Global mission study series for congregations is published by GEMN

Global Episcopal Mission Network
Posted Aug 4, 2020

Questing: The Way of Love in Global Mission has been published by the Global Episcopal Mission Network (GEMN) on Amazon for individuals and congregations exploring how to engage God’s mission on a global basis.

Questing builds on the seven steps in the well-known Way of Love of the Jesus Movement – Turn, Learn, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, and Rest.  It develops how Christians can live out the Way of Love in mission companionships with people of faith across differences of culture, language, ethnicity and religion around the world.

Responding to the constraints imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, Questing sketches ways to engage in world mission both when mission companions are able to gather and when disease, war or civil unrest make in-person encounters difficult or impossible.

“Thankfully, mission is not dependent on physical travel,” said co-author Grace Burton-Edwards.  “Mission is primarily a spiritual journey that calls us to maintain an outward orientation toward neighbors near and far. The pandemic can lead us to focus inward. This resource is an invitation to turn our attention outward and share in God’s work of reconciliation and healing through the church around the world.”

Each session in the seven-week curriculum begins with a compelling story from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean or Latin America.  A Bible study delves into a narrative from the Book of Acts. Mission discussion, prayer suggestions, and avenues of action provide guidance for individuals and study groups seeking to apply their faith globally.

Published online through Amazon, Questing is available in Kindle formats for e-readers and smartphones at $5.69.  Paperback publication is planned for the fall.

Questing assembles resources from many sources: blogposts from missionaries, reflections by mission activists, perspectives from ecumenical sources, suggestions and prayers from around the Anglican Communion, and more.

Original material in Questing is co-authored by Burton-Edwards and Titus Presler.  Rector of St. Thomas Church in Columbus, Georgia, Burton-Edwards is GEMN’s vice president, a member of the Standing Commission on World Mission and a member of the Global Mission Commission of the Diocese of Atlanta.  A former missionary in Zimbabwe and Pakistan and a widely published missiologist, Presler is president of GEMN and former president of the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas.

The foreword is by Ian Douglas, bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut, a former missionary in Haiti, and a missiologist who long taught at the Episcopal Divinity School.

“People often sense God calling them to engage with the wider world but sometimes they don’t know where to begin,” Presler said.  “Questing will be a valuable and easily accessible resource for individuals, mission committees and congregations.”