• We need to understand culture, and not read a Christian derivative. But our reflection is different on what the Gospels look like in and among those cultures.
  
• Discussed assignments (reading notes, lecture notes, group wiki project) - see threads below.
• Broke up into groups each relating to a particular ethnic tradition which included the following:
  • African American
    • African Methodist Episcopal
    • African American Baptist
      
  • Asian
    • Asian American Presbyterian
    • Chinese House Church
      
  • Latino/a
    • Latin American Catholic
    • Latino Pentecostals
    • Latino/a Evangelical Church in North America
      
  • Native American
    • Native American
      
  • White
    • White Presbyterian
  • International
    • Zionist South Africa
      
• The groups were broken further down into denominational segments (see links above).
  
• The church must begin to integrate ecclesiology with missions, a distinction that should've never been made.
  
• Most Christians live outside of Western cultures. This shift forces the church to rethink theology, missions, the church, etc.

(cut and pasted from twolin's thread below)

Church in Mission
-> Looking at the disciplines of ecclesiology and mission

29.September
Mission as engagement and across cultures (not West to non-West)
We are to engage all cultures with the Gospel.
This is to help Church and Mission NEVER be separated again. Church is missional by nature.
If we’re to reach the culture we need to understand the culture- good, bad and ugly.
We must be part of a public conversation. Our dialogue is the same across the board as Yale, etc, but our reflection will be, obviously, quite different. Discernment will be huge!

Echo chamber-
where you start a conversation among people who already think the same. All it does is reinforce and reverberate the same voice.

Missiology has historically been about the West to Non-West. But this is morphing.
It is no longer about isolated people groups and strategies to reach them (at least physically)
EG – to understand Egyptian housewives they had to go to NY and examine Soap Operas. Because that is what was influencing them.
There is virtually no one untouched by other cultures now.
To categorize ethnicity/culture based on race ignores massive culture influences.
HOW DO WE EMBODY THE GOSPEL? WHAT DOES THAT DIALOGUE SOUND LIKE?

• Post colonial studies started in the 70’s with Edward Said's work. Understanding from the 2/3 world, which has been fed to them from the West. . Mission is no longer about isolated people groups and finding a way to reach them. To understand what is going on, look at global media and global situations.

 Q&A: McGavern, who started SIS, – idea is let’s bring anthropology to mission. Since the mid90’s, with globalization, just trying handle on everything is slippery, because peoples are moving all over the earth. Only churches that are growing in Europe are from Africa. 60%nonWest to West was shifted in the 90’s. # of Christians in the world changed in the 90’s. More Christians in the nonWest than the West. For years, it was Western theology.

/////
Big Project
Youtube videos presented the last week of the quarter.
Pick a particular tradition that you want to look at from the racial groups and that will be the group you study all quarter long.
That will serve as the frame for everything you read and study all semester. Then you report and contribute to a webpage everything you contribute for the quarter.
Take notes each week and then add to it.
Submit notes in class and online for your group.
The point is carefully reading the text and having something to contribute to your project. An “engaged note-taking”. This is your participation grade.