Journal of Adventist Mission Studies最新文献

{"title":"Sharing Jesus with Buddhists","authors":"Scott Griswold","doi":"10.32597/jams/vol10/iss1/8/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/jams/vol10/iss1/8/","url":null,"abstract":"I was startled the day my Cambodian friend told me, “Fleeing from the war into Vietnam, I stumbled into a Catholic church. There I saw for the first time the tortured figure of Jesus on the cross. I was shocked to learn that Christians worship this man. How could they even respect someone who obviously had such terrible karma?” My friend looked at Jesus through Buddhist eyes, assuming his suffering must come from something bad he had done in a previous life. This one man’s confusion alerts us to the many Buddhists who either do not know anything about Jesus or have major misunderstandings about him. Tens of thousands of men have shaved their heads, donned an orange robe, and devoted themselves as monks to the Buddhist path of good deeds and meditation. They hope to someday escape the cycle of suffering and rebirth. Millions more Buddhist lay people depend on these monks for teaching, ceremonies, and blessings. In fact, their numbers are increasing in certain places. In many Asian countries Buddhism is reviving and growing. It is also significant to note that people in the West are turning to Buddhism in unprecedented numbers. Seventh-day Adventists have typically found it difficult to reach Buddhists with the gospel. The church has already been active in many Buddhist countries for over 100 years without seeing many Buddhists become followers of Jesus. In such countries as Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Thailand, there are only a few members who came from a Buddhist background. We have typically been more likely to bring into our fellowship other Christians, animists, or secular people. It is important to understand what it is that makes it difficult for Buddhists to come to Jesus; Adventists must also find better ways to share him more effectively.","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2014-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121171055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"What Missiologists Should Know about the Gospel of Barnabas","authors":"Jack McNeilus","doi":"10.32597/jams/vol8/iss2/7/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/jams/vol8/iss2/7/","url":null,"abstract":"Jesus, seeing that great was the multitude of them that returned to their heart for to walk in the law of God, went up into the mountain, and abode all night in prayer, and when day was come he descended from the mountain, and chose twelve, whom he called apostles, among whom is Judas, who was slain upon the cross. (Ragg and Ragg 1907:25)","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"29 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2012-12-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121655156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Importing God: The Mission of the Ghanaian Adventist Church and Other Immigrant Churches in the Netherlands","authors":"D. Koning","doi":"10.32597/jams/vol7/iss2/14/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/jams/vol7/iss2/14/","url":null,"abstract":"Considering global trends of secularization and religious resurgence, it is unmistakable that the center of Christianity is moving from Europe and North America to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. This shift affects not only the nature of church life, but also the nature of mission and missionaries. A young, large, and zealous mission force is emerging that flows from ‘the South’ all over the world. Koreans evangelize in Russia, Nigerians in the Philippines, and Brazilians in Mozambique. A noteworthy segment of this flow is the mission work of non-Western Christians in the West. This phenomenon has sparked the (not undisputed) term ‘reversed mission’, which expresses the idea that the ones who used to be conceptualized as the senders of mission are now conceptualized as the receivers of mission. Few studies however have investigated the realities that this term refers to. This study is intended as a contribution to fill this void. In this study, non-Western immigrant churches in the country of the Netherlands were taken as a particular case by which to understand ‘reversed mission’. On a population of nearly 17 million residents, the Netherlands has more than half a million non-Western Christians and about 1,000 immigrant churches. They add colour to the already complex religious landscape of this country, where high levels of secularization are","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"74 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2011-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124715677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Critique of the Urban Mission of the Church in the Light of an Emerging Postmodern Condition","authors":"K. Goncalves","doi":"10.32597/dissertations/55/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/55/","url":null,"abstract":"The world is becoming an urban society. The urban expansion witnessed during the twentieth century and continuing into the twenty-first century is unprecedented in the history of the human civilization. Simultaneously, the Western world faces the paradigm shift from the modern era to a postmodern condition. Both movements have remarkable implications for the mission of the church in urbanized, postmodernizing societies. Shaped by the modern worldview, the church is now further ostracized by the postmodern condition. While the literature of urban mission has grown in the past few years, very little consideration has been given to the particular issues and implications of urban mission in the context of postmodernity. Thus, this study addresses the relationship between the urban mission of the church and the emergence of the postmodern condition. This investigation of urban mission in the light of the postmodern ethos is based on the historical, philosophical, sociological, and cultural analyses of the modern and the postmodern eras provided inchapters 2 and 3, respectively. Chapter 4 explores the relationship between the urban mission of the church and the postmodern condition primarily by locating the emergence of postmodernism in thecontext of urbanization and globalization. Some urban missiological implications and suggested principles for reaching the postmodern mind in the urban context are drawn from the findings of this research and are presented in chapter 5. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the centralizing power of the city--added to the pervasive influence of a global market--makes the urban environment the locus of the postmodern condition. Consequently, the challenges and opportunities for urban mission have never been greater. In spite of themajor threats postmodernism poses for mission, the current urban socio-cultural outlook offers opportunities that did not exist a few decades ago. Therefore, within the context of the combined forces of urbanization, globalization, and postmodernism, an extensive review of the strategies and methods of urban mission is vital for the development of postmodern-sensitive churches as the church seeks to fulfill its calling to participate in God's mission to urbanized, postmodernizing generations.","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"295 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-03-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"114845809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Toward a Holistic Approach to Relief, Development, and Christian Witness: With Special Reference to ADRA’s Mission to Naxcivan, 1993-2003","authors":"Wagner Kuhn","doi":"10.32597/jams/vol1/iss1/13/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/jams/vol1/iss1/13/","url":null,"abstract":"The dissertation examines the subject of relief and development from a Christian perspective. It describes the principles of relief and development from a biblical and theological perspective (Part I). It helps the reader to understand that relief, development, ad Christian witness are the hands and feet of one body-the body of Christ. This biblical perspective also demonstrates that those who are engaged in ministries of compassion towards the needy, oppressed, sick, poor, orphan, and widow, are in fact by word and deed, implementing a work of redemption and transformation. The study also deals with Christian charity relief and development from a historical and contemporary perspective (Part II). It demonstrates that the practice of charity in the early and medieval periods of the Christian Church was mostly motivated and inspired by Christ's love, demonstrated through his life's ministry in serving those in need. The Reformation, and subsequently, the evangelical revivals of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, brought a better understanding and renewed the way charity relief and development was practiced. However, it was the theological shifts that occurred within evangelical Christianity after the 1950s that promoted a more holistic practice of welfare relief and development. These changes have helped to create policies that provide freedom, education, health care, and a better life to many people around the world. Holistic development in all its perspectives and forms is a radical concept. It involves all aspects of life: physical, mental, social, and spiritual. It has to do with the redemption and transformation of individuals, structures, and powers that hinder and obstruct the person from an abundant life (Jn. 10:10). The dissertation suggests that an integrative approach to relief and development as understood and practiced from a holistic Christian perspective (Part III) offers much more hope and has a better chance to succeed and yield last-longing positive results than does the practice of a mere secular development that dichotomizes between body and spirit, between the physical and spiritual realities of life. ADRA's relief and development program in Naxcivan, Azerbaijan (1993-2003), has attested to the appropriateness of holistic Christian development theory and practice.","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2007-11-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133908999","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Preaching to Jews and Gentiles","authors":"R. Johnston","doi":"10.32597/jams/vol4/iss2/8/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/jams/vol4/iss2/8/","url":null,"abstract":"There is one gospel, but when deciding how to proclaim the Christian message does one size fit all? The New Testament provides more than one model of communicating Christian truth. The book of Acts reports in summary a number of evangelistic sermons, which have been critically analyzed by C. H. Dodd (1936). This kerygma (proclamation), sometimes delivered in a situation requiring an apostolic defense, was intended to change unbelievers into Christian believers. The principle examples are Acts 2:14-29; 3:13-26; 4:1012; 5:30-32; 10:36-43; and 13:17-41. Some of the examples are very brief, but the nature of the general content is clear enough. It often began with a rehearsal of Bible history and prophecies and then quickly moved to the story of Jesus—his life, death, and resurrection. An important feature of the proclamation was the apostolic witness of the resurrection (2:32; 3:15; 5:32; 10:39; 13:31). The appropriate response was to believe the message and be baptized. The kerygma was thus a narrative of events surrounding a central Person, delivered by people who were eye-witnesses of that Person; it did not consist of theological propositions of the sort that is found in the later creeds. The kerygma is distinguished from the didache, which was the instruction given to those who had decided to become followers of Jesus and join the fellowship of the believers. This instruction may have been given before baptism, as was certainly the case later, but more likely at first it was given afterwards. Jesus had told his disciples to teach their converts to observe all that he had commanded them (Matt 28:20), and this was done (Acts","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"49 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124392192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Prolegomena to a Theology of Eschatological Leadership: 13 Leadership Principles for the End Time Gleaned from the Book of Revelation","authors":"Gregory P. Whitsett","doi":"10.32597/jams/vol17/iss1/9/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/jams/vol17/iss1/9/","url":null,"abstract":"Jesus entrusted his disciples with leadership. That leadership was to be exercised on behalf of his mission to seek and save the lost in all the world before his return. This mission work will reach a climax during the time of the end before Christ’s promised return. This article explores the book of Revelation for clues concerning leadership qualities required for this task. The article will support the discussion of these leadership qualities with contributions from contemporary authors on the topic. Developing a theology of eschatological leadership is a daunting task and will require a broader discussion than what one author can contribute. This article consists of three parts. The first part proposes a working definition of the time of the end—the eschatological period that will couch the specialized focus of this article. A survey of selected eschatological passages in Revelation will follow. The purpose of this survey is to identify the nature of the events and themes focusing on the period of time, technically defined as “the time of the end,” and then to extrapolate leadership implications from these passages. In the final section, the identified leadership implications will be further discussed and compared with contemporary literature on leadership principles to propose a theology of eschatological leadership.","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116666867","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Proclamation in Cross-Cultural Context: Missiological Implications of the Book of Daniel","authors":"S. Kim","doi":"10.32597/dissertations/77/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/dissertations/77/","url":null,"abstract":"This study attempts to explore the biblical foundation ofsalvific mission as revealed in God's purposes for the nations (missio Dei ) in the book of Daniel and to investigate the means that Daniel employed in his ministry as an overt missionary who was sent to witness to God's salvific purpose in the cross-cultural context of heathen kingdoms. The main objective of this research is to validate the book of Daniel as a missionary document and show that its missiological implications are still relevant to present-day missions. Chapter 2 explores the salvific purpose of missio Dei in the book of Daniel including God's initiative for salvation in human history, \"God's salvific purpose for all people.\" The chapter demonstrates that Daniel was aware of the sovereignty of God in the process of the exile as a means to achieve God's salvific purpose for all people through his human agents. Chapter 3 researches the strategies of missio Dei , showing how God used committed individuals, dreams, visions, and spiritual conflict. The chapter shows that God's strategy involves not only calling people to serve for his salvific purpose but also demonstrates God's direct intervention in human history through dreams, visions, and spiritual conflict. Chapter 4 focuses on the cultural perspective of Daniel's ministry by analyzing the process of cultural learning and symbolism within the book of Daniel. Furthermore, Daniel's witness to Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, and Darius is examined and analyzed from a cross-cultural perspective. The chapter reveals that Daniel and his friends were sensitive to the local culture as they communicated God's truth in a cross-cultural context without sacrificing the content of that truth. Chapter 5 suggests missiological implications from the book of Daniel for current cross-cultural missionary work. The elucidation of practical implications demonstrates that the book of Daniel should be treated as a missionary document to develop for the present-day cross-cultural mission practices as well as theology.","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121202647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social Location and Its Impact on Hermeneutics","authors":"Bruce L. Bauer","doi":"10.32597/jams/vol12/iss1/5/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/jams/vol12/iss1/5/","url":null,"abstract":"Acts 3 and 4 tell a story of Peter and John healing a man who had been crippled from birth. The Sanhedrin threatened them and forbade them to talk about Jesus, “but they let them go because they didn’t know how to punish them without starting a riot. For everyone was praising God” (4:21, 22 NLT). A few years later while Paul and Barnabas were in Lystra they met another man, who also had been crippled from birth (Acts 14:8). When the power of Jesus healed him the people of Lystra believed that the gods Zeus and Hermes had come to visit them. They quickly gathered wreaths of flowers and prepared to offer a bull as a sacrifice to the men. These two very similar situations are interpreted in very different ways. It is obvious there was a huge difference between the background of the Jewish people in Jerusalem and the people in Lystra. One group praised God for the healing, the other group believed that two gods of mythology had come to earth and healed the man. Most people would agree that a group’s cultural background and experiences shape their view of reality. We expect different interpretations between a Jewish and pagan worldview. However, what is troubling is that the events of the past five years have shown that Seventh-day Adventists, who supposedly share foundational principles of hermeneutics, could come to such different conclusions concerning the role of women in ministry. I believe that methodology and assumptions that guide the hermeneutical process are vitally important. Richard Davidson has championed the grammatico-historical approach to hermeneutics in contrast to the historical-critical method (2003:9-13). Jiři Moskala in his article “Toward Consistent Adventist Hermeneutics,” lists important principles like seeking to understand the historical background of the text by asking who, when, where, to whom, why, and what? He stresses the importance of","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"05 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127170932","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Adventist Leadership’s Understanding of Urban Mission in Africa: Reflections from the Adventist University of Africa 2014 Cohorts","authors":"R. Omwenga","doi":"10.32597/jams/vol10/iss2/16/","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.32597/jams/vol10/iss2/16/","url":null,"abstract":"The approach to Christian mission differs from one context to another (Hesselgrave 1978:511). Urban mission demands different approaches than rural mission, for “urban strategist seeks to develop a pattern that will be effective in reaching all people groups present” (Conn 1999:111). The focus of this paper is to evaluate the misconceptions of Adventist church leaders when embarking on urban mission in Africa. The main challenge arises from failure to acknowledge the differences in the heterogeneous urban population in terms of differing social, cultural, political, educational, economic, and religious characteristics (Henderson and Wang 2007:283; cf. Peil and Sada 1984:49). This heterogeneity is in contrast to the semihomogeneous population of the rural areas in Africa (Collinson, Tollman, Khan, and Clark 2003). These differences require appropriate and relevant approaches to both rural and urban mission. This discussion examines the characteristics of urban mission and contemporary Adventist leaders’ misconceptions in Africa.","PeriodicalId":402825,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Adventist Mission Studies","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124784271","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}