The world is urbanizing at a pace of millions of additional people in cities each month. Global cities now gather the nations into single neighborhoods, bringing extraordinary opportunity and real complexity. Attempts at innovative mission activity create new fault lines. Competing definitions of fruitfulness create tension across the missions landscape. The pace and quality of church planting and pastoral training highlight convictional differences. Terminus is committed to leading carefully through these issues.
To this end, Terminus is glad to announce a new partnership with The Southgate Fellowship (TSF). Together we aim to help the Church think through these questions with biblical clarity and practical wisdom.
about the southgate fellowship
In the summer of 2016, theologians, missiologists, and reflective practitioners from Europe, Canada, and the United States met in Southgate, North London, to reflect on the state of evangelical missions. They came from a range of backgrounds and denominations. The conversation proved fruitful enough that they formalized it as The Southgate Fellowship.
TSF holds that the glory of God is the highest aim of all mission activity. It also holds that Scripture must shape both how mission is designed and how it is carried out. The backdrop for this project was a recognition that some new approaches to mission had drifted from biblical foundations. New challenges of pragmatism and syncretistic thinking needed attention.
The response was the Affirmations & Denials Concerning World Mission. It is a consensus document, the fruit of years of debate and prayer, shaped by input from nationals and missionaries around the world. It restates biblical mission, names weaknesses in current paradigms, and offers a framework for faithful contextualization.
Expanding the work
Terminus exists to see churches established and strengthened in global cities, loving those cities deeply and engaging their cultures with the gospel. Through the Terminus Center for Culture & Contextualization, the partnership will carry TSF’s vision into new formats and new settings:
- Curriculum for churches (lay-level resources)
- A podcast series (church and academy in dialogue)
- Gatherings and scholarship (missiologist and reflective practitioners)
- Training (pastors and mission leaders)
The resources are designed for churches across evangelical traditions, including Anglican, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches, and for the agencies that serve and send them.
“Southgate has given the church a clear, Scripture-shaped account of what mission is and why it matters,” said Dr. Daniel Strange, Director of the Terminus Center for Culture & Contextualization, and one of TSF’s founders. “But a statement only does its work when it shapes how real churches pray, plan, and send. Our cities are changing faster than our strategies, and pastors are asking hard questions about contextualization, success, and faithfulness. This partnership lets us take Southgate’s convictions out of the seminar room and into the hands of the people working out mission in real neighborhoods.”
The first resources are available now, and new material will be released in the coming months. www.terminuscities.org/resources/