Theology and Practice of Mission: God, the Church, and the Nations

Theology disconnected from mission is not Christian theology at all. The pastors professors and missionaries writing Theology and Practice of Mission provide a clear biblical-theological framework for understanding the churchs mission to the nations. Toward that goal the book holds three major sections: Gods mission the churchs mission and the churchs mission to the nations. Part one explores the canon of Christian Scripture from narrative and systematic angles explaining how the mission of God-to redeem a people who will be a kingdom of priests to the praise of his glory bear witness to his gospel advance his church and dwell with him forever on a new heaven and earth-is communicated in the Bibles four movements: Creation Fall Redemption and Restoration. Part two sees the mission of Gods people in the light of Gods mission emphasizing not only preaching and church planting but also gospel witness in every dimension of human culture-glorifying God in family church work community through the arts sciences education business and the public square. The writers encourage us to live missionally leaving all of our resources at Gods disposal for the sake of his kingdom. Finally part three contends that the North American church must come to terms with its missional calling-just as international missionaries do-and gives a starting point and parameters for conceiving the churchs mission to all people groups and cultural contexts. Chapters here include ones on unreached people groups Muslims Hindus Buddhists and Postmoderns.