Ep11, Apostolicity, World Christianity, & Mission, John Flett

"The more you don't talk about mission, the more you stand guilty of colonisation"

We're still promoting our weekend, "Political Populism and a Theological Response" with John Flett. It is now this weekend! Nov 3-5 at Epping Uniting Church (with online access options). Get your tickets here

This interview will hopefully serve to entice you some more. I recorded it in Dec 2016 and it centres on John's most recent book, "Apostolicity: the Ecumenical Question in World Christian Perspective". But we cover a lot! His book on Apostolicity (hint: we start with what that word means), how it shakes out in conversations regarding diversity of structural expressions in world Christianity, the difficulty/danger of perceiving the church as a culture (hint: colonisation), the US election, understanding properly the colonial period of mission (hint: its about the sending churches), non-missionary mission, how the ignoring of mission is actually a way of avoiding external critique, the voiceless Jesus of Christmas, the persistent focus on "dying churches" in the Australia and the counterpoint of migrant and multicultural churches.... are you getting the picture? We cover A LOT 

Connect with John on twitter at @FlettJohn. John Flett is associate professor of missiology and intercultural theology at Pilgrim Theological College, Melbourne, Privatdozent at the Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethal, and Stellvertretender Institutsleiter am Institut für Interkulturelle Theologie und Interreligiöse Studien, Wuppertal. He specialises in intercultural theology, ecumenical relationships, and mission studies. He has lived and taught in the USA, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Korea, Germany, the DRC, and Australia. His PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary examined the history and theology of missio Dei and was published as The Witness of God (Eerdmans, 2010). His Habilitationschrift, undertaken at the Kirchliche Hochschule Wuppertal/Bethel, developed a critical account the church’s apostolicity and its continuity across cultures. This was published as Apostolicity: The Ecumenical Question in World Christian Perspective (IVP Academic, 2016). He is currently developing a text on how the German church understood the relationship between the Christian gospel and culture during the twentieth century. He is a minister of the Word in the Uniting Church in Australia, is married to Priscilla and has two daughters, Trinity and Mila.

Enjoy the episode and come to the weekend!