Book reviews
Reviews of the books shaping mission thinking and practice. Page 2 of 40 · 942 in all.
Members onlyA Short Guide to Spiritual Formation: Finding Life in Truth, Goodness, Beauty and Community
A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation is a winsome introduction to spiritual formation. While the book does not dive into spiritual practices in detail, it provides an encouraging posture on this important subject. This book is recommended for disciple-makers who long for more than just programs and desire to connect…
Members onlyHope for Creation: Missional Responses to Environmental and Human Calamities
It is difficult to visit a news website or browse any social media without seeing some reference to climate change or natural disaster.
Members onlyCan a Christian Be Cursed? An African Evangelical Response to the Problem of Curses
In a viral video, a young African woman walks into her home wearing a surgical mask, evidently to conceal a rash. Her mother-in-law immediately arises from her sofa and launches into a “back-to-sender” curse-removal prayer punctuated by clapping and staccato invocations of the name “Jesus.”
Members onlyTheopoetics in Color: Embodied Approaches in Theological Discourse
How do we theologically reflect and talk about God in our lived realities: our bodies, identities, experiences, geographic locations, and particular contexts? This is a crucial question for pastors, teachers, and missionaries who are engaged in incarnational ministry.
Members onlyProlegomena to the Study of Islam
Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, and since 9/11 many mission organizations have refined their focus on Christian witness among Muslims. This renewed interest in missions to Muslims has produced fresh appreciation for classic missiologists and scholars of Islam like Samuel Zwemer and Kenneth Cragg.
Members onlyThe Impact of Short-Term Missions on Long-Term Missional Development
The adrenaline has stopped pumping, the mission trip is over, and the busyness of everyday life presses the mission trip participants back into their former routines. For too many, a mission trip is simply a temporary diversion from ordinary life.
Members onlyEssentials for People Care and Development: A Collection of Best Practices, Research, Reflections, and Strategies
In their insightful book, Geoff Whiteman and Heather Pubols make a significant contribution to the field of member care by leveraging practical theology to address the unique needs of the mission community.
Members onlyGreat Commission Spirituality: Abiding in Christ, Serving in Obscurity
As servants of Jesus Christ, we missionaries do not just work for him. We also are called to the same loving, family relationship with Jesus to which we invite others. Great Commission Spirituality aims to help us keep sight of that reality amid our labor.
Members onlyYou Will Be My Witnesses: Theology for God’s Church Serving in God’s Mission
Brian DeVries is an American Reformed minister working in South Africa since 2005. He has led three multiethnic church plants, pastors Grace Reformed Church in Pretoria, is the principal of Mukhanyo Theological College, and teaches at Reformed seminaries in the United States.
Members onlyFulfilling the Great Commission: Essays in Honor of Daniel L. Akin
“Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” This well-known quote from John Piper echoes throughout this book of essays in honor of Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
Members onlyJingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China
This book should be read by anyone who is interested in the history of Christianity in China. It explains how Christianity originally came to China from the Middle East via the Silk Road.
Members onlyPeople Vision: Reimagining Mission to Least Reached Peoples
The central concept of the text, “people vision,” refers to “an eschatological vision of persons from ‘every tribe and language and people and nation’ gathered in worship around the throne of the Lamb” from Revelation 5:9 (271).
Members onlyCabbages in the Desert: How God Transformed a Devout Muslim
It is no secret that the missionary effort is no longer exclusively from the West to the rest. Missiological practices, likewise, are increasingly traveling in multiple directions. We in the West have a lot to learn from the Global South, such as the ideas contained in this book.
Members onlyNatural Theology: Five Views
When Psalm 19:1 says, “the heavens declare the glory of God,” what is it that the heavens are actually saying? Does the second of God’s books, the book of nature, say anything about God that is not known from the first of God’s books, the book of Scripture? This question is the subject of this fascinating, but…
Members onlyBuilding Community Through Hospitality: Insights from Ethiopia for America’s Loneliness Epidemic.
In Building Community Through Hospitality, an EMS monograph series dissertation publication, Udall encourages American churches to learn from Ethiopian perspectives on community and interdependence to resolve the hyperindividualism fueling their loneliness epidemic.
Members onlyFinding Direction to Redeem the Nations: Navigating Missions Misconceptions
Don Dent addresses the everybody is a missionary and missions is everything adages through clear responses to 40 missions misconceptions. He identifies the “what, why, how, and who of missions” (xii) and navigates through the confusion.
Members onlyEvil: A North Korean Christian Refugee Perspective
Dr. Ryan Klejment-Lavin’s interview-based research on North Korean refugees in South Korea breaks some very interesting new ground in the study of theodicy and how humans react to evil and their own suffering.
Members onlyWhy Study History? Reflecting on the Importance of the Past
It is almost cliché to note how few people care about history, at least in the United States. John Fea, history professor at Messiah University, counters that Christians especially can benefit greatly by engaging in historical study. Fea’s argument is convincing.
Members onlyMissions on Point: The Local Church at the Heart of Ecclesiology and Missiology
There is a problem with missions in the local church. In fact, according to David C. Meade, the local church has abdicated its “biblical role and responsibility to mission agencies” (16). The role of the church is central to world missions, asserts Meade.
Members onlyUnderstanding Spiritual Abuse: What it is and How to Respond
The reality of living in a fallen world gives rise to the human capacity for harm and abuse, leaving individuals with the lasting effects of trauma. For Christians seeking to help others heal from trauma, this task can often feel overwhelming and under-resourced, especially when the trauma comes from within the church.
Members onlyA Just Mission: Laying Down Power and Embracing Mutuality
After immigrating from Ethiopia to the United States to attend university at a Christian college, Haddis shares her perspective on what it truly looks like to live out the Great Commission.
Members onlyShould I Be a Missionary?
Should I Be a Missionary? by Andy Johnson is a concise and accessible guide published as part of the 9Marks series of Church Questions. This short, instructive book addresses a pressing question many Christians face: “Am I called to be a missionary?” Johnson provides biblically grounded advice to help readers discern…
Members onlyCommunity of Missionary Disciples: The Continuing Creation of the Church
“The point of the church is not the church” (86). Stephen Bevans – widely regarded as one of the leading missiologists of our day and professor emeritus of mission and culture at Catholic Theological Union – makes this central claim in various forms.
Members onlyA New and Ancient Evangelism: Rediscovering the Ways God Calls and Sends
Evangelism in much of the Western church is often associated with intrusive strangers on airplanes, formulaic salvation sales pitches, or street preachers promising brimstone through bullhorns.