Dr Peter McDowell
BEng, BD, PhD (QUB)
Lecturer in Missiology
Peter joined the lecturing team in January 2018. Peter is an Ordained Minister in the Presbyterian Church and has served in Church settings in Limerick and Belfast. Originally trained as an engineer Peter found himself serving in missions in Nepal before returning to Belfast to study theology and then complete his PhD focussing on Missiology and emerging views of mission. Peter and his family live in Belfast.
Undergraduate
Personal Development & Discipleship I
Foundations for Contemporary Mission
Mission in Context and Culture
Church in Practice
Dissertation
Postgraduate
Contemporary Trends in Church and Mission
Identity and Spiritual Formation
Workplace Theology
College Courses
Peter’s research interests are primarily in the area of missional theory and practice in contemporary culture. Within the context of Ireland questions of division and reconciliation are of special significance.
Articles
McDowell, P. (2006) ‘Early Church History in Nepal’, Dharma Deepika: A South Indian Journal of Missiological Research, 10(24), pp. 69–76.
Books
McDowell, P. (2012) At Home in Exile: The Journey Toward A New Paradigm. Belfast: Contemporary Christianity.
Peter has served in Nepal for a total of six years: as an engineer, team leader of a group of expatriate missionaries, and as coordinator of the United Mission to Nepal’s language and orientation programme for new expatriate missionaries.
He then served as minster of Christ Church Limerick, a united Presbyterian/Methodist congregation, with a multi-ethnic membership of approximately 20 different nationalities. Following this he was minister of Garnerville Presbyterian church where much of the ministry was focussed in two Loyalist estates in east Belfast.
He worked for two years as a Good Relations Officer for the Irish Churches Peace Project (ICPP). This was an EU funded project with the aim of stimulating church communities in Northern Ireland to foster good relations and to build peace at a local level.
Before joining the staff of the College he worked as Mission Support Officer (Partnerships) for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI). In this role he was responsible for grants to congregations in Ireland and to global partners for missional projects and for scholarships to leaders in global partner churches. He was also part of the management of some local PCI projects and involved in the development of PCI’s strategy for local and global mission.