The Church of Jesus Christ has changed dramatically in the past century. Western Christians must learn how and adjust.

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Product Description

Christian mission is no longer a matter of missionaries from the West going to the rest of the world. Rather, the growth of Christianity in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia is eclipsing that of the Western church. In the third millennium of the Christian era, Christian mission is truly global, with missionaries from all places going to all peoples.

Veteran missiologist Samuel Escobar presents an introduction to Christian mission today. He explores the new realities of our globalized world and assesses the context of a changing mission field that is simultaneously secular and syncretistic. He also sets forth a thoroughly biblical theology of mission, considering how God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are at work around the world, with implications for how Christians are to go about the task of global mission.

The Christian Doctrine in Global Perspective series provides intercultural exposition of key tenets of Christian belief, written by leading international evangelical thinkers. These distinct voices bring fresh insight to traditional theological categories, as the unchanging gospel takes shape in an increasingly interconnected world.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #245770 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780830833016
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Samuel Escobar, a leading Latin American theologian, was one of the key participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974. A native of Peru, he serves as professor of missiology at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, and is theological consultant for the Board of International Ministries in Valencia, Spain. He is also president of the United Bible Societies and past president of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.

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Customer Reviews

A call to global perspective
Samuel Escobar elucidates his point of contemporary Christian mission having less and less of a geographical center, illustrating from his rich and quite varied personal experience as a Christ-follower and missiologist, perhaps most notably with the Lausanne Covenant. The book contains an essential message to the Western Church today: that we can not afford to presume that we are the leaders of the world Christian movement and thusly divorce ourselves from a global perspective of what and how God is working in the world today. I found this book a bit more accessible to the layperson than Philip Jenkins' topically similar work, The Next Christendom.

Review of The New Global Mission
Dr. Samuel Escobar's book The New Global Mission is a good introduction to the history of missions from a global context, as well as a looking glass focused on the challenges of the near future in global missions. His experiences as a missionary and as an educator provide strong credentials to back up the ideas he presents within this book. Coming from the South America, his perspectives on the effects of prior missionary movements on native populations and their cultures is lent additional weight.

After a chapter of introduction to his plan for the book, Escobar quickly gives a survey of the historical trends and methodologies the Church used in order to spread the gospel starting with the example of Jesus, and finishing with the modern business like methodologies used today. Within this context, Escobar focuses on the organizational directives and structures used by the Church throughout time. This is not a journalistic approach to history; in fact Escobar is at times very critical of different mission philosophies and methodologies. While presenting an overview of the structures and movements behind the missionary movements of history, he also includes the human component, connecting each wave of missionary advancement to the lives of the missionaries and those ministered to. In fact his contention is that all good missions follow the example of Jesus, who was right there getting down into the mud of peoples lives.

Escobar's next topic is really the focal point for the whole book. Due to globalization, missionary influence and the ease of communications and global travel, the global church no longer reflects the Christianity of the western world. He then establishes that the western church is in recession and that the "Third World" or southern church is in ascendancy. Furthermore, the western or northern church needs to adapt to the reality that while they may control most of the resources of the world, as well as most of the resources of the church, that the Holy Spirit and Christ have always worked through people, and more commonly through the poorest people. The implications of this reality, will also affect more than just the balance of power in relation to geographic location. Traditional understandings of the interpretation of scripture do not always equate to the interpretations of the third church.

He then finishes the book by discussing models for missions in a post-christianity west, where the whole world contributes to sending missionaries from the whole world to the whole world. He also argues that we need to re-evaluate our structures for organizing missions to be more centered on the will of the Holy Spirit. Modeling after the book of Acts, we should first discern what the spirit would have us do, before attempting to save the world. This is not to mean that we wait, suffering social injustice or other sinful things, but that we must understand the spirits purpose and direction before undertaking major missions.

I found this book very enjoyable. While not highly theoretical, I did find it intellectually stimulating. While some of the scriptural references were a little on the "proof-text" side, I couldn't complain about most. One reference did bother me though. On page 144, he references the story in Mark 5:1-20 of Jesus driving the evil spirits (called Legion) into a herd of 2000 pigs which then proceeded to run off and drown. He then says, "Consequently the people in that region ask Jesus to leave--a herd of pigs is more valuable than a restored human life." This implies that the reason they wanted Jesus to leave was a fear of fiscal consequences to his continued presence. While that may make sense in a contemporary setting, I find it difficult to believe. While it is a plausible reason, and probably partially to blame, this would demand that this area be inhabited by gentiles, and not good Jews. Unfortunately, I can't come up with any other rational explanation as to why they would ask him to leave. The text implies that the populace was in awe of Jesus, and not afraid, but they didn't crowd around asking for more miracles. Obviously I need to spend more time wrestling with this portion of text.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and found it insightful. I now have a greater appreciation for the challenges and opportunities the church faces in the upcoming decades when it comes to missions. I can see that many of our American churches need a new revival. I can only hope that the southern church helps restore us.

Review of Escobar for Congregations in the World TM521
Samuel Escobar's book, The New Global Mission: The Gospel from Everywhere to Everyone, covers an overview of the global conversation going on in missions. Escobar expands on the shift away from a Western dominated view of missions and Western theology's part in the dialogue. Escobar writes with the Western Church and theology in mind, he does consider the West and its influence on missions as no longer the center or focal point of dialogue in missions.
Escobar emphasizes four areas of interest in his book. The Western influence on missions and how imperialistic Christianity has dominated most of the world. How Western Christianity has been in power for so long but is now confronting not only a post-Christian society but also a postmodern society. Escobar calls for Non-Western Christianity to begin to interpret and create theologies based on their own current locations and cultures. There is also a theological piece of the book calling for Christians to become Trinitarian in their views on missions; God is a missionary God, a Christological pattern for missions which includes the Holy Spirit and marking a church as being reliant and dependent on the Spirit.
One of my favorite reads and a great introduction to the dialogue going on in the world of missions and theology. I greatly appreciated Samuel Escobar's thoughts and insights into the non-Western view on missions and the non-Westerner's importance to add to the dialogue.