A podcast discussion with Frontier Ventures’ “Missions Drop” released on 10 April, 2024.

Jay discusses the content of his June 2023 blog post with Frontier Ventures’ Andy Bettencourt.

From the original blogpost blurb, “Until very recently it seems, Western Christianity has been solely focused on ‘the dark side of the moon’-a pathological perspective of humanity. We should have no illusions about sin’s devastating effects, but neither should we lose sight of our inherent goodness. Missions needs a shift in perspective towards wellbeing.”

The podcast can be found here: https://themissionsdrop.libsyn.com/site/a-missiology-of-well-being-with-jay-matenga.

Subtitle: 2023 Reflections on the State of Global Missions

A missions related 2023 forecast originally prepared for the World Evangelical Alliance Mission commission, published 5 January 2024.

This essay is my annual missions forecast, in which I highlight seven major issues using Joshua’s encounter with the Commander of the Lord’s army (Joshua 5:13b) as a biblical foundation. Polarisation continues as pressure comes on people with differing histories and values struggling to live with or near each other. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the liberal globalization project is failing to achieve the peace promised by a vision of mutual economic prosperity. People with power have grown tired of restraint and are showing their true colours. The peace of Christ differs markedly from worldly visions of peace, which ultimately fail to bring forth that which they promise. The peace of Christ is only found where New Creation is manifest because there, where as few as two or three gather, is found the presence of the Creator—the King of the Kingdom of God.

The transcript of a paper presented at the 2023 New Zealand Christians in Science Conference, “The Fall in Science and Theology .

In this paper I propose that we should view Sin (capital S) as the capacity to determine what is good and by implication judge between that good and that which is not good. I view this addition to the human condition at the event we commonly call ‘The Fall’ as the problematic source of all interpersonal dysfunction in the world, from marital and familial breakdown to international conflicts. From the theology of the Apostle Paul (in particular but not exclusively) I position the Holy Spirit as an external source available, through allegiance to Jesus, to humans that enables us to overcome Sin in our mission to co-create New Creation as participants in the purposes of God, leading to a consummation when all things will be made new in fulness at the physical return of Jesus.

Subtitle: The Road to Maturity.

The transcript of a two-part seminar prepared for the New Zealand Association of Christian Schools’ 2023 National Conference.

In this paper, incorporating two seminars, I introduce the processes that lead to our sanctification, our set-apartness for God’s purposes, otherwise known as holiness. I explain that this process, of rupture and repair, is one that requires perpetual reconciliation. To better understand our current (global) context and the need for such a process, I begin by explaining my Industrial/Indigenous spectrum, identifying the need for, and benefits of, middle-ground integration in the tensions of difference. Once established, I zoom in to that middle ground to look at the transformative process from biblical, neuroscience, and practical perspectives for the healing of our communities and, ultimately, the healing of the nations.

Subtitle: The Transformative Potential of Ethnos, Phyle, Laos, and Glossa for Global Missions Today.

An article prepared for OMF’s May 2023 Mission Research Consultation on the theme of: Ethnicity, Race, the Bible, and Mission. The article is published in OMF’s Mission Roundtable Journal here: https://omf.org/resource/mrt-18-3-dec-2023-one-people-uniting-in-gods-mission/

A long-from article that investigates the significance of the variants of “every, tribe, language, people, and nation” in Revelation, linking them with the antecedents in the Old Testament (and, by implication, the gospel equivalents — all nations, all the earth, all creation). God’s desire for (a representative of) people from all nations to shift from Babylon to New Jerusalem has significant missions implications — which I summarise as the act of co-creating new creation in-Christ. The article starts in Revelation with the ultimate formation of a people from all nations, then considers new creation from all nations, and highlights the challenges of co-creation with all nations (touching on issues of racism and colonisation, etc).

Subtitle: Benefits of the emancipation of Indigenous theologies in light of the emergence of World Christianity

An editorial and article published in CMS UK’s ANVIL Journal Vol 39 No. 1, May 2023. Clicking the image will download only my contribution. The full journal can be downloaded here: https://churchmissionsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Church_Mission_Society_Anvil_Volume_39_Issue_1.pdf

In the long-form article I consider the rise of World Christianity (as a reality and a discipline) alongside increasing globalisation and note a correlated rise in confidence among Indigenous believers in Jesus (aka Christians in the Majority World, Global South, Developing World, etc.). Post-colonial realities and increased cultural and religious pluralism have created space for theologians from ‘younger’ churches to find their voice. Leveraging the metaphor of clarity (seeing clearly) I argue that listening to these new voices is a pathway to deeper maturity in Christ.

A paper presented at the WEA Mission Commission Online Conference, April 8 2022 (via Zoom).

In this paper I once more addresses the need for unity in the Body of Christ, and explain my Indigenous and Industrial  ‘schema’ as a way to view differing ways of knowing and interacting with the world and the need for the global Church and missions to learn to counterpoint the differences. I argue that it is as we sit in the tensions of counterpointed difference that we grow into the full maturity that James and the other Apostles present as the core purpose of Christ’s body, the Church, in its local, national, and global manifestations. It is by our reconciled interrelational harmony that world will believe and know that the Father lovingly sent the Son (per John 17). But, in order to develop true harmony (or maturity), we need to create space for the Indigenous voice to be heard in counterpoint to the dominant Industrial voice.

A seminar presented to Global Connections UK February 14th, 2022 (via Zoom).

This seminar provides a thumbnail sketch overview of some of the issues arising from my exploration of two global epistemic domains: Indigenous and Industrial, and the significance of these schema to the current state of Evangelical world missions. The title is not meant to suggest that the future of missions will ‘only’ experience changes around the issues of indigeneity, but, since historic evidence shows that world Christianity spreads as indigenous faith, I believe the future of missions will be significantly influenced by centring the local and allowing indigenous values to guide the practice of missions forward into a healthier intercultural experience. other articles listed below, particularly Centring The Local, develop these concepts also, but in slightly different ways.

A lecture originally presented to MA Students at CMS UK’s Pioneer Mission Training on November 2, 2021

This lecture provides something of a personal approach to some issues around an indigenous Christian approach to the environment. Videos concerning environmental change and water care issues, featuring members of the indigenous tribe that I belong to were edited and leveraged as talking points for the lecture. Links to the full-length videos are provided in this article. Taking the time to view the powerful first-hand accounts will ensure that my commentary and reflections make sense in context. The lecture weaves a narrative around the videos, focusing on the significance of space, spirituality and sharing from an indigenous perspective for an integrated (or wholistic) approach to environmental concerns, and touches on some pertinent theological issues that arise.

A paper originally presented at the All Nations Christian College Global Get Together on June 19, 2021

COVID-19 has given the global missions community a great pause for thought and an opportunity for emerging missions thinking to accelerate its influence and lead us into a new way of practicing missions in the era ahead. In this presentation, I articulate how a reorientation of our Biblical understanding of missions can help reframe our practice of missions. I anchor my thoughts on John 17:18-26, a passage that I call The Great Commitment. From here, I argue that our loving unity, integrated into God in-Christ, is the only strategy for our participation in the mission of God that Jesus ever gave. It is by this that the world will believe and know that the Father lovingly sent the Son, and by this the Father is glorified.

A podcast interview with Forrest Inslee of the Circlewood earthcare network in the USA. Recorded over 2 hours prior to Easter, the reduced 40minute version was formally released on May 24, 2021.

In this episode, I talk with Forrest about my perspective of Creation Care, its associated indigenous theology and the implications for missions. The podcast creators introduce me as “known for bringing unconventional thinking to his work—perspectives that confront status quo assumptions, and call into question what he calls the “industrial ethics” that cause us to be separated from the earth, and from one another. From his grounding in indigenous Maori culture, he offers thought-provoking insights that “cut new grooves of understanding” about how we might live differently with our ecologies.”

A talk originally prepared for the Botany Elim Men’s Group series, “The Faith of Our Fathers” – May 17, 2021.

In Evangelical Christian circles, particularly those dominated by Western perspectives of the faith, our personal heritage does not tend to feature significantly in our understanding and practice of faith in Jesus Christ. We can misinterpret the promise that we are ‘new creations’ in Christ, that the old is gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17), even when we experience evidence to the contrary. It helps to understand that that piece Scripture refers to our relationships with one another, not our relationship with ourselves. In this talk, I explore the implications of our genetic heritage on our identity in Christ, our ‘best contributions’ to the Body of Christ, and the unique blessing we can be to the world around us.

A presentation prepared for Wycliffe Global Alliance/SIL Asia-Pacific’s “Together in Christ 2021” Conference – January 19, 2021.
This presentation is also available to view on YouTube.

In this article I call on the global missions community to prioritise the local, the host recipients of the gospel. Rather than ‘decentring’ the influence of the outsider, I encourage centring: an empathetic appreciation of the insider’s perspective in cross-cultural missions relationships. I argue that the grace of God is experienced differently among different groups of people so that the particular or local experience can be shared as blessing to the universal or global body of Christ. Loving interaction in our integrated relationships in-Christ is a means to both the maturing of the saints and a witness to the world, so they will believe and know.

Neste artigo, faço um chamado à comunidade global de missões para priorizar o local, os receptores hospedeiros do evangelho. Em vez de ‘descentralizar’ a influência do estrangeiro, incentivo a centralização: uma apreciação empática da perspectiva do interno nos relacionamentos de missões transculturais. Argumento que a graça de Deus é vivenciada de maneira diferente entre diversos grupos de pessoas, de modo que a experiência específica ou local possa ser compartilhada como bênção para o corpo universal ou global de Cristo. A interação amorosa em nossos relacionamentos integrados em Cristo é um meio tanto para o amadurecimento dos santos quanto para testemunhar ao mundo, para que eles possam crer e saber.

A paper presented at the Asia Missions Association Convention, Chiang Mai Thailand – November 14 2019.

Here I borrow from Charles Taylor’s philosophy that speaks of our era as an Age of Authenticity. In addition, I introduce Christian Welzel’s analysis of World Values Survey data that tracks social development in three phases culminating in the knowledge economy. Together, these hypotheses present a compelling picture of the values that increasingly inform globalisation even while the values of an old order continue to hold sway. I identify four issues that arise from an Age of Authenticity and then proposes a new imaginary (narrative) for missions, loosely drawing on the experience of the refugee.

An article published in Mission Interlink’s September 2019 BULLETIN following a conversation involving 25 missions leaders from Aotearoa New Zealand at Carey Theological College regarding the future of missions.

Here I seek to add to a global conversation on the future of missions by reflecting on colonial-oriented motivations for missions in the past and suggesting that the future of missions beyond 2020 lay in a more communal orientation. Furthermore, if this motivation is to take hold, it needs to be passed on to the next generation.

A lecture presented at the Fairfield Conference on Ethical and Fair Trade, Auckland University of Technology Campus – March 9, 2019.

Here I present the roots of Indigenous ethics in relationship to the roots of Industrial ethics that guides global trade and, at best, provides parameters for ethical trade. I highlight spirituality and a belief in ‘life-force’ as core to an Indigenous ethic, with a deep sense of relationship enhancement as a resultant priority. Whereas the concept utility as a priority for the Industrial ethic is as good as a materialist construct can get.

A paper presented at Carey Baptist Graduate School’s Research Conference, in Penrose Auckland on September 20 2018.

Here I posit that the Evangelical church is struggling to remain relevant in the Western hemisphere because Evangelical theology is so closely aligned to, and defined by, rationalism. Setting the industrial/individualist West in one knowledge domain, I propose a way forward from an indigenous/collectivist domain. I introduce whanaungatanga as an interpretive lens that can reveal fresh understanding of our relationships with God, each other, creation and history.

A lecture revised for the Good Governance Conference on August 11, 2018. This was a day-conference for ministry and missions leaders and boards.

Here I unpack an indigenous Māori perspective, ‘kaitakianga’ (guardianship), which views governance as a responsibility to guide (steer), guard and nurture the resources available to an entity, ensuring that the resources and the environment in which they are found flourish. for a guardian/leader,
maintaining relational harmony or balance becomes an overriding priority

A seminar presented at Laidlaw College’s Intercultural Church Conference – May 12, 2018.

Subtitle: “How James 1:2-3 can help fulfil John 17:20-23, by applying kaupapa Maori to help culturally diverse groups work through differences and witness to the world”.

A lecture presented at Otago Polytechnic, Auckland International Campus – September 29, 2017.

Here I unpack an indigenous perspective, kaitakianga, which views governance as a responsibility to guide (steer), guard and nurture the resources available to an entity, ensuring that the resources and the environment in which they are found flourish.

Based loosely on the Engels Scale of conversion to Christianity, this article proposes a scale of involvement in cross-cultural ministry to guide those seeking to motivate believers to become engaged in propogating the gospel around the world as God leads them.

Jay’s doctoral thesis: “Mutuality Of Belonging: Toward Harmonizing Culturally Diverse Missions Groups”

The research explicates relationship attributes drawn from life-story narrative interviews with Māori Christians as a Collectivist perspective. Individualist relationship assumptions evident in the missions community are identified from an analysis of post-1990 missions literature that specifically references culturally diverse relationships in the missions community. These attributes and assumptions are then counterpointed to show how each can enhance the other in missions groups.