The Church Mission Society (CMS) has welcomed its 1,000th student onto the Pioneer Mission Training programme, marking a serious milestone 15 years after the initiative first began with just nine participants in Oxford.
CMS, established in 1799 through the anti-slavery movement, has long been recognised for its pioneering global mission work.
Since its launch in 2010, the Pioneer Mission Training programme has expanded across the UK, offering pathways from undergraduate certificates to doctoral study.
New areas of focus, including African and Asian Christianity, can be found through the Acts 11 Centre for Global Witness and Human Migration.
The course is designed to organize Christians to serve outside the confines of conventional church structures, encouraging innovation in ministry.
Graduates have proceeded to create projects starting from a “boxing church” and outreach to automotive enthusiasts, to entrepreneurial initiatives that mix faith with sustainable business.
James Butler, who leads the programme, said: “It’s great to be celebrating this significant milestone for the Pioneer Mission Training Programme. All the training we do at CMS is completed with a mission lens; we live and breathe mission.
“We are delighted to have a various teaching team and diverse student cohort giving huge value to all our students as all of us learn together to follow God and interact in his mission.”
Students highlight each the sensible and private impact of the course.
Diana, now a pioneer priest, said the training helped her shape the YEAST Scrapstore right into a flourishing charity: “The best course I’ve ever done. It helped me to think really clearly in regards to the missional dimension of YEAST Scrapstore, which I used to be starting on the time.
“Now we’re a charity which owns our own constructing and are gathering all varieties of people around us through being intentionally missionary whilst not being churchy.”
Another student, Angel, studying African Christianity, reflected that the experience “knocked down partitions” in her own heart, filling her with “latest courage and determination.”
The curriculum blends mission, theology, church history, evangelism, and hands-on modules resembling Make Good, which is designed to equip students with tools for mission entrepreneurship and creating projects that may support themselves financially.
Founded by Jonny Baker, CMS’s Britain Hub mission director, the programme has steadily broadened its reach, now including online learning that connects students as far afield as Peru, Uganda, Thailand, the Democratic Republic of Congo, in addition to Europe and North America.
Butler emphasised the programme’s deal with individuals who feel “the gift of not fitting in.”
He encouraged others who resonate with this to contemplate joining, saying: “Through our programmes we seek to offer people the theological understanding, practical tools and spiritual formation to thrive of their calling, and interact with God’s work on this planet, particularly for mission on the sides of society.”
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