Mission Research
&
Archives
OMF Mission Research publishes the Mission Round Table journal, organizes a mission research consultation every three years, interacts with field and sending centers about important missiological issues, networks with worldwide archives.
If you have questions for the Mission Research Department, please submit them using the contact form below.
Collecting our past today, preserving it for tomorrow
Mission Round Table
The OMF journal for Reflective Practitioners
Mission Round Table focuses on contemporary mission in Asia viewed from the perspective of reflective practitioners. Articles are designed to provide biblical, theological, and missiological foundations for thinking about mission and real-life examples that anchor the theory in practice.
Latest Issue
The cover has text added to a cropped image of a wooden cross in the Saharna landscape reserve, Moldova by Botnari Stefan, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
Vol. 15 no. 3 (Sep-Dec 2020)
“Who do you say I am”
The life-changing Confession that Jesus is Christ
The past year has forced us to reexamine many of the things in life we take for granted. When we first heard about a virus affecting the city of Wuhan, we didn’t know how widely it would spread. Neither did we realize how it would impact international travel, commuting to work or school, attending church, going out for meals, and visiting family and friends. The arrival of something previously unknown brought life-changing consequences to many, and life-shattering or life-ending consequences to hundreds of thousands of others. No matter how we feel about it or respond to it, Covid-19 is a life changer.
Though the analogy quickly breaks down, the life of a man who was born just over 2000 years ago similarly forces us to reexamine our lives and our place in the world. Whether we know him as Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, or the Lord Jesus Christ, his teaching ministry and sacrificial death have greatly impacted people worldwide.
This issue of Mission Round Table will take up Jesus’ eternally-important question, “Who do you say I am?” to show that the answer will greatly impact individuals and societies. It will, in fact, cause many—including long-time Christian believers—to reassess their lives, work, and relationships in the light of the Lord of all life
Browse Back Issues
Browse by Topic
OMF Archives
Collecting our past today and preserving it for tomorrow
The materials preserved give insight into the past and provide historical information relating to the growth of Christ’s church in East Asia.
The archives hold many stories of what God has done. Telling the story gives God the glory.
CIM-OMF archive materials are held in various OMF centers as well as the institutions listed below.
Researchers who wish to access materials at the OMF International Center Archives can apply to do so by submitting the contact form below. The form must be received at least one month before a proposed visit.
We welcome donations of materials of historical interest related to CIM/OMF.
If you wish to donate materials, please tell us more about the items by submitting the contact form to our archives.
OMF International Archives, Singapore
The holdings at OMF International Archives include collections of CIM-OMF books, public and internal publications, audio-visual materials produced by CIM-OMF, and microfilm of CIM holdings in the Billy Graham Center. Documents held relate to CIM, most of which are post-1950 relating to the operations of OMF International Headquarters.
OMF UK Archives
The holdings at OMF UK include extensive collections of photos, books, periodicals, prayer letters, maps and other records, some dating from the foundation of CIM, and some relating to mission in China generally, pre-dating CIM. There is also an archive of individual CIM/OMF missionaries’ documents, both paper and electronic. There are also audio-visual materials relating to OMF.
OMF US Archives
The OMF USA archives is composed primarily of books and periodicals relating to the history and work of CIM/OMF in East Asia, as well as information relating to various American missionaries affiliated with the organization; material specific to the US offices (previously located in Pennsylvania); and post-1950s operations and administrative documentation.
Archives of CIM Publications
China Inland Mission published the first edition of its monthly magazine China’s Millions in London in July 1875. Publication of the North American and Australisian editions of China’s Millions began in 1893. Scanned copies of the British and North American editions of China’s Millions (1875-1935) can be downloaded from the Internet Archives and Yale University.
Other CIM publications, including books and reports are also available for download from the Internet Archives.
There are also archive holdings of CIM-OMF materials in:
SOAS Library, Archives & Special Collections, London
Billy Graham Center Archives at Wheaton College, USA
Hong Kong Baptist University Library, Hong Kong
SOAS University of London
The holdings are mainly pre-1950s: CIM-OMF records, including London Council minutes; CIM China Council minutes; James Hudson Taylor papers; personal and private papers of missionaries; records relating to Chefoo Schools; CIM photographs; CIM-OMF publications (directories of missionaries and mission stations, field bulletins, China Millions/East Asia Millions, etc).
Billy Graham Center
The holdings are mainly pre-1950s: correspondence, minutes, directories, newsletters, brochures, photographs, book manuscripts, slides, audio tapes, photo albums, and materials documenting the origins of the CIM North American branch; church planting, evangelistic, medical, educational and literature work in China up to 1951; CIM’s reorganization into OMF.
Hong Kong Baptist University
The holdings are microform materials from SOAS. Its section on Digitization Projects includes a “China Through the Eyes of CIM Missionaries” database that contains 225 lantern slide and glass plate negative images of portraits, landscapes, scenery and architecture in China as well as shots documenting the socio-economic activities of the Chinese from the 1900s to the 1930s.
