Regular Programme
The journey from Seoul to Cape Town [Plenary 1]

Understanding and celebrating the story of the Mission Commission from its inception in 1985 in Korea through to 2006 in South Africa . This is Bertil Ekstrom's challenge, particularly as he looks to the future and asks some of the questions that confront us.

Here Rob Hay and team share the well researched secrets of mission retention – key building blocks which have the potential to become culturally appropriate local frameworks for good practice. (See Stream Sessions 3-6 for more details)

Dr. Elijah and Eunice Mahlangu will share from their firsthand experiences in Africa on the response that HIV/AIDs sets before the national, continental and global mission movement. Report of the regional mission movements in the Caribbean and Europe .

Part 1:Wholistic Mission & Part 2: China [Plenary 5]

Part 1: Valdir Steuernagel from World Vision, Brazil reflects missiologically on the role and nature of wholistic mission.
Part 2: Sam Chiang from Hong Kong reports on vital developments in China —in the nation, the church and the mission movement.
Report of the national mission movements IMA and the regional mission movement in Oceania .

Miss. structures: reg. nat. movements: [Plenary 6]

Jon Lewis and three colleagues help us explore the nature and contribution of different mission structures with case studies of COMIBAM (LA), Indian Missions Association (IMA) and Global Connections (UK)

African miss. models, [Plenary 7]

Nigerian Reuben Ezemadu will take us on a tour of African mission models exploring their different roles and contributions.
Report from Ethné and the mission movements in North America .

Plenary 8
Religious Encounter; Religious Freedom;

Grappling with issues of religious pluralism is one of the greatest challenges of our time. Kang San Tan leads us through some of these. The other challenge we explore is the issue of religious freedom and persecution of Christians, with expert help from Reg Reimer.

Younoussa Djao: Islam from an African perspective; [Plenary 9]

After Younoussa speaks, we hear two responses to Islam Marcos Amado from Europe and Fayez Ishak from the Middle East .

Leadership Transition [Plenary 11]

We will celebrate with music and then David Tai-Woong Lee, Rose Dowsett and K Rajendran preside over the MC's leadership change from Bill Taylor to Bertil Ekstrom

Key issues in global mission [Plenary 12]

Bill Taylor and younger voices help us together engage on critical mission issues we must grapple with.

Closing Session: Challenge into the Future

The challenge will be led by KC Rajendran and Richard Tiplady and will be followed by celebrating Holy Communion together as Bertil Ekstrom concludes our time together.

Joint Venture for Africa (JV4A)

This overarching theme will help shape plenary sessions and streams throughout our gathering. The Mission Commission is committing to focus considerable resources for the next three years as it responds to requests from the continent of Africa to assist them in building a vital and viable regional and national mission movement.

Opening session [Plenary 3]

Here the agenda, scale of commitment, and process of the Joint Venture for Africa will be outlined and the vision shared jointly by MC leadership alongside African national mission movement leaders.

The task force on national mission movements, sessions 1-7

The networks and task forces networks spend a significant amount of time on their specific focus areas and each will explore their role in the JV4A.

Concluding session [Plenary 10]

In this concluding session the individual components from the networks and taskforces will be brought together, a draft programme presented and a project team appointed.

Seminars and Sessions

These seminars and sessions are open to everyone and are either individual sessions or comprise two sessions. With 9 sessions all together you can mix and match connecting with the issues and subjects that are most relevant to you and your ministry.

Building healthy mission movements

Sessions 1-7
Building healthy national and regional mission movements: Bertil Ekstrom, Kees van der Wilden and team. There will be a Francophone team and an Anglophone one.

Worth Learning-Worth Keeping

Sessions 3 & 4 or 5 & 6
Developing good practice in your organisation means you are much more likely to keep you mission partners – here we look practically at how to do that, using the materials from the official consultation book Worth Keeping.

Ministry in a context of HIV/AIDS

Sessions 2, 3 & 4 or 5, 6 & 7
Dr. Elijah and Eunice Mahlangu

South African Pastors Mission Seminar

Sessions 2, 3 & 4 or 5, 6 & 7
Under the leadership of Willie Crew and Peter Tarantal of South Africa , this focused group works toward becoming a viable and visible national mission movement in SA.

Networks and Taskforces

At the heart of the mission commission are a number of Networks and Taskforces whose work continues between the triennial gatherings but during the consultation extensive time is dedicated to their teams meeting and progressing their ongoing work.

Some of the teams are working in “closed sessions” (by invitation-only) during the first part of the week and then open up for broader participation. The times for “open” sessions will be posted in your delegate pack that you will receive on arrival. These include:

International Missionary Training Network

Sessions 1-7
The IMTN works through a specific focus on how to equip missionary trainers, and gives final shape to a new book on the subject.

Global Missiology

Sessions 1-7
The international team of missiologists are working on a selection of missiological initiatives including books on missional ecclesiology, religious pluralism, and contextualization.

Global Member Care Networks

Sessions 1-7
With 5 regional member care movements this focuses on the pooling of ideas and works for the further development of this new and vital area.

Refugee Highway Partnership

Sessions 5, 6 & 7
The RHP draws together the many mission initiatives who are working with refugees around the world.

Missions Mobilisation Task Force

Sessions 5, 6 & 7
The MMTF continues their intense work on the international research project on issues related to mission mobilisation.

Joint Information Management Initiate Sharing (JIMI)

Sessions 5, 6 & 7
The JIMI team works with issues related to ministry project viability and funding matters.

BAM—Business as Mission

Sessions 1,2,3,4; and 5,6,7
This seminar will be given twice during the week with a focus on business as a calling
and as a ministry in its own right. BAM is to do business with excellence, professionalism and integrity. BAM is manifesting the Kingdom of God in the Market Place and people being transformed spiritually, economically and socially

Ethné—Towards the Least Reached Peoples

Sessions 5, 6 & 7
This team reports on their global work, particularly following their recent international consultation in May 2006 held in Bali , Indonesia . The focus will be on “next steps”.

TIE—Tentmaking International Exchange

Sessions 5, 6 & 7
The TIE leadership team will meet in business meetings at the start of the week, and then open the agenda for all interested in bi-vocational/tent-making ministries. Come prepared for some creative access case studies.