Abstract
General works
Through selections from his speeches, homilies, and other writings, this work presents Pope Francis’s vision of mission. It shows how the central themes of his papacy are integrated around the theme of mission and how he seeks to move the whole church forward in a missionary direction not simply developing the church’s thinking on mission.
Four experienced missiologists draw upon biblical narratives to highlight key roles played by those outside established Jewish/Christian religious tradition in the service of God’s mission. The authors apply the missiological insights gleaned from the biblical accounts to contemporary issues such as global migration crises and interreligious strife.
The debate surrounding the relationship between word and deed, or evangelism and social action, remains a significant issue within evangelical missiology. Martin Salter seeks to address one aspect of that debate—namely, the missional significance of ethics—by conducting detailed exegesis of key biblical texts. He argues that biblical ethics is neither entirely separate from, nor merely preparatory for, mission—rather, it is an integral part of the church’s mission. Salter’s study concludes by offering a definition of missional ethics.
Biographies
This volume provides insights into the life and missiology of Alan Tippett, arguably one of the leading missiologists of the 20th century. Through his prolific writing, poignant observations, and powerful insights he significantly influenced mission research and activity from the 1960s through to the 1980s. This was particularly facilitated through his research, writing, and teaching at the Institute of Church Growth, Fuller Theological Seminary School of World Mission, and his inaugural editorship of the American Society of Missiology’s journal, Missiology: An International Review.
Church renewal
New expressions of church that are proliferating among Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, and other non-Christian religious communities, including so-called insider movements, have raised intense discussion in missiological circles. In this text the authors address these issues by exploring how all Christian movements have been and are engaged in a “reverse hermeneutic,” where the gospel is read and interpreted through existing cultural and religious norms. The authors draw on the growing social-scientific work on emergent theory—the concept that social communities arise over time in ways that reflect specific historical and cultural dynamics. They illustrate emergent theory through historical and contemporary case studies and consider the church’s contextualized nature by exploring biblical models of the church, worship practices as emergent, and ecclesial markers that identify emerging churches and their distinctive witness.
Congregational decline continues across all mainline denominations. The abandonment of the church by the millennial generation is ubiquitous; no denomination is escaping it. This is, in part, a consequence of disconnection from our communities. Van Tatenhove and Mueller believe that, parish by parish, the church can reverse this trend. Drawing on their combined sixty years of parish experience, wisdom from Asset-Based Community Development, and compelling case studies, the authors provide practical tools that anchor churches in their neighborhoods, lead to communal conversion, develop the DNA of listening, spur fruitful partnerships, promote integrated space, and sustain long-term visions.
Communication
Ethno-musicologist and missionary-scholar, Roberta King, draws on a lifetime of study and firsthand mission experience to show how witness through contextualized global arts can dynamically reveal Christ to all peoples. King offers the global church biblical foundations, historical pathways, theoretical frameworks, and effective practices for communicating Christ through the arts in diverse contexts. Supplemented with stories, illustrations, and discussion questions, this text offers approaches essential for doing mission in transformative ways through the arts.
History
Christianity is not becoming a global religion. It has always been a global religion. The early Christian movement spread from Jerusalem in every direction, taking on local cultural expression all around the ancient world. So why do so many people see Christianity as a primarily Western, white religion? This text surveys the geographic range of the early church’s history, revealing an alternate, more accurate narrative to that of Christianity as a product of the Western world. The author begins by investigating the historical roots of the Western cultural captivity of the church, from the conversion of Constantine to the rise of European Christian empires. He then shifts focus to the too-often-forgotten concurrent development of diverse expressions of Christianity across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. The author focuses on the necessity for contextualization and indigenous leadership in effective Christian mission and draws out practical lessons for intercultural communication of the gospel.
In this single volume, Edward Smither weaves together a comprehensive history of Christian mission from the apostles to the modern church. In each era, he focuses on the people sent by God to the ends of the earth, while also describing the cultural context they encountered. Smither highlights the continuity and development across thousands of years of global mission.
Methods
This book is for church planters laboring and struggling, seeing little movement, and wondering what they’re doing wrong or why God is failing them. It’s also for mother churches, planting organizations, and denominations, as a challenge to rethink and recalibrate the way they approach and measure planting endeavors.
Patronage governs many relationships in Majority World cultures. But regrettably, Western theologians and missionaries rarely notice this prominent cultural reality. Patronage—a reciprocal relationship between social unequals—is a central part of global cultures and the biblical story of God’s mission. The author brings his ministry experience and biblical insights to bear on the topic of patronage with sections on cultural issues, biblical models, theological concepts, and missional implications.
This text is a guide to accompany current and prospective church planters. Theologically grounded while remaining practically oriented, it combines biblical patterns and practice to equip church planters to develop their own holistic planting plans. Written by a diverse team of scholar-practitioners who have planted churches in a variety of contexts, cultures, and church traditions, this book provides a tested roadmap for church planting.
Religions
Theological issues are crucial to how Christians and Muslims understand and perceive each other. Martin Accad guides readers through key theological questions that fuel conflict and misunderstanding between Muslims and Christians. Accad identifies trends, historical realities, and brings to light significant points of contention that often lead to breakdown in Christian–Muslim dialogue. He also outlines positive and creative trends
Social sciences
This concise yet solid introduction to cultural anthropology assists readers exploring and understanding this crucial issue from a Christian perspective. Now revised and updated, this new edition covers standard cultural anthropology topics with special attention given to cultural relativism, evolution, and missions. It also includes a new chapter on medical anthropology. Figures, photos, and sidebars are sprinkled throughout the text, and updated ancillary support materials and teaching aids are available through Baker Academic’s Textbook eSources.
Spirituality and worship
In this introduction to the nature of the local church, set in the context of Christian history and global diversity, historian and missionary Scott Sunquist clarifies the two primary purposes of the church—worship and witness. With stories and insights from experiences in churches around the world, this book explores cultural contextualization, the meaning of conversion, worship in both personal and communal aspects, and how mission combines telling the good news with being good news as a community.
Theology
This text on a pastoral theology of ministry for pastors, church leaders, and students articulates a biblical model for shepherding God’s people. Written by a psychologist and seminary professor who has served as a pastor for more than two decades, the book covers twelve major areas of pastoral ministry and focuses on the personal and family life of the pastor. It includes cross-cultural perspectives of special interest in our diverse world
Jesus is present here and now, Christians have always affirmed. But how are we to understand his present activity in a challenging, post-Christian context? In what ways is God at work in our congregational worship, pastoral care, preaching—and even our board meetings? At a time when many feel uncertain about the future of the church, this text brings together leading thinkers in pastoral theology, homiletics, liturgical theology, and missiology in a resource for pastors and theologians. Emphasizing the reality of Jesus both as the resurrected, ascended Christ and as present and active today, the contributors consider how to recognize the divine presence and join in what God is already doing in all areas of church ministry.
Bringing Pentecostal theology into the Bible and mission conversation, Amos Yong identifies the role of the divine spirit in God’s mission to redeem the world. As he works through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, Yong emphasizes the global missiological imperative: “People of all nations reaching out to people of all nations.” Sidebars include voices from around the globe who assist the author in putting the biblical text into conversation with 21st-century questions.
Africa
Amidst a catastrophic civil war that began in 1983 and ended in 2005, many Dinka people in Sudan repudiated their inherited religious beliefs and embraced a vibrant Anglican faith. This text chronicles the emergence of this grassroots religious movement, arguing that Christianity offered the Dinka new resources that allowed them to cope with a rapidly changing world and provided answers to the spiritual questions that war raised.
Americas
Throughout the history of the Christian church, two narratives have constantly clashed: the imperial logic of Babel that builds towers and borders to seize control, versus the logic of Pentecost that empowers “glocal” missionaries of the kingdom life. Oscar García-Johnson explores a new grammar for the study of theology and mission in global Christianity, especially in Latin America and the Latinx “third spaces” in North America. With an interdisciplinary, “transoccidental,” and narrative approach, this text offers a constructive theology of mission for the church in global contexts. Building on the familiar missiological metaphor of “outside the gate” established by Orlando Costas, García-Johnson moves to recover important elements in ancestral traditions of the Americas, with an eye to discerning pneumatological continuity between the pre-Columbian and post-Columbian communities. He calls for a “rerouting of theology”—a realization that theology cannot make its home in Christendom but is a global creation that must come home to a church without borders. The author presents a pneumatological missiology that can help the church act as a witness to the gospel message in a postmodern, postcolonial, and post-Christendom world.