Nova Research Centre launched

Nova Research Centre, an exciting new initiative for mission in Europe was launched on Thursday 3rd January at Redcliffe College.

Speaking at the launch, Nova's Director Darrell Jackson said, "Two words that sum up Europe today are transition and complexity. Nova Research Centre aims to help mission agencies and churches to make sense of the European context. As our strapline says, we want to research mission in Europe in order to innovate mission in Europe."

The centre will have four key areas of activity:

1. Active field research across the Europe mission field: including visits, partnership with mission societies and research internships.

2. Commissioned research: responding to needs of mission agencies? who want to research but don’t have the capacity or resources themselves.

3. Creation of a missions archive: the stories of mission agencies active in Europe.

4. Mission education: Nova has a unique opportunity to feed into shaping and educating mission partners through input into courses including the twelve-week Mission in Europe short course at Redcliffe College.

Rob Hay, Redcliffe's Director of Research and Partnership Development has been involved in the development of the Nova Research Centre alongside CMS, ECM, OM and the Panahpur Trust.

"The launch of Nova Research Centre is part of a vision that God laid on my heart since coming to Redcliffe about five years ago," Rob said. "We asked people in various mission agencies to tell us about the issues in Europe, what their people are facing and how we can help them prepare better."

"We discovered they too are wrestling with the context, and that nobody was attempting to pull together what is happening at a pan-European level. This started Redcliffe on a journey to help make sense of mission in the European context, of which Nova is an important part."

Speaking on behalf of the partners, Bob Moffett of the Panahpur Trust commented that Nova has the potential to become a 'hub' of excellence, where researchers, academics and mission practitioners can work together and share information, ideas and research.

"We can ask people to use what they are already doing on the field to become part of something bigger," he said. "Already a number of partners are saying 'I want to be part of this' for the sake of the kingdom of God and people working together."

The launch of Nova Research Centre took place during a two-day consultation on the Future of Mission in Europe at Redcliffe College, in partnership with Global Connections and ECM and attended by members of UK and European mission agencies working in Europe.

Posted: 4 January 2008