed. Summer applications 3 Deadline for Church/Agency applications 7 Spring recess begins at 7 p.m. 17 Classes resume at 12 p.m. 24 Deadline for Field Ed. Student-initiated Summer placements 26 Last date to withdraw with “W” 4 Academic Calendar April 2 Registration for Fall and Summer 2003 semester begins 12 Registration for Fall semester ends 13 Drop/Add begins 16 Divinity School Closing Convocation. Duke University Chapel 16 Spring semester classes end at 9:30 p.m. 17 Maundy Thursday 18 Good Friday. Spring Reading period begins at 7 p.m. 28 Final examinations begin May 2 Final examinations end 10 Divinity School Baccalaureate. Duke University Chapel — 6:30 p.m. 11 Commencement exercises; Wallace Wade Stadium—10 a.m. 11 12-week Field Ed. assignments begin 15 Summer I and Summer Semester begin 18 10-week Field Ed. assignments begin Academic Calendar of the Duke Divinity School 5 University Administration GENERAL ADMINISTRATION Nannerl Overholser Keohane, Ph.D., President Peter Lange, Ph.D., Provost Thruston B. Morton III, B.A., President of Duke Management Company Ralph Snyderman, M.D., Chancellor for Health Affairs and Executive Dean, School of Medicine Tallman Trask III, M.B.A., Ph.D., Executive Vice-President David B. Adcock, J.D., University Counsel Joseph L. Alleva, M.B.A., Director of Athletics John F. Burness, A.B., Senior Vice-President for Public Affairs and Government Relations H. Clint Davidson, Jr., M.B.A., Vice-President for Human Resources Sally M. Dickson, J.D., Vice-President for Institutional Equity William J. Donelan, M.S., Vice-Chancellor for Health Affairs and Executive Vice-President/Chief Operating Officer, Duke University Health System Tracy A. Futhey, M.S., Vice-President for Information Technology and Chief Information Officer N. Allison Haltom, A.B., Vice-President and University Secretary Michael J. Mandl, M.A., Vice-President for Financial Services Larry Moneta, Ed.D., Vice-President for Student Affairs John J. Piva, Jr., B.A., Senior Vice-President for Alumni Affairs and Development Steven A. Rum, M.S., Vice-Chancellor for Development and Alumni Affairs Robert S. Shepard, Ph.D., Vice-President for University Development Robert L. Taber, Ph.D., Vice-Chancellor for Science and Technology Development R. C. “Bucky” Waters, M.A., Vice-Chancellor for Special Projects Gordon D. Williams, B.A., Vice-Chancellor for Medical Center Operations and Vice-Dean for Administration and Finance, School of Medicine R.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Stewart Sbts 0207D 10169.Pdf
    Copyright © 2013 Joe Randell Stewart All rights reserved. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary has permission to reproduce and disseminate this document in any form by any means for purposes chosen by the Seminary, including, without limitation, preservation or instruction. THE INFLUENCE OF NEWBIGIN’S MISSIOLOGY ON SELECTED INNOVATORS AND EARLY ADOPTERS OF THE EMERGING CHURCH PARADIGM ___________________ A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary ___________________ In Partial Fulfillment for the Requirements of the Degree Doctor of Education ___________________ by Joe Randell Stewart December 2013 APPROVAL SHEET THE INFLUENCE OF NEWBIGIN’S MISSIOLOGY ON SELECTED INNOVATORS AND EARLY ADOPTERS OF THE EMERGING CHURCH PARADIGM Joe Randell Stewart Read and Approved by: __________________________________________ Hal K. Pettegrew (Chair) __________________________________________ Timothy P. Jones Date ______________________________ I dedicate this dissertation to my loving wife, Nancy. I will always love you. Thanks for your constant encouragement. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS LIST OF TABLES . x LIST OF FIGURES . xi PREFACE . xii Chapter 1. RESEARCH CONCERN Introduction to the Research Problem . Newbigin’s Influence on the Innovators and Early Adopters Newbigin’s Influence on the Missiology of the Emerging Church The Scope of Newbigin’s Influence Selected Concepts of the Innovators and Early Adopters of the Emerging Church Paradigm . 22 The Pervasive Impact of Christendom . 24 Communal Dimensions of Witness: The Church as a Hermeneutic of the Gospel . .. 30 The Church as Sign, Instrument, and Foretaste . 33 Research Thesis . 40 Focus Statements . 40 Delimitations of the Study . 41 Terminology . 41 iv Chapter Page Research Assumptions . 51 Procedural Overview . 52 2.
    [Show full text]
  • The Significance of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in a New Millennium
    The Significance of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in the New Millennium Michael W. Goheen A Remarkable Life Bishop Lesslie Newbigin is one of the most important missiological and theological thinkers of the twentieth century. The American church historian Geoffrey Wainwright, from Duke University, once remarked that when the history of the church in the twentieth century comes to be written, if the church historians know their job, Newbigin will have to be considered one of top ten or twelve theological figures of the century. In his book, he honours Newbigin’s significant contribution by portraying him in patristic terms as a “father of the church.”1 Newbigin was first and foremost a missionary; he spent forty years of his life in India. But he was much more: he was a theologian, biblical scholar, apologist, ecumenical leader, author, and missiologist. The breadth and depth of his experience and his contribution to the ecumenical and missionary history of the church in the twentieth century have been “scarcely paralleled.”2 Newbigin was born in England in 1909. He was converted to Jesus Christ during his university days at Cambridge. He was married, ordained in the Church of Scotland, and set sail for India as a missionary in 1936. He spent the next eleven years as a district missionary in Kanchipuram. He played an important role in clearing a theological impasse that led to the formation of the Church of South India (CSI)—a church made up of Congregationalists, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Methodists. He served as bishop of Madurai for the next twelve years.
    [Show full text]
  • Generous Orthodoxy - Doing Theology in the Spirit
    Generous Orthodoxy - Doing Theology in the Spirit When St Mellitus began back in 2007, a Memorandum of Intent was drawn up outlining the agreement for the new College. It included the following paragraph: “The Bishops and Dean of St Mellitus will ensure that the College provides training that represents a generous Christian orthodoxy and that trains ordinands in such a way that all mainstream traditions of the Church have proper recognition and provision within the training.” That statement reflected a series of conversations that happened at the early stages of the project, and the desire from everyone involved that this new college would try in some measure to break the mould of past theological training. Most of us who had trained at residential colleges in the past had trained in party colleges which did have the benefit of strengthening the identity of the different rich traditions of the church in England but also the disadvantage of often reinforcing unhelpful stereotypes and suspicion of other groups and traditions within the church. I remember discussing how we would describe this new form of association. It was Simon Downham, the vicar of St Paul’s Hammersmith who came up with the idea of calling it a “Generous Orthodoxy”, and so the term was introduced that has become so pivotal to the identity of the College ever since. Of course, Simon was not the first to use the phrase. It was perhaps best known as the title of a book published in 2004 by Brian McLaren, a book which was fairly controversial at the time.
    [Show full text]
  • Lesslie Newbigin Remembered Rought up an English Presbyterian, I Can Hardly Remember Not Be Ignored
    Lesslie Newbigin Remembered rought up an English Presbyterian, I can hardly remember not be ignored. As on so many major issues, agree or disagree, B a time whenIdidn'tknow Lesslie as a legend.We first made approve or disapprove, you have to face him .Thereis no honest contactin 1965when our two sonsconjointly had a difference of way round.We disagreed on two things:how long it took to the opinion with their headmaster and were not welcome in their railway station or airport, and Margaret Thatcher, which we school for a spell . Lesslie and Helen were in Geneva, my wife never discussed. was in Taiwan, I was in New York, and tomorrow was my Some of us are tolerant because we have so much to tolerate doctoral oral. With visions of our erring sons loose on London in ourselves: a sin-based tolerance that sometimes tolerates the streets, Lesslie and I corresponded. On the occasion of my intolerable. Lesslie's tolerance was cruciform, giving him a retirement in 1986,Lesslie reread my letter, which he had kept. sternness in his mercy. He could afford to be severe, but the Wheredoes ourthanksgivingbegin? Lesslie would haveus severity was healing. begin with God. Then comes Helen, greatly loved and greatly He gave one the self-honesty to know one was the monkey loving. What other retiring bishop's wife would, with two on his barrel organ, but yet the monkey felt a little leonine. suitcases and a rucksack, have taken a bus from Madras to Although you were four feet high, you felt basketball tall and London? inspired with a proper confidence.Treating you as an equal, he We give thanks for a man of prayer.
    [Show full text]
  • Download (PDF)
    Princeton Theological Review Vol. 18, No. 1 | Spring 2015 Church for the World: Essays in Honor of the Retirement of Darrell L. Guder Prolegomena 3 CATHERINE C. TOBEY Darrell L. Guder 5 BENJAMIN T. CONNER “Sent into All the World” 9 Luke’s sending of the seventy(-two): intertextuality, reception history, and missional hermeneutics NATHAN C. JOHNSON The Church as Organism 21 Herman Bavinck’s ecclesiology for a postmodern context MICHAEL DAVID KEY Eucharist as Communion 33 The Eucharist and the Absolute in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit LUKE ZERRA Lesslie Newbigin’s Indian Interlocutors 45 A Study in Theological Reception DEANNA FERREE WOMACK Book Reviews 63 About the PTR 71 Prolegomena CATHERINE C. TOBEY Executive Editor, Princeton Theological Review Who am I to be a witness? Who are you? How can we even dream of being heard when addressing this wide world overcome by complexities, needs, doubts, and suffering? For Karl Barth, the answer is simple. He writes, “The point is, in general terms, that only on the lips of a man who is himself affected, seized and committed, controlled and nourished, unsettled and settled, comforted and alarmed by it, can the intrinsically true witness of the act and revelation of God in Jesus Christ have the ring and authority of truth which applies to other [humans]” (Church Dogmatics IV/3.2, 657). Darrell Guder is such a person, one whose witness is made indelibly clear as Christ’s compassion and conviction simultaneously shine through him. As he retires from his post as the Henry Winters Luce Professor of Missional and Ecumenical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, it is the great privilege of the editors at the Princeton Theological Review to present this issue in his honor.
    [Show full text]
  • Lesslie Newbigin's Missionary Ecclesiology
    NNeewwbbiiggiinn..nneett OOOnnnllliiinnneee BBBiiibbbllliiiooogggrrraaappphhhyyy ‘As The Father Has Sent Me, I Am Sending You’: Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology 2002 Michael W. Goheen International Review of Mission 91, 362 (2002): 345-369. All material is reprinted with permission from the Newbigin family, the Newbigin Estate and the publisher. All material contained on the Newbigin.Net website, or on the accompanying CD, remains the property of the original author and/or publisher. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media, or mirrored at other sites without express written permission from the appropriate parties. The material can be used for private research purposes only. Introduction Ecclesiology has become the central organizing principle of 20th century theology. The Yale historian Jaroslav Pelikan states that “the doctrine of the church became, as it had never quite been before, the bearer of the whole Christian message for the twentieth century, as well as the recapitulation of the entire doctrinal tradition from preceding centuries.”1 Many factors have contributed to this renewed interest in ecclesiology but perhaps none is so important as the new missionary situation in which European and North American churches find themselves. Jurgen Moltmann believes that “today one of the strongest impulses towards the renewal of the theological concept of the church comes from the theology of mission.”2 According to Moltmann Western ecclesiologies were formulated in the context of a Christianized culture. European churches were established churches that lacked a missionary self-understanding because they found their identity as part of a larger complex called the Christian West.
    [Show full text]
  • Clinton Bennett
    Clinton Bennett approach allows him to treat Islamic traditions and their Muslim interpretations with sensitivity and respect, not often found among Christian writings on Islam.'[1] Ben- nett became a US citizen during 2012. 1 Biography 1.1 Background Bennett was born in Tettenhall then an Urban District in Staffordshire, England. In 1966, he migrated to Aus- tralia with his parents, Howard Bennett (1922–1997) and Joan Bennett (1922–2007) and his two siblings. He com- pleted his final year of primary education in Australia then attended Maclean High School, Maclean, New South Wales. He was a member of the School Debating Team taking part in inter-school competitions, a member of the Radio Club, Student Leader of the Inter-School Christian Fellowship chapter and represented his class for a year on the Student Representative Council. He won prizes for acting and for History. After gaining his School Cer- tificate, he worked in Sydney as an officer in the state civil service 1972–1973.[2] Originally an Anglican, Ben- nett was baptised into membership of the Lower Clarence Baptist Church in 1969. He was active in the Christian Endeavor movement and as a youth camp leader. Clinton Bennett Clinton Bennett (born 7 October 1955) is a British 1.2 Education American scholar of religions and participant in interfaith dialogue specialising in the study of Islam and Muslim- non-Muslim encounter. An ordained Baptist minister, he was a missionary in Bangladesh before serving as the sec- ond director of interfaith relations at the British Council of Churches in succession to Kenneth Cracknell.
    [Show full text]
  • Perspicuity of Scripture: the Emergent Approach
    TMSJ 17/2 (Fall 2006) 141-158 PERSPICUITY OF SCRIPTURE: THE EMERGENT APPROACH John MacArthur President and Professor of Pastoral Ministries The most recent battle being waged in the evangelical church is one related to the perspicuity of Scripture. Within the larger context of the Emerging Church Movement is the Emergent Church, whose leading spokesman is Brian D. McLaren. Because of his prominence as a leader of both the Emergent Church and the Emerging Church Movement, what he says about the clarity or perspicuity of Scripture needs to be scrutinized. McLaren undermines the clarity of Scripture by questioning whether biblical doctrine can be held with certainty. He questions the clarity of Scripture by needlessly introducing complexity into biblical interpretation. He further dismisses scriptural clarity by questioning the possibility of deriving propositional truth from the Bible. Also, his refusal to abide by the Bible’s emphasis on the exclusive nature of the Christian gospel raises questions about the Bible’s clarity. McLaren’s pointed criticism of conservative evangelicals who insist on the clarity of Scripture is another indication of his disdain for the perspicuity of Scripture. McLaren’s position on the perspicuity of Scripture is clearly at odds with what the Bible itself says about its own clarity. * * * * * From the very beginning, the battle between good and evil has been a battle for the truth. The serpent, in the Garden of Eden, began his temptation by questioning the truthfulness of God’s previous instruction: “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’? … You surely shall not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen 3:1, 4-5).
    [Show full text]
  • Tradition & Discovery
    Tradition & Discovery The Polanyi Society Periodical Volume XXVI I Number 3(completes Volume XXVII) 2000--2001 Preface.................................................................................................................................................................2 News and Notes and Membership Information..................................................................................3 Program of November 2001 Polanyi Society Annual Meeting...................................................4 Program of Polanyi Society Loyola University Conference-June 8-10, 2001.....................5 Information on Electronic Discussion Group......................................................................................7 Program of MPLPhA Polanyi Conference, Budapest-May 31, 2001.................................8 Submissions for Publication......................................................................................................................10 “Remembering Bill Poteat”.....................................................................................................................11 Ronald L Hall “On Reuniting Poetry and Science: A Memoir of Elizabeth Sewell, 1919-2001”.......16 David Schenck and Phil Mullins Notes on Contributors.................................................................................................................................18 “Faith and Pluralism: A Response to Richard Gelwick”................................................19 George R. Hunsberger “Jerry Gill on Polanyi, Modern
    [Show full text]
  • Reconsidering Newbigin's the Household of God, Six Decades Later
    A House Divided? Reconsidering Newbigin’s The Household of God, Six Decades Later Joseph Schattauer Paillé The author is a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary and candidate for ordination in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. he Household of God, first given as a lecture series in 1952, begins with a question: “By what is the church he “unity of the Church will not constituted?”1 The question may sound like something Ttaken from a catechesis exam, but it serves as the foundation for Tdistill out of a process of purely Newbigin’s attempt to articulate a historically grounded ecclesiol- theological discussion” but will come ogy. Newbigin identifies three ways the church has answered the question. The first answer is that the church is constituted by Word only through engagement with the and act, a mode of thinking most common in Protestant circles.2 The Protestant voice should be welcomed, Newbigin argues, for world in which the church is situated. its emphasis on justification by faith and the church’s reliance on the promise of grace given in Christ. Yet Newbigin also critiques in some misguided church leaders.8 Newbigin deems all three the Protestant view for its “over-intellectualizing of the content answers necessary but insufficient for understanding the esse of of the word ‘faith’” and its understanding of unity “in terms of the church, which he claims is its mission. It is only, Newbigin agreement about doctrine.”3 asserts, “when Christians are engaged in the task of missionary The second answer Newbigin identifies
    [Show full text]
  • The Legacy of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in the 21St Century
    The Legacy of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in the 21st Century 9 The Legacy of Lesslie Newbigin for Mission in the 21st Century writing that produced about a dozen books and hundreds of im - Michael W. Goheen portant articles. 3 On this occasion of the centenary of Newbigin’s birth we Bishop Lesslie Newbigin is one of the most important missiolog - probe his legacy for the 21st century. There are a number of ways ical and theological thinkers of the 20th century. The American to approach the issue. One way is to note the various contribu - church historian Geoffrey Wainwright, from Duke University, tions he made to the 20th-century church, which were tangible once remarked that when the history of the church in the 20th and readily identifiable: his nuanced theological work in the area century comes to be written, if the church historians know their of church government that broke the logjam and contributed to job, Newbigin will have to be considered one of the top ten or the formation of the CSI, his formulations of the missionary twelve theological figures of the century. In his book, he honors church expressed in the official documents of the significant Will - Newbigin’s significant contribution by portraying him in patristic ingen Conference, his chairmanship of the famous “committee of terms as a “father of the church.” 1 Newbigin was first and fore - twenty-five” that produced one of the most significant and founda - most a missionary; he spent forty years of his life in India. But he tional theological statements on eschatology for the World Coun - was much more: he was a theologian, biblical scholar, apologist, cil of Churches that was adopted at the Evanston Meeting, the ecumenical leader, author, and missiologist.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding Missional Church
    Understanding Missional Church Background - how we got to where we are Our inherited model of Church is based on a time when it was assumed that everyone in our country was Christian. The role of the church was therefore to hold Christians to account and teach them properly what it meant to be a Christian. The pattern of church life developed reflected this: • Children baptised, their parents promising to bring them up in the Christian faith and in the church. • Children were taught the basics of the Christian faith at home, school and church • As teenagers they confirmed that they wanted to be members of the church • The church placed members in “districts” with elders who took responsibility for shepherding them • Sunday worship gave teaching about beliefs and encouragement to live as Christ calls us, alongside communion and Christian “markers” for key stages of life– baptism, weddings, funerals. This pattern underpins much of what we still have in place in many of our churches. From as early as the late 1950’s this pattern began to break down. The number of baptisms began to decline and those who had been baptised as children started to drift from Sunday School in or before their early teens, never making public profession of faith. However, with people living longer and remaining fit and active, whilst membership dropped everything was able to continue, with those serving in different roles within the church able to continue in them for longer than previous generations. Those operating within this did not see the changes as acutely as, for example, Lesslie Newbigin, a Church of Scotland minister who served as a missionary in India.
    [Show full text]