2024 Publications on Methodist Mission and Evangelism

As the year winds down, we are taking a moment to review scholarship on Methodist mission and evangelism from 2024. The following is a list of books and articles published since the beginning of the year by scholars in the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission, friends of the blog, and other scholars about topics related to Methodist mission and evangelism. Readers are encouraged to consult these sources for the latest in scholarship about Methodist mission and evangelism.

Peter J. Bellini, “John Wesley, the Almost Charismatic,” in Heirs of Pietism in World Christianity: The 19th to the 21st Centuries, edited by Wendy J. Deichmann & Scott T. Kisker (Wilmore, KY: First Fruits Press, 2024).

Brian J. Chalmers, Methodist Revivalism and Social Reform in the Paradise of Dissent 1838-1939 (North Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2024).

Paul W. Chilcote, “Charles Wesley and the “Peaceable Reign” of Christ,” Holiness 9 (2024).

Paul W. Chilcote, Cultivating Christlikeness: Loving as Jesus Loved (Nashville: Abingdon, 2024).

Paul W. Chilcote, The Fullest Possible Love: Living in Harmony with God and Neighbor (Nashville: Abingdon, 2024).

Paul W. Chilcote, The Quest for Love Divine: Select Essays in Wesleyan Thought and Practice (Cambridge: Lutterworth, 2024).

Paul W. Chilcote, “Songs of renewal: The language of renewal in the hymns of Charles Wesley,” The Journal of Religious History, Literature and Culture 10:2 (2024).

Sara Ashencaen Crabtree, An Historiography of Twentieth-century Women's Missionary Nursing through the Lives of Two Sisters: Doing the Lord's Work in Kenya and South India (New York: Routledge, 2024).

Taylor Denyer, “Ecclesiastic Empires: American Conflict and the UMC in Africa,” in Methodism and American Empire: Reflections on Decolonizing the Church, ed. by David W. Scott and Filipe Maia (Nashville: Abingdon, 2024).

Norma Dollaga, “The Diaconal Spirituality of Activism in the Philippines,” in Diaconal Studies: Lived Theology for the Church in North America, edited by Craig L. Nessan and Darryl W. Stephens (Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2024).

David N. Field, “Engagements with Non-British Cultures,” in The Routledge Companion to John Wesley, ed. by Clive Murray Norris and Joseph W. Cunningham (London: Routledge, 2024).

Benjamin L. Hartley, “John R. Mott amidst the students: Historical and missiological gleanings for today,” Missiology: An International Review (2024).

Benjamin L. Hartley, “The Problem and Promise of the Diaconate,” in Diaconal Studies: Lived Theology for the Church in North America, edited by Craig L. Nessan and Darryl W. Stephens (Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2024).

Arun W. Jones, “From courtesan to King: The conversion of Farzana,” Nidān: International Journal for Indian Studies 9:1 (2024).

Filipe Maia, Decolonizing Wesleyan Theology: Theological Engagements from the Underside of Methodism (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2024).

David L. McKenna, Seeing All Things Whole My Calling to Fulfill (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2024).

Martin Mujinga and Onias Chagudhuma, “Meaning beyond symbols!: A theological interpretation of the Methodist Church in Zimbabwe’s logo,” Pharos Journal of Theology 105 (2024).

Eben Kanukayi Nhiwatiwa, By the Grace of God: My Life as an African Bishop (Nashville: Abingdon, 2024).

Joon-Sik Park, “The Worldwide Nature of The United Methodist Church: A Historical and Missiological Reflection,” in Methodism and American Empire: Reflections on Decolonizing the Church, ed. by David W. Scott and Filipe Maia (Nashville, Abingdon, 2024).

Angel D. Santiago-Vendrell, “Popular Catholicism Puerto Rican Style: The Virgin of Rincón, Human Agency, and Miracles,” Religions 15 (2024).

David W. Scott, “American Power in the Global Church in Ecumenical Methodist Perspective,” in Methodism and American Empire: Reflections on Decolonizing the Church, ed. by David W. Scott and Filipe Maia (Nashville: Abingdon, 2024).

David W. Scott and Filipe Maia, eds., Methodism and American Empire: Reflections on Decolonizing the Church (Nashville: Abingdon, 2024).

David W. Scott, “Review of Dana L. Robert, Allison Kach-Yawnghwe, and Morgan Crago, Creative Collaborations: Case Studies of North American Missional Practices,” Missiology, 52:1 (2024), 118-119.

Howard A. Snyder, Consider the Lilies: How Jesus Saves People and the Land: The Theology and Ecology of Salvation (Wilmore, KY: First Fruits, 2024).

Darryl W. Stephens, “Developing a Trauma-Informed Diaconal Praxis,” in Diaconal Studies: Lived Theology for the Church in North America, edited by Craig L. Nessan and Darryl W. Stephens (Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2024).

Darryl W. Stephens and Craig L. Nessan, eds., Diaconal Studies: Lived Theology for the Church in North America (Oxford: Regnum Books International, 2024).

Darryl W. Stephens, “A Global Ethic for a Divided Church,” in Methodism and American Empire: Reflections on Decolonizing the Church, ed. by David W. Scott and Filipe Maia (Nashville: Abingdon, 2024).

Darryl W. Stephens, Reckoning Methodism: Mission and Division in the Public Church (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2024).

Darrell L. Whiteman, Crossing Cultures with the Gospel: Anthropological Wisdom for Effective Christian Witness (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2024).

Darrell L. Whiteman, Forward to Jerusalem Burning: The Terror and Promise of the "Wrath of Love," by Robert L. Canfield (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2024).

Philip Wingeier-Rayo, “The Autonomous Process of Latin American Methodism: A Critical Review,” in Methodism and American Empire: Reflections on Decolonizing the Church, ed. by David W. Scott and Filipe Maia (Nashville: Abingdon, 2024).

Philip Wingeier-Rayo, “Latin America and the Caribbean,” in The Routledge Companion to John Wesley, ed. by Clive Murray Norris and Joseph W. Cunningham (London: Routledge, 2024).

Philip Wingeier-Rayo, “Review of In the Hands of God: How Evangelical Belonging Transforms Migrant Experiences in the U.S. by Johanna Bard Richlin,” Politics, Religion & Ideology 25 (2024).

Recommended Viewing: American Society of Missiology 2024 Conference Plenary Videos

The American Society of Missiology, the premier ecumenical professional organization dedicated to mission studies in North America, held its annual meeting a couple weeks ago. This year's theme was “Mission with Children, Youth, and Young Adults.” The theme was chosen by 2023-2024 President (and Association of Methodist Professors of Mission member) Rev. Dr. Benjamin L. Hartley.

The conference included a schedule of plenary presentations and paper presentations, all focused on the yearly theme. The plenary presentations were videotaped and have been posted on the society's YouTube channel. They are well worth viewing, especially Hartley's fine presidential address.

Benjamin Hartley: John R. Mott amidst the Students

Dwight Radcliff, Jr.: Remixing the Center

Andrea Toledo Baker: Sacred Spaces

UM & Global Resources on Regionalization

One of the significant decisions taken by the recent General Conference was the passage of the Worldwide Regionalization legislation. The legislation, some of which still needs to be ratified by annual conferences over the next year, would restructure the church to convert existing central conferences into regional conferences, create a regional conference for the United States, and give regional conferences greater local control in adapting structures, ministries, and policies for maximal missional effectiveness in their contexts.

Since regionalization will now go to the annual conferences for ratification, and since, if ratified, the church will need to go through a process of living into regionalization, there is more discussion of regionalization that needs to happen, even with General Conference approval. Therefore, UM & Global offers the following resources to assist in conversations about regionalization and what it means to strive to be a church that structures itself in internationally equitable ways:

A brief description of David Scott & Filipe Maia's recent book, Methodism and American Empire

All UM & Global articles tagged with the term "regionalization"

A collection of UM & Global articles on "The UMC as a Global Church," with study questions

A collection of UM & Global articles on "Culture, Context, and the Global Church," with study questions

A collection of UM & Global articles on "The Global UMC in Ecumenical Perspective," with study questions. Some of these articles served as early drafts for David Scott's chapter in Methodism and American Empire.

A collection of UM & Global articles on "Church Autonomy and the Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas (COSMOS)," with study questions. These articles provide additional background information on the COSMOS process described by Joon-Sik Park and Phil Wingeier-Rayo in their chapters of Methodism and American Empire.

Filipe Maia: Decolonizing Wesleyan Theology: Theological Engagements from the Underside of Methodism

The following is a preview excerpt from the Introduction to the recently published Decolonizing Wesleyan Theology: Theological Engagements from the Underside of Methodism, edited by Filipe Maia: https://wipfandstock.com/9781666793482/decolonizing-wesleyan-theology/. This excerpt is used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers, www.wipfandstock.com.

In August 2018, a group of scholars, pastors, and ecclesial leaders met at Wesley House in Cambridge, UK, to imagine and plot the decolonization of Methodist and Wesleyan traditions. Standing on British territory and under the shadow of the prestigious Cambridge University, the gathering embodied the ambivalent legacy of the Wesleyan tradition, birthed in the midst of British imperialism while cherished by Methodist communities in the postcolonial world. We were Methodist scholars and leaders from the Global South, immigrants in the diasporas of the Global North, all coming to Wesleyan theology via the complex entanglement between missionary movements and western colonialism.

While steeped in Wesleyan traditions, the group gathered in Cambridge embodied a Methodism that could not have been envisioned by John Wesley nor the missionaries who set out to spread “scriptural holiness” to all corners of the planet. In those corners of the world, Methodism gained new edges. Those of us meeting in British territory had returned to the birthplace of our theological and spiritual tradition with a difference. We noticed that claiming our Methodist roots demanded a reinterpretation of the tradition. The gathering showed that the Wesleyan theological tradition has been pluralized in the context of colonial and neocolonial expansion.

One of the ideas suggested by the group in Cambridge was the organization of an edited volume under the working title, Decolonizing Wesleyan Theology. This was more than a title: it was a task.

This volume is one response to that task. It gives testimony to the Methodist roots that grow in territories and bodies that uproot longstanding colonial forces. It has been envisioned, nurtured, and curated as a work of decolonial love. Authors in this volume write from multiple locations in the Global South where our Wesleyan heritage is giving new contours to the tradition.

Readers will most likely notice that the language of decline, so common in Methodist circles in North America, is rarely, if ever, mentioned. This is no indication that Methodism flourishes without difficulties in the Global South, but rather a statement about how contributors are less interested in thinking about the numerical decline of Christendom and more committed to a renewed Wesleyan theology that meets the harsh realities of a world still embedded in the structures of colonialism.

The decolonial approaches to Wesleyan theology offered in this volume give witness to a tradition that gains strength and vitality in decolonial struggles and in the engagement with traditions and ways of knowing that have been suppressed by western modernity.

The essays in this volume offer perspectives into a Methodism that lives and flourishes on the underside of colonial powers. From all corners of the planet, communities of faith in the Wesleyan tradition experiment with theological imaginaries and ecclesial practices that are transforming the face of global Methodism. Decolonizing Wesleyan Theology gives voice to these experiments while seeking to deepen the reflection in decolonial theologies and spiritualities.

As authors revisit the history of the Methodist movement, they witness to the different shapes Methodism gained in the colonies—old and new. As they revisit Wesley’s own writings and other important themes in Wesleyan theology and practice, they inhabit the cracks of our founder’s theology and turn it in unforeseeable directions.

It is worth mentioning that the volume that you are now engaging is but one element of the ongoing task of decolonizing Wesleyan theology and traditions. In fact, it is appropriate to approach this volume as a snapshot of an ongoing conversation. This book is the fruit of a larger project that involves monthly conversations among a global network of Methodist theologians and leaders.

The “World Parish Webinar” has been a platform where we have been shaping conversations in the direction of a decolonial Methodism. Since January 2020, we have been gathering monthly and our group has grown into a global parish, a “people on the move,” to borrow the expression from J. C. Park, developed in his essay later in this volume. This group has been called out as an assembly—an ekklesia—to retrain our theological ways of knowing and to conjure up a decolonial Wesleyan theology.

We have been put on the move through these webinars: we have become a migrant church, pilgriming through many locations as we pursue the task of decolonizing the Wesleyan tradition. The World Parish Webinar became a Pentecost of sorts, a place where we share good news with the accents of a multitude of locations, where we do not pursuit the homogeneity of Empire, but relish on the difference that resists the colonial dream of sameness, of a single voice, of one Wesley, of one homogenous church body. The webinar is ongoing and is convened through Wesley House in Cambridge. If you would like to join the conversation you are welcome to do so. Information can be found at Wesley House’s website.

Decolonizing Wesleyan theology entails the appreciation of difference and alternative forms of knowledge production, different modes of theological imagination, the recognition and negotiation of alternative inheritances. The essays included in the volume embody these principles as they construct a decolonial Wesleyan theology. Combining Wesleyan theology and decolonial theories, this volume offers a unique contribution to Methodist studies, global Methodism, and decolonial theologies.

Decolonizing Wesleyan Theology presents eight reflections that lead readers into deeper engagements with Methodism. They are as follows:

Filipe Maia: "The Wesleyan Quartet: Wesleyan Theology in the Decolonial Turn"

Pablo Guillermo Oviedo: "Grace that Liberates and Unites in the Mission of God: Liberation Theology and Wesleyan Theology in Latin America"

Pablo Manuel Ferrer: "A Decolonial Physic: Medical Science, Healing, and the Ecology of Knowledge in Methodism"

Elvira Moisés Cazombo: "Wesleyan Methodism and the Interruption of Ancestral Bodies in Angolan Liturgical Practices"

Virgínia Inácio dos Santos: "Ministering While Single: An Angolan Perspective on Methodism and Marriage"

Lilian Cheelo Siwila: "Trapped between the Pew and the Altar: Wesleyan Traditions and Decoloniality; An African Feminist Perspective"

J. C. Park: "Decolonizing the Church of Empire: The Church on the Move for Justice, Peace, and Life"

Amelia Koh-Butler: "Water and Sand: Illuminating Native Theologies with a Wesleyan Lens of Spiritual Experience"

Recommended Viewing: Global Ministries on Emily Explains

UM & Global blogmaster Dr. David W. Scott recently appeared on an episode of "Emily Explains" in his capacity as Director of Mission Theology and Strategic Planning for Global Ministries. "Emily Explains" is a series of short videos created by Emily Allen, a General Conference lay delegate from the California-Nevada Annual Conference. The videos are created to help inform United Methodists about various aspects of the church related to General Conference and the global connection.

In the episode, "What Is the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries?" Scott shares some overview information about Global Ministries and also some information specific to Global Ministries and legislation before General Conference.

Methodism and American Empire Book Now Out!

I (David) had previously shared an announcement and description of a book I have co-edited with Filipe Maia: Methodism and American Empire: Reflections on Decolonizing the Church. At the time, the book was available for pre-order. I am happy to share that it is now printed and available for purchase! You can find it on Cokesbury, Amazon, or wherever you buy your books. Note that in addition to being the denominational book seller, as of this writing, Cokesbury has the book at a discount over Amazon.

Here is the brief description of the book from the publisher (Abingdon):

"Methodism and American Empire investigates historical trajectories and theological developments that connect American imperialism since World War II to the Methodist tradition as a global movement. The volume asks: to what extent is United Methodists’ vision of the globe marred by American imperialism? Through historical analyses and theological reflections, this volume chronicles the formation of an understanding of The United Methodist Church since the mid-20th century that is both global and at the same time dominated by American interests and concerns. Methodism and American Empire provides a historical and theological perspective to understand the current context of The United Methodist Church while also raising ecclesiological questions about the impact of imperialism on how Methodists have understood the nature and mission of the church over the last century. Gathering voices and perspectives from around the world, this volume suggests that the project of global Methodism and the tensions one witnesses therein ought to be understood in the context of American imperialism and that such an understanding is critical to the task of continuing to be a global denomination. The volume tells a tale of complex negotiations happening between United Methodists across different national, cultural, and ecclesial contexts and sets up the historical backdrop for the imminent schism of The United Methodist Church."

I am very impressed by the contributions to this volume of all the authors, and I think the book will make an important contribution to some really significant conversations going on in The United Methodist Church (and beyond). It was also a joy to work with Filipe Maia on this book. You can hear some more of his reflections related to it on this Bar of the Conference podcast. I'm proud to have worked on this book, and I hope you will check it out.

2023 Publications on Methodist Mission and Evangelism

As the year winds down, we are taking a moment to review scholarship on Methodist mission and evangelism from 2023. The following is a list of books and articles published since the beginning of the year by scholars in the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission or by other scholars about topics related to Methodist mission and evangelism. Readers are encouraged to consult these sources for the latest in scholarship about Methodist mission and evangelism.

Bellini, Peter J., Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and the Image of God: Can Machines Attain Consciousness and Receive Salvation? (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2023).

Bellini, Peter J., Thunderstruck: The Deliverance Ministry of John Wesley (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock, 2023).

Chilcote, Paul W. "Mapping Global Methodist Theology," Holiness 8 (Aug. 2023), 76, https://doi.org/10.2478/holiness-2023-0011.

Chilcote, Paul W. Multiplying Love: A Vision of United Methodist Life Together (Nashville, TN: Abingdon, 2023).

Dharmaraj, Glory E., "Sisterhood and 'Sistering': Restating Relationships in the Cartography of Missional Collaborations – Dallas Bethlehem Center, A Case Study," in Creative Collaborations: Case Studies of North American Missional Practices, edited by Dana L. Robert, Allison Kach-Yawnghwe, and Morgan Crago (Oxford: Regnum, 2023).

Gordon, Sarah Barringer, "Staying in Place: Southern Methodists, the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, and Postwar Battles for Control of Church Property," The Journal of the Civil War Era 13 (2023), 281, https://doi.org/10.1353/cwe.2023.a905166.

Leffel, Gregory P., Charles J. Fensham, George R. Hunsberger, Robert A. Hunt, William N. Kenney, Gregg A. Okesson, Hendrik R. Pieterse, "What We Mean by Public Missiology," Missiology 51 (July 2023), 268, https://doi.org/10.1177/00918296231176757.

Kim-Cragg, David Andrew, "'We Take Hold of the White Man’s Worship with One Hand, but with the Other Hand We Hold Fast Our Fathers’ Worship': The Beginning of Indigenous Methodist Christianity and Its Expression in the Christian Guardian, Upper Canada circa 1829," Religions 14:2 (2023), 139; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020139.

Park, Joon-Sik, "The Missional Implications of the Theology of H. Richard Niebuhr," International Bulletin of Mission Research 47 (July 2023), 380, https://doi.org/10.1177/23969393231168540.

Pedlar, James E., British Methodist Revivalism and the Eclipse of Ecclesiology (London: Routledge, 2023), https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003224327.

Robert, Dana L., The Dutch Reformed Women's Missionary Movement from the Cape and the Mt. Holyoke Connection (Mzuzu, South Africa: Luviri Press, 2023).

Robert, Dana L., "Introduction," in Restoring Identities: The Contextualizing Story of Christianity in Oceania, edited by Upolu Lumā Vaai and Mark A. Lamport (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2023).

Robert, Dana L., Allison Kach-Yawnghwe, and Morgan Crago, editors, Creative Collaborations: Case Studies of North American Missional Practices (Oxford: Regnum, 2023).

Robinson, Elaine A., Leading with Love: Spiritual Disciplines for Practical Leadership (Minneapolis: 1517 Media, 2023).

Santiago-Vendrell, Angel, and Misoon (Esther) Im, "The World Was Their Parish: Evangelistic Work of the Single Female Missionaries from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, to Korea, 1887-1940," Religions 14:2 (2023), 262; https://doi.org/10.3390/rel14020262.

Smith, Ronald E., Henry Clay Morrison: Remember the Old Paths (Wilmore, KY: Francis Asbury Institute, 2023).

Teasdale, Mark R. "A Bias for the Gospel," International Bulletin of Mission Research 47 (Jan. 2023), 69, https://doi.org/10.1177/23969393221100770.

Von Gonten, Kristen, "Emma Stone Poteet Pilley and Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Missions to Asia," Methodist History 61 (Apr. 2023), 13, https://doi.org/10.5325/methodisthist.61.1.0013.

Whiteman, Darrell L., "The Conversion of a Missionary: A Missiological Study of Acts 10," Missiology 51 (Jan. 2023), 19, https://doi.org/10.1177/00918296221117711.

Whiteman, Darrell L., "Foreword" to Laura Heikes, Finding God: Discovering the Divine in the Gritty and Unexpected (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2023).

Whiteman, Darrell L., "My Pilgrimage in Mission," International Bulletin of Mission Research 47 (July 2023), 536, https://doi.org/10.1177/23969393231173853.

Whiteman, Darrell L., "Remembering the American Society of Missiology 1973–2023: Remarks at the 50th Anniversary Banquet Celebration," Missiology 51 (Oct. 2023), 378, https://doi.org/10.1177/00918296231190918.

Highly Recommended Listening: Bar of the Conference Podcast

When I (David) started this blog over a decade ago, blogs were an important venue for discussing ideas related to the church, with multiple authors making regular insightful contributions. There were problems with representation in blog authorship, but it still felt like a significant medium. That has seemed less and less true over the 10 years I've written this blog, as internet ecology has changed.

However, newer forms of media have arisen to replace the blog as venues for having thoughtful conversations about the church, its mission, and its future. None of these have been more significant than the podcast. Moreover, podcasts have some real advantages over blogs. They usually take the form of dialogue, thus including more voices. Podcast hosts represent a greater range of gender and racial diversity than blogs did. They're often longer form, which provide more space for deep reflection.

There are now multiple excellent United Methodist podcasts and video podcasts. And one of the best is undoubtedly Bar of the Conference, hosted by Derrick Scott III.

The focus of Bar of the Conference is "the stories shaping the future of the United Methodist Church." It is structured as hour-long interviews by Derrick Scott of various significant United Methodists. The interviews include both personal story-telling about how the interviewees came to United Methodism as well as insightful conversation into the current realities of The United Methodist Church, including how the passage of the Traditional Plan in 2019 changed the church and how people see General Conference 2024 playing out.

Many of the people Scott interviews have personal and/or professional connections to the UMC outside the United States, including Simon Osunlana, Izzy Alvaran, Mighty Rasing, Betty Kazadi Musau, Ande Emmanuel, Lloyd Nyarota, Jeffrey Kuan, and Neal Christie. Other American interviewees have a particular interest in mission, including Tara Barnes, Katie Dawson, Cynthia Weems, and Lisa Greenwood. Racial justice and LGBTQ inclusion are also strong themes across the podcasts.

If I were starting UM & Global from scratch in 2023, I would start it as a podcast. And I would be lucky if it were nearly as good as Bar of the Conference. Bar of the Conference does a lot of the work that this blog has tried to do over the past decade, and it is doing it in a fresher, more contemporary format.

Resource: Florida Annual Conference Missionary Legacy Preservation Project

The Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church has launched an ambitious digital humanities project that seeks to collect and preserve materials related to the history of missionaries from the Florida Annual Conference. Called the "The World Parish: Serving Beyond Boundaries-The Missionary Legacy Preservation Project," this digit humanities resource has the potential to be of significant interest to church members and academic historians alike.

An overview article about the project can be found here. The project contains nearly 500 items ranging from decades ago to the present. The materials can be browsed by collection (such as organizations, journals, laity, missionary families, etc.) or by tag (mostly related to place of service, program, and organization). The project also has a well-elaborated search function.

Resource: AME's Christianity in Context lessons

Context is one of the most basic concepts in missiology: that an individual or group's social, political, economic, and cultural surroundings impact their understanding and practice of the Christian faith. The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church has put out a resource called "Christianity in Context." Featuring Rev. Dr. Courtney Bryant, the multimedia educational resource is designed for black Christians, but non-black Christians who want to learn more about the context of their black sisters and brothers can engage with it too. The lessons invite the faithful to grapple with some important concepts related to mission, such as context, justice, solidarity, action, and the relationship between culture and the presentation of the gospel. They do this even if they do not use the term "mission" directly. For more, see the intro video below.

Recommended Reading: How To Save the Planet

The European Methodist Youth Climate Team has created a 4-page guide to creation care entitled "How To Save the Planet." The European Methodist Youth Climate Team had been active around environmental issues in the lead-up to the COP27 meeting and issued a statement after that meeting. This new guide (written in English) is an extension of their previous work.

The guide presents 15 practical and spiritual steps that Methodists (and others) can take for "meaningful action on climate change." The steps range from advocacy to changing personal consumption habits to caring for those impacted by climate change. Throughout, there is an emphasis on cultivating the spiritual habits and dispositions and the theological undergirding for such work.

This guide is sure to be a helpful resource as a conversation starter for individual Methodists, Methodist congregations, and other settings where Methodists are committed to caring for God's creation.

The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism

Today’s blog post is adapted from the introduction of The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism: Emerging Trends from Everywhere to Everywhere, edited by David W. Scott and Darryl W. Stephens. The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism, initially published by Routledge in 2021, is newly out in a more affordable paperback version.

Why do we need another book about Methodist mission? Methodist and Wesleyan understandings and experiences of global mission have undergone significant changes in the past decade. We live in a world context much different than previously imagined. Much has shifted, with increased migration and nationalism, a growing recognition of impending environmental catastrophe, increased secularism in the West, and the continued growth of the church in the Majority World. These factors have reshaped the church and the world in which it is in mission.

The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism: Emerging Trends from Everywhere to Everywhere contributes to the ongoing development of Methodist mission by offering global perspectives on the theology and practice of mission and evangelism within a changing world context. A contemporary missiology must engage these new conditions in the world. There is a great need for new scholarship on mission and evangelism that brings together Methodist and Wesleyan voices from around the world to address pressing current topics in mission that transcend national borders.

This is an ambitious title for one volume. The word “practice” signals attention to the activities involved in mission, not just the theories behind it. Yet there are many forms of mission, from evangelism to health care, women’s empowerment to creation care, theological inculturation to education, and beyond. The term “global Methodism” signals a similarly wide purview. Methodism is present in some form on all six inhabited continents and across dozens of countries, cultures, and languages. This emphasis is reinforced by the phrase “from everywhere to everywhere” in the book’s subtitle. A frequently-used slogan at Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, this phrase indicates that missionaries can come from any context and any context can be a site of mission. Significantly, the qualifier “emerging” signals the constructive, forward-looking orientation of this volume.

This book explores emerging trends within Methodist mission practice in four areas: global relationships, contextual engagement, education and formation, and discernment about the future of Methodist mission. These four areas structure the book into four sections, while overarching themes such as decolonization, the growth of Christianity in the global South, holistic mission, Wesleyan theology, evangelism, culture’s impact on theology, and the significance of collaborative relationships are addressed throughout. Other topics are present in two or three essays, such as women’s mission work, migration, creation care, peace, justice, health and healing, ecumenism, economic development, political engagement, and students and youth.

This volume begins with Part I, Cultivating Global Relationships. Among mission leaders and practitioners from the global South and East, mission scholars around the world, and mission practitioners in the global North, relationships are characterized by both collaborations and tensions. Global connections make new forms and levels of mission collaboration possible across countries, cultures, and denominations. Increasing divisions within global connectivity pull global mission relationships in different directions. Several chapters address economic, cultural, theological, political, and economic divisions impacting the practice of Methodist mission and attempts to work together across these differences.

The nature of global relationships raises a host of questions regarding the nature of mission partnerships among Methodists around the world. How is it possible to foster mutuality in mission? How can Methodists from the global West and North use their resources to support and not to dominate partners from the global South and East? How can partners from the global South and East and those from the global West and North learn from and appreciate the gifts of the others and not overly value their own? How can these (and other) groups best work together to further the mission of God?

Part II, Practicing Contextual Engagement, is the largest section of the book. Scholars and practitioners address how Methodists around the world practice mission in its many forms and many contexts, including those shaped by colonial legacies. In the colonial era, Methodist evangelistic mission often went hand-in-hand with the construction of schools, hospitals, and clinics. These missional practices of evangelism, healing, and education remain as popular as ever among Methodists around the world. Moreover, practices such as social service, justice seeking, peace building, and economic development that have more recent pedigrees—dating perhaps to the past century or so—have also continued to be important practices of Methodist mission in the twenty-first century. Therefore, it is important to understand mission holistically and to be able to identify the connections between these various forms of mission work.

Part III, Educating for Missional Formation, combines intellectual formation with spiritual formation, skills development, and organizational planning. Methodists educate each other about mission through theological, spiritual, and practical preparation, including evangelism as a form of mission. How should Methodists pastors, seminarians, lay people, and youth educate themselves to live into a faithful vision of Methodist mission? How can they be encouraged to see the interconnections between different forms of mission as parts forming a holistic understanding? How can they learn from the resources of the faith and learn about the world in which mission occurs?

The final section is Part IV, Discerning the Future of Mission Together. God’s word abides even as our understandings of mission, the contexts in which we practice mission, and the people involved in mission are always changing. These changes call for the exercise of Christian discernment in mission practice. How is God calling us to articulate the gospel anew so as to connect with the world as it is and as it is becoming? How can we encourage new people, especially youth, to listen carefully to God’s calling to mission? How can we better understand God’s calling by listening to the voices of those different from us? The collective work of discernment is an essential component of mission practice.

This book aspires to enable faithful and effective Methodist mission in the twenty-first century. The authors open creative avenues for dialogue and engagement, furthering the conversation that is our collective responsibility as scholars and reflective practitioners of mission. Challenges facing Methodist mission arise from a desire for mutuality amidst the reality of global inequities; local expression of Methodism confronting lingering, systemic patterns of colonialism; and reciprocal learning despite xenophobic and tribalistic tendencies. How shall Methodists in mission promote partnership across cultures, rootedness within cultures, and exchange among cultures that are themselves in flux? Each contributor to this volume brings a distinctive viewpoint on these issues as they offer descriptions of and prescriptions for the practice of mission in global Methodism.

This book is designed for students, scholars, and practitioners of mission, both within Methodism and ecumenically. It is written for practitioners, scholars, and students in the fields of missiology, evangelism, world Christianity, and Methodist studies and will be of particular interest to those studying contemporary global Methodism and its understandings of mission and evangelism. Readers of many disciplinary backgrounds, including theology, ethics, history, and the social sciences, will find a rich, multidisciplinary conversation in these pages.

We hope the conversation included in this book will give rise to many more conversations among scholars and practitioners, as together we continue to improvise and innovate in the practice of Methodist mission.

The volume includes contributions from the following:
Hendrik R. Pieterse
Taylor Walters Denyer
David W. Scott
Carmen C. Manalac-Scheuerman and Akanisi Tarabe
K. Kale Yu
Nelson Kalombo Ngoy
Stephen J. H. Hendricks
Andrea Reily Rocha Soares
Sheryl Marks-Williams
Mark R. Teasdale
Darryl W. Stephens
Jenny Phillips
Elmira Sellu, Flory Atieno, Sara Jalloh, Jaka Joice, Rose Musooko, and Evelyn Ann Ouma
Jeffrey A. Conklin-Miller
Sam Kim
Mande Muyombo
Stephen Skuce
Joy Eva Bohol

Recent Publications on Methodist Mission and Evangelism

The following is a list of books and articles published within the last six months by the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission or by other scholars about Methodist mission and evangelism. Readers are encouraged to consult these sources for the latest in scholarship about Methodist mission and evangelism.

Paul W. Chilcote, The Quest for Love Divine: Select Essays in Wesleyan Theology and Practice (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2022).

Paul W. Chilcote, “Perfect Love Restored: The Language of Renewal in the Hymns of Charles Wesley,” Holiness 7 (October 2022), 113.

Luís Wesley de Souza, “Mission and Evangelism,” in Christianity in Latin America and the Caribbean, edited by Kenneth R. Ross, Ana María Bidegaín, and Todd M. Johnson (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022).

Benjamin L. Hartley, “The 1921 Founding of the International Missionary Council in the Life of John R. Mott,” International Review of Mission 111 (November 2022), 253.

Benjamin L. Hartley, “Missions,” in The Oxford Handbook of Early Evangelicalism, edited by Jonathan Yeager (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).

Arun W. Jones, “Hybridity and Christian Identity,” Missiology 50:1 (2022), 7.

Younghwa Kim, “Book Review: The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism: Emerging Trends from Everywhere to Everywhere,” Wesley and Methodist Studies 14:2 (2022), 227–229.

Ian Randall, “Mutuality in Methodist Mission: Murray and Olive Titus in India, 1910–1951,” Wesley and Methodist Studies 14:2 (June 2022), 146-168.

Dana L. Robert, “‘Make Jesus King’ and the Evangelical Missionary Imagination, 1889–1896,” in Global Faith, Worldly Power: Evangelical Internationalism and U.S. Empire, edited by John Corrigan, Melani McAlister, Axel R. Schäfer (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022).

Dana L. Robert, “Pierson, Arthur Tappan (1837-1911),” in The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 4th edition, edited by Andrew Louth (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022).

Dana L. Robert, “Conversion and Mission History: a Review of David W. Kling’s A History of Christian Conversion,” Pastoral Psychology 71 (July 2022), 789.

Dana L. Robert, “Dana Robert Responds to Mark Teasdale: ‘Extending the Metaphor: Evangelism as the Heart of Mission Twenty-Five Years Later’” Methodist Review 14 (2022).

David W. Scott and Hendrik R. Pieterse, “Soundings Towards an Intercultural Identity for The United Methodist Church: Some Historical and Theological Resources,” Methodist Review 14 (2022).

Mark R. Teasdale, “Extending the Metaphor: Evangelism as the Heart of Mission Twenty-Five Years Later,” Methodist Review 14 (2022).

Douglas D. Tzan, “Book Review: Of Merchants and Missions: A Historical Study of the Impact of British Colonialism on American Methodism in Singapore from 1885 to 1910,” Methodist History 60:2 October 2022), 305.

Darrell L. Whiteman, “The conversion of a missionary: A missiological study of Acts 10,” Missiology (2022).

Philip Wingeier Rayo, “Book Review: The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism: Emerging Trends from Everywhere to Everywhere,” International Bulletin of Mission Research 46:4 (June 2022), 611–612.

Recommended Viewing: Angola and Congo Mission Photos

The Mission Photograph Albums available electronically from the General Commission on Archives and History are a rich visual trove for anyone interested in the history of Methodist mission. Now there is an additional resource of photographic material related to Methodist mission in Angola and Congo. Dr. Paul Blake is a former missionary kid whose parents served in Angola and then with the Methodist Church's mission board and who himself medically treated Angola refugees in the Congo. Out of that legacy of personal and family involvement in mission, Dr. Blake has put together an online collection of photos of Methodist mission in Angola and Congo in the early decades of the 20th century and in Congo and Peru in the middle of the 20th century. The pictures are well worth a look.

UM & Global Collection on Theological Education

A new UM & Global collection is now available. This collection examines theological education, including its intersection with mission and Methodism, access to theological education, and the ways in which it is changing in various contexts around the world.

The collection includes eleven posts by Ann Hidalgo, Genilma Boehler, Benjamin L. Hartley, Andrew Harper, David N. Field, Robert A. Hunt, Dana L. Robert, and David W. Scott. As with other collections, there is a set of discussion questions at the end of the volume, intended to help church members, students, and others reflect on how theological educators can help prepare their students and the church as a whole to effectively join in God's mission to the world.

Recommended Reading: International Missionary Council Centenary Books

The International Missionary Council, predecessor to today's Commission on World Mission and Evangelism of the World Council of Churches (WCC), was founded in 1921 at Lake Mohonk, NY. 2021 thus marked the 100th anniversary of this organization, a milestone that led to a study process, a conference, and the production of two volumes on Christian mission, past and present. At the WCC General Assembly last week, organizers celebrated the publication of those two volumes, both of which are available as free PDFs in the links below.

A Hundred Years of Mission Cooperation: The Impact of the International Missionary Council 1921-2021, edited by Risto Jukko offers some framing remarks on the centenary and then mainly consists of reports from 13 regional centers around the world. The North American regional report was coordinated and written by Association of Methodist Professors of Mission member Dr. Dana L. Robert, and AMPM members Dr. Benjamin L. Hartley and Dr. David W. Scott contributed to the study process as well. While some regional reports are more historically focused, the North American report is focused on the current state of missional collaboration involving North American Christians today.

Together in the Mission of God: Jubilee Reflections on the International Missionary Council, also edited by Risto Jukko, contains a series of historical and theological reflections on the past, present, and future of ecumenical cooperation in mission. This book includes contributions by AMPM members Dr. Dana L. Robert, Dr. Arun W. Jones, and Dr. Luis Wesley de Souza.

Both volumes are recommended for those looking for in-depth analysis of the state of cooperative mission around the world today and insights into how the past century of international developments has influenced that state of mission.

Recent Publications from the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission

This blog is a project of the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission (formerly United Methodist Professors of Mission), and it is important to engage with each other's scholarship. Thus, below is a list (including links where available) of recent missiological publications written by members of the Association of Methodist Professors of Mission. My apologies to anyone whose publications I have inadvertently omitted.

Several members contributed to the edited collection The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism: Emerging Trends From Everywhere to Everywhere, edited by David W. Scott and Darryl S. Stephens. Among those contributing were Taylor Walters Denyer ("Decolonizing Methodist mission partnerships"), Hendrik R. Pieterse ("The challenge of intercultural theology for Methodist theology in a global context"), and David W. Scott ("The economics of international mission"). Dana L. Robert contributed a foreword to the book. Philip Wingeier-Rayo has published a review of the book in the International Bulletin of Mission Research.

Peter J. Bellini published two books, The Cerulean Soul: A Relational Theology of Depression and The X-Manual: Exousia—A Comprehensive Handbook on Deliverance and Exorcism. He also contributed a chapter, "A global movement," to The Next Methodism: Theological, Social, and Missional Foundations for Global Methodism, edited by Kenneth J. Collins and Ryan N. Danker.

Paul W. Chilcote published Fill My Heart with Love: 30 Days of Prayer with Methodist Women. He also contributed a foreword to James A. Harnish's Finding Your Bearings: How Words That Guided Jesus through Crisis Can Guide Us.

Glory Dharmaraj published an article, "Social Change as Mission and Intersectional Sisterhood as Reflexive Influence: A Twin Story of United Methodist Women," in Methodist History.

Benjamin L. Hartley published an article with Robert A. Danielson and James Krabill in Missiology entitled "COVID-19 in missiological and historical perspective." He also published a review of Douglas D. Tzan's William Taylor and the Mapping of the Methodist Missionary Tradition in Methodist History.

Jack Jackson published a chapter, "Evangelism is crucial in the new Methodism," in The Next Methodism: Theological, Social, and Missional Foundations for Global Methodism, edited by Kenneth J. Collins and Ryan N. Danker.

Arun W. Jones published an edited collection, Christian Interculture: Texts and Voices from Colonial and Postcolonial Worlds. He also had a chapter, "The virtues of mission," appear in Methodist Mission at 200: Serving Faithfully Amid the Tensions by David W. Scott and Thomas Kemper.

Luther Oconer published a chapter, "A World Tour of Evangelism: Henry Clay Morrison’s Radical Holiness meets “Global Holiness,” 1909-10," in Holiness and Pentecostal Movements: Intertwined Pasts, Presents, and Futures, edited by David Bundy, Geordan Hammond, and David Sang-Ehil Han.

Hendrik R. Pieterse, in addition to his above-mentioned article in The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism, published a review of Context, Plurality, and Truth: Theology In World Christianities by Mika Vähäkangas in the journal Exchange.

Dana L. Robert published a chapter, "Mission Studies and World Christianity," in The Oxford Handbook of Mission Studies, edited by Kirsteen Kim, Knud Jørgensen, and Alison Fitchett-Climenhaga. She published the chapter "World Christianity as a revitalization movement" in World Christianity: History, Methodologies, Horizons, edited by Jehu Hanciles. Her article "From Missions to Mission to Beyond Missions: The Historiography of American Protestant Foreign Missions Since World War II" was chosen for inclusion in the second volume of Critical Readings in the History of Christian Mission, edited by Martha Frederiks and Dorottya Nagy.

David W. Scott, in addition to his above-mentioned involvement in The Practice of Mission in Global Methodism, published Methodist Mission at 200: Serving Faithfully Amid the Tensions, co-written with Thomas Kemper and including a contribution from Arun Jones. He also co-edited, with Daryl R. Ireland, Grace Y. May and Casely B. Essamuah, Unlikely Friends: How God Uses Boundary-Crossing Friendships to Transform the World, a festschrift in honor of Dana Robert.

Darrell Whiteman published two book reviews, one of Cultural Insights for Christian Leaders: New Directions for Organizations Serving God’s Mission in the International Bulletin of Mission Research and one of Brian Macdonald-Milne's Seeking Peace in the Pacific: The Story of Conflict and Christianity in the Central Solomon Islands in Missiology.

Recommended Viewing: Max Marble's Mission Musings

Many in the United States will be traveling this weekend to celebrate the Memorial Day holiday. So, in the spirit of travel, here is a recommended set of video resources related to mission and travel. Rev. Max Marble is a retired member of the Missouri Annual Conference. He is the son of Methodist missionaries to India. Over the past 14 years, he has maintained a YouTube channel. The channel is a mix of content, some of it personal, but much of it related to his involvement in mission. Marble made a long-running series of "MissionCast" videos on topics related to his work and that of the Missouri Annual Conference. He has made videos about his on-going connections to India, including several trips there. Most recently, he has been serving with NOMADS, traveling the country to participate in short-term mission projects with other retirees. In his videos, Marble is a charming and personable voice for a United Methodist life devoted to mission.

Recommended Reading: Global Church Planting Report

Discipleship Ministries' Path 1 has recently released its Global Church Planting 2020 Report. The report includes data on church planting both in the United States and in the UMC central conferences, though the central conference data is incomplete due to limited reporting. While the data come from 2019, the report includes reflections on how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted church planting in the last two years. The report also includes a list of definitions of various types of church plants in the United States, and the contextual nature of that list is acknowledged, which is nice to see. There is only so much a 12-page report can do, but by bringing together data from the United States, Africa, Europe, and the Philippines, by acknowledging the contextual nature of church planting strategies, and by identifying forces that cut across contexts (such as the pandemic), this report points towards an intercultural dialogue about the work of church planting that it would be helpful for the UMC to have.

Recommended Reading: Dictionary of Christian Biography in Asia

The Dictionary of Christian Biography in Asia launched at the beginning of the month. This online resource contains life stories of Christian leaders from Asia, both indigenous leaders and foreign missionaries. The project will continue to add biographies from across Asia, but the initial batch of biographies draw especially from Malaysia, Singapore, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Many of those biographies are of Methodists. Thus, the Dictionary makes an excellent resource for those interested in learning about the history of Methodism in Southeast Asia. There will be an official launch event online on April 17th at 8:00pm Malaysia time at which more information about the Dictionary will be shared.