International Association for Mission Studies

History

The IAMS was founded in 1972, but the impulse dated from the vision of the late Olav G. Myklebust, then director of the Egede Institute in Oslo. In 1951 Myklebust produced a thirty-five-page proposal entitled “An International Institute of Scientific Missionary Research.” He looked to “the establishment of an international association of missiologists (and others engaged in the scholarly study of mission) that from time to time would convene international conferences for the discussion of missionary subjects in a strictly scientific spirit and would publish a scholarly review of high standard.” In 1955 “a memorandum on an international organization for the scholarly study of the Christian world mission and the history and problems of the younger churches” was discussed in Hamburg. Eleven years later in the same city the possibility of creating “a larger meeting of European missiologists which might lead to the creation of a worldwide interconfessional missiological society” was again discussed. A European consultation on mission studies held at the Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, England, in April 1968 brought things closer, but the decisive turning point was in Oslo in 1970 at a second European conference on mission studies when 74 participants from different denominations, countries and continents decided that an organization would be established. As a result, the first IAMS conference was held in 1972.

IAMS links individual scholars and missiological associations from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific together with “North America, Germany, the United Kingdom and Ireland, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, South Africa, India and elsewhere.” IAMS is now “a broadly ecumenical body including Roman Catholics, Orthodox, conciliar and evangelical Protestants, and members of the Pentecostal, charismatic and Independent churches.”

Main objectives

As a scholarly association, IAMS’ scholars and missionaries do extensive research in Christianity, the Christian church, Christian theology, evangelism, spreading the gospel and Christianization, and other Christian-related scholarly theological disciplines. All of these are seen from missiological point of view where missiology is seen as both a research discipline and a practical reflection on the Christian mission done in specific social context.

IAMS' main goal is to bring together scholars, theologians, missiologists and missionaries who research in mission studies and can contribute to the science of missiology .
The main objectives of IAMS are the following:

IAMS General Assemblies

Since 1972, thirteen international assemblies have been held in different countries on the different continents, each exploring specific mission studies themes:

The Fourteenth Assembly is planned to take place in Seoul, South Korea, in 2016 on the theme of Conversions and transformations: missiological approaches to religious change.

Governance and Management

The International Association for Mission Studies’ affairs are managed by an executive consisting of the president, the vice president, the general secretary, the treasurer, the editor of Mission Studies journal and five regional representatives of the Executive committee. These representatives are responsible for the IAMS’ relations with missiologists and missiological institutions, associations and schools in Europe, North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. A Senior Advisory Group provides a consultative level of governance.

The Executive Committee is chosen at each general assembly by the members present. It is responsible for the development of the Association between its general meetings and is charged to organize the next international conference. The Secretariat of the Association is usually taken charge by one of the associated institutions. Currently the Secretariat is located at the headquarters of the Church Mission Society in Oxford, United Kingdom.

Mission Study groups

Within the Association five major study groups have been active in continuing research and consultation, which is an indispensable part of the purpose of the membership. Currently these are:

The study groups do extensive research on the bible (including the study of the Old Testament and the New Testament), Christian theology and its branches (biblical, systematic and practical theology), feminist theology, missiology, pneumatology, evangelism (including the various approaches to evangelism), freedom of religion and freedom from persecution, and other Christian-related theological, anthropological and social studies disciplines.

Mission Studies Journal

The IAMS’ scholarly journal Mission Studies is published by Brill in Leiden. It continues from the early newsletters of IAMS and the first edition of an academic journal in 1984. The publisher defines the aim of the journal in the following way: “The aim of Mission Studies is to enable the International Association for Mission Studies to expand its services as a forum for the scholarly study of Christian witness and its impact in the world, and the related field of intercultural theology, from international, inter-confessional and interdisciplinary perspectives.”