Elspeth Kernebone
23 December 2023
Victorian Christians have been encouraged to begin 2024 being encouraged and challenged by God’s word at CMS Victoria’s annual summer conference.
Participants can expect to hear ways in which the gospel is moving across the world during Summer Under the Son 2024, Lift our Eyes.
They can also expect challenges to some of their Western theological assumptions as they hear from missionary workers and Bible teachers.
Summer Under the Son director Alex Edsor said the conference was an amazing opportunity for people to hear stories they could only hear in a closed environment, from missionaries in a secure location.
Read more: Discovering the road less travelled at Summer Under the Son 2023 | Photos
Ms Edsor said the 2024 program was full of expert speakers running workshops, and featured many missionaries who were home this year, including several secure workers.
She said the gospel was moving in ways that people did not realise, or hear about publicly, travelling through leaders disguised in their local nation, transformed by Christ and sharing the good news behind closed doors.
Ms Edsor said Victorian Christians should hear these workers’ stories because it was important they knew they were key partners in sending people to these locations, where people wouldn’t otherwise hear the gospel.
Summer Under the Son 2024 speakers include Sydney archbishop Kanishka Raffel, Province of Indian Ocean & Bishop of Seychelles archbishop James Wong and CMS worker Tamie Davis, who has recently returned from serving in Tanzania and completed a PhD on Tanzanian women’s theology.
Read more: Sense of great need drew missionary couple to Islamic world
Dr Davis said Summer Under the Son was a great opportunity for people to lift their eyes beyond their own borders after some rough years, to see what God was doing in the world, and praise him for it.
Dr Davis said one of the brilliant aspects of her study was witnessing directly the sophistication and efficacy of Tanzanian theology in its context. She said Africa was often associated with the prosperity gospel, which was often thought of a heresy which exploited the gospel.
She said Australians could find it hard to get past stereotypes about Africa, so they often missed the good things God was doing there. Dr Davis said Australian Christians would continue to interact with Africans as a big brother, rather than as partners, if they thought about Africa as a place of poverty, heresy, weakness or vulnerability.
She said African theology could challenge Australians about their own theology and ideas, and help them think flexibly.
In her study, Dr Davis said she saw how Tanzanian women held a theology of prosperity because they had read the Bible for themselves, and found an empowering message of prosperity within it.
She said this theology held up against theological interrogation.
Dr Davis said CMS had a long history in Tanzania, and it was good to look at that involvement and see how God had born great fruit from it.
“One of the great things that God is doing at the moment in Tanzania, is this thing we’ve assumed to be bad for people, he is actually bringing renewal and beauty in that very place,” Dr Davis said.
Ms Edsor encouraged people to start their year by being encouraged and challenged through God’s word and through fellowship.
“We’re the only Christian conference that runs in summer that is entirely focussed about the body of Christ, sending people out into the world to share the good news,” Ms Edsor said.
“It’s actually about us looking up to the lives we have here in Victoria, and looking at what God is calling us to.
“It’s about the call beyond this, because ultimately Jesus calls us to continue his good works here.”
Summer Under the Son runs from 18-20 January 2024. More information is available at: summerundertheson.org.
For more faith news, follow The Melbourne Anglican on Facebook, Instagram, or subscribe to our weekly emails.
