Church Mission Society

Talk from the Mission with People who are Spiritual but not Religious day conference at Church Mission Society in Oxford, 17 July 2018.

In the book of Genesis - the great story of beginnings in the Judaeo-Christian stream - creation is described as beginning in the sound of something spoken. 'Then God said...' and 'And God said...' are repeated refrains. This series of prayer exercises, written by Ian Adams, CMS mission spirituality adviser, explores the gift of sound in prayer, and our participation in this gift now through the h...

Find out what it’s like to be chaplain for the Glastonbury festival… Presenting the third interview from our day conference on mission among people who identify as spiritual but not religious. Meet Diana Greenfield, who spoke about her role as chaplain at the Glastonbury festival as well as attending the Faerie festival. Here she talks with Naomi Steinberg about spending time in wizard yurts, chal...

We talked to Emma and Glyn at the Mission with People who are Spiritual but not Religious day conference at Church Mission Society in Oxford, 17 July 2018.

Helen Botros, based in Cairo, is coordinator of development at Alexandria School of Theology. She talked to Jenny Muscat and Camilla Lloyd about the school’s work enabling students from across the region to study the Bible together and learn from others with a different perspective. She also talks of the excitement of seeing students go into significant leadership roles across the region and produ...

A ‘bewitching’ interview: we talk one on one with Phil Wyman from Salem, Massachusetts about building genuine relationships with witches, doing installation mission at the Burning Man festival and embracing Halloween as “the most Christian festival” of the year. Pioneering American pastor Phil Wyman is author of the books Witches Are Real People Too, The Reformation of Halloween and Burning Religi...

Doug and Jacqui Marshall work with refugees in Malta, a place with some of the highest numbers of asylum seekers per capita in Europe. Although many people see this as a holiday destination, Doug and Jacqui are working to build relationships and come alongside those in great need. They shared with us their perspective on having a biblical approach amid the fears and challenging realities of workin...

This interview features one of our longest-standing people in mission, who has been working in theological education in Pakistan for 30 years, seeking to develop biblical understanding, Christian character and ministry skills among Pakistani Christians. She spoke to Jenny about change, challenges and the joy of seeing the local church grow in confidence. Although our mission partner needs to remai...

Two mission partners working in Europe and North Africa share how their experiences in other cultures have taught them the importance of sitting, eating and drinking with people.

Presenting a special interview with a mission partner couple working to prevent human trafficking in Asia. Due to the sensitive nature of their work in human trafficking prevention, we need to keep this couple’s identity anonymous. However, though you may not know their names, their call to end the exploitation of vulnerable people comes through clearly. Reflection questions for groups If you are...

How do we make creation care a genuine part of our mission, worship and discipleship – without becoming “eco-Pharisees”? In this thought-provoking interview, Dave Bookless, CMS mission partner and director of theology for A Rocha International, talks with Jenny Muscat and Naomi Steinberg and shares what it takes to change minds about climate change.

Rachel Burton is a short term mission partner with Church Mission Society, working with the Novo rehabilitation community in Bolivia. Based in Santa Cruz, this is the first of what is hoped will be many self-sustaining Christian communities that set people free from addiction. Rachel talked to Jeremy Woodham at the Church Mission Society in Oxford in March 2018. She starts by explaining the vision...

It’s a famous definition of mission: “seeing what God is doing and joining in” – and we hear from people who are simply responding to that this month. The first part of that definition involves looking for God in the world around us. We might think that is even more challenging in a war zone. But today we hear in two parts from Lynn Treneary, who is based in Maridi in South Sudan, at Chaima Christ...

This month we continue exploring some of the myths that persist around our understanding of what “Mission Is”, as part of Church Mission Society’s “Mission Is” campaign. Find out more about this and the new resources available to help you and your church explore what Mission Is at churchmissionsociety.org. Many people still assume that mission as about people from the West going to the global sout...

This autumn sees us profiling the results of our giant listening exercise to find out what people think about mission. Thank you if you were one of more than 2,000 people who completed our survey, online or at festivals this summer. You can see more about the results by going to the Mission Is tab at churchmissionsociety.org. In the coming months we will be busting some myths about mission based o...

We hope that none of our mission work is very far from the people who find themselves pushed to the margins of society – and this month we focus our attention in their direction – and travel from Tanzania to Paraguay and Peru. We’ll discover deep commitment, significant impact and how working with those who are classed as ‘disadvantaged’ can be both fulfilling and fun. Mission partners Festo and G...

Effective mission can look very different from place to place and at Church Mission Society we are very committed to taking different cultures and contexts seriously. But training and study naturally form part of our mission commitment all around the world – and provide an ideal situation for mutual learning, as we hear from Berdine van den Toren. We also meet someone who is working in India to fa...

As the summer rolls on, the first phase of Church Mission Society's ‘Mission is’ campaign is in full flow – as we try to gather ‘the big picture’ of what people really think about mission – what it is, and who should be involved. As a result of this, you won’t be surprised that we are hoping to prompt more people to follow their own call to mission – whether that’s across the sea or across the roa...

Our theme this month is practical spirituality – faith addressing the concrete realities of everyday life. We talk to Mark Scandrette from the USA, who encourages people to align their time and money with what matters most – and also has an intriguing perspective on the church in the UK – as art museum. We’ll also be digging in to some of the financial freedom training offered by our sister societ...

This month’s podcast is inspired by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Thy Kingdom Come initiative, in which Church Mission Society is joining along with many other organisations and churches around the world. You can find out more by searching online for Thy Kingdom Come and we hope many of our listeners will pledge to pray during the wave of prayer for more people to know Jesus from 25 May to 4 June...

This month we continue our world tour, reaching Latin America. And we start off in Brazil with Olympic memories and new plans in Rio. then we move to Peru and Chile looking at discipleship and church planting. Featuring: Alex and Jane Cacouris and their three children are based at Christ Church in Rio de Janeiro alongside mission partners Jess and Mark Simpson. Paul and Sarah Tester, now with thei...

This month our world tour continues into Africa and we meet three local partners of Church Mission Society there – all gathered at the recent joint conference of CMS and CMS-Africa people in mission, which took place in Uganda. They are all also representatives for CMS-Africa – dynamic leaders who are real changemakers in many communities. Sarah Holmes met Rachel Karanja from Kenya and asked about...

We’re embarking on a world tour around the regions where our people in mission are at work today. Month by month we’ll be travelling to Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. We start with Asia: November saw a huge celebration take place in India. In the southern state of Kerala, Christians gathered in their tens of thousands to mark 200 years since the arrival of the first CMS missionaries there...

This month we look at one of Church Mission Society’s focus areas – people at risk. We believe God cares deeply about the most vulnerable people in our world, and so do the people we meet this month. First we look back with Laura and Simon Walton over 16 years of faithful work with people at risk in Tanzania, including those living with HIV. Then we meet Becky Reid who has been working alongside A...

We focus our mission lens on Asia, and primarily Nepal. The astonishing growth of the church in Nepal has been well documented. Church Mission Society has got to know several of Nepal’s home-grown mission partners over recent decades and we have been much inspired by them. Our sister society Asia-CMS has a number of partners there including two we’ll meet today. Mark Berry, our community mission f...