The International Association for Mission Studies is an international, inter-confessional and interdisciplinary professional society for the scholarly study of Christian mission and its impact in the world and the related field of intercultural theology. IAMS convenes international and regional conferences, facilitates collaborative study groups researching in mission studies, and publishes the journal Mission Studies. IAMS members include some 50 corporate members and more than 400 individual scholars of a range of academic disciplines and Christian traditionsaround the world who actively research on the historical and contemporary theory, practice, and impact of Christian mission in diverse social, economic and political environments.
History
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 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:
Governance and Management
The association is 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 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:
Biblical Studies and Mission.
Documentation, Archives, Bibliography, and Oral History.
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.”
