Missiology for the Church Today and Tomorrow

The Chair ‘Missiology for the Church Today and Tomorrow’ provides an ideal opportunity to stimulate fresh reflections that conscientiously account for the missiological questions raised by the growth of Christianity in the global south and mobility of southern Christian constituents.

What is the place of mission in a secularized European context? How can church communities express afresh their mission in a context of accelerated human mobility? What missional opportunities are created by the arrival of global south Christians in Europe? These are only some of the questions that precipitated the launch of this first Chair at the ETF Leuven.

Chairholder Dr. Bosco Bangura is enthusiastic for this task and its place at ETF Leuven: “This Chair gives particular attention to Christianity from the global south. It demonstrates ETF Leuven’s commitment to embrace diversity and to benefit from the gifts that are available in the global Christian community.”

The Chair has three main tasks: (a) designing and providing education in missiology aware of the current global Christian context; (b) conducting research that addresses the exciting missionary issues that African Christian migrant communities have brought to Belgium and Europe and (c) strengthening collaboration between diverse local Christian communities in view of revitalizing Christianity locally and globally.

This Chair is co-financed by Groningen Mission | Verre Naasten.

Chair holder

Dr. Bosco Bangura

Other researchers

• Dr. Jeremy Lim (research about South-Korean second generations Christian migrants in Germany)
• Kwame Opong-Konadu (research about reversed mission and Ghanian Methodist Christians in Belgium)

Selected publications

• Toren, Benno van der, and Joseph Bosco Bangura and Richard E. Seed (Eds) ‘Is Africa Incurably Religious?’. Regnum Books, 2020.
• Bangura, Joseph Bosco ‘African Christian Churches in Flanders, Belgium’. Brill, August 26 2000.
• “Female Pastoral Leadership, Ambivalent Femininities, and African Pentecostalism in Belgium.” In The Pentecostal World, edited by Michael Wilkinson and Jörg Haustein, 299–315. London: Routledge, 2023.

Other research activities (selected)

• Master’s and doctoral students are working on research that intersects the missionary intuitions of immigrant Christian communities in Belgium under the supervision of the chair holder.
• The chair holder delivered a lecture at the PEGO teacher’s conference in April 2024, dedicated to the theme of exploring the Protestant traditions of African Christianity.
• In the 2023 summer the chair gave a summer course ‘Mission in the context of World Christianity,’ during the Summer Colloquium. The course was meant to not only raise awareness concerning the presence of diversified Christian communities in Europe, but to call for new modes of engagement with these communities so that the gains of Christian mission could be solidified in Europe.

The Chair in the media

• ‘Harnessing the Power of Europe’s Migrant Churches’ (Christianity Today, March 20, 2024)

Chairs at ETF Leuven

A chair is a collaboration between ETF Leuven and one or more external partners to facilitate education and/or research (and possibly services) on a defined theme. The chair is always linked to a department or research institute. The same standards apply to the chair as to other scientific activities of ETF Leuven, including the importance of academic freedom, the scientific codes of conduct and the relationship to our statement of faith.

This (part-time) chair is co-financed by partners with a warm heart for Christian mission today, such as Groningen Mission | Verre Naasten. Will you help by sponsoring this chair? Or do want to know more about chairs at ETF Leuven?  Please contact prof. Jelle Creemers with your questions, comments or thoughts (.