What we mean by public missiology

Abstract

In 2014 and 2015 a panel of missiologists assembled at the American Society of Missiology (ASM) to discuss ideas, concepts, and practices in support of the proposed 2016 ASM annual meeting under the heading “Missiology and Public Life: Mission’s Constructive Engagement with Societies, Change and Conflict.” In these panels, subsequent ASM panel discussions (2017–19), and in two issues of the journal Missiology devoted to the topic (April 2016, January 2017), the concept of public missiology emerged, and from this grew an informal seven-member study group of colleagues to clarify what might be meant by “public missiology” and define its scope. The following summarizes our study group’s conceptualization of public missiology and reflects our thinking to date. We suggest approaching missiological theory and practice from a new direction, one that focuses upon public life and emerging public orders as its object of analysis under the conditions of a rapidly changing world-historical order. This fresh approach to mission studies makes, we believe, an important contribution to ensuring mission’s vitality for the next several decades or for the next half-century.