Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Mission across margins is topic for webinars in May and June

Two webinars with Mike Pears will explore the theme of mission in marginal places. They are sponsored by the Church of the Brethren and its Congregational Life Ministries, with partners in the UK: Urban Expression, Bristol Baptist College, and BMS World Mission.

On May 21, a webinar will be offered on the theme “Mission in Marginal Places: Engaging with Power.” Church planters can spend months researching a new place in order to shape their strategy, however neighborhoods are not that easy to read, said an announcement. “Often we settle for a superficial understanding. Getting to know our neighborhood more deeply will change and challenge us in unexpected ways. It will open our eyes to what Jesus is doing around us and help us to be a prophetic church.” The webinar will offer practical tools for this exploratory journey.

On June 10, the webinar titled “Researching Neighborhoods: Practical Tools for a Prophetic Community” will address how poor neighborhoods are often stigmatized and the people who live there divided into insiders and outsiders. “When we do mission in these areas we realize that the issues are much more complex than they first appeared,” said the announcement. “We soon find ourselves with more questions than answers. What is marginalization? Why does it affect people so powerfully? What does mission look like in marginal places?” This webinar will explore these key questions.

Mike Pears will lead the webinars. He is coordinator of Urban Life--a center for urban mission in the UK. Pears has 30 years of experience in urban ministry, incarnational mission, and church planting, and is faculty at Bristol Baptist College and facilitator of Urban Expression. He is completing his doctoral studies in Mission and Urban Deprivation.

Time for both webinars is 2:30-3:30 p.m. Eastern time. Registration is free, go to www.brethren.org/webcasts. Ministers may earn 0.1 continuing education units for attending the live event. For more information contact Stan Dueck, director of Transforming Practices for the Church of the Brethren, at sdueck@brethren.org.

Source: 4/29/2014 Newsline

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