These Core Competencies for Mission Education in Theological Seminaries were adopted by the United Methodist Professors of Mission in 2011.
“We are a people called by God to be a people for God in the world. Recipients of grace, we become witnesses to grace. As United Methodists, we envision lives changed by grace, a church formed by grace, and a world transformed by grace.” -- Grace Upon Grace: The Mission Statement of the United Methodist Church (Nashville: Graded Press, 1990), 4.
Missio Dei and the Biblical/Theological Basis for Mission
• The student will be able to define mission and explain how mission is biblically and theologically constitutive of the very nature of the Triune God and the church.
• The student will be able to critically evaluate the major trajectories of missiological reflection in Roman Catholic, conciliar Protestant, and evangelical traditions in light of Wesleyan theological commitments.
• The student will be able to evaluate the interrelationship of Christian mission and evangelism as indispensable to Christian witness to the Reign of God in the world.
• The student will be able to articulate an understanding of mission that is consistent with a Wesleyan connectional ecclesiology and the worldwide nature of the Christian church.
Context and Mission
• The student will be able to critically assess with the tools of anthropology the challenges of cross-cultural engagement in North American and global contexts.
• The student will be able to analyze the social context of mission, attending specifically to the religious, economic, political, and other dimensions of culture.
History and Theology of Mission
• The student will be able to evaluate the history of Christian mission as it relates to a number of historical and contemporary trends including colonialism and empire.
• The student will be able to summarize the different approaches Christians have taken in articulating a theology of religions and be able to describe his or her own position on a theology of religions.
Organizing and Spiritual Formation for Mission
• The student will be able to describe ways they might actively promote missionary vocations and integrate discipleship for mission as a constitutive aspect of their Wesleyan approach to ministry.
• The student will be able to articulate how actions to promote social justice, peace, reconciliation and the integrity of creation are key dimensions of God’s mission.
• The student needs to understand and critically assess various ways of engaging in mission through the local congregation, the Annual Conference, and other avenues and be able to promote engagement in these ways.
• The student will be able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of short-term mission trips and understand how to make such trips both educationally effective and faithful to sound principles of anthropology.
• The student will be able to demonstrate how missional awareness can be integrated in services of worship in a congregation.
• The student will be able to describe the practical challenges and opportunities of partnership in mission for both local and global contexts.
Dedicated to fostering conversations about the global nature of The United Methodist Church
My understanding of all matters church has been transformed by the implications of a quotation attributed to Rowan Williams: "God's church does not have a mission; God's mission has a church." I'd appreciate Dr. Scott's comment. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a great quote and really demonstrates the missional nature of the church, which flows from the missional nature of God. Mission starts with God (the missio Dei), and the church is one means (though a very important one) by which God carries out God's acts of reclamation and redemption in the world.
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