The Lausanne Leadership Development Network hosted a webinar with Dr Gregg A. Okesson, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky. It is based around the themes mentioned in his book: Public Missiology: How Local Churches Witness to a Complex World, with space for questions and comments.
Dr Okesson is an engaging and Holy Spirit– led speaker on the topic of public missiology. Drawing from both academic research as well as practical insights from international experience, the webinar will seek to define public leadership, public witness, what constitutes ‘thick’ public story and ‘thick’ witness and how to continue to lead in the complex context we find ourselves in.
Hosts
Dr Gregg A. Okesson
Dr Gregg A. Okesson received a B.A. from Wheaton College (Psychology and Bible), an M.A. from Wheaton Graduate School (Biblical Studies), an M.A. from Wheaton Graduate School (Intercultural Studies), and a PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from University of Leeds, UK (African Christianity). Before coming to Asbury in 2011, Dr Okesson was a faculty member at Scott Christian University, Kenya, East Africa for 10 years where he served as Deputy Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and a lecturer in theology. Prior to this, he was a pastor in upstate New York, worked in Student Development at Wheaton College, and was a church-planter amongst a Muslim people-group in north-central Tanzania. Dr Okesson and his family lived in East Africa for 13 years.
Dr Okesson has authored numerous articles and serves on the editorial committee for the Africa Journal of Evangelical Theology and the Africa Study Bible. He is the author of Re-Imaging Modernity (Wipf & Stock, 2012) and co-author of Advocating for Justice (Baker Academic, 2016). He is also the author of A Public Missiology: How Local Churches Witness to a Complex World (2020), winner of the Christianity Today 2021 book award. He is a Board of Trustees member of the Baltic Methodist Seminary in Estonia. Dr Okesson is married to Kimberly Okesson and they have two young adult children.
Dr Asia Williamson
Dr Asia Williamson is a graduate of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Public Leadership and the director of the M.A. program in Public Service Leadership in the UK. In 2005 Asia and her husband Mark founded One Rock International (www.onerockinternational.com), an organization that provides spiritual formation, leadership and mentoring for young generations in the marketplace. Alongside her work with One Rock, Asia is a lecturer in theology and leadership both in the UK and the USA. She serves as the Leadership Development Catalyst for the Lausanne Movement, sits on the executive team for Young Generations at Lausanne and helps with intergenerational work among the Lausanne Issue Network groups. Asia is the CWR Asia Director, envisioning and leading the work of the non-profit registered in Singapore and founded by Selwyn Hugh, the author of the daily devotional Every Day With Jesus. She has authored two biographies and is currently working on her third book.