Book reviews
Reviews of the books shaping mission thinking and practice. Page 3 of 40 · 942 in all.
Members onlyLeading from Below: Lessons from the Crucible of Global Mission
The book is a call for Christian courage for believers (including missionaries) who are afraid and anxious in this scary world.
Members onlyCuckoos in Our Nest: Truth and Lies About Being Human
Until a few weeks ago, I had never encountered a European Cuckoo, but after reading Iain Provan’s Cuckoos in Our Nest, I see them everywhere – not the birds themselves, but what they represent.
Members onlyMissional Life in Practice & Theory: Essays in Honor of Gailyn Van Rheenan
Missiology is self-consciously a hybrid discipline. Surprisingly, not many people balance the hands and the head appropriately in the missional endeavor.
Members onlyAfrica Bears Witness: Mission Theology and Praxis in the 21st Century
It is widely understood that the center of global Christianity has shifted southward; indeed, “we could easily conclude that Africa has the most missionaries in the world” (11). Yet, there is still a significant need for understanding the mission theology and praxis of these African missionaries. Africa Bears Witness…
Members onlyReading 1 Peter Missiologically
Is 1 Peter 3:15 the only verse in 1 Peter useful for missions? Reading 1 Peter Missiologically answers with a resounding No! The book asserts that the entire letter of 1 Peter has much to contribute to the what (message), how (method), and why (motive) of mission (vii).
Members onlyHow Do I Get Started in Evangelism?
This small book seeks to present a simple useful approach to personal and group evangelism that is both practical and theologically solid. Mack Stiles is a missionary who spent 20 years in the Middle East.
Members onlyEight Million Exiles: Missional Action Research and the Crisis of Forced Migration
Christopher Hays’ Eight Million Exiles presents an innovative approach to addressing forced displacement through Missional Action Research (MAR). Rooted in Colombia, the project integrates theological reflection, social scientific inquiry, and ecclesial engagement.
Members onlyMissiological Triage
Missiologists have long argued that their discipline is upheld by theology and the social sciences. The association is only natural, since missions is about bringing theological good news to real people.
Members onlyMaking Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition
The practice of hospitality is a command for all Christians. In this 25th anniversary edition of Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition, Christine Pohl rescues hospitality from the realm of domesticity and cozy tea parties and places it squarely in the sphere of vital Christian discipline.
Members onlyEquipping for Global Mission
An educator friend was fond of saying, “We educate children; we train dogs; but we equip people for ministry.” This compendium of essays presented at the annual gathering of the Evangelical Missiological Society focuses on designing education and equipping for missional impact.
Members onlyNetworking the Black Church: Digital Black Christians and Hip-Hop
Networking the Black Church: Digital Black Christians and Hip-Hop is an influential work that explores the intersections of Black faith, hip-hop, and Black digital media. Erika D. Gault, Director of the Center of African American Religious Life at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and…
Members onlySoul by Soul: The Evangelical Mission to Spread the Gospel to Muslims
This book by Adriana Carranca is a remarkable non-judgmental look at Christian missionary work amongst Muslims. It is remarkable because Carranca identifies herself as a “secular journalist” (22).
Members onlyThe New Testament in Color: A Multi-Ethnic Bible Commentary
The New Testament in Color was the vision of African American New Testament scholar Esau McCaulley. Lamenting the lack of Black voices in biblical scholarship, McCaulley also realized that other marginalized voices were also missing from conversations in biblical studies.
Members onlySacred Courage: Thinking Biblically about Fear and Anxiety
The book is a call for Christian courage for believers (including missionaries) who are afraid and anxious in this scary world.
Members onlySingle-Minded Service: Recovering the Essential Role of Singles in Kingdom Leadership
The book argues for the valuable role that singles play in the expansion of God’s kingdom, contending that they are not uncredentialed nor under-qualified for essential kingdom work simply because they have no spouse.
Members onlyLiving Out Loud: Letting our Love for God Flow into Your Everyday Language
The book seeks to provide a new vision for spiritual engagement, which can help readers “move away from feelings of fear and awkwardness and toward the freedom of letting your love for God spill into your everyday language” (page 16).
Members onlyHealthy Leadership for Thriving Organizations: Creating Contexts Where People Flourish
Whether organizational leadership occurs within a cross-cultural environment or not, the challenge is always to create a healthy environment. In his four-part book, Healthy Leadership for Thriving Organizations, Justin Irving touches on the most critical elements of organizational leadership that can be applied in…
Members onlyCharacter Theology: Engaging God through His Cast of Characters
In Character Theology: Engaging God through His Cast of Characters, authors Tom Steffen and Ray Neu introduce an approach to teaching the narrative portions of the Bible that focuses on drawing out truths of Scripture through the lives of the Bible characters.
Members onlyHear Ye the Word of the Lord: What We Miss If We Only Read the Bible
“Can a Westernized, twenty-first century reading of Scripture – even with the benefit of scholarly exegesis – provide sufficient understanding of what Jesus said and people associated with him heard two thousand years ago?” (181).
Members onlyImpacting Eternity: A Practitioner’s Guide for Sustained Movement Expansion
The literature addressing Jesus movements is narrow, crowded, and prone to repetition. However, Robert M. Reach’s latest volume attempts to move beyond compelling testimony and lists of multiplication factors to consider the overlooked issues of movement structure and sustainability.
Members onlyPropelled by Hope: The Story of the Perspectives Movement
If you were to try to be the first to design a way to strategically impact and accelerate global evangelization, to mentor and disciple laypeople and the next generation of missionary leaders, and finally, to “awaken God’s people to his purpose, mobilizing his church to strategic engagement
Members onlyThe Missionary Movement from the West: A Biography from Birth to Old Age
Andrew Walls (1928–2021), an innovative missiologist and influential historian, envisioned this project, which tells the story of Protestant missions before his death, but realized it would not be possible (xv).
Members onlyTransformational Change in Christian Ministry
Confronting a culture of individualism, Wan and Raibley argue that personal and communal transformations occur through relationships. Based on the relational nature of the Triune God, the authors’ framework, relational interactionism, suggests that Christian formation leads us into the likeness of the Trinity.
Members onlySocial Research Methods: For Students and Scholars of Religious Studies
To remain relevant, theological studies must engage in social science research, argues Joshua Iyadurai in Social Research Methods. Often, however, students of theology and religious studies are ill-equipped for such a task. This book seeks to fill that gap.