Intended Outcomes
The upcoming centenary of the Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference is proving to be a suggestive moment for many people who are seeking direction for Christian mission in the 21st century. Several different constituencies within world Christianity have begun to plan significant events in the centenary year. Since 2005 a number have been working collaboratively under the aegis of "Edinburgh 2010”.
This initiative seeks to bring together representatives of many different strands of mission and church life for a well-focussed and well-organised process of preparation for the centenary. The memory of the 1910 Conference brings people together in a creative way and opens up new perspectives on mission today. The intercontinental and multidenominational initiative has the following intended outcomes:
1. The churches will be provided with an opportunity to celebrate what God has done in the growth of the Church worldwide over the past century and to prayerfully commit to God the witness of the churches in the 21st Century.
2. he biblical call to mission will be affirmed and articulated within our contemporary contexts in terms of mission in the world with particular focus on evangelization.
3. A key conversation on mission will be initiated between e.g.
- · Mission leaders from the older mission movements of the North and the new mission movements from the South and East (on dynamics of new mission movements)
- · Church leaders and mission leaders (on who does what?)
- · Representatives of different Christian traditions (on defining mission theology).
4. Guidelines will be developed to help church and mission leaders evaluate for their own situation models of mission which are proving effective elsewhere.
5. Networks will be mobilized and alliances formed so as to develop greater strategic collaboration and greater synergy in fulfilling the mission mandate.
6. Based on a critical assessment of the status of the world, a new vision in terms of God’s purposes for creation in Christ and a renewed spirituality and mission ethos will be developed in the life of the churches worldwide.