To celebrate Church Mission Society's 222nd birthday, we are inviting you to pause and pray for mission with our 2min 22s mini-liturgy - celebrate and remember God's mission in your neighbourhood and our world.By Church Mission Society

Recently, Jenny Muscat talked to Tim Curtis about his work as a mission partner in the Chaco region of Paraguay. Tim works on resources to enable the Enxet people to access scripture in their own language, following on from his involvement in the translation of the whole Bible into Southern Enxet.By Church Mission Society

Chris Duffett, from the Light College and Collective, is an artist with a desire to bring words, comfort and scenes from God’s heart to those he paints for. Chris’ fine art seeks to bring the colours and mystery of other realms. His work is playful and joy filled with an overemphasis of light. Chris studied Art with Theology at Chester College and …

Jeremy Woodham talks to musician and theologian David Benjamin Blower about the connections between prophets and artists, whether Jesus was an artist and if art is or isn't missional. Also: the power of lament and hymns without happy endings.The interview was recorded at Church Mission Society in Oxford on 3 March 2020 as part of the For Art's Sake…

When Phil and Sylvie Good set out for Lebanon as new mission partners, they began working with a church and serving Syrian refugees. “The scale of what happened to them became more apparent as I got to know them,” says Sylvie. “Total lack of future.”In the face of this seemingly overwhelming situation of despair, Phil and Sylvie took the attitude o…

Canon Moses Bushendich, international director of CMS-Africa, gave three talks at Church Mission Society's 2019 Africa conference 8-10 November, at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, UK. He spoke from an African and CMS-Africa perspective on the theme taken from Isaiah 43: “See, I am doing a new thing - do you not perceive it?”…

Canon Moses Bushendich, international director of CMS-Africa, gave three talks at Church Mission Society's 2019 Africa conference 8-10 November, at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, UK. He spoke from an African and CMS-Africa perspective on the theme taken from Isaiah 43: “See, I am doing a new thing - do you not perceive it?”…

Canon Moses Bushendich, international director of CMS-Africa, gave three talks at Church Mission Society's 2019 Africa conference 8-10 November, at the Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, UK. He spoke from an African and CMS-Africa perspective on the theme taken from Isaiah 43: “See, I am doing a new thing - do you not perceive it?”…

Advisory: contains frank discussion of FGM practices.On the last of #16daysofactivism against gender-based violence, we hear from Ann-Marie Wilson, CMS mission partner and founder of the anti-FGM charity 28toomany.Ann-Marie was working in Sudan in 2003–2004 when she met a little girl in Darfur who’d had female genital mutilation (FGM) at 5 and been…

Jeremy Woodham talks to 2019 graduate Modupe Adefala, prison chaplain and leader of Word Fountain Christian Ministries, a Pentecostal church based in Oxford. They discuss her work in prison, whether pioneering is too white, and how she'd like to see churches becoming learning centres as well as worship centres.…

Recently returned from working with asylum seekers and refugees in Malta, Doug Marshall told Jenny Muscat how his perspective on Christmas has shifted thanks to his experience there.By Church Mission Society

Jenny Muscat talks to Malcolm Pritchard about his work at Janani Luwum Theological College in Gulu, northern Uganda.Malcolm talks about a unique setting in an area that has faced huge trauma over the years, especially through the activity of the LRA and the constant pressures of daily life.And he tells the stories of students coming into their own,…

The Cacouris family recently returned to the UK after spending three years working with Christ Church, Rio de Janeiro. We caught up with Alex, Jane and their children to hear about mission as a family, and how their time in Brazil has taught and shaped them.By Church Mission Society

Levi Santana, mission partner working along with his wife Debora among the marginalised in Goiania, Brazil, shares what he has learned about the simplicity of mission. This talk was recorded at the recent CMS Adelante conference, celebrating mission in Latin America.By Church Mission Society

Mark and Rosalie Balfour work with street connected children in Guatemala.Increasingly they have also been working to offer pastoral support to others working on the front line in a difficult urban context – all part of the way in which their mission call is “all about Jesus and all about people”.By Church Mission Society

Bishop Anthony Poggo's address at the commissioning of Alastair Bateman as CEO of Church Mission Society at St Andrew's Church, Oxford, 8 June 2019.Bishop Anthony represented the Archbishop of Canterbury, the patron of Church Mission Society, and began by reading a special message from him.By Church Mission Society

Debs North, a youth worker specialising in sex education, PSHE, and mental health work, speaks about enabling youth leaders and parents to have conversations about sex and relationships with young people, and to feel confident engaging with their questions. Debs is passionate about enthusing and resourcing anyone who works with or has contact with …

Sarah Clarke, lead of undergraduate programmes at Church Mission Society's Pioneer Mission Leadership Training, discusses an innovative new module on community development with Jeremy WoodhamBy Church Mission Society

"My passion, my dream would be that in every local church, in every home group, Bible study group, discipleship group, we are not just learning scriptures and talking to each other about what's happened in our lives but we're also encouraging each other to care for God's creation more effectively."In this interview Dave Bookless, a CMS mission part…

Is there still space for church planting today? Is church-free Christianity possible? Long-serving mission partners Alf and Hilary Cooper from Chile share some of their experience of planting church as hospital, school and training ground.By Church Mission Society

On 17 July 2018, Church Mission Society hosted a day for people wanting to engage more in mission among those who identify themselves as spiritual but not religious. Matt Arnold spoke about his connections with Pagan Pride. In the following interview he shares more about this, as well as about being, as he puts it, re-evangelised by pagans.…

Mission partner Anne Plested shares with us how she is settling in at Bethlehem Bible College, and recounts a remarkable conversation...By Church Mission Society

Interview with Lucy Ochieng, CMS-Africa's lead on women's training and head of mission support services. Lucy discusses some of the ways African women are marginalised and how CMS-Africa's training programmes for women are lifting up women and girls. For more about the work supported through Church Mission Society's Global Mission through Local Lea…

Berdine van den Toren-Lekkerkerker discusses peace, reconciliation and the importance of lament, with particular reference to an African context.Berdine spoke to Jenny Muscat at the Church Mission Society Africa conference in November 2018.By Church Mission Society

Talk from the Mission with People who are Spiritual but not Religious day conference at Church Mission Society in Oxford, 17 July 2018.By Church Mission Society

In the book of Genesis - the great story of beginnings in the Judaeo-Christian stream - creation is described as beginning in the sound of something spoken. 'Then God said...' and 'And God said...' are repeated refrains. This series of prayer exercises, written by Ian Adams, CMS mission spirituality adviser, explores the gift of sound in prayer, an…

Find out what it’s like to be chaplain for the Glastonbury festival…Presenting the third interview from our day conference on mission among people who identify as spiritual but not religious. Meet Diana Greenfield, who spoke about her role as chaplain at the Glastonbury festival as well as attending the Faerie festival. Here she talks with Naomi St…

We talked to Emma and Glyn at the Mission with People who are Spiritual but not Religious day conference at Church Mission Society in Oxford, 17 July 2018.By Church Mission Society

Helen Botros, based in Cairo, is coordinator of development at Alexandria School of Theology. She talked to Jenny Muscat and Camilla Lloyd about the school’s work enabling students from across the region to study the Bible together and learn from others with a different perspective.She also talks of the excitement of seeing students go into signifi…

A ‘bewitching’ interview: we talk one on one with Phil Wyman from Salem, Massachusetts about building genuine relationships with witches, doing installation mission at the Burning Man festival and embracing Halloween as “the most Christian festival” of the year.Pioneering American pastor Phil Wyman is author of the books Witches Are Real People Too…

Doug and Jacqui Marshall work with refugees in Malta, a place with some of the highest numbers of asylum seekers per capita in Europe. Although many people see this as a holiday destination, Doug and Jacqui are working to build relationships and come alongside those in great need.They shared with us their perspective on having a biblical approach a…

This interview features one of our longest-standing people in mission, who has been working in theological education in Pakistan for 30 years, seeking to develop biblical understanding, Christian character and ministry skills among Pakistani Christians. She spoke to Jenny about change, challenges and the joy of seeing the local church grow in confi…

Two mission partners working in Europe and North Africa share how their experiences in other cultures have taught them the importance of sitting, eating and drinking with people.By Church Mission Society

Presenting a special interview with a mission partner couple working to prevent human trafficking in Asia.Due to the sensitive nature of their work in human trafficking prevention, we need to keep this couple’s identity anonymous. However, though you may not know their names, their call to end the exploitation of vulnerable people comes through cle…

How do we make creation care a genuine part of our mission, worship and discipleship – without becoming “eco-Pharisees”? In this thought-provoking interview, Dave Bookless, CMS mission partner and director of theology for A Rocha International, talks with Jenny Muscat and Naomi Steinberg and shares what it takes to change minds about climate change…

Rachel Burton is a short term mission partner with Church Mission Society, working with the Novo rehabilitation community in Bolivia. Based in Santa Cruz, this is the first of what is hoped will be many self-sustaining Christian communities that set people free from addiction. Rachel talked to Jeremy Woodham at the Church Mission Society in Oxford …

It’s a famous definition of mission: “seeing what God is doing and joining in” – and we hear from people who are simply responding to that this month.The first part of that definition involves looking for God in the world around us. We might think that is even more challenging in a war zone. But today we hear in two parts from Lynn Treneary, who is…

This month we continue exploring some of the myths that persist around our understanding of what “Mission Is”, as part of Church Mission Society’s “Mission Is” campaign. Find out more about this and the new resources available to help you and your church explore what Mission Is at churchmissionsociety.org.Many people still assume that mission as ab…

This autumn sees us profiling the results of our giant listening exercise to find out what people think about mission. Thank you if you were one of more than 2,000 people who completed our survey, online or at festivals this summer. You can see more about the results by going to the Mission Is tab at churchmissionsociety.org.In the coming months we…

We hope that none of our mission work is very far from the people who find themselves pushed to the margins of society – and this month we focus our attention in their direction – and travel from Tanzania to Paraguay and Peru. We’ll discover deep commitment, significant impact and how working with those who are classed as ‘disadvantaged’ can be bot…

Effective mission can look very different from place to place and at Church Mission Society we are very committed to taking different cultures and contexts seriously. But training and study naturally form part of our mission commitment all around the world – and provide an ideal situation for mutual learning, as we hear from Berdine van den Toren.W…

As the summer rolls on, the first phase of Church Mission Society's ‘Mission is’ campaign is in full flow – as we try to gather ‘the big picture’ of what people really think about mission – what it is, and who should be involved. As a result of this, you won’t be surprised that we are hoping to prompt more people to follow their own call to mission…

Our theme this month is practical spirituality – faith addressing the concrete realities of everyday life. We talk to Mark Scandrette from the USA, who encourages people to align their time and money with what matters most – and also has an intriguing perspective on the church in the UK – as art museum.We’ll also be digging in to some of the financ…

This month’s podcast is inspired by the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Thy Kingdom Come initiative, in which Church Mission Society is joining along with many other organisations and churches around the world. You can find out more by searching online for Thy Kingdom Come and we hope many of our listeners will pledge to pray during the wave of prayer f…

This month we continue our world tour, reaching Latin America. And we start off in Brazil with Olympic memories and new plans in Rio. then we move to Peru and Chile looking at discipleship and church planting.Featuring: Alex and Jane Cacouris and their three children are based at Christ Church in Rio de Janeiro alongside mission partners Jess and M…

This month our world tour continues into Africa and we meet three local partners of Church Mission Society there – all gathered at the recent joint conference of CMS and CMS-Africa people in mission, which took place in Uganda. They are all also representatives for CMS-Africa – dynamic leaders who are real changemakers in many communities.Sarah Hol…

We’re embarking on a world tour around the regions where our people in mission are at work today. Month by month we’ll be travelling to Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.We start with Asia: November saw a huge celebration take place in India. In the southern state of Kerala, Christians gathered in their tens of thousands to mark 200 years sinc…

This month we look at one of Church Mission Society’s focus areas – people at risk. We believe God cares deeply about the most vulnerable people in our world, and so do the people we meet this month.First we look back with Laura and Simon Walton over 16 years of faithful work with people at risk in Tanzania, including those living with HIV. Then we…

We focus our mission lens on Asia, and primarily Nepal. The astonishing growth of the church in Nepal has been well documented. Church Mission Society has got to know several of Nepal’s home-grown mission partners over recent decades and we have been much inspired by them. Our sister society Asia-CMS has a number of partners there including two we’…

Talks from the Church Mission Society Africa conference, held at the Hayes conference centre, Swanwick, 7-9 October 2016. Featured speakers are Dennis Tongoi (pictured), executive director of CMS-Africa, Philip Mounstephen, executive leader of Church Mission Society, and Harvey Kwiyani, executive director of Missio Africanus.…