Missions
Showing 101–150 of 404 results
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Understanding Christian Mission
$38.00Add to cartThis 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.
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Church Planting In The Secular West
$37.99Add to cartAn expert study of church planting in the most secular part of contemporary Europe
In this book Stefan Paas offers thoughtful analysis of reasons and motives for missionary church planting in Europe, and he explores successful and unsuccessful strategies in that post-Christian secularized context.
Drawing in part on his own involvement with planting two churches in the Netherlands, Paas explores confessional motives, growth motives, and innovation motives for church planting in Europe, tracing them back to different traditions and reflecting on them from theological and empirical perspectives. He presents examples from the European context and offers sound advice for improving existing missional practices. Paas also draws out lessons for North America in a chapter coauthored with Darrell Guder and John Franke. Finally, Paas weaves together the various threads in the book with a theological defense of church planting.
Presenting new research as it does, this critical missiological perspective will add significantly to a fuller understanding of church planting in our contemporary context.
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Reading The Bible Missionally
$38.99Add to cartInsights from a noteworthy convergence of top scholars in biblical studies and missiology
Over the past half century, it has become clear that mission is a central theme in the Bible’s narrative and, moreover, is central to the very identity of the church. This book significantly widens and deepens the emerging conversation on missional hermeneutics.
Essays from top biblical and missiological scholars discuss reading the Scriptures missionally, using mission as a key interpretive lens. Five introductory chapters probe various elements of a missional hermeneutic, followed by sections on the Old and New Testaments that include chapters on two books from each to illustrate what a missional reading of them looks like. Essays in two concluding sections draw out the implications of a missional reading of Scripture for preaching and for theological education.
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Polycentric Missiology : 21st Century Mission From Everyone To Everywhere
$26.99Add to cartThe Edinburgh 1910 World Missionary Conference was the most famous missions conference in modern church history. A century later, five conferences on five continents displayed the landscape of global mission at the dawn of the third millennium: Tokyo 2010, Edinburgh 2010, Cape Town 2010, 2010Boston and CLADE V (San Jose, 2012). These five conferences provide a window into the state of world Christianity and contemporary missiology. Missiologist Allen Yeh, the only person to attend all five conferences, chronicles the recent history of world mission through the lenses of these landmark events. He assesses the legacy of Edinburgh 1910 and the development of world Christianity in the following century. Whereas Edinburgh 1910 symbolized Christendom’s mission “from the West to the rest,” the conferences of 2010-2012 demonstrate the new realities of polycentric and polydirectional mission-from everyone to everywhere. Yeh’s accounts of the conferences highlight the crucial missiological issues of our era: evangelism, frontier missions, ecumenism, unengaged and post-Christian populations, reconciliation, postmodernities, contextualization, postcolonialism, migration and more. What emerges is a portrait of a contemporary global Christian mission that encompasses every continent, embodying good news for all nations.
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Training Missionaries : Principles And Possibilities
$25.99Add to cartMissionaries must know God, be able to relate well to other people, understand and engage with another culture, and be able to use the Bible in a way that informs all aspects of their lives and ministries. Missionary training must address each of these areas if it is to help Christians to be effective in taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Effective training has been shown to prevent people from prematurely leaving the field. It also reduces the danger of cross-cultural workers uncritically exporting culturally bound forms of Christianity. This book details four key areas that every missionary training program, whatever its context, must focus on developing. It shows how these can be holistically addressed in a learning community where trainers and trainees engage in cross-cultural ministry together.
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Standing With The Vulnerable
$22.99Add to cartIntroduction
1. Understanding Development
2. Understanding Poverty
3. God’s Compassion For The Poor
4. The Transformation Tree
5. Development And Transformation
6. Harmful Beliefs And Poverty
7. Replacing Harmful Beliefs With God’s Truth
8. Relationships And Transformation
9. The Church And Poverty
10. Reflection And ReviewAdditional Info
The world has needs. Children are orphaned, refugees are displaced and families are devastated by natural disasters. But God is greater than those needs, and he works through his people to accomplish healing and transformation. God calls us to integral mission, obeying both the Great Commission and the Great Commandment in ministering to people’s spiritual, physical, emotional and social well-being. This curriculum from World Relief is designed to mobilize the church to engage the great causes of our day, stand with the vulnerable and meet the needs of our neighbors as Jesus did. These ten sessions show how shaping our fundamental beliefs and values lead to better actions and results. Together we can alleviate poverty, welcome the stranger and transform communities at home and around the world. Join with others in learning how to love God, love your neighbors and put that love into action. -
State Of Missiology Today
$38.99Add to cartThe 2015 Missiology Lectures at Fuller Theological Seminary marked the fiftieth anniversary of the School of Intercultural Studies (formerly School of World Mission). The papers from that conference present a “state of the art” in the field of missiology, drawing on the past and looking ahead to a diverse, global future.
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Crossing Cultures In Scripture
$30.99Add to cartCrosscultural Mission from Eden to Eternity From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible is a crosscultural book. Scripture is filled with narratives of God’s people crossing cultures in pursuit of God’s mission. Biblical texts shed light on mission dynamics: Sarah and Hagar functioning in an honor/shame culture, Moses as a multicultural leader, Ruth as a crosscultural conversion, David and Uriah illustrating power distance, the Queen of Sheba as an international truth-seeker, Daniel as a transnational student, Jesus’ crosscultural encounters as communication across worldviews, Paul in Athens as a model of contextualization, and much more. Missionary and missions professor Marvin Newell provides a biblical theology of culture and mission, mining the depths of Scripture to tease out missiological insights and crosscultural perspectives. Unlike other books that are organized topically, this text is organized canonically, revealing how the whole of Scripture speaks to contemporary mission realities. Comprehensive in scope, filled with biblical insight and missional expertise, this book is an essential resource for students and practitioners of crosscultual ministry and mission.
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DNA Of Pioneer Ministry
$35.99Add to cartSorted is a successful Fresh Expression of church based in Bradford, which has now sent out pioneers using the lessons learnt to begin planting a fresh expression in Thamesmead, London and begin a pioneering project in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Fresh Expressions story has been well-told, but there have been relatively few attempts to relate the experiences and methodologies the author and his team have learnt over 10 years of pioneering Sorted (3 fresh expressions of church), so that pioneers, missionaries and the wider Church may be better equipped and informed when pioneering fresh expressions, mission communities and church plants in a whole range of different contexts. Relevant and timely, this book aims to share these lessons and methodologies using the Sorted story. -
Ministering In Honor Shame Cultures
$32.99Add to cartFailing to understand honor and shame cultures can lead to cross-cultural roadblocks in ministry and relationships for Westerners. Georges and Baker examine the Bible through the lens of honor and shame and join their cross-cultural experience and reflection in this informed exploration and guide to ministry in honor and shame contexts.
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Church As Movement
$30.99Add to cartForeword
Introduction
Prologue
Part I: Distributing
1. Movement Mentality
2. Polycentric LeadershipPart II: Discipleship
3. Being Disciples
4. Making DisciplesPart III: Designing
5. Missional Theology
6. Ecclesial ArchitecturePart IV: Doing
7. Community Formation
8. Incarnational PracticeEpilogue
Additional Info
A training resource to help readers plant missional-incarnational churches, written by leading thinkers and practitioners in the area of church planting and missional living. This book is a thorough, comprehensive manual to help those on the long and challenging journey of church planting to survive and thrive. -
Gaining By Losing
$19.99Add to cartPeople are leaving the church J.D. Greear pastors. Big givers. Key volunteers. Some of his best leaders and friends. And that’s exactly how he wants it to be. When Jesus gave his disciples the Great Commission, he revealed that the key for reaching the world with the gospel is found in sending, not gathering. Though many churches focus time and energy on attracting people and counting numbers, the real mission of the church isn’t how many people you can gather. It’s about training up disciples and then sending them out. The true measure of success for a church should be its sending capacity, not its seating capacity. But there is a cost to this. To see ministry multiply, we must release the seeds God has placed in our hands. And to do that, we must ask ourselves whether we are concerned more with building our kingdom or God’s. In Gaining By Losing, J.D. Greear unpacks ten plumb lines that you can use to reorient your church’s priorities around God’s mission to reach a lost world. The good news is that you don’t need to choose between gathering or sending. Effective churches can, and must, do both.
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Joyful Witness In The Muslim World
$25.00Add to cartThis up-to-date textbook features global perspectives on current Christian engagement with Islam, equipping readers for mission among Muslims. Evelyne Reisacher, who has worked extensively with Muslims in Europe, helps readers move from fear to joy as they share the gospel with Muslims. Reisacher surveys areas where Muslims and Christians encounter one another in the twenty-first century, highlighting innovative models of Christian witness in everyday life. Drawing on insights from global Christianity, this survey takes account of diverse conceptions of Muslim-Christian relations. The book may surprise those who believe mission among Muslims is difficult, challenging, and almost impossible.
This is the first book in the Mission in Global Community series, which reframes missiological themes and studies for students around the common theme of mission as partnership with others. Series authors draw upon their own global experience and that of their global colleagues to illumine present realities and chart a course into the future. Series editors are Scott W. Sunquist and Amos Yong.
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Innovation In World Mission
$12.99Add to cartOur world is changing: mass migrations, the emergence of mega-cities, globalization, travel, and ubiquitous connectivity. How do we make sense
of it all? Innovation in World Mission was written for those who care about being relevant in this chaotic, yet exciting new world. This book explores the categories of mega-changes happening around us, and the impacts they are making, specifically in world mission. It explores how God created us in his image, to be creative and innovative-modern day children of Issachar who understand change and know how to respond. Real-life examples from ministries, non-profits, and businesses are used throughout to help understand how to put these tools into practice. -
Mission In Motion
$26.99Add to cartThis book represents an historic and unprecedented piece of research. The research project took nearly ten years to complete from start to finish. It is not a longitudinal study but rather a snapshot in time, which took far longer to process than it did to take. Nevertheless, the picture that developed was well worth the wait. Our hope is that this work will remain relevant for many years to come and promote much discussion and interest to foster more effective mission involvement.
As confirmation of the contemporary relevance of our project, while we were writing this book two localized studies were undertaken to investigate mission involvement in their contexts. How Australian Missionaries Are Being Called and Choose Mission Agencies (Hibbert, Hibbert, and Silberman, 2015) was researched in Sydney, Australia. Mobilizing More Missionaries: Insights from Surveys of Long-termers and Prospective Missionaries (McVay and Parrott, 2015) was the result of an online survey of 466 long-term missionaries from forty-six agencies undertaken in the United States.
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I Just Saw Jesus
$17.99Add to cartThis miraculous story reveals how JESUS began as one man’s vision and became a record-breaking film shown more than 9 billion times and convincing millions to follow Christ.
Volunteer film teams, missionaries, and pastors risk their lives daily, showing the film in remote tribes and villages, among religions that strictly prohibit Christianity, and even to the world’s most elite and powerful leaders. They have overcome threats, witches’ curses, and deadly diseases. The teams carry compact generators and portable projectors, often traveling by foot or horseback, bush plane or canoe. Their pure, unbridled joy comes from sharing JESUS with those who have not yet seen and heard the gospel.
Brian Deacon, the actor who portrays Jesus, speaks only words taken directly from the Gospel of Luke. As biblically accurate as possible, the JESUS film is taking Jesus to the world’s men, women, and children in their own heart language. Translated into more than 1,400 languages, with more planned, this film is changing the world. JESUS is being seen and heard, and His words are proving as powerful today as they were 2,000 years ago.
The story behind the film that:
Has been seen more than 9 billion times.
Is in the Guinness World Recordsfor most translated film ever.
Results in thirty to fifty thousand indicating a desire to follow Jesus every day. -
Across The Street And Around The World
$16.99Add to cartAcross the Street and Around the World is a practical and approachable guide to missions. Inside the pages of this book are hundreds of ideas to engage you, your family, your small group, or your church in intentional missional ministry. Intended to serve as a springboard, the ideas are carefully organized by the amount of time needed, one hour, one day, one week, or longer, helping you determine which opportunity fits you and your group best. Now there is no reason not to gather your group, pick an idea, and start doing missions.
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Apostolicity : The Ecumenical Question In World Christian Perspective
$40.99Add to cartAbbreviations
1. The Problem Of Apostolicity
2. Apostolicity Under The Horizon Of Schism
3. Culture As The Nature Of Apostolic Continuity
4. Apostolicity And Colonization: A Relationship?
5. Subordinating Apostolicity To The Apostolate
6. Historical Continuity In The Perspective Of World Christianity
7. Jesus Christ, The One Ground Of The Apostle
8. Apostolicity: The Livingness Of The Living Word
Bibliography
Author Index
Subject Index
Scripture IndexAdditional Info
What constitutes the unity of the church over time and across cultures? Can our account of the church’s apostolic faith embrace the cultural diversity of world Christianity? The ecumenical movement that began in the twentieth century posed the problem of the church’s apostolicity in profound new ways. In the attempt to find unity in the midst of the Protestant-Catholic schism, participants in this movement defined the church as a distinct culture-complete with its own structures, rituals, architecture and music. Apostolicity became a matter of cultivating the church’s own (Western) culture. At the same time it became disconnected from mission, and more importantly, from the diverse reality of world Christianity. In this pioneering study, John Flett assesses the state of the conversation about the apostolic nature of the church. He contends that the pursuit of ecumenical unity has come at the expense of dealing responsibly with crosscultural difference. By looking out to the church beyond the West and back to the New Testament, Flett presents a bold account of an apostolicity that embraces plurality. -
Challenging Islamic Traditions
$21.99Add to cartThe Hadith are Islam’s most influential texts after the Qur’an. They outline in detail what the Qur’an often leaves unsaid. The Hadith are a foundation for Islamic law and theology and a key to understanding the worldview of Islam and why many Muslims do the things they do. This book subjects the Hadith to a critical analysis from a biblical perspective. In a scholarly and respectful way, it exposes significant inconsistencies within these ancient documents and highlights potential problems with the Muslim-Christian interface.
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Korean Missionary Movement
$24.99Add to cartThis book provides the most thorough, penetrating analysis of trends in Korean missions to date. Seasoned researcher Steve Sang-Cheol Moon maps the relatively recent rise and explosive growth of the Korean missionary movement, studying the mission force and significant themes in its experience over a twenty-five-year period. These articles and papers supply data on every facet: mission fields and ministry foci; finances; age, marriage, family, and general demographics; training and credentials; burnout and attrition; education of missionary children; leadership trends; and global partnership.
These chapters do not merely catalogue statistics-they probe beneath the surface to ask hard questions and set priorities for Korean missions. Moon explores painful subjects such as the 2007 hostage incident involving short-term workers in Afghanistan, and chronic concerns like workaholism and missionaries’ retirement. Ultimately, however, he finds much to commend and celebrate, tracing God’s providence in making Korea, within the span of a few decades, a dynamic leader in global missions.
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Church In Mission
$26.99Add to cartThe WEA Mission Commission and William Carey Library are pleased to introduce the new volume of the “Globalization of Mission” series, The Church in Mission: Foundations and Global Case Studies. Edited by Dr. Bertil Ekstrom, Executive Director of the WEA MC, the book is the most recent distillation of Evangelical and globally-grounded studies on the local church-people of God. Dr. Ekstrom has led an MC global missiology task force team of reflective practitioners through a 3-year process working in community to present this singular publication gift to the church on and in mission. Some 31 writers from 19 nations have contributed to this resource, demonstrating yet again the Mission Commission’s commitment to listen to the global voice and provide a publishing platform for those voices to be heard.
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Engaging Islamic Traditions
$20.99Add to cartThe Hadith have long been neglected by Christians, yet they may hold the key to reaching Muslims with the good news of Jesus Christ. In this ground-breaking book, the earliest traditions of Islam are assessed from a biblical perspective. Insights into the Islamic worldview and potential springboards to Christian truth are uncovered along the way. For those contextualizing the gospel to Muslim friends and colleagues, this book seeks for concord and connection with Muslim thinking, while maintaining a clear commitment to Jesus Christ and his gospel.
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Kierkegaard : A Christian Missionary To Christians
$24.99Add to cartForeword By Merold Westphal
Introduction
Sigla
1. Kierkegaard: Friend To Christians?
2. Jesus Christ
3. The Human Self
4. Christian Witness
5. The Life Of Christian Love
Conclusion
Suggestions For Further Reading
Subject IndexAdditional Info
Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) had a mission. The church had become weak, flabby and inconsequential. Being a Christian was more a cultural heritage than a spiritual reality. His mission-reintroduce the Christian faith to Christians. How could he break through to people who were members of the church and thought they were Christians already? Like an Old Testament prophet, Kiergegaard used a variety of pointed and dramatic ways to shake people from their slumber. He incisively diagnosed the spiritual ailments of his age and offered a fresh take on classic Christian teaching. Mark Tietjen thinks that Kierkegaard’s critique of his contemporaries strikes close to home today. We also need to listen to one of the most insightful yet complex Christian thinkers of any era. Through an examination of core Christian doctrines-the person of Jesus Christ, human nature, Christian witness and love-Tietjen helps us hear Kierkegaard’s missionary message to a church that often fails to follow Christ with purity of heart. -
Serving A Movement
$18.99Add to cartOur goal as Christians is never simply to build our own tribe. Instead, we seek the peace and prosperity of the city or community in which we live through a gospel movement led by the Holy Spirit, a movement united by the gospel of Jesus Christ, a common mission to reach and serve others, and a commitment to be gracious and generous to those who disagree with you.
In Serving a Movement, best-selling author and pastor Timothy Keller looks at the nature of the church’s mission and its relationship to the work of individual Christians in the world. He examines what it means to be a “missional” church today and how churches can practically equip people for missional living. Churches need to intentionally cultivate an integrative ministry that connects people to God, to one another, to the needs of the city, and to the culture around us. Finally, he highlights the need for intentional movements of churches planting new churches that faithfully proclaim God’s truth and serve their communities.
This new edition contains the third section of Center Church in an easy-to-read format with new reflections and additional essays from Timothy Keller and several other contributors.
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Seeking The Unseen
$24.99Add to cartBuddhism claims no god, yet spiritual realities abound in popular practice. What are these realities? What do they mean to the practitioners? How can understanding these realities inform Christ-followers seeking to communicate the good news of Jesus in ways that all can understand and relate to? In answer to these and other questions, SEANET proudly presents its twelfth volume,
Seeking the Unseen: Spiritual Realities in the Buddhist World. Christian practitioners
from thirteen different Buddhist cultures share insights gained from their wideranging
experiences and perspectives. From Sri Lanka to Japan, from China to the Philippines, these women and men, Asian and Western, present on a topic that is often missing in mission literature today.And for readers seeking personal insight into the growing spiritual complexities of their own place in the postmodern world, lessons from these authors will guide you with practical principles from engaging, firsthand cultural encounters.
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Great Commission Great Compassion
$18.99Add to cartGo and do. Jesus commands it, and the world needs it. Word and deed go together. One without the other is not enough. We follow Jesus into all the world, and we follow his example in all we do. Mission mobilizer Paul Borthwick shows how proclamation and demonstration of the gospel go hand in hand. God gives us the Great Commission, Matthew 28’s call to go wherever Jesus sends us, making disciples and proclaiming good news to all nations. And we become people of his Great Compassion, Matthew 25’s vision for treating others as we would treat Jesus himself, caring for the needy and living justly. Borthwick offers practical ways for us to live out the Great Commission and Great Compassion in every sphere of our lives. Holistic discipleship means learning and looking, praying and giving, welcoming the stranger, simplifying our lives and standing with and for others on God’s behalf. Small steps can make a big difference in the mission of God. Will you answer the call?
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Pioneering Movements : Leadership That Multiplies Disciples And Churches
$20.99Add to cartGod’s mission needs movement leaders. Jesus pioneered something completely new in human history?a dynamic missionary movement intent on reaching the world. His mission is as clear and as relevant today as in the days of the early church: to make disciples everywhere, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded. But the potential of the church remains untapped. What does it take to lead movements that successfully carry out this mission? In Pioneering Movements, Steve Addison identifies what it takes to follow Jesus’ example. Building on his previous books Movements That Changed the World and What Jesus Started, he reveals the apostolic qualities and behaviors of biblical, historical, and contemporary pioneers who can guide church and ministry leaders today. This is a book for those who are called to embrace the mission-driven work that Jesus and his disciples began?making disciples of all nations, in all places.
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Christian Mission In The Modern World
$24.99Add to cartJesus sends us into the world just as the Father sent him. And yet thousands of years later Christians continue to disagree on what this involves. Some believe that the focus of Christian mission is evangelizing and “saving souls.” Others emphasize global justice issues or relief and development work. Is either view correct on its own? John Stott’s classic book presents an enduring and holistic view of Christian mission that is just as needed today. Newly updated and expanded by Christopher J. H. Wright, Christian Mission in the Modern World provides a biblically based approach to mission that addresses both spiritual and physical needs. With his trademark and unparalleled clarity and conviction, Stott illuminates how the Great Commission itself not only assumes the proclamation that makes disciples, but also teaches obedience to the Great Commandment of love and service. Wright has expertly updated the original book and demonstrates the continuing relevance of Stott’s prescient thinking. This balanced approach to mission offers timeless guidance for current and future Christians to embrace Jesus’ unconflicted and holistic model of ministry.
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Gospel And Pluralism Today
$30.99Add to cartContributors
Acknowledgments1. Introduction: The Legacy Of Newbigin For Mission To The West
Scott W. Sunquist
2. Newbigin In His Time
Wilbert R. Shenk
3. Newbigin’s Theology Of Mission And Culture After Twenty-Five Years
William R. Burrows
4. Community And Witness In Transition: Newbigin’s Missional Ecclesiology Between Modernity And Postmodernity
Veli-Matti Karkkainen And Michael Karim
5. Holistic Theological Method And Theological Epistemology: Performing Newbigin’s Plurality Of Sources In The Pluralist Context
Steven B. Sherman
6. Honoring True Otherness In A Still-Antipluralist Culture
Esther L. Meek
7. Pluralism, Secularism And Pentecost: Newbigin-ings For Missio Trinitatis In A New Century
Amos Yong
8. Evangelism In A Pluralistic Society: The Newbigin Vision
Carrie Boren Headington
9. What Does It Mean For A Congregation To Be A Hermeneutic?
John G. Flett
10. Asian Perspectives On Twenty-First-Century Pluralism
Allen YehAuthor Index
Subject IndexAdditional Info
Toward the end of the twentieth century, Lesslie Newbigin offered a penetrating analysis of the challenges of pluralism that confronted a Western culture and society reeling from the dissolution of Christendom. His enormous influence has been felt ever since. Newbigin (1909-1998) was a longtime Church of Scotland missionary to India and later General Secretary of the International Missionary Council and Associate General Secretary of the World Council of Churches.The first installment in the Missiological Engagements series, the essays in this volume explore three aspects of Newbigin’s legacy. First, they assess the impact of his 1989 book, Gospel in a Pluralist Society, on Christian mission and evangelism in the West. Second, they critically analyze the nature of Western pluralism in its many dimensions to discern how Christianity can proclaim good news for today. Finally, the contributors discuss the influence of Newbigin’s work on the field of missiology. By looking backward, this volume recommends and advances a vision for Christian witness in the pluralistic world of the twenty-first century.
Contributions from leading missiologists and theologians, including:
William Burrows
John Flett
Veli-Matti Karkkainen
Esther Meek
Lamin Sanneh
Wilbert Shenk -
Beyond The Local Church
$18.99Add to cartForeword
Introduction
1. The Power Of A Balanced Anatomy
The Biblical Genius And Design For Apostolic Structures And Movements
2. Limping Or Leaping Through Time
The Encouragement Of Apostolic Missionality In History
3. Mother Teresa Wasn’t A “Para-Catholic”!
Why “parachurch” Is A Dirty Word
4. So What Is “Apostolic”?
The Oft-neglected Essential To Authentic Missionality
5. Holy Discontent And Sanctified Ambition
The Apostolic Imperative Of Ephesians
6. Setting Visionaries Free
Pioneering As A Second Decision Entrepreneur
7. Finding Second Decision People
How To Engage And Release Apostolic Leaders
8. Running Together!
The Exponential Leverage Of Interdependence
9. Movements Of God
The Extraordinary Results Of Apostolic Gifting Lived Out In Apostolic Structures
10. The Momentum Of Movements
To Kill Or To Multiply, That Is The Question
Conclusion: Be A History Shaper
AcknowledgmentsAdditional Info
Many people have given up on the church. But that doesn’t mean that they’ve given up on God or Christianity. In many cases, it was merely that local church congregations were not the best context for missional people to live out their sense of God’s call.The good news is that God is raising up vibrant movements of Christians in a vast array of vocations around the world: disciple-making ministries, missions, relief and development, social activism, advocacy and much more. These are all strategic ways to live for the kingdom-in venues beyond the local church.
Wherever movements of the gospel have occurred, visionary people and apostolic structures have been essential. Mission leader Sam Metcalf shows how God has always worked through entrepreneurial individuals and organizations that launched out in fresh ways. He gives biblical and missiological foundations for missional movements, showing that what has often been called “parachurch” is an equally valid manifestation of the church. Affirming the strengths of apostolic personalities, Metcalf shows how they can be deployed to cross cultural barriers, renew secular societies and transform the nations with the power of the gospel.
God may be inviting you to join what he is doing around the world. Answer the call and discover how God can use you beyond your imagination.
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Apostolic Church Planting
$18.99Add to cartPreface
Introduction
1. What Is Church Planting?
2. How’s Your Ecclesiology?
3. Practices Of Team Members
4. Pathway To Planting
5. Stages Of Planting
6. Planned Role Changes
7. Church Multiplication Cycle
8. Methods
9. Where To Begin?
10. Pastoral Development
11. Strategy Development
12. Ethical Guidelines
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
About The AuthorAdditional Info
Church planting is not just about gathering new communities of people who are already Christians. In the book of Acts, church plants begin with sharing the gospel. Planting churches flows naturally out of making disciples.Missionary church planter J. D. Payne explains the process and stages of church planting, with biblical foundations and practical steps for planting teams. He provides a pathway for the multiplication of disciples, leaders and churches. Here are church planting strategies and activities that are simple, highly reproducible and can be implemented by ordinary team members, not just by charismatic leaders.
This guide can be used for planting in contexts among any given people group, domestically or internationally. It is an ideal resource for teams to work through together as they follow God’s call in their community.
Read more: http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=4124#ixzz3ZOJH0pFd
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Called To Witness
$27.99Add to cartSince the publication of the groundbreaking volume Missional Church in 1998, there has been wide-ranging engagement with the missional church theme. In this book Darrell Guder builds on that ongoing discussion by considering basic theological issues that must be addressed if the church is to be faithful to its calling to serve God as Christ’s witnessing people.
Guder argues that there are major consequences for every classical theological locus if the fundamental claims of the missional church discussion are acknowledged. In Called to Witness Guder delves into these consequences, saying that we need to keep doing missional theology until it is possible to leave off the “missional scaffolding” because, after all, mission defines the very essence and calling of the church.
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Understanding Insider Movements
$62.99Add to cartFor the first time in history, large numbers of people from the world’s major non-Christian religions are following Jesus as Lord. Surprisingly for many Western Christians, they are choosing to do so within the religious communities of their birth and outside of institutional Christianity. How does this work, and how should we respond to these movements?
This long-awaited anthology brings together some of the best writings on the topic of insider movements. Diverse voices explore this phenomenon from the perspectives of Scripture, history, theology, missiology, and the experience and identity of insider believers. Those who are unfamiliar with the subject will find this book a crucial guide to a complex conversation. Students and instructors of mission will find it useful as a reader and reference volume. Field workers and agencies will discover in these chapters welcome starting points for dialogue and clearer communication.
The first book to provide a comprehensive survey of the topic of insider movements, Understanding Insider Movements is an indispensable companion for those who want to glimpse the creative, unexpected, boundary-crossing ways God is at work among the peoples of the world in their diverse religious communities.
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Rescuing The Gospel From The Cowboys
$25.99Add to cartIn Memoriam
Preface
1. The Creator’s Presence Among Native People
2. The Colonization, Evangelization And Assimilation Of First Nations People
3. Sweating With Jesus: Stories Of The Native Experience
4. A View From The Hill: Emerging Native Expressions Of The Jesus Way
5. From Colonization To Contextualization
6. Looking Down The Road: The Future Of The Native Church
Acknowledgments
Editor’s Tribute To Richard Twiss
Glossary
Acronyms
Appendix A: Final Words On Indigenous Education And Theology
Appendix B: What Should We Call You?
Appendix C: Boarding Schools
Bibliography
NotesAdditional Info
The gospel of Jesus has not always been good news for Native Americans. The history of North America is marred by atrocities committed against Native peoples. Indigenous cultures were erased in the name of Christianity. As a result, to this day few Native Americans are followers of Jesus. However, despite the far-reaching effects of colonialism, some Natives have forged culturally authentic ways to follow the way of Jesus. In his final work, Richard Twiss provides a contextualized Indigenous expression of the Christian faith among the Native communities of North America. He surveys the painful, complicated history of Christian missions among Indigenous peoples and chronicles more hopeful visions of culturally contextual Native Christian faith. For Twiss, contextualization is not merely a formula or evangelistic strategy, but rather a relational process of theological and cultural reflection within a local community. Native leaders reframe the gospel narrative in light of post-colonization, reincorporating traditional practices and rituals while critiquing and correcting the assumptions of American Christian mythologies. Twiss gives voice to the stories of Native followers of Jesus, with perspectives on theology and spirituality and concrete models for intercultural ministry. Future generations of Native followers of Jesus, and those working crossculturally with them, will be indebted to this work. -
Fully Engaged : Missional Church In An Anabaptist Voice
$18.99Add to cartMission happens when congregations fully align themselves with God’s purposes. As the missional church movement matures, Anabaptists bring a time-honored theological tradition, a contemporary spiritual vitality, and practical stories of witness to the conversation. How are churches and individuals living out Christ’s call to engage locally and globally? And how is it changing them in the process?
Featuring the voices of missional Mennonite leaders, Fully Engaged offers stories and analysis about how mission is taking shape in local congregations and contexts. A diverse chorus of Anabaptist pastors and laypeople explores the roots, tools, and applications of the missional movement. From nurturing church planting to creating a missional culture to preaching for missional engagement, Fully Engaged offers insights and ideas for churches looking for direction.
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Making Disciples Across Cultures
$24.99Add to cartCulture affects how we make disciples. We often unconsciously bring our own cultural assumptions into ministry and mission, not realizing that how we think and operate is not necessarily the best or only way to do things. In today’s global environment, disciplemaking requires the cultural humility and flexibility to adapt between different cultural approaches.
Charles Davis, former director of TEAM, provides a framework for missional disciplemaking across diverse cultural contexts. He shows how we can recalibrate our ministry efforts, like adjusting sound levels on a mixer board, to accommodate different cultural assumptions. With on-the-ground stories from a lifetime of mission experience, Davis navigates such tensions as knowledge and behavior, individualism and collectivism, and truth and works to help Christian workers minister more effectively.
Ministry teams, church planters, pastors and missionaries working interculturally at home or overseas can be part of God’s movement of making disciples. Discover how the body of Christ grows in the unity and diversity of the global church.
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From Dependence To Dignity
$26.99Add to cartThe church of Jesus Christ finds itself at a very unique moment in history. The average Christian living in the “economically advanced countries” enjoys a level of prosperity that has been unimaginable for most of human history. At the same time, over 2.5 billion people in the Majority World (Africa, Asia, and Latin America) live on less than $2 per day, with many of these people being Christians. Ironically, it is amongst the “least of these” in the Global South that the global church is experiencing the most rapid growth.
All of this raises profound challenges to the global church. How can churches and missionaries in the Majority World effectively address the devastating poverty both inside their congregations and just outside their doors? How can churches in the economically advanced countries effectively partner with Global South churches in this process? The very integrity of the global church’s testimony is at stake, for where God’s people reside, there should be no poverty (Deuteronomy 15:4; Acts 4:34).
For the past several decades, microfinance (MF) and microenterprise development (MED) have been the leading approaches to poverty alleviation. MF/MED is a set of interventions that allow households to better manage their finances and start small businesses. From remote churches in rural Africa to the short-term missions programs of mega-churches in the United States, churches and missionaries have taken the plunge into MF/MED, trying to emulate the apparent success of large-scale relief and development organizations. Unfortunately, most churches and missionaries find this to be far more difficult than they had imagined. Repayment rates on loans are low and churches typically end up with struggling programs that require ongoing financial subsidies. Everybody gets hurt in the process: donors, relief and development agencies, churches and missionaries, and–most importantly-the poor people themselves.
This book explains the basic principles for successfully utilizing microfinance in ministry. Drawing on best practice research and their own pioneering work with the Chalmers Center, Brian Fikkert and Russell Mask chart a path for churches and missionaries to pursue, a path that minimizes the risks of harm, relies on local resources, and enables missionaries and churches to minister in powerful ways to the spiritual and economic needs of some of the poorest people on the planet.
The insights of microfinance can play a tremendous role in h
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1 Gospel For All Nations
$19.99Add to cartThe Bible tells us what to believe–the gospel. Did you know it also shows how to contextualize the gospel? In One Gospel for All Nations, Jackson Wu does more than talk about principles. He gets practical. When the biblical writers explain the gospel, they consistently use a pattern that is both firm and flexible. Wu builds on this insight to demonstrate a model of contextualization that starts with interpretation and can be applied in any culture. In the process, he explains practically why we must not choose between the Bible and culture. Wu highlights various implications for both missionaries and theologians. Contextualization should be practical, not pragmatic; theological, not theoretical.
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Me To We
$20.99Add to cartChurches with front doors that open up mission fields rather than buildings.When Christians answer the clarion call to be missional, too often it is primarily to feel good or to grow in their own faith. But ultimately we remain unsatisfied because, in the end, it’s still about “me”-my church, my faith, my salvation. Then sometimes inspiration dries up.
We forget that Jesus is the head of the Church, which exists at God’s pleasure and disposal. God is birthing a new Social Gospel, meant to reclaim mission and justice ministries as prime directives for the Church, and not with the naive thinking of the 19th or 20th centuries.
What are the characteristics of this new Social Gospel? There is an expectation that mission is “with” and not “for” others. There is an acknowledgement that tolerance is not a dirty word and we have to find a peaceable way to live in our intercultural world. It carries the Wesleyan impulse to change the world by working to build God’s kingdom in this world. It offers the grace and salvation of Christ to those in need, believing that none are free unless all are free. It means that we feed the hungry, educate to poor, and equip the powerless in tangible ways.
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Christian Mission And Economic Systems
$21.99Add to cartChristian mission in the twenty-first century has emphasized endeavors that address poverty alleviation, business as mission, marketplace ministry, rural/urban development, microeconomics, and Christian attitudes toward money and consumerism. However, neither the macroeconomic circumstances in which the church does such ministry nor the assumptions that believers have absorbed from the larger economy have been adequately explored.
Christian Mission and Economic Systems gathers scholars, experts, and practitioners to address the relationship of Christians to the economic systems in which they are embedded and do ministry, and to evaluate the different cultural and religious dimensions of both micro- and macroeconomic systems around the world from a kingdom perspective.
Practitioners doing business as mission will grow in their understanding of the significance of local economic practices. Students and academics will benefit from the critical assessment of the intersection between micro- and macroeconomic systems in the contexts of specific ethnographic circumstances. Missionaries and churches will glean new insights on the difference that being a Christian makes to economic life. NGOs, nonprofits, or other Christian organizations doing work related to markets will benefit from a challenge to their previous understandings. Since work for the kingdom always takes place in some kind of an economic environment, this book will equip Christians in a variety of capacities to be more effective in their ministries.
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Our Global Families
$31.00Add to cartAs Christians, we belong to not only a diverse global Christian family but also a diverse human family. Todd Johnson, a noted expert on global Christianity and world missions trends, and Cindy Wu show how divisions within these families work against our desire to bring about positive change in the world. They provide an overview of global Christian identity, exploring how we can be faithful to our own tradition while engaging Christians across denominations and be better informed as we work with people of other religions. The book utilizes the latest research data on global Christianity and world religions and includes tables, graphs, charts, and end-of-chapter discussion questions.
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Lessons Learned In The Lions Den
$14.99Add to cartLessons Learned in the Lion’s Den shares the journey of one missionary family as the father is detained in a predominantly Muslim country in Africa. Daniel Waheli’s time spent in prison is ripe for building intimacy with the Lord in the midst of confusion, suffering, and uncertainty. The accounts of his wife and two young children offer a glimpse into the inner life of the family during this trying time. The heart of this story is not a man imprisoned, but a family united-in hope, love, and a pressing desire that God be glorified in all things. In a world where mission strategies come and go and often fall short of being effective, Waheli distills his experience into twelve principles for building character to better serve the Lord and persevere in His call. Whether you are a pioneer among unreached people groups or simply a Christian hungry to see Jesus glorified in your daily life, these tried and true concepts will prepare you to endure in the face of hardship.
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Worship And Culture
$40.99Add to cartMultifaceted expert perspectives on Christian worship in our multicultural, migrant worldHow are we to proclaim Christ in different cultures? This question was central to a landmark study on worship and culture conducted by the Lutheran World Federation between 1992 and 1999. Much has changed in the years since then: the world today is ever more a multicultural global village. Worship and Culture revisits that LWF study, shedding new light on the question from recent theological and sociological scholarship to expand and enrich the texts in the original three-volume work.This book includes texts from the main statements that came out of the original project as well as new or updated essays from some of the original contributors. It also adds new essays, prayers, and hymns to the conversation, inviting readers to consider what the life of the church should look like in today’s hybrid, multicultural world.
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Slippery Paths In The Darkness
$21.99Add to cartA primary concern amongst missiologists is presenting the gospel in a way that is culturally relevant without adulterating the essential truths of the message. The ability to appropriately contextualize this message is the difference between establishing an indigenous Christianity as opposed to introducing syncretism. In this compendium of presentations and papers, the issue is addressed with regard to the idea of covenant relationship with the Lord. Drawing from interdisciplinary research across continents, Tippett examines the syncretistic religious behaviors eminent at the time of his writing that threatened to fracture this covenant relationship- from eastern personality cults in India to scientology in Australia, from satanism in the United States to animism in Mexico. While his research only spans a set number of years, Tippett provides timeless insights for a global church burdened with the Great Commission call in an increasingly pluralistic world.
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Overturning Tables : Freeing Missions From The Christian Industrial Complex
$20.99Add to cartThe history of Protestant mission in the world has unfolded in step with the history of the modern marketplace. As a consequence, success in mission has defined in marketplace terms. Scott Bessenecker points toward a view of missions freed of false attachments to material paradigms and tailored toward a kingdom vision.
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Out Of The Dust
$14.99Add to cart“Don’t waste your pain,” says unlikely missionary Avis Goodhart. She didn’t – and neither should you. Despite a background of childhood abuse, dyslexia, and marital infidelity, Avis took her first international mission trip at age fifty. The church, school, and orphanage she later founded in northern Peru, all products of both her pain and her radical obedience to the Lord, have brought thousands of others out of the dust. This compelling story of an ordinary woman who serves God in extraordinary ways will challenge, inspire, and empower you to: * Eliminate excuses from your life * Recognize that in God’s kingdom, availability matters more than ability * Allow your pain to produce – not prevent – your obedience * Serve the Lord with the same abandon shown by one unlikely missionary
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Dont Throw The Book At Them
$19.99Add to cartDon’t Throw the Book at Them addresses one of the most vital issues in contemporary missions. It is a manual for cross-cultural missionaries and national church leaders ministering in societies based on oral rather than written communication. Harry Box, former missionary and researcher in Papua New Guinea and among the Aborigines of Central Australia, explains the distinct characteristics of oral societies, how they differ from literacy-oriented societies, Jesus’ ministry to oral communicators, and why effective presentation of the Christian message demands that Western Christians change their approach to orality. The book goes beyond case studies and analysis, allowing the reader to develop a detailed plan for communication.
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Starting Missional Churches
$22.99Add to cartAll mission is local–the people of God joining the work of God in a particular place. In Starting Missional Churches Mark Lau Branson and Nicholas Warnes introduce us to seven missional churches and explore what it looks like to be salt and light where you are.
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Theology From The Trenches
$26.00Add to cartWhile urban pastors devote time and energy to all the typical demands of ministry, they also grapple with challenges endemic to city life. Achieving a measure of balance amid these competing demands and responsibilities can be daunting. Using his experiences as a pastor in urban settings for nearly three decades, Roger J. Gench offers pastors a close look at the challenges that come from being involved in urban ministry.
Throughout, he integrates memoir, sermons, and essays on social ministry, and reflections on the theology and spirituality of parish life. In each chapter, Gench offers his own stories and reflections and then invites readers to consider the relevance for their own ministry. Urban pastors will not only find themselves relating to Gench’s experiences but will also uncover practical help for their ministry.
