12th September | 6:30pm-8:30pm
Leonard Buck Lecture: Hope, Climate Anxiety, and the Mission of God
How does the Bible’s message of hope address climate anxiety and existential fear? This lecture explores how the church can offer genuine hope and renewal in our anxious, changing world.
![Hope, Climate Anxiety, and the Mission of God](https://www.mst.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/hope-lbl24-2-web.jpg)
In-person and Online
![Ribbon](https://www.mst.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/ribbon-blue-17wide.png)
When: Thursday 12th September 2024 | 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Where: Melbourne School of Theology | 5 Burwood Hwy Wantirna VIC 3152
We live in a time of widespread anxiety and fear, especially concerning the changing climate and the future of our planet. Studies show that climate anxiety is particularly strong among younger people, some of whom even question whether they should bring children into a collapsing world. How does the Bible’s message of hope address this existential anxiety and hopelessness? And how does the church engage in a mission that offers genuine hope to a fearful world?
This lecture explores the intersection between climate anxiety, hope, and the mission of God. It demonstrates that God’s mission in the world is fundamentally a mission of hope, one that is vast enough to embrace both God’s creation and humanity. Biblical hope is not only about our future destiny but also about how we embody the good news in the present. We will specifically consider how the church, in its mission, can truly listen to the anxieties of those who fear for the planet’s future and how we can become agents of hope and renewal in these unstable times, through our words and actions.
![Dean Flemming](https://www.mst.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/dean-flemming-733x1080.jpg)
Meet the speaker
Dean Flemming is an award-winning author, Bible teacher, and seminar speaker. He is Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Mission at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, KS and Professor of New Testament at the Missional Training Center in Phoenix, AZ, USA. He served for 24 years as a theological educator in the Philippines and Germany and has taught in many global settings.
Dean received a Ph.D. in New Testament Exegesis at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. He is the author of six books, including Contextualization in the New Testament, which won a Christianity Today book award, and a commentary on Philippians that received the Smith-Wynkoop book award. He writes especially on the connection between the New Testament and mission. His latest book is Foretaste of the Future: Reading Revelation in Light of God’s Mission.
Dr. Flemming also has written numerous scholarly and popular articles and book chapters, and he enjoys doing podcast interviews and speaking in various church venues. He is an ordained minister in the Church of the Nazarene and has pastored churches in Ohio and Japan. He enjoys hiking, travelling, and reading novels.