Commissioned for Mission: the Co-Relation between Mission Theology and Praxis in Contemporary Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

In the 1993-4 Northern Hemisphere academic year, I had the privilege of studying at Birmingham University and the Mission Studies department of the Selly Oak Colleges. I also had the opportunity to peruse original letters and reports from London Missionary Society and Church Missionary Society missionaries who came to Aotearoa New Zealand and the Pacific Islands last century. The content of these documents revealed personal stories of dramatic proportions; childbirth, death, drownings, loneliness and cultural shock. Alongside the personal stories lay the pragmatic accounts of establishing schools and mission stations with appropriate accompanying statistics in order to ensure continued funding Interwoven throughout were intensely evangelical sentiments about the salvation of the heathen.