Book Review of Missionary Methods

I chose to evaluate my home church's missions program for this paper. A big part of this decision was curiosity; I had never in my five years at my home church heard anything of a well-formed missions program, and upon receiving this assignment became very intrigued. I interviewed a good friend of mine, who is also an elder at Kentwood Christian Church, by the name of Mike Boumis.

Western Christians in global missions by Paul Borthwick is about the interdependence and unity of the global Church. The book starts at the conclusion of an era of missions where North America has taken the helm. As the global missions community changes, North America needs to reassess its role. There are 4 main integrated points that Borthwick makes that should change the perspective of the white American middle class missionary.

Galindo analyzes that the fundamental “mission” of a congregation is the same as any other congregation that exists in any part of the world. He argues that though every congregation has a mission and a vision, at the same time, it shares a basic common mission. (43) This reminds me of my home church The First Church of Evanston and my Field Site, The Evanston Vineyard Church. Both churches have a common mission of welcoming people to the church, irrespective of their ethnic, cultural, racial, and economic and, gender backgrounds. The mission is to help people be received in the house of God with due and deserved Christian love so that they feel loved and welcomed. Both these churches encourage church attendees to attend the service and receive the Eucharist.

Five missionaries, one plane, the Bible, and the Ecuadorian jungle;Elisabeth Elliot’s biography Through Gates of Splendor shows Jim Elliot’s experience in the Ecuadorian jungle. Jim and his four friends venture into the jungles of Ecuador to preach the bible to the fierce tribe of the Aucas. they manage to win the hearts of the Aucas and they preach the bible and manage to win some souls and baptize some Aucas. Unfortunately, not all Aucas believed what they were doing was right and they killed the missionaries. Elisabeth’s book Through Gates of Splendor teaches that in order to be a missionary, oneself needs or should have dedication and patience.

Subsequently, the church has a mission which is to go into all the nations making disciples, baptizing them, and to teach them to observe the ways of Christ as noted in Matthew 28:19-20. When looking at the differences between the missional model and the attractional model is the missional goes out to win the lost, and the attractional seeks to bring the lost in not focusing the cultural boundaries. Stetzer and Hirsch state, “Missional represents a significant shift in the way we understand the church. As the people of a missionary God, we are entrusted to participate in the world the same way He does—by committing to be His ambassadors.” In retrospect, Hirsch cites that, “The attractional model, which has dominated the church in the West, seeks to reach out to the culture and draw people into the church—what I call outreach and in-grab. But this model only works where no significant cultural shift is required when moving from outside to inside the church.” Both have their uniqueness, however, they are designed to seek and make disciples.

As we look at the writings of both St. Gregory and Gordon Fee, we see both similarities and differences. While Fee places more emphasis on the Holy Spirit in connection with Paul’s ministry, St. Gregory uses his eloquence to specifically defend the concept of the Holy Spirit

Dr. Bob Wagstaff was a retired product development specialist in the food industry. In 2005, he was performing a voluntary service mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints when he was confronted with a problem that he turned into an opportunity. Dr. Wagstaff was responsible for coordinating 200 nineteen to twenty-year-old American and Filipino missionaries in the Philippines. The missionary’s objective was to convert people in the community over to the church by spreading the message.

In the first chapter of “Christianity Rediscovered” by Vincent J. Donovan he is introducing us to the idea that missionaries now have a poor reputation due to their history. He says “History has offered the opportunity to deflect and distort the meaning of missionary work in every age”. For a long time a missionary was a person spreading the word of God and after years of doing so we have diminished many different beliefs, practices, cultures and history. At the time it was thought to be the right thing, to spread out and share the gospel to help people find meaning and acceptance. In today’s age a missionary is a lot of different things, in many cases it is more focused on the health and physical wellbeing of the people. Many people still share the gospel through missionary work, but in other cases it is more of a material aid. Donovan introduces the book as a voyage of discovery he wants us to put our normal beliefs aside to see his perspective of living a missionaries life and struggling with the fact of if you are helping or hurting.

Paul wrote the book of Philippians as a letter to the church of Philippi. Paul uses this letter to thank the church for sending him financial aid while also trying to “bolster their enduring faith” (Neal, 88). Throughout this letter, Paul gives guidance to the church, however, in chapter 4 he focuses on encouraging “harmony”, “Christian joy and peace”, and “a sense of satisfaction” (Elwell & Yarbrough, 296-297). Each topic Paul discusses continues to be issues today and Paul’s words of wisdom remain true. In my own life, I have learned from Paul’s teaching to cast all my cares on God and try to lean on His, rather than my own, understanding.

Flemming draws frequently upon the work of Michael Goheen, a prominent missiologist and Lesslie Newbigin scholar, to support many of his assertions of applications of biblical mission in contemporary contexts. Newbigin was a forefather of the missional movement applying missionary techniques to minister to post-Christian western society. The influence of Goheen’s scholarship, along with many other missiologist, is clear in the conclusions drawn by Flemming. Additionally, Flemming draws heavily on the work of two New Testament scholars, Michael J. Gorman and Joel B. Green. This is particularly important in Flemming’s examination of the book of Revelation on which Gorman’s work was

This book calls the church to rethink and modify its practices, by providing a middle path between the emerging church and the conservative that aims to benefit all. There are major shift happening in the Western Church that has people talking. The problem is that churches fail to follow a mission-centered approach. Chester and Timmis have found that in order to refocus the churches

Missionary expansion throughout the centuries has taken a hard, often violent road. The expansion of Christianity begins with the adherents of Jesus Christ and ended with the premature demise of many of the disciples. In the centuries following the disciples, many missionaries were faced with percussion and death as the gospel was proclaimed. As missionary expansion occurs throughout the centuries, often times facing trial and difficulty, the question comes up; is the capital cost of missionary expansion worth the monetary value? This paper will highlight many trials that have been faced by three missionaries in particular and explain often by the words of these missionaries why the enormous cost of missionary expansion is worth the cost. The thesis of this paper is: everyone is called to preach the gospel; the calling of the missionary is called to live by faith even when facing difficulty.

David Wesley’s main idea is a set of best practices, or what he terms “healthy patterns,” in congregational mission partnerships. Wesley observes that in the emerging “third way” of missions that began at the end of the 20th century and is coming into its own in the early 21st century is focusing on congregational partnerships. As such, Wesley seeks to lay out “common patterns for healthy global partnerships observed in these congregational partnerships.” Consequently, Wesley presents five healthy patterns around which common mission can flourish.

Missionaries are called to go and spread the word of truth to those unaware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in their midst, and the methods to correctly reach the nations can be scrutinized and discussed but the most beneficial method to minister to the nations would be with the lens of an anthropologist to see the diversity of a nation while teaching the Gospel. A missionary should be accepting of diversity in the future church by using an anthropological perspective to teach the Gospel in order to understand the traditions and values of a group, maintain a relationship with the community and understand that the integration of diversity is beneficial to the church.

As I began to read and reflect on Paul Knitter’s book, a conversation from ten years ago surfaced to the front of my memory. This memory was about a conversation with a local Ugandan while doing mission work overseas. It reemerged as my mind was intrigued by Knitter’s thoughts and reflections on world religious theologies. In Knitter’s book Theologies of Religion, one is really challenged to reevaluate what one believes when it comes to their faith and their Theology of Religion. As I reflect on through out this research paper I hope to do a few things: one, discuss some of Kintter’s thoughts and challenges, two, identify where I currently fall in regards to my Theology of Religion, and three, what does this look like in hands on ministry.