Abstract
Our world is constantly changing and innovation never stops. Global trends can almost seem to work against God’s mission, yet the gospel itself forces changes and is transformational. Either the Church can view itself only as a community of believers united in worship or they can also see their role as God’s chosen agent for spiritual transformation, promoting justice, and attacking the systemic issues (e.g., sexual abuse, alcoholism, joblessness, family dysfunction, etc.) Derek Seipp explains that the first century was challenging and very complicated with “multi-cultural and multi-religious and hedonistic philosophies that caused persecution of the church back then just as we have today” (p. viii).
The problem that we face in our world is that there are constant changes that are transforming our world. There is an environmental change that is constantly progressing. Society adapts to changes in increments like steps going up a stairway. However, while society catches up to new technologies, there is a strategic drift, a growing gap between innovation and its application. Seipp states that the Church and world missions are often lost in the gap of environmental change (p. 3).
Chapter 2 looks at the driving forces of change in the world, the mega-trends: globalization; technology; economic change; deculturation and reculturation; mobility; and environmental change. Seipp then goes on to address mega-trends in global Christianity, starting with the change in world missions over the past 220 years and then looking to the future. The Church in the world has shifted to the Global South and missions are a global enterprise reflecting this trend. Missions are transnational in leadership and make up.
Chapters 3–6 ask the question of how long can one continue following the same paradigm to do evangelism and discipleship until the diminishing returns force the need to do better research, make necessary adjustments, and adapt to change. Planning for change and evaluating possible scenarios can help visualize and project different future outcomes.
Seipp proposes to develop a culture of innovation in world missions. Ralph Winter, a missionary strategist of the latter part of the 20th century, along with a team of missiologists at Fuller Seminary helped missiology to become a bit more empirical in evaluating the effectiveness of our mission.
From a missiological perspective, the author approaches his subject from a positive, can-change mind-set. He does an excellent job! I have selected this as secondary reading for one of my Intercultural Studies classes at the University of Northwestern. I want my students to embrace changes in technology and mega-trends in order to bring the unchanging Biblical message of the Good News to a waiting world.