Have you ever wondered, “What is mission really all about?”
Dr. Chris Wright, International ministries Director of the Langham Partnership, will be visiting Third from the UK to help us explore how to integrate mission into the full life of the church. The Langham Partnership is a ministry founded by John Stott that provides books, scholarships, and preaching training for pastors in Majority World churches and seminaries. Chris is also the author of the seminal book The Mission of God.
Session 1
INTEGRATED MISSION AND THE GREAT COMMISSION
Saturday, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Fellowship Hall,
**Childcare Available (for 5 and under) with RSVP to blairb@thirdrva.org by March 10
Is mission strictly evangelism, or does it include other activities like justice and mercy? Some of the most controversial debates in the church are around these issues, dividing Christians about what is most important in the ministry of the church today. In this important talk, Chris Wright will address the “Five Marks of Mission” (evangelism, discipleship, compassion, justice, and creation care), and seek to integrate them around the Lordship of Christ and the centrality of the Gospel, rooted in the Bible at every point.
Session 2
A FOCUS ON GOD’S GLOBAL CHURCH: WHOSE CHURCH? WHOSE MISSION?
Saturday, 7:00 p.m., Fellowship Hall
**Childcare Available (for 5 and under) with RSVP to blairb@thirdrva.org by March 10
Isaiah said "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. God is moving forward with His plans through the global church in astonishing ways! Come listen to how the Lord is changing the global scene through brothers and sisters working and ministering in remote corners of the world. As God leads the global church out in mission, He is also extending new and compelling opportunities for the Western Church to partner. What will our role be?
Session 3
A FOCUS ON GOD’S LOCAL CHURCH: YOUR LIFE, YOUR WORK, YOUR MISSION
Sunday, 12:15 P.M., Fellowship Hall, Lunch provided with RSVP
**Childcare Available (for 5 and under) with RSVP to blairb@thirdrva.org by March 10
We are tempted to confine the idea of “mission” to what happens in foreign countries, or to church-based evangelistic programs and events. But if the Great Commission begins by affirming that Jesus is Lord of all creation, then our mission must include the whole of life. How that works out in practice depends on having a fully biblical understanding of the world of our everyday lives, including the public arena of work and society. Is God interested in that world? Are you, for Christ’s sake?
Christopher J. H. Wright (PhD, Cambridge) is international ministries director of the Langham Partnership, providing literature, scholarships, and preaching training for pastors in Majority World churches and seminaries. He has written many books including commentaries on Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel, The Mission of God, Cultivating the Fruit of the Spirit, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God, and Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament. An ordained priest in the Church of England, Chris spent five years teaching the Old Testament at Union Biblical Seminary in India, and thirteen years as academic dean and then principal of All Nations Christian College, an international training center for cross-cultural mission in England. He was chair of the Lausanne Theology Working Group from 2005-2011 and the chief architect of The Cape Town Commitment from the Third Lausanne Congress, 2010.