Inspire, Spring 2005

News channels beam pictures of these human tragedies into our living rooms nightly. Seemingly endless streams of humanity wind their way slowly out of places like Kosovo, Iraq, and Sudan. Tens of thousands of refugees — fearful, desperate, and often hopeless — flow like vast lava fields across frontiers, mountain passes, and deserts, fleeing for their lives. In torrential rain and mud, sometimes in brutal cold or blistering heat, thousands are ultimately dumped into vast catch-basins called refugee camps. They brim with human misery. The problem of refugees is an international reality in the 21st century. Because we are committed to preparing students to be effective servants in contemporary global contexts, one of the core courses of the international studies-missiology major is “Contemporary World Missions.” In this course, students do more than just learn academically about such critical global challenges. In this case, they experience it. For three days and nights, students actually become refugees and experience what life is like on the run and in a refugee camp. This immersion experience was included in the course not only because it addresses issues surrounding refugees, but also because it encompasses so many global aspects that are necessary for missionaries to know and understand — poverty, suffering, hunger, injustice. Because many American Christians have never ministered in or been exposed to such circumstances, this is an opportunity to experience what life is like in much of the world and to understand how to minister holistically in such contexts. It is an experience designed to produce confusion, anger, intimidation, and hopelessness, but also identification and great hope. For three days, students have no idea what will happen to them next. On Friday evening, under the supervision of the professor, students are trucked to a remote, unfamiliar site approximately 10 miles from campus. After an orientation, a state of chaos and confusion is created by the threat of approaching rebels. All Friday night the students are literally on the run as refugees, and they experience a number of things that reflect that reality. During their cross-country travel, they are attacked by rebels, robbed, caught in a minefield, taught the reality of human smuggling, and are trucked “secretly” across borders. They are hungry and exhausted. They go without sleep. On Saturday they are in a refugee camp, where they experience firsthand the challenges of that environment — inadequate housing and food, language barriers, lack of identification, international processing snarls, and even prolonged boredom. By Sunday they have a deeper appreciation for the challenges of ministering in such contexts. It is towards that end that our missions courses attempt to realistically and effectively prepare students academically and experientially for contemporary global challenges as they serve Christ. tensions created by globalization and operate fairly and multilaterally. The missionary must move away from the paternalism of the past and see him or herself as a member of a global partnership of the gospel. New Testament mission must be responsive, not static — learning from the past while firmly gripping a biblical message. Our goal is to effectively take the “old, old story” to new contexts, and with challenges such as pluralism, the city, and globalization, this task must be informed by multiple disciplines. It demands a grasp of politics, economics, social structure, and cultural dynamics as well as biblical studies. With these issues and challenges in mind, the mission faculty and the department of biblical education have taken a hard look at mission education at Cedarville University. A casual perusal of the catalog reveals one important change: the elimination of the missions major. Before one concludes that CU has abandoned mission, look again. Where there had been two mission majors there is only one: international studies-missiology (ISM). ISM is an interdisciplinary major overseen by the department of biblical education. Why this change? First, the mission faculty concluded that the ISM major was the stronger of the two. The missions major lacked important social science components that we deemed essential to mission today. Consequently, we were channeling our majors to ISM. Secondly, we filled out the ISM major with new courses. Dr. Jeff Cook ’81 has long desired to offer a second course in urban ministry in order to more completely address the challenges of the city. The “Cross-Cultural Ministry” course was added to specifically address the practice of ministry in another culture in greater depth. A senior level course, “Missiology and Missiologists,” was added to familiarize students with the discipline of missiology and give them the opportunity to study the thinking of key missiologists of the 20th century. This course addresses the challenges of pluralism and globalization and looks at approaches to contextualization. Finally, we have maintained the strength of the old missions major by including many of its Bible courses. Not only must the missionary know his theology; he must do theology. The bar has been raised. The new ISM major is full and demanding. The new millennium has presented the church with fresh mission challenges. Cedarville University is responding biblically, thoughtfully, and critically to the challenges of pluralism, the city, and globalization. The ISM major more effectively equips students seeking to obey Christ by taking discipleship to cultures where Christ is not followed. Inspire 17 On the Run as Refugees by Dr. Jeff Cook ’81, Associate Professor of Bible