On March 10 from 3:30-4:30 p.m., Union University hosted Ben Hoskins for the W.D. Powell Missions Lecture in Harvey Auditorium.
Hoskins, a Union alumnus, is the university’s missionary in residence this semester. He is also a cluster leader in East Asia with the International Mission Board. His lecture, entitled “From Everywhere to Everyone: How the Global Church is Taking the Gospel to the Nations,” focused on shifts in global missions.
“With this movement of peoples, with the maturing of the global church, we’re seeing a shift in what global missions looks like,” Hoskins said.
Hoskins described the shift to a more segmented, regional approach across people groups.
“Multicultural teaming is the future,” Hoskins said. “So now we have missionary teams that might be made up of an IMB missionary from West Tennessee, and he might team up with somebody from Taiwan, and he might have another teammate from Brazil or from Ukraine.”
“They are willing, I think, candidly, much more so than many of us, to suffer and count costs … that’s what it’s going to take to reach the nations,” Hoskins said.
Hoskins helped found a sending organization in East Asia and spoke on how Western missionaries are helping expand global missions and sending programs in other countries, as well as the challenges they face.
“It was very interesting to learn that there’s been a shift in the missiological community from the global north to the global south sending,” said Isaac Stickles, a senior chemistry major who attended the lecture. “They didn’t have strong sending programs, but now that’s something that’s growing.”
Union President Dub Oliver attended the lecture and voiced his optimism about the future of global missions and how Union is encouraging students.
“I think it’s exciting to think about the fact that half the global missions force is non-Western,” Oliver said. “Union challenges students to both think cross-culturally and have cross-cultural experiences by doing things like study abroad and GO Trips and being summer interns in different places.”
Similarly, Jeff Palmer, an adjunct professor in Union’s School of Theology and Missions, encouraged students to take advantage of Union’s missions courses and GO Trips.
“I think that with the changing of the missionary task around the world, we’re going to have to start learning how to work with believers from other cultures in doing missions together,” Palmer said.
The lecture closed with Hoskins encouraging the audience to pray for unity within these multicultural teams.
“It’s very difficult, but we’re seeing God work,” Hoskins said.
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