Events
Toronto, 2011
The Center has been awarded a four-year grant (2008-11) by the Henry Luce Foundation, Inc. This grant will enable the Center to understand world Christian revitalization from the congregational level to the trans-national networks, and to understand contemporary trends in revitalization; engage the wide range of scholars and practitioners whom we have assembled to explore emerging trends in a comparative light, using theological and socio-economic insights; and identify new opportunities for mutual learning and action in revitalization, that will draw together the major expressions of church. The primary means of this investigation will take the form of three annual consultations. The overall theme for the three consultations is “Revival and Revitalization: Exploring the Cultural Dynamics of Religious Awakenings.”
On October 20-23, 2011, the Center for the Study of World Christian Revitalilzation Movements at Asbury Theological Seminary completed its third annual consultation in the research project funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. The event was jointly sponsored by the Center, representing Asbury Seminary, and Tyndale University Seminary in Toronto, who hosted the consultation. Tyndale University Seminary is the leading evangelical Seminary in Canada.
The theme of the conference was "Uncovering and Illuminating Revitalization in 21st Century Global Christianity". Nine Asbury Seminary faculty and students participated in the consultation. It featured six case studies representing different diaspora movements of Christian revitalization now developing in the most ethnically diverse city of North America. Thirty one scholars and practitioners of revitalization examined these cases in table discussion punctuated with worship. Their intent was to understand these current expressions of revitalization based upon the data developed in the previous consultations conducted by the Center.
Participants represented 14 nations of Africa, Asia, and Europe, and represented Protestant evangelical, mainline, Pentecostal, Catholic, Coptic Orthodox, and indigenous Global South communities of faith. On Sunday, October 23, a public forum sharing the insights of the consultation with the larger Toronto community was held at the Richmond Hill Christian Community Church, a large Chinese congregation. This public forum featured ten workshops and panel discussions, and corporate worship including choirs from several Asian churches in the city.
Consultation III
The third consultation is planned to take place on 20 -23 October, 2011 in Toronto, Canada. The focus for this consultation will move from the descriptive and normative issues of consultations one and two to deploying this data in practical field test. This data will be deployed to engage and interpret six cases concerning contemporary revitalization movements currently developing in Toronto, Canada. Each of these cases will concern diasporic ministry initiaves that work with particular transnational North American. Globalization and trans-nationalism are two of the dominant features impacting twenty-first century Christianity. Most of these immigrants come from the fastest growing sector of Christianity, the Global South, which is also the site of rapid growth among Muslims.
The venue will be Campus of Tyndale, as well as a large multicural congregation in Toronto, which reflects the diversity of the city and functions as a center for revitalization within it. The consultation is planned for around 35 participants and a public froum that will share the results of the three year project with pastors and church leaders from this meteropolitan area and beyond.
Consultation II
The second consultation was held in Edinburgh, Scotland from May 29 - June 2, 2010. It was held on the eve of the centennial celebration of the World Missionary Conference of 1910, held in the same city. The theme of the consultation was "Exploring the Dialectic between Revitalization and Church." Drawing upon the assessment from the first consultation, the scholars and practitioners of revitalization movements from across the globe probed more deeply on the implications of how specific revitalization movements relate to the insitutional church. To highlight a leading impression received by participants in consultation two, it may best be described as “synergy beyond expectations”. The three-day consultation was launched by a keynote presentation from Professor Andrew Walls, arguably the most influential voice of Christian mission in our time, who focused on the mission of St. Anthony of Egypt as a model for perceiving Christianity in its engagement of culture as a revitalization movement. The third consultation at Toronto (October 2011) will be oriented to engage a cluster of contemporary expressions of culturally-significant and transformative revitalization movements. They will be interpreted and facilitated using the criteria developed in this second consultation.
More information about consultation II will be posted soon.
Consultation I
The first consultation was held in October of 2009 on the campuses of Asbury Theological Seminary and Asbury University. The theme was "Pentecost and the New Humanity: Assessing the Work of God." Click here to find out more about what went on at that consultation and stay tuned as we release more information from the first consultation.
