I spent three days in Sydney last week at a Uniting Church colloquium hosted by two Assembly working groups. A colloquium, just in case you’re wondering, is a conference at which scholars or other experts present papers on, analyze, and discuss a specific topic. This particular gathering was designed to seek common theology, approaches and in relation to mission and evangelism, as well as greater appreciation of one another.
Background Reading
The planning team put together a list of background reading to get us on the same page:
David Bosch, Transforming Mission, 1991 (in particular the Introduction & Chapter 12)
Kennon Callahan, Effective Church Leadership, 1990, 1997 (part One),
Loren Mead, The Once and Future Church, 1991 and
Chris Walker, Towards a theology relating to mission (a paper written for the colloquium).
A reading list of other recommended books was also provided:
William Abraham, The Logic of Evangelism, 1989
Stephen Bevans & Roger Schroeder, Constants in Context, 2004
Thomas Bandy, Kicking Habits (updated), 2001
Thomas Bandy, Moving off the Map, 1998
John Bellamy et al, Enriching Church Life (NCLS book)
Diana Butler Bass, Christianity for the Rest of Us, 2007
Craig Van Gelder, The Ministry of the Missional Church, 2007
Darrell Guder (ed.), Missional Church, 1998
John Finney, Emerging Evangelism, 2005
Walter Klaiber, Call and Response, 1997
Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change, 2007
Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, 1989
Eight Papers
Clive Pearson and Ji Zhang spoke on the missional context, with a response from Sef Carroll. Ian Price and Alan Robinson spoke about forming effective Christian communities, with a response from Bron Murphy. Ian Robinson and John Hirt spoken on conversion, with a response from Yangrae Son. David Pargeter and Robert Watson spoken on the relationship of word and deed, with a response from Phil Gardiner.
I’ll write a bit about each of the papers over the next few days.
Good on you Duncan – thanks for getting the word out into cyberspace. Graham
It is interesting to see that the majority of reading material was between two and twenty years old. Not that new is everything but I would have expected some more recent books or articles.
Did the colloquium engage anything of Alan Hirsch or N T Wright or Ann Morisey or Tim Keller etc?
Man that sucks that QLD only sent 1 person???
What’s with that…no dollars…if people were keen they’d pay their own way. Either we are on about Mission and evangelism or we give away everything to those that are!!! And yes I am also talking about justice and mercy and miracles and the prophetic – they are all part of M & E.
Which books in particular would you add to the list Peter?
QLD did send two of us but you’re right – we have the opportunity to open it up some more.