From Theory to Practice in Vulnerable Mission: an academic appraisal

Abstract

By way of putting this review in context I would like to say something about what lead up to my interest in Vulnerable Mission.My interest in mission is very much from the perspective of being a member of a supporting church. But really I suppose I ought to be frank: I was never really interested in mission. Mission events came round and I did my best to pay all due interest and make a donation. Missionary work was for others, not for me, and as rule I let them get on with it!I have to confess that my real interest is and has always been in a variety of technical subjects; in particular what I refer to as the three Ps: physics, programming and philosophy. In fact now that I am now a semi retired person I’m able to spare the time, in an amateur capacity, dabbling in a broad range of technical interests.So how is it that a person who had to fight a considerable level of innate mission apathy ends up being intensely interested in Vulnerable Mission? There must be something strange going on here!Well firstly there is, of course, the Gospel, which I regard as nothing less than the meaning of life the universe and everything. But soon after being converted I quickly realised that Western Christianity covered a rich diversity of church cultures; that’s a nice way of saying that a broad swath of Christian culture was an inchoate squabbling mass of bigoted partisans; in particular I’m thinking about Christianity’s many sectarian and cultish manifestations.