About Me

I am married to Sandra, and we have two children, and four grandchildren.  Before entering ministry I was a geophysicist.  I worked with the French Petroleum Co. (Aus)

searching for oil in the Simpson Desert in central Australia.  After hearing a call to the ministry I attended Parkin Wesley seminary in South Australia and was ordained in 1969.  Soon after we spent time in the US where I did a doctorate in process philosophy.  We  returned to Australia late in 1973 to minister in a congregation undergoing renewal, with many people coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord for the first time.  Looking back that set the direction for my life.  I am passionate that Christians share the wonder of the way they have been forgiven, renewed and empowered to serve, witness and worship the Living God.  So for the last thirty years I have been directly involved in mission and evangelism.    Increasingly I am convinced that the Mission of God is to catch us up into God’s redeeming purposes for individuals, groups, cultures and the creation.   In research and reflection I am looking ahead to the opportunities that the next few decades open up to the people of God to be faithful in their task.

Teaching Areas

Bosch quotes with approval the comment of Kahler that “Mission is the mother of theology.”    Courses on mission and evangelism have to relate to the context, the culture and the theology of place and time.  I teach systematic theology, evangelical theology, as well as missiology and evangelism.

Subjects I Teach

My two favourite courses are ‘Missiology for Local Leaders’, a compulsory course for all applicants for specified ministry, and ‘Evangelism from a Theological Perspective’, which outlines the richness of the New Testament as a resource for the gospel. As well I teach among others the following courses:‘The Trinity’, ‘Reconciliation’, ‘Discipleship’, ‘Readings in Evangelical Theology’, and ‘19th & 20th Century Theology’.

Current Research Activities

First exploring the way the shape of the gospel proclaimed at any one time results in the particular form of the church.  I am fascinated by the changes in the relation of the church to the mission field which occurred with the Enlightenment, and now as we move into a different sort of global society with the discussions about the ‘Emerging Church’.  My attention is upon researching the forms of the gospel that are generating the discussion about the emerging church.   The claim is often made now, that we need to move from a time of maintenance to a time of mission.  I believe that is wrong.  We are actually moving from a time of one sort of mission to a time of a different sort of mission.

Part of the research is to determine how the Church relates in its declaration of the gospel to other world religions.  This is at the top of the agenda for the 21st Century.  I am researching how we in the West see religion as about salvation, because we see religion through Christian eyes.  For too long we have assumed that salvation is at the core of other world religions.  Is this true?   It is a time to listen and discover how this will affect our declaration of the gospel.  After all Paul faced this question when he started to preach to Gentiles who were not Jews.  He had to face the core issues of other world religions, and did so with his emphasis on what God accomplished in and through the death and resurrection of Christ.

I am concerned that the Church be proactive in its consideration of how the gospel needs to be shared.  This is the core task of the Church.  So often it seems attention is focused on the survival of the Church rather than its core mission, the message.

Current Supervision

I am supervising Ph D’s on, Ecology and the Murray Darling Basin,  Australian Wilderness Spirituality,  The (ef)facing of the Holy Spirit, and The Understanding of Mission in marriages between a Christian and a Muslim.

As well Masters essays on the Missio Dei, the Enlightenment, and Communicating the Gospel.

Publications

Principal publications:

• Pilgrim in the Cosmos: a spirit biography. Open Book, 1995.
• Which Gospel? Three New Testament Perspectives. Mediacom 2005
• Which Mission?

A list of other publications is available from the Camden Library.

Conferences

• World Alliance of Reformed Churches August 2004 in Accra Ghana
• World Council of Churches Conference on Mission and Evangelism May 2005,in Athens Greece.
• Methodist Church Asia-Pacific Consultation December 2004, in Hong Kong.

I attend many conferences in my other role as President of the Uniting Church in Australia for the period 2003-2006, most of which are vital and fascinating for my role as lecturer in Theology: Missiology and Evangelism.

 

Favourite Resources

• Bosch, Transforming Mission. Orbis Books, 1991. 

Google ‘Transforming Mission’ for a world of other sites.