Mission is the responsibility of a global church. The heart of "mission" is the drive to cross geographical, cultural and social barriers in order to share the good news of Jesus Christ with all peoples. Drawing on his involvement in missionary work over many years, Samuel Escobar explores how the church spreads the Christian faith. God's word forms the foundation for his reflections, while he uses insights from theological and historical studies as well as from the social sciences to gain a clearer understanding of the church's missionary calling. His stimulating and challenging analysis contributes significantly to a global evangelical dialogue on mission today and in the future. SAMUEL ESCOBAR, a native of Peru and a leading Latin American theologian, was one of the key participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974. He is Professor Emeritus of Missiology at Palmer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, USA and teaches Contemporary Theology at Facultad Protestante de Teologia UEBE in Madrid, Spain. He has previously served as president of the United Bible Societies and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. The Langham Global Library provides inter-cultural exposition and application of the Christian faith, within the framework of the Cape Town Commitment, by authors from the international evangelical community.

Mission, missions, missional, and all its linguistic variations are part of the expanding vocabulary and rhetoric of the contemporary Christian missionary enterprise. Its language and assumptions are deeply ingrained in the thought and speech of the church today. Christianity is a missionary religion and faithful churches are mission-minded. What's more, in telling the story of apostles and bishops and monks as missionaries, we think we have grasped the true thread of Christian history. But what about those odd shapes, those unsettling gaps and creases in the historical record? Is the language of mission so clearly evident across the broad reaches of time? Is the trajectory of mission really so explicit from the early church to the present? Or has the modern missionary enterprise distorted our view of the past? As with every reigning paradigm, there comes a point when enough questions surface to beg for a close and critical look, even when it may seem transgressive to do so. In this study of the language of mission--its origin, development, and application--Michael Stroope investigates how the modern church has come to understand, speak of, and engage in the global expansion of Christianity. There is both surprise and hope in this tale. And perhaps the beginnings of a new conversation.

Named by the International Bulletin of Missionary Studies as an Outstanding Book of 2014 for Mission Studies

Over the last four decades, evangelical scholars have shown growing interest in Christian debates over other religions, seeking answers to essential questions: How are we to think about and relate to other religions, be open to the Spirit, and at the same time remain evangelical and orthodox? Gerald R. McDermott and Harold A. Netland offer critiques of a variety of theologians and religious studies scholars, including evangelicals, but also challenge evangelicals to move beyond parochial positions. This volume is both a manifesto and a research program, critically evaluating the last forty years of Christian treatments of religious others and proposing a comprehensive direction for the future. It addresses issues relating to the religions in both systematic theology and missiology, taking up long-debated questions such as contextualization, salvation, revelation, the relationship between culture and religion, conversion, social action, and ecumenism. It concludes with responses from four leading thinkers of African, Asian, and European backgrounds: Veli-Matti K�rkk�inen, Vinoth Ramachandra, Lamin Sanneh, and Christine Schirrmacher.

Provides a model for examining the beliefs of folk religions around the world and suggests biblical principles missionaries can use to deal with them.

Pastor, consultant, and award-winning author Art Beals challenges churches to see each member as a potential missionary; in so doing, churches return full circle to the New Testament church model of ministry. Founded in trinitarian theology, Beal's practical advice explores congregation-based mission, explains how to creatively mobilize resources for mission, and discusses how to train and care for volunteers. Beal's model for outreach emphasizes principles for partnership that provide mutual empowerment and long-term commitment.