THE proclamation of the Gospel of Christ and His Kingdom are at the very centre of our Christian lives, both at an individual level and as a community of believers. This missionary aspect of Christianity, always latent in church history, has gained importance recently in Scotland and the rest of Europe. As the dismal statistics regarding professions of faith, church attendance, biblical literacy, etc show the full impact of decades of secularisation, the need for active and urgent evangelisation is made all the clearer.
At the last General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, at which I was honoured to represent the young people of the Presbytery of Edinburgh (younger people, one should say!), the unveiling of the Radical Action Plan opened a new opportunity truly to become an evangelising, missionary community of faith. But what we mean, as a body, by these adjectives, will completely shape whatever projects we end up undertaking as ‘missions’.
Since starting my studies in Edinburgh, I am involved with both the student-led New College Missionary Society and the Edinburgh University Campus Ministry of the Church of Scotland. In both groups there is one common goal: to let people know about Jesus and His message for us today. From this perspective I would like to off er some thoughts on where we are, and where we are headed, when it comes to rediscovering evangelisation and mission.