What does it look like to plant missional churches in a post-Communist, post-Christendom city? In this conversation, Hoffman Rhyne sits down with Dr. András Lovas, a Reformed pastor, church planting consultant, and City to City Europe trainer based in Budapest, Hungary, to hear his remarkable story of gospel ministry in Central Europe.Dr. Lovas served for over 22 years as the founding pastor of Gazdagret Reformed Church, a missional congregation planted on a Budapest housing estate, before transitioning to serve as the church planting and mission consultant for the Hungarian Reformed Church. Drawing on the missiology of Lesslie Newbigin and his doctoral work at Bakke Graduate University on urban mission and missional leadership, Dr. Lovas has spent decades equipping pastors, mentoring church planters, and building the Budapest City Network for the City to City Europe movement.In this interview, Dr. Lovas reflects on the challenges and opportunities of gospel ministry in Hungary, the vision for a missional church in a post-Christendom context, and what the Church in the West can learn from the renewal taking place in Central Europe.---This conversation is part of Christ Our Redeemer Seminary's Global Missions in the 21st Century course and our "Learning with the Whole Church" initiative: a commitment to listening to and learning from the global Church, particularly those serving among the least-reached peoples of the world. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'" (1 Cor. 12:21). The Church in the West has much to learn from brothers and sisters who have long labored faithfully in hard soil.Christ Our Redeemer Seminary is a partnership of churches in Auburn and Opelika, Alabama, equipping Christlike leaders for God's global mission.Learn more: christourredeemer.orgFind us on podcast platforms: Christ Our Redeemer Seminary Podcast

What does it look like to plant evangelical churches in one of the oldest Christian cities in the world, a city where the Apostle Paul once preached on Mars Hill, and yet where evangelical Christians make up only 0.3% of the population?
In this episode, Hoffman Rhyne sits down with Giotis (Panagiotis) Kantartzis, Pastor of the First Greek Evangelical Church in Athens, author of A Christian's Pocket Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology: An Evangelical Perspective, and City to City Europe Regional Catalyst for the Athens network. Giotis holds degrees from the Greek Bible College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (M.Div.), as well as a Th.M. from Boston University School of Theology and a Ph.D. from the University of Thessaloniki.
In this rich and wide-ranging conversation, Giotis offers hard-won wisdom from decades of gospel ministry in a context shaped simultaneously by Greek Orthodox national identity, post-modern secularism, and a minority evangelical tradition. You'll hear him reflect on:
1) The unique missional challenges of Greece: a society where religion is inseparable from ethnic and national identity, and where evangelical Christians are often perceived as members of an imported American cult.
2) How secularization, paradoxically, creates new gospel opportunities in traditionally Orthodox contexts.
3) Church planting, contextualization, and the role of community in reaching people who are culturally religious but spiritually lost, and
4) What the Western church can learn from minority evangelical movements in post-Christendom and pre-Christendom contexts alike.
This conversation is part of Christ Our Redeemer Seminary's Global Missions in the 21st Century course and our "Learning with the Whole Church" initiative: a commitment to listening to and learning from the global Church, particularly those serving among the least-reached peoples of the world. As the Apostle Paul wrote, "the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you'" (1 Cor. 12:21). The Church in the West has much to learn from brothers and sisters who have long labored faithfully in hard soil.
Christ Our Redeemer Seminary is a partnership of churches in Auburn and Opelika, Alabama, equipping Christlike leaders for God's global mission.
Learn more: christourredeemer.org
Find us on podcast platforms: Christ Our Redeemer Seminary Podcast

There is nothing quick about the Great Commission. It takes time, commitment, and lifetimes of work. There are no shortcuts!
That's how Dr. Timothy Tennent opens this conversation, and it only gets more searching from there.
Dr. Timothy Tennent, who spent fifteen years as President of Asbury Theological Seminary, has taught every year for over three decades at New Theological College in India, and wrote Invitation to World Missions, one of the most important missiological texts of the 21st century. He now holds the Methodist Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School. His daughter Bethany has spent 16 years among a Muslim people group in Tanzania and has now translated half the New Testament into a language with no prior Scripture.
In this episode of Global Missions in the 21st Century, Dr. Tennent joins us to unpack what it means to say that mission is fundamentally trinitarian and eschatological, why the West urgently needs a "missions selah," and what genuine preparation looks like for a new generation called to pioneer work among unreached peoples.
If you want to think more clearly and more biblically about the remaining task of global missions, this conversation is for you.

What if the diversity on your street is exactly what God is doing in the world?
Dr. Todd Johnson is the co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and co-author of the World Christian Encyclopedia. He spent his career tracking one of the most dramatic transformations in the history of Christianity, and he has the data to show it.
In this conversation, Dr. Johnson takes us from Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand to the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Wittenberg, sharing how God used a love of math and a season among Cambodian refugees to shape one of the world's leading scholars of global Christianity.
Along the way, he reflects on the legacy of his father-in-law, Ralph Winter, the underappreciated trend of integral mission, the massive shift of Christianity to the Global South, and what it means that the peoples of the world are literally moving in next door.
His word to those called to global missions? Become curious. Become empathetic. And embrace God's vision for the Church - a multi-ethnic family of believers from every tongue, tribe, and nation united in Jesus Christ.

Kevin Lunsford, a recent graduate of Christ Our Redeemer Seminary, is the director of Circles Opelika. Circles Opelika is a community-driven program that works to increase upward mobility for individuals and families in poverty in Opelika.

In this episode, Hoffman sits down with Kevin to discuss what the Church in Auburn and Opelika can do to restore God's shalom to those living below the poverty line.

To learn more about Circles Opelika, go to https://www.circlesopelika.org/

This episode was hosted by Hoffman Rhyne

Our Special guest was Kevin Lunsford

Editing was done by Michael Harvey

For more information, visit christourredeemer.org

Introducing the Christ Our Redeemer Seminary Bookshop: https://bookshop.org/shop/cors

Have you wondered what missional theology is and where to start with it? In this episode, Hoffman and Michael talk about a reading list to get you started in learning about the mission of God.

Want to get the seminary a Christmas present? Check out our Lesslie Newbigin Missional Theology Library wishlist: https://bookshop.org/wishlists/67cde27cf504c8dd2a365f5b8e00b57aa3a75ca0

This episode was hosted by Hoffman Rhyne and Michael Harvey

Editing was done by Michael Harvey

For more information, visit christourredeemer.org

We've got a special episode this week: Hoffman's talk from our last quarterly seminar. These quarterly seminars are a great time of inspiration, encouragement, and equipping. You can learn more about the seminars at https://www.christourredeemer.org/events

In this episode:

State of the Great Commission: https://lausanne.org/download-report

Seoul Statement: https://lausanne.org/statement/the-seoul-statement

Plenary Sessions from Lausanne 4: https://lausanne.org/accelerate

This episode was a special presentation by Hoffman Rhyne

Editing was done by Michael Harvey

For more information, go to christourredeemer.org

In this episode, Hoffman invites Daria Monroe to discuss Women's Hope, a nonprofit organization providing medical and material provisions for pregnant mothers and families.

You can learn more about Women's Hope at https://womenshope.org/

This episode was hosted by Hoffman Rhyne

Our special guest was Daria Monroe

Editing by Michael Harvey

For more information, visit us at christourredeemer.org

You might not expect our small city in Alabama to be an international city, but due to the influence of Auburn University, lots of international expatriates are calling Lee county home. CORS graduate, Dr. Joseph Fan leads the Auburn Grace Chinese Church. Listen to his perspective from ministering to and with the Chinese community in Auburn.

Check out Dr. Fan's previous episode here: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cors/episodes/Meet-Our-Leaders-10---Dr--Joseph-Fan-e1jca9f

You can learn more about Auburn Grace Chinese Church here: https://augccc.org/

This episode was hosted by Hoffman Rhyne

Our special guest was Dr. Joseph Fan

Editing was done by Michael Harvey

For more info, visit christourredeemer.org

The Lausanne movement arose out of the friendship between John Stott and Billy Graham and their shared burden for the unity of the Church in missions. Recently, Hoffman got the opportunity to be a delegate at the 4th Lausanne Congress.

You can learn more about the Lausanne Movement at https://lausanne.org/

And on our blog at https://www.christourredeemer.org/the-lausanne-movement-its-significance-for-global-missions

Also,

The State of the Great Commission Report

The Seoul Statement

This episode was hosted by Michael Harvey and Hoffman Rhyne

Editing was done by Michael Harvey

For more info, visit christourredeemer.org