The Symphony Of Mission

This book argues that God's mission is broad and that all of us can live with missional intentionality by understanding the many facets of missions and focusing on a particular calling. Just like different instruments of a symphony harmonize together, each aspect of human participation in mission--evangelism, justice initiatives, poverty alleviation, faithful work in the marketplace, art--helps us play our part in God's work in the world. Combining expertise from a mission scholar and a working pastor, the book includes practical examples and tools to help readers imagine their part in God's mission.

There is a growing body of literature about the missional church, but the word missional is often defined in competing ways with little attempt to ground it deeply in Scripture. Michael Goheen, a dynamic speaker and the coauthor of two popular texts on the biblical narrative, unpacks the missional identity of the church by tracing the role God's people are called to play in the biblical story. Goheen shows that the church's identity can be understood only when its role is articulated in the context of the whole biblical story--not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. He also explores practical outworkings and implications, offering field-tested suggestions for contemporary churches.

This is no ordinary missions book. The theme isn't new, but the approach is refreshing and compelling, as contributors David Platt, Louie Giglio, Michael Ramsden, Ed Stetzer, Michael Oh, David Mathis, and John Piper take up the mantle of the Great Commission and its Spirit-powered completion. From astronomy to exegesis, from apologetics to the Global South, from being missional at home to employing our resources in the global cause, Finish the Mission aims to breathe fresh missionary fire into a new generation, as together we seek to reach the unreached and engage the unengaged.

World missions 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 missions 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 missions from the perspective of the sufficiency of Scripture. Altogether, this book aims to reform missions to be thoroughlyâ€"not just foundationallyâ€"biblical, a needed correction even among the sincerest missionaries.

Today's nonprofit organizations face an environment characterized by higher levels of competition for funding, clients and audiences, talent, and recognition. In addition, they confront greater pressures from donors, government, and the public to demonstrate efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and accountability, while intense social needs and problems, as well as the desire for growth, drive them to expand their programs and activities. Collectively, these challenges go to the heart of fundamental issues of mission and strategy. Integrating Mission and Strategy for Nonprofit Organizations applies and adapts the core body of general management knowledge about mission, strategy, and execution to help nonprofit leaders deal with the special challenges they face. It strives to draw on this knowledge in a way that does not dilute or oversimplify, and at the same time recognizes the unique features of the nonprofit or voluntary sector. James A. Phills develops an action-oriented framework that combines rigorous analysis with the practical challenge of execution and change. In addition to helping nonprofit leaders think through important decisions and make concrete choices, the book also provides a shared language and a discipline that can serve as the basis for more productive discussions between the individuals who lead nonprofits, the business executives who serve on their boards, and the philanthropists who support their organizations and programs. This last objective is critical, because too often nonprofit leaders and board members complain that they can't reap the benefits of the expertise of their supporters, funders, and volunteers from the business sector. Phills suggests that this is often the result of an inability to speak the same language and draw on a common understanding of key concepts, such as competition, strategy, and vision.

It rises suddenly out of the Sonoran Desert landscape, towering over the tallest tree or cactus, a commanding building with a sensuous dome, elliptical vaults, and sturdy bell towers. There is nothing else like it around, nor does it seem there should be. This incongruity of setting is what strikes first-time visitors to Mission San Xavier del Bac. This great church is of another place and another time, while its beauty is universal and timeless. Mission San Xavier del Bac is a two-century-old Spanish church in southern Arizona located just a few miles from downtown Tucson, a metropolis of more than half a million people in the American Southwest. A National Historic Landmark since 1963, the missionÕs graceful baroque art and architecture have drawn visitors from all over the world. Now Bernard FontanaÑthe leading expert on San XavierÑand award-winning photographer Edward McCain team up to bring us a comprehensive view of the mission as weÕve never seen it before. With 200 stunning full-color photographs and incisive text illuminating the religious, historical, and motivational context of these images, A Gift of Angels is a must-have for tourists, scholars, and other visitors to San Xavier. From its glorious architecture all the way down to the finest details of its art, Mission San Xavier del Bac is indeed a gift of angels.

This comprehensive introduction helps students, pastors, and mission committees understand contemporary Christian mission historically, biblically, and theologically. Scott Sunquist, a respected scholar and teacher of world Christianity, recovers missiological thinking from the early church for the twenty-first century. He traces the mission of the church throughout history in order to address the global church and offers a constructive theology and practice for missionary work today. Sunquist views spirituality as the foundation for all mission involvement, for mission practice springs from spiritual formation. He highlights the Holy Spirit in the work of mission and emphasizes its trinitarian nature. Sunquist explores mission from a primarily theological--rather than sociological--perspective, showing that the whole of Christian theology depends on and feeds into mission. Throughout the book, he presents Christian mission as our participation in the suffering and glory of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the nations.