Invitation To World Missions

A primary resource introducing missions for the passionate follower of Christ

Christianity Today Book Award of Merit Winner Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year The world has changed. A century ago, Christianity was still primarily centered in North America and Europe. By the dawn of the twenty-first century, Christianity had become a truly global faith, with Christians in Asia, Africa and Latin America outpacing those in the rest of the world. There are now more Christians in China than in all of Europe, more Pentecostals in Brazil than in the United States, and more Anglicans in Kenya than in Great Britain, Canada and the United States combined. Countries that were once destinations for western missionaries are now sending their own missionaries to North America. Given these changes, some think the day of the Western missionary is over. Some are wary that American mission efforts may perpetuate an imperialistic colonialism. Some say that global outreach is best left to indigenous leaders. Others simply feel that resources should be focused on the home front. Is there an ongoing role for the North American church in global mission? Missions specialist Paul Borthwick brings an urgent report on how the Western church can best continue in global mission. He provides a current analysis of the state of the world and how Majority World leaders perceive North American Christians' place. Borthwick offers concrete advice for how Western Christians can be involved without being paternalistic or creating dependency. Using their human and material resources with wise and strategic stewardship, North Americans can join forces with the Majority World in new, interdependent ways to answer God?s call to global involvement. In this critical age, the global body of Christ needs one another more than ever. Discover how the Western church can contribute to a new era of mission marked by mutuality, reciprocity and humility.

Various ministry approaches have been utilized in Muslim nations in the past in order to lead lost souls into God's Kingdom. One noticeable trend in recent years in the ministry is an increasing emphasis on contextualization. While the evangelical missiological community searches for more effective contextualization models, some ad hoc proposals have complicated the issue. One representative case is the Insider Movement among Muslims, whose advocates contend that Muslim followers of Isa (Jesus) can remain within their own Islamic socio-religious community while continuing in Islamic religious practices. What is urgently needed in the contemporary discussion on contextualization is to develop a comprehensive analytical framework based on a sound biblical-theological foundation for evaluating any missiological model. After reviewing the historical development of Muslim evangelism models, this study provides such an analytical framework for developing a healthier contextualization model among Muslims and applies this framework to the Insider Movement by critically evaluating the biblical interpretations and missiological reasonings of the Insider Movement advocates. The writer calls for a healthier contextualization model among Muslims that is biblically authentic and culturally relevant.

Reflecting thorough scholarship and decades of ministry experience, Robin Hadaway’s A Survey of World Missions examines the biblical, theological, and historical foundations of missions, as well as issues of culture and worldview, contextualization, philosophy, and mission strategy. The book is designed to assist pastors, students, missionaries, and theologians in developing sound theory and praxis for both the international and North American mission field. Through his use of field illustrations and key questions, Hadaway achieves a conversational tone, making this textbook ideal for use in both academic and lay settings.

Modern missional movements have often viewed the historic Christian traditions with suspicion. The old traditions may be beautiful, the thinking goes, but they’re too insular, focused primarily on worship and on the interior life of the church, and not looking outward to evangelism and good works. In Liturgical Mission, Winfield Bevins argues that the church's liturgy and sacramental life are in fact deeply missional. He explores the historic practices of the Christian church, demonstrating how they offer a holistic framework for everyday Christian discipleship and mission in the twenty-first century. The result is a book that not only invites all Christians back to the historic liturgy of the church, but also invites those already in liturgical churches to rediscover the missional life that has too often remained latent in their own traditions.

Leading evangelical mission experts offer a comprehensive theology of mission text, providing biblical, historical, and contemporary perspectives.

Best Texts of Missiology, Hearts and Minds Bookstore Mission--a driving force in the long Christian story--today is often cast as the embarrassing relative of tall-steeple religiosity. In our wider culture it's now tucked in the endnotes of book-club histories or forms the ghostlike ellipses in the six o'clock news. But in Introducing Christian Mission Today, Michael Goheen brings the vibrant history, motivation and challenges of Christian mission to the fore. Through the centuries Christian mission has always been recalibrating, retooling and reevangelizing. It has repeatedly taken surprising turns as it is carried along by the Spirit of God. Goheen's introduction to mission's biblical, theological and historical dimensions engages the present and anticipates the future. As he unfolds the major issues of the global and urban, the pluralistic and wholistic contexts of mission today, he lays the ground for engaging in God's great kingdom enterprise. This full-scale text incorporates the keen missional insights of Lesslie Newbigin, David Bosch and other formative thinkers. It will be a valued resource not only for those in crosscultural contexts but also for those engaged in reevangelizing the West.

World mission needs a fully biblical ethos. This is the contention of the editors of and contributors to World Mission, a series of essays aimed at reforming popular approaches to missions. In the first set of essays, contributors develop a biblical theology of world mission from both the Old and New Testaments, arguing that the theology of each must stand in the foreground of missions, not recede into the background. In the second, they unfold the Great Commission in sequence, detailing how it determines the biblical strategy of all mission enterprises. Finally, they treat current issues in world mission from the perspective of the sufficiency of Scripture. Altogether, this book aims to reform missions to be thoroughly-not just foundationally-biblical, a needed correction even among the sincerest missionaries.