Dr. Lalsangkima Pachuau pursues missions in India, Britain during sabbatical

Asbury Theological Seminary missiologist Dr. Lalsangkima Pachuau has begun a sabbatical for spring 2010 that is giving him not only special research opportunities but also other roles for leadership in global gospel mission.

Pachuau, Associate Professor of the History and Theology of Mission and Director of Postgraduate Studies at Asbury Seminary, will be working as Missiologist-in-Residence February through May for the Church Mission Society's Crowther Centre for Mission Education in Oxford, England. The Crowther Centre houses the CMS library and coordinates mission education for CMS. As Missiologist-in-Residence, Pachuau will assist CMS in reflecting on the definition of a mission society in the 21st century.

 

Before beginning this service, however, Pachuau traveled through eastern and northern India for several weeks to visit a number of mission works and agencies.

 

In the states of Tripura, Jharkhand and Bihar and in India's capital, New Delhi, Pachuau was given a number of opportunities for preaching ministries and the honor of opening a church fellowship and inaugurating a church building and a computer center in a school. Pachuau was especially pleased with mission sessions in Jharkhand's Dumka District and Bihar's City of Patna, where at each location a dozen or more leaders of mission organizations attended.

"I've been received so well everywhere, and it's been a great and rewarding trip," Pachuau said in an email report from New Dehli Jan. 31 just before departing for Oxford. "Yesterday, I assisted a colleague in baptizing 14 new believers here in south Delhi. God's Spirit has been moving strongly in India."

While in England, Pachuau will be speaking on mission topics at locations such as at Cambridge University's Henry Martyn Centre, the University of Manchester, the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, the University of Bristol's Trinity College, St. John York University, Leeds Trinity University and Redcliffe College.

 

Pachuau also is convener of study commission II for the centennial Edinburgh 2010 World Missionary Conference that will meet in June in Edinburgh, Scotland, in conjunction with centenary celebrations around the globe on the theme "Witnessing to Christ Today."

 

Pachuau, who received his Ph.D. and Th.M. from Princeton Theological Seminary, is editor of the International Association for Mission Studies' journal, Mission Studies, and has authored and edited several books, including Ethnic Identity and Christianity (2002).

 

An ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church of India, Pachuau is a parish associate for the Nicholasville (Ky.) Presbyterian Church and is a member of the Church Development and Evangelism Committee, Transylvania Presbytery.