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Evangelism: Training & Speaking

Areas of expertise and experience include

Cross-cultural mission

The practice of the early church in Acts and subsequent mission in Northern Europe; cross-cultural mission from the Jesuits to the present day; cross-cultural mission theory.; historical developments in apologetics and how this impacts on faith sharing in a global multi-faith world; contemporary western countries as increasingly equivalent to foreign mission fields and people groups; theory and practice for cross-culture mission in our contemporary context; the theory practice and limits to incarnational approaches to mission: the sociological and theological understanding of conversion; the relationship of evangelism and social action; evangelism and discipleship.

Contemporary culture

The collapse of Christendom and the loss of the Christian story as part of people's knowledge and experience; the nature of belief in contemporary society; global aspects of cultural change and it's affects on religious belief; consumerism as a guiding ideology in sociality and people's approach to religion; the shift to client based religious practice; secularisation theory; post-modernity and it's affects on the understanding of truth and attitude to authority; issues raised by the celebration for diversity and lack of social cohesion; network cultures as places for mission and church planting; the internet as a major transformation in communication and social relationships; spirituality and culture in popular music; the new old - the culture of the Baby Boomer generation; Generation X and Generation Y; spirituality and culture in horror/supernatural films and TV.

New Spiritualities

Understanding the growth of New Spiritualities from New Age and Contemporary Pagan roots as a post-modern phenomenon; exploring the language of faith in the New Spiritualities; occultism and Satanism; issues of ethics in terms of New Spirituality approaches to life; ecology and Spirituality; the history of relations to Pagan religions in the Old and New Testament and the mission of the early church; learning from contemporary Christian practice in New Spirituality contexts - within this area I also do specific training and consultancy for Christian groups and churches wishing to run stalls at Mind Body Spirit events or connect with local Pagan groups. See our  Reaching out in Mind Body and Spirit page for a review of the conference we hosted for this area of ministry.

Fresh Expressions - as part of the over all work of the Sheffield Centre team

The theory and practice of church planting in contemporary culture informed by the Mission-Shaped Church report and subsequent experience; issues of unity and diversity related to culture specific church planting; the three levels of community in cross-cultural church planting.