Imaginatively Missional
What if the story of early Christian missions isn’t just preserved in texts but in stones, inscriptions, and cities waiting to be read? In Gods, Emperors, Philosophers, and a New Movement, Michael T. Cooper explores how archaeology reshapes our understanding of the early Christian movement—and what that means for missions today. In this interview, we asked …
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Back in the late 1900s, Gailyn Van Rheenen published a regular missiology newsletter. In one edition, he recounted the experience of walking into a church in the Philippines only to be confronted with an unsettling reality: it looked just like his church at home. Nearly forty years later, we are still confronting that same unwelcome …
The intersection of archaeology and missiology offers a rich field for exploring how early Christians navigated complex sociocultural terrains in Asia Minor. In the forthcoming Gods, Emperors, Philosophers, and a New Movement, I argue that the material culture of the first three centuries presents more than historical data—it offers theological and missiological implications for practical lessons …
Continue reading "Seven Practical Missiological Applications from the Archaeological Record"
In the rich tapestry of Asia Minor’s religious and cultural milieu, the early church faced a formidable challenge—how to faithfully embody the gospel in a context saturated with temples, gods, and ritualized expressions of devotion. From Ephesos to Sardis, from Pergamon to Philadelphia, every city was a stage for divine pageantry. The architecture, the numismatic …
Continue reading "The Philosophical School as Ecclesial Safeguard"
As Christianity spread across the Roman Empire, it did more than change hearts—it redefined space. The architectural legacy of Roman religion, once dedicated to a pantheon of gods, came under new ownership. The church, as it emerged from the margins, began to repurpose temple space—places previously reserved for empire and cult—and imbued them with new …
It's 53 or 54 AD. So, imagine standing in the grandeur of the Ephesian Prytaneion, surrounded by marble reminders of the goddess Artemis, the supposed protector of the city and light to the world. According to a prominent inscription inscribed on a marble lintel block, you, Theophilos—a "lover of god"—have served as a Kouretes, a guardian …
Who was Theophilos, the addressee of Luke’s Gospel and Acts? For decades, scholars have speculated about his identity. Some argue that Theophilos, whose name means “lover/friend of God,” was a symbolic placeholder for all believers. Others suggest he was a wealthy patron who funded Luke’s literary endeavors. But what if Theophilos was a real person …
In recent years, theological education has earned mixed reviews from those on the mission field. Some missionaries share disappointing stories of seminary experiences that left them unprepared for the hands-on realities of cross-cultural ministry. For others, theological training introduced a sense of intellectual pride or entitlement, and they left feeling distanced from the people they …
The Perichoretic Mission frames the missionary’s role as deeply connected to God’s ongoing, relational work in the world, modeled after the perichoresis of the Trinity. This divine dance of mutual indwelling between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shows us that mission isn’t just a task to complete—it’s a reflection of God’s loving and communal nature, always revealing Himself. …
What excites me most about this understanding is the mystery of salvation that accompanies the concept of perichoresis. God’s salvific work is not restricted by human limitations or understanding. In many ways, the missionary must adopt a posture of humility, recognizing that we do not fully understand the extent or methods of God’s saving grace. We …
One of the most mesmerizing sights in nature is the murmuration of starlings—a flock moving in what appears to be chaotic yet beautifully coordinated patterns. Without a single leader, each bird instinctively adjusts its position in response to the movements of those nearest to it, creating a collective dance in the sky. From the outside, …
The concept of perichoresis has long served as a profound theological framework for understanding the dynamic and relational nature of the Trinity. Describing the mutual indwelling and constant movement between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, perichoresis shows us that the Godhead is not a distant, static unity, but a community of love, eternally revealing Themselves in and through …
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The synagogue of Sardis (ca 4th c.), located adjacent to the Roman bath-gymnasium, is a large basilica style hall of ostensible Jewish worship that could accomodate a thousand people. In fact, it is the largest so-called synagogue ever excavated in the Roman world. Considerations for its surroundings, inscriptions, mosaics, graffiti, and spolia have raised the …
Much of my academic work over the past three decades has focused on how the early Christian movement engaged the cultures of its time. Understanding the dynamics of these early communities not only informs our theological reflections but also offers invaluable lessons for contemporary church planting and missions. This is precisely the focus of my …
In contemporary missiology, the terms “unreached people groups” (UPGs) and “unengaged unreached people groups” (UUPGs) have become a staple in our missions vocabulary. Defined by missiologists as ethnic groups with no significant Christian presence and/or little to no access to the gospel, UPGs and UUPGs represent the frontier of missionary efforts. However, as we reflect on the theological implications of …
Continue reading "50 Years Since Lausanne: Rethinking our Nomenclature"
Archaeology has been an under-utilized tool in missiology. A few scholars studying the colonial era have suggested that the discipline is important in understanding the development of missions (Graham 1998; Ross 2018). As might be expected, archaeology of the colonial era reveals the impact of the missionary’s material culture on the material culture of indigenous …
What does this mean for the Christianity of the 21st century? For the house church movement, it means that we should not think of oikos as a monolithic and normative form for the ekklēsia. Instead, the house church served a purpose at a particular point in history. In the first century, the oikos provided a place of gathering that was relatively …
Excavation of Laodicea began in full force in 2002. This is not to suggest that there were not others who attempted an excavation prior. Indeed, a Canadian excavation began in 1961 while an Italian one conducted a topographical and archaeological survey in 1993. Today, a team from Pamukkale University and the Municipality of Denizli work …
Christianity arrives in Laodicea near the middle of the first century. The missionary endeavors of Paul and at least 20 of his associates began in Ephesus in the late 40s with Paul leaving the area known as Roman Asia (in Asia Minor) in the early 50s (Cooper 2020). Paul and Timothy testify to the Colossians …
Named after Laodike, the wife of the Seleucid ruler Antiochus II, Laodicea was constructed around 260 BC upon of an earlier settlement known as the city of Zeus, Diospolis (Pliny the Elder NH 5.105). Indeed, on the eastern city gate entrance leading to the colonnaded Syrian road (fig. 1), a Greek dedicatory inscription honors Zeus …
The intersection of missiology, ecclesiology, and archaeology holds the potential for a promising field of study in the areas of material culture, history, and faith. Such an intersection offers insights into the relationship between architecture, ritual development, missions, biblical studies, and indigenous civilizations. This intersection not only bridges disciplines, but also unveils a treasure trove …
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Over the past two decades, many monikers have emerged to help describe the task of fulfilling the Great Commission. Samuel Wilson’s informative contribution to the Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions outlines a brief history of trying to understand the groupings of people based on cultural and/or social contexts. In the early modern era of missions, Leslie Brierley’s “Remaining Unevangelized …
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New religious movements, New Age, Neo-Pagan, and minor non-Christian spiritual movements are a global phenomenon, and for over one hundred years have been the focus of evangelical critique and apologetic. In June 1980 the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization sponsored the "Consultation on World Evangelization" in Pattaya, Thailand. The purpose was to develop strategies for …
We drove to a remote village in South Asia where we were about to meet a new church leader. He’d recently come to Christ as a result of a church planting movement spreading across the area. Then, as is common with CPM/DMM methodologies, he shared the gospel with those in his oikos – that is, his network …
Worldview is a term originating with the 18th century Prussian philosopher, Immanuel Kant, and it expresses the idea of how people make sense out of the things that happen around them. To describe our perception of the world, he wrote: “If the human mind is nonetheless to be able even to think the given infinite …
As church planting movements (CPMs) have drawn the attention of missionary practitioners around the world, missiologists are looking closely at this phenomenon and asking challenging questions. In recent years, a few of those questions posed by Jackson Wu and a cadre of missiologists from the International Mission Board as well as professors from predominately Southern …
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As increasing numbers of Americans are leaving the church, a recent Barna study on the American worldview does not seem all that surprising. For years now, Americans have expressed a loss of confidence in the church as the institution is no longer viewed as important. Many Americans believe that church has actually had a negative …
Continue reading "Who is transforming whom? What American Christians Believe"
Over the weekend, one popular Christian apologist ignited social media with remarks he made at a global conference sponsored by the American Association of Christian Counselors. His video was later removed from the AACC website and he rightly issued an apology. Unfortunately in our world today, he and many other evangelicals often take a polemical position when engaging culture. …
In 1988, my best friend asked me to join him on a clandestine mission to smuggle the Jesus Film into Afghanistan. As our departure grew near so did our excitement. Backpacks, camping gear, thousands of dollars in cash, and 500lbs of film equipment boarded a plane for Karachi, Pakistan as did two young and idealistic …
Don’t you like dealing in hypotheticals? Those sometimes frustrating “what if” questions? Recently, Mike Frost posed such a question, “If Jesus planted a church, what would it look like?” At first, I thought it was a brilliant question. However, the more I considered it, the more his question provoked a reaction. I began to ask, …
Two recent studies about the state of the church in the US have further demonstrated the tenuous situation of American Christianity. On May 25, 2021, Lifeway Research released its latest data that indicates a continuing downward trend for the negative net growth of churches in America. In 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the evangelical …
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As Carson, Moo, and Morris point out (1992), nowhere in the New Testament are the first four books referred to as “Gospels.” It is not until the second century that the title “Gospel” is attributed to these compiled stories about Jesus (Carson, Moo, Morris 1992:46, cf. Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book 3). While the details provided in all …
Theological development is contextual and is frequently a reaction to a crisis in culture. As far back as the ecumenical councils of the first six centuries of the church, theology has responded to context and always will. Those early formulations of dogma came in the midst of political tensions often instigated by an emperor who …
The saying goes that “history is written by the victors.” There is some truth to this but a better way of saying it comes from a Nigerian novelist. In her 2009 TED Talk, which is one of the most viewed ever, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie warns of “The Danger of A Single Story.” Rather than saying, …
During my doctoral studies in the early 2000s, Paul Hiebert shared a story that I have never forgotten. Dr. Hiebert was a master at using illustrations and case studies to highlight essential missiological principles. His years of experience in India and as a world renowned missiological anthropologist made those attending his classes sit on the edge of …
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