Books, Links, Quotes & other resources (revised again August 2004)
(no login) Posted Nov 16, 2003 1:39 PM
BOOKS - last edited August 5, 2004
(I'll add some quotations further down this message thread.)
Postmission: World Mission by a Postmodern Generation, ed. by Richard Tiplady. Carlisle UK and Waynesboro, GA, USA: Paternoster Press, 2002. Fascinating symposium from a group of Generation-X mission activists. I'm resisting the temptation to put in long quotations, but please read this book and assess for yourself. I appreciated the insights into generational conflicts over the nature of leadership, lifestyle and behavioral standards, Biblical interpretation and authority, workaholism, and (especially important for my present project) the shift from a focus on individual salvation to a more social concept of salvation.
Christianity Rediscovered: An Epistle from the Masai by Vincent J. Donovan. London: SCM Press, 1982; recently reprinted both here and in the USA. If this book is right, we would change mission work drastically, along the lines of Paul (and of the Valiant Sixty), emphasizing seed-planting rather than institutional-church-planting. Donovan wants us to communicate Jesus the God-man in conversation with a community, answer their questions, give them an opportunity to discuss it, invite their acceptance or rejection … and then move on. No “building a church,” no setting up a “mission,” no confusion of evangelism with pastoral care, just go to the next place, as Paul did. “There is something definitely temporary about Paul’s missionary stay in any one place. There is something of a deadly permanence in ours.”
Mission and the Peace Witness, ed. Robert L. Ramseyer. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1979. Does anyone know of a more recent attempt to look directly at the relationship of social testimony to evangelism and missions from a peace church viewpoint? Despite the age of this book, many chapters sound very contemporary.
Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission, David J. Bosch. Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books 1991. Maybe the single most important book on this list for both historical and theological perspectives on how discipleship and evangelical communication relate. In describing the evolution of missions, Bosch touches on how Christians have viewed the biblical mandate for evangelism, the role of the church in defining the universe within which evangelism operates, the role of ordinary people vs 'clergy' and missionaries, the changing definitions of 'missionaries' and 'mission' and the different ways Christians have viewed non-Christian religions.
Mission and Meaninglessness: The good news in a world of suffering and disorder, Peter Cotterell. London: SPCK, 1990. A humane and passionate book from an evangelical perspective, placing the mission imperative firmly in a setting of spiritual and social liberation. A thoughtful treatment of pluralism, too. For 'liberals' who have never explored thoughtful, reflective examples of evangelical writing, this would be a good introduction, perhaps an eye-opener.
The Church on the Other Side: Doing Ministry in the Postmodern Matrix, Brian D. McLaren. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000. McLaren organizes this book into clusters of suggestions that he calls "strategies," although they're often simply seeds for discussion - ways of considering how to shake up, re-vision and re-establish the church after its enforced detoxification from the modern-era addiction to social advantage, social approval, and credibility based on rationalism. The books is written with a refreshing lack of postmodernist jargon and McLaren as author does not represent himself as being some kind of superior guru. (He draws on the thinking of Leonard Sweet without Sweet's irritating cleverness.)
Some of the chapters/"strategies": Maximize discontinuity; redefine your mission; practice systems thinking; trade up your traditions for tradition; design a new apologetic (see quotations below); learn a new rhetoric.
The Younger Evangelicals: Facing the Challenges of the New World. Robert E. Webber. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2002. A sober, systematic but also positive assessment of the "younger evangelicals" whose turn it has become to shape the evangelical Christian movement. Webber summarizes the achievements and limitations, in turn, of the generation of leaders who arose from the modernist-fundamentalist battles of the early 20th century, and the pragmatic generation of baby-boomers that followed them. In contrast with their concerns for orthodox doctrine and successful church marketing, Webber turns his sympathetic attention to the rising generation shaping today's most interesting developments in the evangelical world. So much of what they espouse seems to me to be amazingly consistent with historic Friends faith and practice - a desire to evangelize through the public witness of authentic Christ-centered communities where it is safe to be vulnerable and honest; a desire to live with economically poor people rather than ministering "to" them; servant leadership; a yearning for inclusive communities and for the real presence of God; a suspicion of formulas and hype.
There are also aspects of the "younger evangelicals" that some Friends might find awkward - but it is a creative awkwardness. For example, there is a desire to recover the ancient Christian sense of reverence and mystery through liturgical paths, and, sometimes, the use of candles and icons. On the other hand, some also enthusiastically appropriate contemporary digital technology for use in worship and teaching.
Webber summarizes these developments in the realm of theology, apologetics and discipleship; and then goes on to describe the practitioners and their churches, drawing liberally on their own stories, interviews, letters, and so on. A few examples follow below, in Quotations XII.
Permission Evangelism: When to Talk, When to Walk. Michael L. Simpson. Colorado Springs: NexGen, 2003. I almost didn't list this book because of its high jargon ratio and its (to my mind) overemphasis on the substitutionary atonement. However, the thesis of the book doesn't depend on these elements, and perhaps they gain the author credibility among those who most badly need to read about and adopt his approach to evangelism. His basic message is that effective evangelism is based on the three C's: compassion, consideration, and the Counselor (Holy Spirit). ("Success in evangelism is obedience to the Holy Spirit, not saving souls" - his italics.) It is that second C, consideration, that carries the unique message of the book - namely that we have no license to impose the Gospel on someone who hasn't asked to hear it. Much of the rest of the book simply involves building a level of communication and trust within which that permission is granted, and learning to recognize that permission when it is extended.
The Eye of the Storm: Spiritual Resources for the Pursuit of Justice. Kenneth Leech. London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1992. There's a longer description below introducing several quotations from this book. (Quotations VII, March 28, 2004.) Here I'll just say that Leech does an amazing job packing historical, theological and devotional resources for Spirit-led activism all into one readable book.
On Kingdom Business: Transforming Missions through Entrepreneurial Strategies. Ed. Tetsunao Yamamori, Kenneth A. Eldred. Wheaton IL: Crossway, 2003. In one of the essays in this book, Wayne Grudem writes, "I believe the only long-term solution to world poverty is business." Other authors make equally ambitious claims about the effectiveness of business and entrepreneurship in reaching people with the Christian message - in ways that traditional missions and tent-making ministries cannot do. I was particularly impressed with this book's emphasis on ethics. Lots of case studies, including non-success stories.
The End of an Era: Africa and the Missionary, Elliott Kendall. London: SPCK, 1978. Documents the postcolonial shift in missions work in Africa, and urges churches to work cross-culturally on a church to church basis rather than through mission bodies that emphasize an attitude of "our work" and one way resource transfers.
Poverty and Christianity - Reflections at the Interface between Faith and Experience, Michael Taylor (Bernard Gilpin Pastoral Theology Lectures for 2000, University of Durham). London: SCM Press, 2000. Difficult reading, but important for understanding intelligent doubts about Christianity, and for doing the spiritual and intellectual work to prepare for faithful public witnessing in a terribly hurting world. Baptist minister and social theologian Michael Taylor writes, from a background of twelve years of leading the British agency Christian Aid: "My experience of famine in the Horn of Africa led me to re-examine my belief in a loving and powerful God. My experience of disastrous floods in Bangladesh led to doubts about the impact of Christianity and its claim to be redemptive and creative." If your faith remains intact after carefully reading this book, you will be a stronger evangelist.
Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World, Lee C. Camp. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2003. Many of the ideas in this book are familiar to long-time Evangelicals for Social Action members, Sojourners readers, John Howard Yoder fans, etc. However, this book conveniently packages a comprehensive and unified outline of radical evangelical discipleship - that is, if Jesus is truly Lord, what are the implications for our prayer life, for the way we conduct church, and what are the implications for prayer, evangelism, and our political, social and economic behavior? For those who've never quite thought in those terms but are open to considering such ideas, Lee's book is an excellent introduction, one that respects the intelligence of the reader.
I've always believed, despite the evidence of the religion industry, that the more conservative our theology is, the more radical our practice ought to be. Lee Camp presents the case for this viewpoint. It is well-written but not always easy reading; on the other hand, for those who want to go even further than the text, there's a lot of additional material in the footnotes. I would love to try this book in an adult Sunday school class, one that was prepared to do some real work.
I've put some quotations below under the subtopic Quotations XI.
The "responses" below include suggestions from others, a few Web sites, additional books from me, and a series of quotations from various books, including many on the list above. See especially Quotations IV from Missions and the Peace Witness and Quotations V from Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission.
This page is moderated by Johan Maurer as part of the "Evangelism and the Friends Testimonies" project, supported during the academic year 2003-04 by the Ferguson Quaker Fellowship program of Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre. Johan has a minute of service from Reedwood Friends Church.
