Oxford Centre for Mission Studies: A Global Legacy

CONTENTS:

Foreword xiv

Introduction 1
St Philip and St James 3
The Background to the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies 9
The Oxford Centre for Mission Studies 17
Under the Leadership of Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden:
1983-2006 21
University Affiliations 27
Langham Partnership and Induction Programme 31
Other Activities 33
Under the Leadership of Dr Wonsuk Ma: 2006-2016 35
Under the Leadership of Paul Bendor-Samuel: 2016- 41
Appendix 1: St Philip and St James Church Building 49
Appendix 2: SS Philip and James Stained Glass Windows 65
Appendix 3: OCMS Summer and Winter Schools 81

As one who was personally acquainted with the early vision and founders of OCMS in 1983, and who has taught, spoken and been blessed there over many years since then, I have been inspired afresh by the fascinating story of its roots among the pioneering missional theologians and practitioners of the Global South and the inestimable contribution the OCMS leadership and its worldwide community have made to the growth, mission, and theological maturity of the Majority World church, and thereby to the health of Christ’s global body on earth.
Chris Wright, Langham Partnership

David Cranston has performed a major service for the world church in carefully recording in this work of how God raised up a new institution in Oxford that continues the very founding origin of the University and its colleges in teaching people who give leadership in the Christian church. It is humbling to read how a vision found a home in a redundant church which no one wanted and which was repurposed to provide opportunities for scores of Christian leaders around the Global South to interact with and contribute to the development of a movement in world mission that integrates evangelism with social action and concern.
Chris Sugden, Executive Director 2001-2004

Monty would have warmly welcomed this lucid account of what has proved to be a significant event in church history. Unlike his colleagues at OCMS, he would never have answered to the title of academic mission theologian. But herein perhaps lay his strength. He had thirty years of down-to-earth sorting out people’s messy lives on behalf of the NHS and sharing with churches and theological students worldwide how to identify illness that needed treating as such. So to bring his experience to assist in the birth pangs of OCMS was to join a cause that could not have been closer to his heart. It was biblical – it even lived in a church – its reach was unlimited and it had the widest possible credentials in those who had originally had the vision and learnt how to merge their often profound differences to take OCMS forward to the place where it is today.
Rosemary Barker, OCMS advocate and supporter

The Oxford Centre for Mission Studies: A Global Legacy is a fascinating example of the growth of an innovative idea called ‘holistic mission’ into a movement through an institutional structure (the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies). The book traces the community journey from an obscure and radical evangelical mission cluster to a global and ecumenical player in Christian mission. And it reveals how the community went through various stages of growth. In several aspects, David Cranston provides a significant service to Christian mission history.
Dr Wonsuk Ma, Executive Director 2008-2016

The Oxford Centre for Mission Studies is one of a kind! The fruit of the dreams shared by Christian leaders from the Majority World, it has formed and continues forming committed mission researchers from far and wide. Our deep gratitude to David Cranston for bringing the story to life in this inspiring text!
Ruth Padilla DeBorst, Professor of World Christianity at Western Theological Seminary USA

Like the proverbial mustard seed of Jesus’ parable, the fifty-pence deposit in OCMS’ first bank account has grown into a tree with branches touching many corners of the earth! Through Regnum Books, the Transformation journal and its advanced mission studies programme which currently enrols over a hundred PhD students largely from the Majority World, its ministry is bringing fresh insights and new perspectives on Christian mission and challenging much outmoded thinking in the global church. Thank you, Professor David Cranston, for telling us this exciting and challenging story which reminds us never to “despise the day of small things” (Zech. 4:10).
Hwa Yung, Bishop Emeritus, The Methodist Church in Malaysia

Between 1960 and 1970 God raised up a generation of evangelical leaders in the nonwestern world who experienced Christ as Lord and Saviour personally as university students. They engaged theologically with their experience, with the Bible and with God’s mission in the world. They came across each other in international conferences like Berlin 1968 and Lausanne 1974, and discovered that God had led them in very similar ways to reach the same conclusions about Christian mission in the world.
In 1980 at the Conference on World Evangelization (COWE) in Pattaya, Thailand, they agreed to form an international fellowship: the International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians (INFEMIT). They met in Bangkok for their firstg gathering in March 1982 and resolved to set up the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies to train a new generation of mission scholars. In the past four decades, God enabled OCMS to fulfill that vision and contribute significantly to shaping the theology and practice of mission. David Cranston’s book captures this beautifully. To God be the Glory!
Canon Vinay Samuel, Founding Director of OCMS