Theological News On-Line

New TC Leaders and Developing Plans

The WEA Theological Commission has confirmed that Dr Justin Thacker who was appointed acting chairman at the annual meeting held in Bangkok, October, 2008 has accepted the post on a permanent basis. Dr Thacker, who is Head of Theology for the Evangelical Alliance of the UK, replaces Dr Rolf Hille who stepped down at the TC meeting after 12 years as Chairman. Dr David Parker, Executive Director of the TC, said, "Dr Hille's role in leading the TC for such a long period was vital for Commission. We wish him well as he devotes himself more fully now to his other responsibilities. We are pleased, however, that he will continue to be involved with the TC as Convenor of Ecumenical Task Force and as ecumenical spokesperson for the WEA."

Dr Justin Thacker joined the TC in 2007. He trained originally as a medical doctor and specialised in paediatrics, with service in Africa, and working eventually as leader of a team assessing healthcare provision for young offenders in England and Wales. Sensing a call to the ministry, took his BA in Theology at London School of Theology, and completed a PhD from King's College London. He is the author of Postmodernism and the Ethics of Theological Knowledge, which, as a response to the postmodern critique of Christianity, establishes the necessary integration of theological knowledge with theological ethics. Justin is an ordained Elder of the United Reformed Church, has an active preaching ministry and is on the council of Scripture Union. His role with EA UK is helping formulate its position on a range of theological and public issues.

At the 2008 annual meeting, Dr James Nkansah (Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology) was appointed Vice-Chair. Dr David Parker's term as Executive Director was extended. Rev David Roldan, Dean of Facultad Internacional de Educacion Teologica (FIET), Buenos Aires, was also appointed to the core group of the Theological Commission to represent Spanish-speaking Latin America.

Plans are being developed for the next major event of the Theological Commission which will be in international consultation to be held in Sao Paulo, Brasil, July 22-25 on the theme, Church and Theology in Practice. The annual TC planning and strategy session will take place prior to the consultation.

The consultation will be open to all those in Latin America who are interested in theological reflection, including seminary and Bible College faculty, students, pastors, missionaries and others. There will be opportunity for participants to present papers and join in wide-ranging discussion on topics of local, regional and international significance. Registration will be opened later but in the meantime, those interested in the consultation are invited to contact the TC for more information and to be placed on a mailing list.

TC Executive Director, Dr Parker, said, "We look forward to this consultation as an opportunity to serve the church and to work with as many people, seminaries, associations and churches as possible. We are keen to receive suggestions about the program and supply details as it develops. We hope to have details of the venue and registration available soon. Those interested are invited to contact us soon so they can keep in touch." For more information contact the TC as tc@worldevangelicals.org

New Journal focuses on Croatian Christianity

A theological journal in two language versions is available twice a year from the Evangelical Alliance of Croatia. Known as Kairos, the journal is edited by Stanko Jambrek, General Secretary of the Alliance. It aims to be channel for communicating the gospel, a support for evangelical scholars, a voice for Croatian evangelicalism and a means of bringing articles from the around world that are relevant and helpful for the Croatian church.

Articles may be from a wide range of disciplines including biblical, systematic and applied theology, ethics, Church history, and sociology of religion, philosophy and church life. Both peer reviewed and other articles are accepted. One section of the journal features new translations of biblical books, significant historical documents; works respected people of faith will be published.

The journal is strongly focused on material which represents Croatian evangelical thinking or is likely to be important for the Croatian Christian community. The contact address for subscriptions is Kairos, Amruseva 11, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. The web site is www.bigz.hr/kairos. The editor may be contacted at sjambrek@bizg.hr 

Seminary Positions available in Europe

Tyndale Theological Seminary is seeking highly qualified candidates to join its team of faculty and staff in their work of developing men and women as thinking, creative and prepared leaders for Kingdom service world- wide. This takes place in an exciting, cross-cultural and residential training situation. We are seeking three faculty members: one in Old Testament Studies, one in New Testament Studies, and one in intercultural studies and practical ministry.

Information about these positions is available at the following website: www.tyndale-europe.edu. All interested individuals must have the doctorate degree and be willing to provide full financial support. Interested individuals can also write Dr. Drake Williams at the following email address: drake@Tyndale.nl.

New Religious Freedom Publications

A large number of publications on Religious Freedom (IIRF) and other topics are being made available, many of them electronically, by the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) and the Martin Bucer Seminary.

The IiRF is publishing a bi-annual journal to provide a platform for scholarly discourse on the issue of religious freedom in general and the persecution of Christians in particular. Known as the International Journal for Religious Freedom (IJRF), this new publication is interdisciplinary, international, peer reviewed and scholarly and contains research articles, documentation, book reviews and academic news on the issue. The first issue includes articles on researching persecution, a theology of persecution, and recent trends.

IIRF is affiliated with the World Evangelical Alliance and is a network of professors, researchers, academics and specialists from all continents, who work on reliable data on the violation of religious freedom. There are offices in Bonn, Cape Town, and Colombo. While other bodies, including the Religious Liberty Commission of the WEA, are engaged in practical ways, IIRF aims to work on a long-term basis and to insure that comprehensive studies are carried out and publicised for the benefit of those interested. The Director of IIRF and the Editor of the journal is Dr. Thomas Schirrmacher, who holds doctorates in theology, anthropology and comparative religions. A small board of supervisors represents the German, European and World Evangelical Alliances and the Lausanne Movement.

Dr Schmirmacher is an ethicist and Director of the Martin Bucer Seminary, Bonn which has available a wide range of books. The full list, which may be seen at www.bucer.eu/books/, includes popular as well as scholarly level material. It includes several in the newly launched WEA Global Issues Series (www.iirf.eu/index.php?id=95). The books are obtainable from regular bookshops, and PDF versions are freely available on-line. To help those not able to purchase the books, they are offered without cost to qualified recipients.

Subscriptions for the journal IJRF may be directed to the South African office but the journal will appear on-line at www.iirf.eu a few weeks after the printed version is published. More information may be obtained from the website.

Grass Roots Ministry Training: "Then We Will No Longer Be Infants"

This quote from Ephesians 4:14 reflects the Apostle Paul's expectation for all believers: spiritual maturity. To facilitate spiritual growth from infancy to maturity, Paul says "it was he [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service" (vv. 11-12). However, what if the pastors and other leaders are spiritual infants themselves?

This is one of several baffling ministry challenges faced by River-for-Christ Bible Institute, founded in Pucallpa, Peru, by the South America Mission (Fort Mill, SC). The multi-cultural ministry team consists of local pastors and missionaries, serving the Mestizo villages on the 800 mile Ucayali River in the heart of the Amazon jungle. Many of the hundreds of villages have been superficially evangelized in the past, but ministry there often requires days of costly and unreliable travel on jungle rivers. For that and other reasons, the process of discipling and maturing of the believers has been neglected, resulting in spiritual infants being the leaders of the small churches.

Accordingly, the River-for-Christ Bible Institute employs an integrated curriculum in training current and future leaders. Spiritual application is integrated with most courses. For example, the course "Knowing God Better and Enjoying Him" is a biblical theology course based on key narratives in chronological order. As students learn about God's character, the wonder over God's power and mercy drives the class to prayer and worship. Building on this foundation, the systematic theology courses emphasize how doctrines are relevant to daily life. In hermeneutics and homiletics courses, the teaching team not only interprets and outlines the biblical texts, but takes class time to apply the passages to students' and teachers' lives. It happens regularly that God's working becomes evident through tears and confessions, often right in the classroom!

Incoming students have virtually never had good role models to follow for living as Christians, as husbands and fathers. Thus, the students study courses dealing specifically with spiritual growth and family during most study cycles, where they discuss real life issues, such as the difference between a "macho" of the local culture and a true man after God's design. Or, students and teachers debate options to the parental discipline of burning a child's fingers over the cooking fire.

Personal relationships pertain to character formation as a hot and humid climate pertains to the tropical jungle. That is why teachers often play sports with the students, eat and sleep on campus, and seek to engage in significant conversations with them. In the times between the study cycles the teachers take river trips to the students' villages to deepen relationships and to assess growth. For a couple of days they stay in each home, do ministry together with the student, and join him in his practical work of subsistence farming and fishing. Teachers have done anything from harvesting crops to building canoes and pigpens.

The challenge of spiritual infancy is joined by a similar challenge in the academic domain: Most students have had the opportunity to receive only an elementary education. The emphasis on rote memory learning in elementary school did not foster in the students the higher thinking levels necessary to analyze a biblical text and create a sermon. Instead, the lack of critical thinking and reasoning skill in the churches provides fertile ground for the weeds of false teachings that grow as rapidly as everything else in the tropical rainforest.

The students' reading comprehension is very low, resulting in very low Bible comprehension for preaching preparation and personal devotions. It has helped significantly to introduce an updated Spanish Bible version and to forego the use of textbooks in favor of short "textbooklets." Teachers familiar with the cultural context develop these booklets which are written at a semi-literate reading level, aimed for direct and personal application, in a reproducible, ready-for-the-pulpit format.

Active learning theory indicates lecturing and assigned readings as remarkably ineffective methods to teach ministry skills, especially to concrete thinking semi-literates. River-for-Christ Bible Institute staff trains the students through mock door to door evangelism, coached practice teaching, simulated baptisms, funerals, and encounters with false teachers, and counseling role plays. These and other core competencies were determined after conducting a profiling exercise. Teachers assess student skills in simulated and real-life settings, using specially-designed check lists as teaching tools. In coached assignments teachers require students to think for themselves.

In such a challenging ministry situation, spiritual growth and ministry progress of students and graduates is slow. Capable staff and funds are scarce. Distance and time limitations of the students only permit a "minimum training model": three study cycles of three weeks each per year. However, since the inception of River-for-Christ Bible Institute in 1997, individuals, families, and churches have been changed by the power of God. Over three quarters of the graduates are actively involved in ministry. Nine churches have been planted. And step-by-step, river bend by river bend, Ucayali Mestizos "will no longer be infants," but will have "grown up into Christ" (vv. 14-15)!

For more information, or to offer any suggestions, please contact Matthias Drochner, MRDrochner@SouthAmericaMission.org 

TC and Lausanne Theology Group

The WEA Theological Commission and the Lausanne Theology Working Group will work together in the third consultation leading up to the Cape Town 2010 Congress. The consultation on the topic, "The Whole Church", will take place in Panama late in January 2009 and will feature about 30 theologians. The previous consultation on “The Whole Gospel” was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand in February 2008. Papers from this conference are being published in the January 2009 issue of Evangelical Review of Theology. Many extra copies of this issue will be distributed widely around the world. More information is available on application.

Vulnerable Mission Conferences

David's strategy turned the tide for Israel. Could a new strategy by western missionaries do the same? It's time for world missions to use local resources rather than Saul's armour. It is time for VulnerableMission.com

Register today for one of nine meetings in 2009:

•  Jan 13 Weatherford OK
•  Jan 16 Colorado Springs, CO
•  Jan 20 Boise, ID.
•  Jan 23 Seattle, WA
•  Jan 27 Indianapolis, IN
•  Jan 30 Lancaster, PA.
•  Feb 13 Andover, UK.
•  Feb 18, Stuttgart, Germany.
•  Mar 10 Cliff College, UK.

Book Review: Ministry on my mind: John Newton on entering pastoral ministry, transcribed by Marylynn Rouse
(Stratford-upon-Avon, The John Newton Project: 2008) ISBN 978-0-9559635-0-6 Pb pp30.

The John Newton Project is to be congratulated on producing this short booklet which is the private reflections of the notorious slave-trader, John Newton, as he considered a call to the ministry. Converted about ten years earlier, he was approaching his 33rd birthday in 1758, and devoted himself in the weeks leading up to this event to give concentrated prayer, study and self-examination to the challenge. To help with the process he wrote out his thoughts, particularly the results of his study of key biblical passages (including Mark 9:24, 2 Cor. 2:26; Luke 14:28; Heb. 5:4 and 1 Tim 4:16), and the thoughts he had about his faith and commitment, and the nature of the ministry, its requirements and qualifications, and above all the grace he need to respond to the call he felt so strongly. Finally, on his birthday, 4 August, he came to a positive conclusion and made a series of resolutions to give himself by God's power to this work which would occupy him until his death almost fifty years later.

It is a little disconcerting to read a document such as this that was never intended for the public (it is attractively presented in this publication, and even includes some facsimile excerpts of his own handwriting). But its intense spirituality, profound biblical reflection and honesty make it an document that is certain to be extraordinarily beneficial to all who read it 250 years later.

Notice to Readers

Thank you for interest our work and newsletter through the year.

Subscriptions: May we remind those who take the printed version that subscriptions for 2008 are now due. The details are at the foot of this letter. There is no need to renew subscriptions for the TN On-Line.

Change of Address: It helps us a great deal if you can update us on changes of address (email and/or postal) or cancellations. Please provide name and address as shown on the mailing label. These details can be emailed. If you subscribe to our electronic Forum or receive TN On-Line, please advise us of changes of email address. We have quite a number of 'dead' addresses now which we would like to revive!

Global Membership: You may be involved directly in the activities and work of the Theological Commission by taking out Global Membership (individual, institutional or National Evangelical Alliance/Fellowship) so that by an annual subscription you can receive our publications and be part of our conferences and consultations. For further information, see below and contact the TC Office - tc@worldevangelicalalliance.com 

**Participate with the TC - Global Membership

Join the TC's Global Membership-categories for individual theologians; seminaries, missions churches and other institutions; and National Evangelical fellowships and their theological units. Annual membership brings subscriptions to TC publications (ERT and TN) and the ability to share in the TC's annual conferences, networking and planning sessions, TC study units and task forces. For more information, contact tc@worldevangelicalalliance.com