Aotearoa New Zealand Association for Mission Studies

The Land and Work of David Bosch revisited. 

For the first 18 months after my arrival in New Zealand in June 1996, I served in the Te Atatu Union Church, in West Auckland.  In January 1998 I was appointed as Chaplain to the community of Saint Kentigern, an Independent Presbyterian College and School for boys in Auckland and served there for 4.5 years. In August 2002 I was appointed to the position of Global Mission Secretary of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand.  This change provided me with an opportunity to take a 45 day sabbatical and time to return to South Africa, the country of my birth. It also enabled me to reflect on the work of David Bosch in the light of this visit and my new ministry challenge. I hoped to find something fresh that might help me to articulate a missiology that would enable the  Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand to face up the challenges of being a Church engaged in mission in the 21st century. This paper is a report on that visit and those reflections.

Andrew Bell                    

Global Mission Office

Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

100 St Heliers Bay Road

St Heliers

Auckland    1005

New Zealand

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