|
AGTS News: A passionate call to Spirit-driven missiology
 Dr. DeLonn Rance was inaugurated the 2008-2009 J. Philip Hogan
Professor of World Missions on October 15, 2008. In the first of Rances three
lectures this year, entitled "Fulfilling the Apostolic Mandate in Apostolic Power: Seeking a Spirit-Driven Missiology and Praxis," he seeks to "call the Church, the apostolic/missionary people of God, to
a Spirit-driven missiology that recognizes our need for dependence on the Spirit for direction, for
empowerment and for fruit in the missionary enterprise. A missiology that does not just give lip
service to the Spirit's activity but depends on it in missional praxis, a missiology that seeks to
fulfill the apostolic mandate in apostolic power."
Rance tells the story of a church made up of homeless people in San Francisco who decided that they, too, could answer the call of the Great Commission, putting all of our traditional excuses to shame.
The second lecture presented by Dr. Rance, titled “Apostolic Leadership in a Spirit-Driven Missiology and Praxis” focused on the vital role of leadership development in the fulfillment of the apostolic mandate. He emphasized that the key leadership competency in a Spirit-driven missiology and praxis is the ability to discern divine direction and be obedient as empowered by the Spirit. Building on work done by Bobby Clinton, Dr. Rance defined missiological leadership as a person (team) with the God given call (responsibility) and the God given Spirit empowerment (capacity) both natural and supernatural to create “space” for the Spirit to influence a specific group of God's apostolic/ missionary people towards God's missional purpose for that group.
|
Next Hogan Lecture
Rance's third Hogan Lecture will take place Tuesday, January 20, 2009, from 1:30-3 p.m. at AGTS.
About Dr. Delonn Rance
Twenty years of missionary experience among the people of El Salvador and a transforming vision for the training and sending of missionaries from the two-thirds world fire the passion of Dr. Rance’s teaching. Having been raised in Guatemala as a child of missionaries, he experienced a call to raise up Latin Americans for missions before his teenage years began. He arrived in El Salvador as a missionary (and AGTS alumnus) at the age 23 and immediately set out to fulfill that calling by becoming the founding dean and professor of missiology for the School of Theology and Missions at the Universidad Cristiana de las Asambleas de Dios. He led in the formation of the AG Department of Missions in the Salvadoran national church and served as its president for its first eight years, preaching missions across the nation of El Salvador and throughout Latin America. He is the founder of CAMAD, a missionary training center in El Salvador, and is the secretary of Misiones en Conjunto, a network of AG missions agencies in Latin American and the Caribbean. Together with other leaders, he has helped to build what has become a strong missionary movement in the national churches of the region.
In addition to his missionary statesmanship, Dr. Rance served as a member of the Executive committee and General Presbytery of the AG in El Salvador for 20 years, and taught at Bethel Bible Institute. His international teaching includes work with Latin American Advanced School of Theology, Latin American Theological Seminary and Bethany College (now Bethany University).
The J. Philip Hogan Chair of World Missions
The J. Philip Hogan Chair of World Missions at
AGTS is an endowed professorship which honors the missionary
leadership of this distinguished former executive director
of AGWM. As a partnership between AGTS and AGWM, it calls
on today’s
missionaries and scholars to continue in the heritage of
thoughtful, incisive and Spirit-led missiology that Brother
Hogan’s ministry left us. A leading missiologist
is invited annually to fill the chair in order to explore
new dimensions in missiology through teaching, research and
writing. Special thanks are due to AGWM, the Hyllberg Memorial
Fund, Philip and Virginia Hogan and others who have contributed
to the endowment of the Chair.
 Previous Hogan Chairs
The pulpit in use during the inauguration
is from the Swedish Free Mission in Moorhead, Minnesota.
This congregation sent the first Pentecostal missionaries
from North America, Mary Johnson and Ida Anderson. They
arrived in Durban, South Africa in January, 1905, one and
a half years before the Azusa Street awakening. This pulpit’s
permanent home is the Khoo Kay Peng World Prayer Center
on the upper level of AGTS.
Check
out the new Doctor of Missiology at AGTS!
Updated: Friday, January 16, 2009 3:53 PM
|
Considering AGTS?
