Abstract
Bertil Ekstrom analyzes the modern missional movement with this probing question, “What does it mean today to be a church totally committed to the gospel and fully engage in God’s mission?” (p. xvii). In order to accomplish his objective from a variety of viewpoints, Ekstrom brings authors together from all over the world, especially from the majority world leaders in the South (Latin America and Africa). Bertil Ekstrom is a Swedish author who immersed himself for many years in Brazilian culture. He was the leader of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Mission Commission at the time he led this project (p. xiii).
The intensity of this compilation builds around Chapter 10 with the editor’s own contribution on the Apostle Paul’s ecclesial missiology (p. 95). Rose Dowsett attempted to unify Christians across denominational divides, “Those who declare by life and lip that ‘Jesus is Lord’ already bear witness to the truth that the king has come, and that they are citizens of heaven” (p. 105). She linked the importance of eschatological Scriptures as fuel for the Church’s mission, especially referencing Matthew 24:14 (p. 106). One of Bertil’s authors warns of a potential extreme of being a church-centric movement, “I am arguing for a robust understanding of the scope of mission: a missional church should not just be concerned with local contexts and neighborhoods, but it should reflect a church that looks out to the ‘ends of the earth’” (p. 123). He proposes that global ministry should not be neglected while attending to local ministry.
Bertil’s personal chapters are weighty and most of his invited contributors do an outstanding job. A few chapters were strong testimonies of God’s work but needed more focused details to serve as good case studies. Unfortunately, one author critiqued others to make his point instead of sharing more details about God’s work in his ministry (p. 161). However, this was only one small part of thirty-three chapters on aspects of missional ministry in the Church.
This book’s unique contribution is providing a solid foundation of missional theology and practice around the world. Additionally, the appendix which lists all of the mission commission books of the WEA in chronological order shows a progression of resources from around the globe. The structure of this widely-represented work reminds me of Rose Dowsett’s (2012) compilation entitled, Global Mission: Reflections and Case Studies in Contextualization for the Whole Church, another helpful reference for those who are preparing for cross-cultural ministry.