How is Christian mission changing?

The first large group of missionaries were Christians refugees fleeing from persecution across ancient Syria, Turkey and Greece. Later traders and merchants shared their faith in Central Asia and China along the Silk Roads. Much later monks took their faith to Ireland and Russia and were followed by Protestant missionaries from Europe and North America going to Latin America, Asia and Africa. People have always shared their faith but the ways in which this happens keeps changing. In 2010, the centenary of the 1910 Edinburgh Mission Conference, several events and a study process will look at how mission is changing today. Details here.

Today Muslims in Europe share their faith commitments with Germans and Czechs. Most Christians now live in Africa, Latin America and Asia and so it is natural that we should find Brazilians, Koreans and Nigerians actively seeking to share their own rich experience of God in Jesus Christ, not only at home but around the world.

Faith can be shared by ‘being with’ others, by sacrificial service, by transforming broken communities and in dialogue and proclamation. More than ever we see faith today being

shared in all of these ways and more. One new way in which faith is shared is through Business as Mission.

Faith is most often shared by mothers, friends, business partners, care givers and children during the course of everyday life, but there is still a vital place for those who give up much of their life to sharing faith with others.