Sprachspielen: 6fis – prayer

Aside John Robinson February 21, 2021

With this month’s instalment of Sprachspielen, I would like to introduce a “mini-series” of sorts, where I deal with six different concepts over the coming months, which have a clear connection to each other and are seen by us as all being parts of a whole. I am referring to what we call our “Six-Fold Incarnational Strategy,” (hereafter, “6fis”). I realise that this title is a mouthful and sounds quite lofty and cerebral at first hearing, but I can assure you that there is no “rocket science” here, but a simple guide that we use in our personal and local ministries here in our various areas. You will have undoubtedly heard us speak about the 6fis on numerous occasions, and you can find it mentioned on our website in various places. Because the 6fis is so foundational to our work, I will be dealing with these six elements of the 6fis over the next few instalments of Sprachspielen.

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Sprachspielen: Hope

Aside Linguæ Christi January 15, 2021

For most of you, who have been following my Sprachspielen articles since they began last summer, you have seen that in these articles I have been addressing certain terms or vocabulary that have direct impact and applicability to who we are and what God has called us to do in missions. These terms have missiological, theological, spiritual, and even practical applicability to who we are and what we do, and I have been taking the time to explain the specific significance of these words to our vision and ministry in order that you might understand better what we mean, when we use these terms. Last month, as it was Christmas time and the end of 2020, I took the liberty of deviating ever so slightly from my normal approach by looking at the word “incarnation,” which was more general but obviously appropriate for the season. Hopefully, I was also able in this general way to bring the theme of “incarnation” back to a missiological understanding and application of that important theological concept.

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Sprachspielen: Incarnation

Chat John Robinson December 21, 2020

For December’s Sprachspielen, I’d like to deviate a bit from my normal pattern of the past few months, since starting this editorial series. Up to this time, I’ve tended to address terminology, vocabulary, or concepts, which are central to the missiology, vision, ethos, and practical outworking in missionary activity of Linguæ Christi. It has been my hope that in defining some of these key terms and concepts, it would give you, the reader, an ever clearer understanding of what exactly God has been calling and leading us to do, as our part in His plan for world missions.  

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Sprachspielen: European

Chat Linguæ Christi November 23, 2020

In this month’s Sprachspielen, I would like to talk about a word that we use all the time to describe our work, which you would probably feel needs no particular explanation. It is the word “European.” Again, you’re probably thinking that this is pretty straightforward, but it might surprise you, as I seek to explain what this word means to us more specifically, especially as it relates to our ministry.

As I’ve explained in previous instalments of Sprachspielen, our primary understanding of the various ethnolinguistic people groups with whom we minister is based on linguistic affinity and points of connection. In other words, we look at the indigenous, minority languages that are spoken and how they are related to one another, as a primary organising principle for our missionary focus. These language groups “bleed” over the established borders, as the areas of their linguistic domain are generally older than those of the established geopolitical borders.

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Sprachspielen: Minority (Part 2)

Chat Linguæ Christi October 22, 2020

In last month’s Sprachspielen, I began to unpack the use of the word “minority” related to indigenous languages in Europe and our work with them. In my last instalment, I described how the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (ECRML) is our primary guide for deciding what is or is not a minority/regional language, and which ones we might include in our strategic list of language groups, which are the target groups for our missions engagement as an organisation.

In this month’s instalment, I want to pick up where I left off at the end of last month’s, namely in speaking about where our strategic list of indigenous minority languages differs from those included in the ECRML.

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