Posted by Anthony Adams

Some time ago (in fact, quite some time ago) Stephen Murray, a church planter in South Africa, sent me a questionnaire about World Mission, as part of some research he was doing into the subject. With his permission I'm going to post the answers I gave him over the next week or so.

These were the questions:

1. How would you define mission/missions/missional? Do you see distinction between these terms or are they one and they same thing?

2. Much has been made in missions circles about the shift of the Christian centre from the west to the majority world. How do you think this will or should affect Western mission work in the Majority World?

3. You work with an organization that puts a lot of emphasis on the local church. How central do you see the local church to mission and especially foreign mission?

4. Do you think there is place for organizations which don’t place the local church at the center of mission?

5. With regard to missions agencies, how much oversight of these agencies should belong to local churches?

6. What would you suggest to the many small local churches interested in mission, who are firstly, financially unable to structure an effective foreign missions programme on their own, but secondly, don’t wish to align themselves with para-church organizations for fear of losing the centrality of the local church in mission?