Abstract
In this Festschrift, editors Flanders and McKinzie have done an excellent job of capturing the life and ministry of Gailyn Van Rheenen, who served as a Church of Christ missionary with the Kipsigis in the Kenyan Highlands for 15 years. After earning his Doctor of Missiology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he was mentored by Paul Hiebert and David Hesselgrave, he taught at Abilene Christian University, where he published an introductory text titled Missions: Biblical Foundations and Contemporary Strategies (1996/2014) and Communicating Christ in Animistic Contexts (1991). The third phase of his vocation has been as the founder of Mission Alive, a North American church planting organization. These 10 essays reflect the breadth and depth of Van Rheenen’s strategic thinking in missiology and theology, cover topics such as diaspora missiology and contemplative mission, and are illustrated with examples from Africa, Latin and North America.
Beginning with Greg McKinzie’s masterful essay, “Mission between theory and practice,” a dominant theme that runs through the 10 essays and biographical sketch is how Van Rheenen has held together in creative tension missional theory with an incarnational approach to mission practice as he swam against the stream of the dominant western tradition of theological education that too often bifurcates theory from practice. It is clear from these essays that no one could ever accuse Van Rheenen of basking in the leisure of the theory class.
Some of the essays chronicle Van Rheenen’s missiological and theological development over the course of his vocation. For example, from an initial allegiance to the more sectarian Stone-Campbell Movement in the United States, Van Rheenen, over time, became far more ecumenical and inclusive. Earl Lavender’s essay “From missions to missional” reflects this development, noting the change from Van Rheenen’s first edition of Missions: Biblical Foundations and Contemporary Strategies (1996) to his second edition (2014), he states that: Though much information from the first edition is included in the second, Van Rheenen’s basic theology of mission manifests a significant development. The new edition presents an approach to missions that is much more participatory and, in my view, compelling. It reveals a move from missions to missional, from mission as proclamation to mission as participation in God’s mission to redeem all of creation (Missio Dei). (pp. 86–87)
Several essays address a distinctive contribution Van Rheenen has made to missiological theory and mission practice in what he calls the “missional helix” with four component parts—theological reflection, cultural analysis, historical perspective, and strategy formation. He would argue that a faithful missionary continuously cycles through all four components as they engage their contexts in the mission of God over time.
If the purpose of a Festschrift is to honor a person and reflect on the breadth and depth of their scholarly and personal achievements, then Missional Life in Practice and Theory does that admirably well, and I highly recommend it. This excellent book would have benefited from a good index because of the disparate topics and themes throughout the book and throughout Van Rheenen’s missional life.