How the Mission Rebound is Impacting Small-town Churches

Team Members/Contributors

Peter G. Bush Westwood Presbyterian Church Contact Me

About this pastoral study project

Between late summer 2008 and late summer 2009 four first-generation immigrant clergy were called to serve small-town Presbyterian congregations in Manitoba. The three Koreans and one Congolese serve congregations which are almost entirely Caucasian. One-fifth of Presbyterian parish clergy in Canadian Prairie communities with populations under 50,000 are ethnically African or Asian. This is an example of the "mission rebound": countries that received Christian missionaries now send Christian missionaries to the very countries that had sent them missionaries. Receivers become senders and senders become receivers.

This study explores how cross-cultural ministries are changing Presbyterian congregations in small-town Prairie Canada; and conversely how the realities of small town ministry in Canada are forming the Asian and African clergy who serve these congregations. I will visit 10 to 12 congregations across the three Prairie provinces asking both clergy and congregational leaders a set of prepared and tested questions covering matters including, but not limited to: the welcome received by the new clergy, impact on the worship life, changes in the congregation's leadership culture, the renewal of evangelism, and re-thinking the mission of the church.

As a result of an analysis of the data gathered I hope to draw out patterns and conclusions.

Through my connections with various publications I will make the results of the study available to clergy and lay leaders in both mainline and evangelical churches in North America.

Image Title Year Type Contributor(s) Other Info
  Missionary Rebound 2012 Magazine Article Peter G. Bush
June 2012: 36-41 http://presbyterianrecord.ca/2012/06/01/missionary-rebound/
  Immigrant Ministers Shine Brightly 2012 Magazine Article Peter G. Bush
July/August 2012: 24-27