Review of John Hammett's Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches

John S. Hammett, Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology.

Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005.

You can order it through Amazon here

Perhaps because so few Baptists understand why they believe what they do about the church, Dr. John Hammett, Associate Dean of Theological Studies at Southeastern Seminary, attempts to lay a theological foundation for ecclesiology from an historical Baptist perspective. This point of view guides the reader into the core of what Baptists believe about the church.

            In the first part of his book, Hammett begins with the biblical foundation for doing church. Tasking the aspects of the nature, marks and essence of the church, he outlines a true definition of the church. Hammett sees the church as the ekklesia of the Bible, the called out ones, both on a local and universal level. Using Trinitarian imagery of the people of God, the body of Christ and the temple of the Spirit, Hammett highlights the church’s nature. The church is marked by unity, holiness, universality and apostolicity. In its very essence, the true church is organized, local, growing, gospel-based and Spirit-empowered. These objective statements help to lay the groundwork for his argument that church should have an ontologically biblical foundation.

            In part two Hammett turns to more cultural expressions to describe Baptist praxis. He argues that a clear Baptist mark is regenerate membership, not a mixture of saved and unsaved. He draws upon Baptist church history to make a case for believers’ baptism, congregational polity, closed communion and church discipline. Although fundamentally sound, his written argument is weakened in part by his heavy reliance upon historical precedence rather than textual support from Scripture. This overreliance on historical praxis is usually more of a hallmark of Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism than of western evangelicalism. Hammett claims that Baptist churches have gone astray by losing their historical adherence to church covenants as binding agreements for enforcing church discipline, something that the early church of Scripture did not explicitly address. This seems to be a culturally-biased assessment for the American church, as many Baptist conventions worldwide have tended to err in the opposite direction, often by annually excommunicating more members than they baptize.

            In part three Hammett makes a case for congregational church polity. He briefly surveys Presbyterianism and the Episcopal tradition, and he blanketly declares them to be unbiblical. On the basis of excluding all other options, congregationalism is declared the ecclesiological victor. However, his argument again is weakened slightly by a noticeable absence of any theological objections to congregationalism. Perhaps this is simply outside the scope of his book. He does address cultural and practical challenges, but there is no theological dialogue.

Hammett successful employs the images of church as being a non-hierarchal structure based on mutuality and democracy. As Scriptural evidence he cites the fact that the epistles were addressed to entire churches, not just to their leaders. Hammett’s argument for congregationalism is largely built upon his supposition that “the New Testament uses the terms elder, overseer (bishop), and pastor interchangeably” (p. 154). In chapters 7 and 8, Hammett explores these definitions of eldership in more depth. He also deals with the qualifications of deacons and problems associated with ordination. He cites Baptist historical use of these terms for further evidence. It can be counter-argued that this supposition is not universally accepted all Baptists; therefore, Hammett’s argument for congregationalism is based on a traditional cultural translation of biblical terminology. Nonetheless, Hammett asserts that Baptists should “resist elder rule” (p. 157).

In part four Hammett fleshes out the functions of church. Highlighting the ministries of teaching, fellowship, worship, service and evangelism, Hammett surveys Southern Baptist pastors Rick Warren and Mark Dever for their practical applications of these ministries in their respective churches. Hammett seems to exhibit a clear preference for Dever’s approach. In chapter 10 he expands his observations to deal with practical questions regarding the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Interestingly, chapters 11 and 12 in his final section deal with the missiological dialogue between Baptists and postmodernists or Baptists and the rest of the world outside of America. Inadvertently, Hammett has raised the question of Baptists’ relevance both domestically and internationally. He rightly highlights the current problems Baptist missionaries face with their Pentecostal counterparts, the emerging church phenomenon and the rapid growth of Islam. However, Hammett seems to advocate a very conservative stance in church planting as a solution to dialogical conflict.

Hammett’s assessments regarding ecclesiological doctrine and the necessity of a proper theological framework for church planting is warranted. However, I am concerned that this book could be classified as more of a catechism for historical Baptist polity in America than a dialogue with the rest of the world. Hammett’s insistence on Baptist church history tends to make this book a defense from the past rather than a conversation with the present. If that is what he intended, to show Baptist ecclesiology’s historical roots, then his book is very successful. But his last two chapters indicate at least a desire on his part to create a dialogue with non-traditionalists, so in this regard his book could benefit from yet another chapter or two devoted to dialogical exchange and counter-arguments. Overall, however, the book is a must-have for lovers of Baptist history and for students of protestant theology.

Review of Justin Martyr's First Apology (How It Relates to Missions)

Justin (Martyr). The First Apology of Justin. Cited in Roberts, Alexander, James

Donaldson and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., The Apostolic Fathers with Justin

Martyr and Irenaeus.Vol. 1 of Ante-Nicene Fathers: The Writings of the Fathers

Down to A.D. 325. New York: Cosimo, 2007.

At first glance an apologetic book (a treatise of defense of Christianity) would not be a missions book, but Justin’s Apology gives a glimpse into a historical time period of Christian persecution as well as has serious implications for Christian missions. Justin’s book is a defense against the injustice that Christians are experiencing at that time, largely due to their association with the name Christian. Therefore, it is a call for Antoninus to stop these persecutions.

Christians are being unjustly condemned and even charged with atheism and treason, the equivalent of modern date hate speech. Justin, however, points out that Christians above all are good moral people and that all of the elements of Christianity are widely accepted in other forms of cultural mythology. Justin says that Christian beliefs are to be found even in heathen religions; however, the clearer form of those beliefs is evidenced in Christianity. As propaganda circulated in the first century AD about Christians as being cannibals and committing incest, Justin also has to counter those accusations. Justin’s apologetic work raises several cross-cultural issues that relate to missions today.

            First, Justin’s claim that Christians demand a higher moral standard than most is at question in modern missiological circles. His claim is based on the evidence of morality prevalent in the lives of those who adhere to the faith. From a modern western perspective, Christian missions has to constantly readdress the issue of morality. The role missions plays in seeking out justice for the oppressed, liberating those in chains, and demanding a moral standard for society has been infused into the cultural mandate. Justin, it seems, would have had no problem with addressing these modern issues.

            Second, his interaction with a pluralistic or even polytheistic society is still representative of the missions endeavors of some Christian workers today. Justin plainly labeled these indigenous gods as “demons” (p. 164). He frankly commented that “in obedience to Him, we not only deny that they who did such things as these are gods, but assert that they are wicked and impious demons, whose actions will not bear comparison with those even of men desirous of virtue” (p. 164). This brings to light our modern missionary methods of pluralist interaction and interfaith dialogue. Perhaps we have become too uncomfortable in naming false gods and demonic spirits at ecumenical tables. Justin clearly would not have been shy about that.

            Third, the missions mandate of Christians is evidenced in his statement that not only proper legal defense but Christian duty demands verbal witness. For Justin, “it is our task, therefore, to afford to all an opportunity of inspecting our life and teachings, lest, on account of those who are accustomed to be ignorant of our affairs, we should incur the penalty due to them for mental blindness” (p. 163). He believed that missions should occur naturally as an outgrowth of the Christian life. Failure to be intentionally missional is to participate in the spread of ignorance about Christ and his followers.

            Perhaps Justin’s apologetic work has more to say to us in the area of contextualization than it may seem at first glance. The church’s mission is more than a historical activity of spreading the gospel. In a much larger way, missions should involve the outworking of the gospel in every aspect of Christian life. 

Video: Road to Zion: Personal Revival

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Blessings!

Road to Zion: Personal Revival

Honored to preach at Sherwood Baptist Church in Albany, Ga, on 7/15/2012

Sermon: Road to Zion: Personal Revival

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Review of Michael Green's Evangelism in the Early Church

Green, Michael. Evangelism in the Early Church. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.

Can be ordered from Amazon here

Michael Green’s book makes some good implications for missionary praxis today. By looking at the history of Green’s analysis of evangelism in its first two hundred years after Pentecost, missiologists can draw comparisons between the background of the first two centuries and the modern situation. Because Green’s book is not an attempt to “give a comprehensive account of the mission of the Church in the broad sense” (p. 8), comparisons are limited to those issues related to practical evangelism.

            Green begins his book with a highlight of the 1990s as a decade that should have been a golden time of evangelism. However, he shows how the existentialism of the mid-twentieth century led to post-modernism and deconstructionism with their emphases on evangelism as a personal process for discovering God and a high value on relationships. This is somewhat like the background he describes for the first two centuries in Rome. If there is complexity in spreading the gospel in modern society, there is encouragement in looking at the obstacles faced by the Jewish and Graeco-Roman cultures. Green believes that although the strategies and tactics of early Christians were not “particularly remarkable, what was remarkable was their conviction, their passion and their determination to act as Christ’s embassy to a rebel world, whatever the consequences” (p. 23). Green posits that these characteristics should be the foundation for our present day evangelism efforts as well.

He emphasizes the three elements that allowed a pathway for facilitating the gospel in the first century. The Pax Romana gave an open door for easy movement throughout the Roman Empire. Greek Culture, expressed in a widely disseminated language, gave a structure to presenting the gospel within a single world-view. Judaism had a political appeal with the Roman society that gave the first evangelists a positive footing for sharing the gospel. As modern missiologists, we could say that the early Church contextualized its message for the Graeco-Roman listeners, but it is very clear that they utilized what was available to facilitate the spread of the gospel.

He also outlines the obstacles faced by evangelists. The early Church’s Christology as presented by untrained “nobodies” (p. 51) was a problem to Jewish scholars. The ecclesiology that empowered a local congregation also led to a split between the church and the synagogue. Roman culture also proved to be antagonistic to the private superstitio advocated by these new Christians, and Romans took offense at the Church’s reluctance to worship with the Imperial cult. Intellectuals objected to the wisdom of the cross, and social elites discriminated against the culturally inferior Christians. Truly, evangelism involved “social odium, political danger, the charge of treachery to the gods and the state, the insinuation of horrible crimes and calculated opposition from a combination of sources more powerful, perhaps, than at any time since” (p. 75). Yet, insight into their longsuffering under religious persecution is still apropos for many Christians worldwide today.

According to biblical prophecy, missionary practitioners must help the church face another wave of coming persecution. Of utmost importance is teaching young Christians how to stand under persecution in such a way that the message of the gospel still goes forward. Missionaries must constantly study the backdrop of his target culture to see what pathways exist for facilitating the gospel. And missionaries should help new church plants have a biblical foundation for understanding the primacy of Christ and how a true church behaves. Christology and ecclesiology may have taken some hits in the past, but missions will be impacted directly by a proper theology of Christ and His church. 

Review of Roland Allen's Spontaneous Expansion of the Church

Allen, Roland. The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church. Eugene, Ore.: Wipf and Stock, 1997,

c1962.

Can be ordered through Amazon here

or

Can be read online free here 

 Roland Allen makes a stinging call for the missions movement to take a more hands-off approach to control and an initiation of rapidity and indigeneity. His primary thesis is that because our traditional missionary methods “have sprung into existence as the almost inevitable consequence of our own attitude and training and that in employing them we have unconsciously, and often unwillingly, created an atmosphere in which spontaneous expansion is almost impossible” (p. 41), we should make an intentional effort now to “establish native churches free from our control” (p. 5). Allen’s argument is forthright and finds its target in the modern missions movement.

  Allen begins his argument by defining spontaneous expansion. To him, it is “the expansion which follows the unexhorted and unorganized activity of individual members of the Church explaining to others the Gospel which they have found for themselves” (p. 7). It is the natural outworking or unorganized, attractive church planting, free from the burden of professional missionaries who inadvertently place cultural restrictions on church development. Our problem, according to Allen, is the control western missionaries have exercised in church planting.

  He defends his argument by referring to Christ’s method of raising up leaders. Whereas Christ spent a couple of years with a potential leader and then released him for ministry, modern missionaries have tended to be long-term agents who do not release control. A healthy church is one which is self-supporting, self-governing, and self-propagating, but missionaries have tended to favor institutions and unions over the apostolic church.

 Allen lists several barriers to this spontaneous expansion. Our fear for doctrinal purity has led some to extend the time for receiving baptism, to offer special training for national clergy, to ordain the best and give only them authority, to make extra-biblical requirements for being a Christian. Instead of furthering the pure gospel, a code of morals has been set that defines Sabbath observance, which meats to eat and how many wives a national might have. This, in Allen’s opinion, is nothing more than the restricting attempts of Judaizers in the early church.

Missionaries themselves have contributed to the adversity to spontaneous expansion. They have set up foreign homes instead of being incarnational. They minister to third or fourth generation national Christians instead of reaching the lost. They build western hospitals and schools or identify with western philosophical ideas rather than pushing for indigenous expansion. They unwittingly set up standards for clothing styles that lead to syncretism. They establish missionary organizations that promote a professional few who may engage in missions. Even their converts become paid agents of that organization and further this destructive method.

Allen, on the contrary, calls for a different method. He believes that a newly constituted church should “find out for itself what being a church means in daily practice, to find out that it can do things as a church” (p. 150). Although much progress has been done in the area of world missions, Allen suggests much more needs to be done to push indigeneity. This, in turn, will produce more healthy churches that can reach the world for Christ.

Allen’s book is a classic that should be read by any serious student of missiology as well as any practitioner. Much of what other missiologists have identified in studying church planting movements echoes what Allen suggested for indigeneity. His call for releasing control to individual national churches does not fall upon deaf ears. It is as applicable today to the modern missions field as it was at the turn of last century. 

Review of Frost & Hirsch The Shaping of Things to Come

Frost, Michael, and Alan Hirsch. The Shaping of Things to Come: Innovation and Mission for the

21st-Century Church. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 2003.

 Can be ordered from Amazon by clicking here

It is true we are living in changing times. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch not only recognize this as a historical truth, but they offer a theological proposition for what the authors consider the impending irrelevance of the current church. Indeed quite an indictment, the theological judgment is coupled with an offer of a major shift in thinking for the Christian church of the West. This book is an Australian perspective on the current state of the Western church that both bites and instructs (or what many theologians mean by "informs").

            Frost and Hirsch build their argument by declaring their own orthodoxy, and yet the book is really written to promote “emerging missional communities” that are not particularly concerned with orthodoxy. Say Wha? The book is intended to give legitimacy to the emerging church and to justify its role in missiology by providing a vocabulary for the current praxis. The authors construct their line of reasoning by surveying what they call the Christendom church, the church as has existed from Constantine up to the present day, and then exposing the inherent weaknesses and growing irrelevance in that approach. After a quick overview of what the authors define as biblical Christianity, they promote an alternative post-Christendom church that is radically different from Constantine's baby.

            The authors unabashedly borrow terms from a wide variety of theological camps to support their proposition that Christendom-thinking has almost died, laying in the casket already and stinking. By identifying with the postmodern culture, the authors instead advocated a “wholesale change in the way Christians are doing and being the church” (ix). The book is not intended to be prescriptive, but the authors do cite many current models in their advocacy for the creativity they say is necessary to reach post-Christendom.

            To build their argument further, Frost and Hirsch define Christendom-thinking (remember Constantine?) by discussing four of its main elements. First, the traditional church has been an attractional model where lost people are asked to come to a building to find Christ. Second, there has been a dualistic framework for separating the sacred from the secular. As such, Christendom has placed a premium on sacred places for meeting. Third, the Christendom model is hierarchal with a separation of clergy and laity. Fourth, even the sacraments have become institutionalized and have lost their meaning.

            The authors counter this irrelevant model with a post-Christendom church model. Instead of being attractional, Frost and Hirsch advocate a missional approach with the church going to the lost instead of asking them to come to church. They also advocate neutral space where lost people can be met in a nonthreatening environment. They say that average Christians should lead the ministry of the church instead of relying on a hierarchal system of authority. And they promote a messianic or Hebraic renewal of Christianity’s initial roots to discover the deeper meaning behind the sacraments.

            Part of what the authors promote is valid. The traditional church has indeed lost its understanding of meaning behind the tradition. But to advocate a radical overhaul of the church might be considered reckless, rebellious, and redundant (that would preach if I had a poem to close with). Frost’s and Hirsch’s argument is paradoxical at worst and a wake up call for the church at best.

Some of what the authors promote is reckless. To abandon the entire historical church model on the whims of one emerging culture might not be warranted. Granted the church should adapt the medium to reach the current generation, but the authors philosophically identify the medium as the message, so I think there is perhaps some confusion as to what defines the church at its core, the true biblical functions of the church and the reality of the gospel message.

The authors could also be accused of rebellion. Rebellion can be revolutionary (see Lenin). Rebellion  could also be mutinous (see Bligh). Rebellion can also be foundational for a new identity (see Tea Party). I simply wonder if the  great majority of Christian history needs corrective action versus switching sides.

Much of what the authors promote is redundant. Although the book is sprinkled with various diagrams and charts to identify the church and culture, it seems that most of the information presented is simply an integration of ideas from current social sciences. Their vocabulary is definitely fresh, but it seems that nothing the authors endorse is new to a healthy historical and biblical church model. The church has never previously used the term “not yet Christians,” for example, but they have used the term prospects. Even their APEPT five-fold ministry formula is in reality an adaptation of the Pauline teaching method in Ephesians.

It is true that an unhealthy imbalance has been generated as the church has historically ignored apostolic and prophetic leadership, but to say that it has been nonexistent is to be naive to Christian history. Therefore, the authors’ arguments should not fall upon deaf ears in the West, but it should be read within a larger historical perspective. For this reason the book has some valid missiological implications for planting churches cross-culturally.

However, perhaps the greatest fault of the book is the potential to fall into the same snare for which it denounces the traditional church. Christendom established a certain mode of doing church. The authors identify both a new model and new mode for doing church, and almost in an either-or approach, they say the West should jump off the old wagon and onto the new. Even if the main points of the argument are valid, Frost and Hirsch would do well to balance their new vision with a broader historical perspective. 

Review of David Garrison's Church Planting Movements

Garrison, David. Church Planting Movements: How God is Redeeming a Lost World. Richmond,

Va.: WigTake Resources, 2003.

Can be ordered through Amazon.com here

David Garrison takes a descriptive approach in his book to define the phenomenon called church planting movements whereby churches reproduce rapidly. In his book he outlines a brief history of his personal involvement with the study as well as an overview of the general parameters that define a church planting movement or CPM. A scientific study by no means, Garrison’s book is based on observations and reports from International Mission Board field personnel, national conventions and other protestant sources. Throughout these narrative descriptions, he sprinkles CPM teaching points such as the POUCH method typical in CPM churches.

            In part 2, he tells the geographic story of how church planting movements are breaking out all over the world. In Asia he begins the story with India’s billion-strong population as he describes a CPM incidence across several geographic points resulting in 4000 new churches planted within a 7 year period. He then moves to China to describe how a CPM there has resulted in a rate of 30,000 baptisms per day and thousands of house churches being planted each year. He describes other cases of CPM in Southeast Asia and especially highlights the Singapore home-cell mega church movement that has led to the forty-fold explosion of evangelical Christian adherents.

            Africa is also emphasized for its CPMs among the Muhaber in Ethiopia, the Maasai in Tanzania and the Teso people of Uganda. He then turns his attention to the Islamic world where some CPMs are breaking out in undisclosed locations. Latin America has also experienced CPMs among the Kekchi people of Guatemala. Interestingly, Europe seems to be the least frequent in the CPM phenomena, but there are emerging movements among refugees and gypsies there.

            In North America, Garrison points back to the nineteenth century for one example of a church planting movement, a phenomenon considered a revival at the time. Other examples of protestant CPM-like phenomena include a cell church model in Pennsylvania and explosive church growth at Saddleback, Willow Creek, and the Bethany World Prayer Center.

            In part 3, he outlines 10 universal elements present in observed CPMs. Then he lists 10 characteristics of most CPMs. Finally, he lists observed barriers to CPM that must be removed because they are the seven deadly sins against God’s movement.

In chapter 12, Garrison appears to deal with the theology of a church planting movement by describing the biblical basis for CPM characteristics. Only at the end of the book does he deal with practical or logistical issues like the definition of church, how volunteers can be used even though outsiders must keep a low profile, the role of foreign funding and formal theological education in a CPM environment.

Chapter 16 is a practical workbook for identifying and managing the universal elements, characteristics and obstacles.

Although he did a good job in describing CPMs occurring throughout the world, there are a few areas where Garrison falls short. He somewhat fails to communicate that these observations are from a descriptive rather than prescriptive approach. In fact the entire book format lends itself to being a self-help document for churches wishing to start their own CPM. Because he is not explicit about these matters, the tone of the book is more of a how-to manual rather than a celebratory documentation. He even includes a whole section entitled “Launch Pad” as a diagnostic workbook for individual churches to discover their CPM readiness. In an evangelical world full of quick fixes for church growth, this propensity toward prescription weakens the book’s overall effect. 

Review of Wade Akins' Pioneer Evangelism

Thomas Wade Akins, Pioneer Evangelism: Growing Churches and Planting New Ones That are Self-Supporting Using New Testament Methods (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Junta de Missoes Nacionais, 1999)

You can download a free PDF copy in multiple languages here

Having served in Vietnam and Brazil, Wade Akins is now a retired missionary from the International Mission Board. Using the materials he formulated on the field, he now trains church planters in Tennessee. His Pioneer Evangelism training was effective in raising the level of church planting substantially in Brazil.

Pioneer Evangelism is a program that Wade Akins implemented after returning to Brazil from his first stateside assignment as an International Mission Board missionary. During his first term, he had been personally involved in starting twelve new churches in Minas Gerais, Brazil, but he thought this was not rapid enough. So in his second term he implemented training materials largely influenced and borrowed from Charles Brock and Curtis Sergeant. As he shifted his focus from hands-on church planting to training nationals, he saw sixty-three new congregations started within two years. This book is a compilation of the training materials that were used to train these nationals.

            At the beginning of the manual, Akins outlines the differences between traditional models of church planting and what he calls the Pioneer Evangelism model. To make his point, he defines the leadership roles of bishops, deacons and elders within the framework of what is understood as the functions of the church. Akins correlates the leadership offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist and teacher to the functions of church. In doing so, he places the office or gift of evangelist within the reach of any person in the congregation. “These are the people we are calling ‘pioneers’ in the Pioneer Evangelism ministry” (22). His main point is that anyone can be an evangelist if they would only commit themselves.

            After a brief survey of definitions involved in the manual, Akins presents his training material in four parts. The first part, which he labels the principles, involves his ecclesiological philosophy behind this shift in his missiological thinking. He then presents the practicality of his manual, a basic guide for implementing Charles Brock’s materials in the Pioneer Evangelism model. There is also a planning section in which he utilizes Curtis Sergeant’s methodology for breaking the process down into manageable cycles. Finally, he includes appendices of Charles Brock’s, Waylon Moore’s and Christy Akins Brawner’s training materials. The appendices make up over half of the entire book.

            Akins’ basic methodology is to recruit lay persons to become appointed evangelists for an existing church. These evangelists find lost persons of peace in a targeted area and begin inductive bible studies in their homes or in another neutral location. Utilizing this person’s circle of influence, more people are attracted to form an evangelistic bible study through which people can hear the gospel and be saved. Those who are saved are then trained for further expansion into yet other groups using the same materials. Once several groups have been formed, they are intentionally combined for worship services and formed into a local church. Newly formed local churches then seek to reproduce the same process for starting new groups.

            In short, Akin’s book is a one-stop guide for starting bible studies with nationals. His approach is that of a trainer for trainers. The materials he presents show how to form a group, present the gospel, disciple the converts, train them to reproduce the teaching and multiply into further groups. As such, Akin compiles some simple training that church planting practitioners have used with success and presents it with relative brevity and candor. 

Akins states that his purpose for writing the Pioneer Evangelism program was “to bring every person to know Jesus Christ as the first priority in life” (3). This is a lofty goal for missions let alone for a training manual. His unstated purpose, though, is to provide a training manual for missionary practitioners that compiles proven programs and presents them in a straightforward format. Because of his emphasis on training lay persons in evangelism, the manual is to be training for trainers.

            Akins accomplishes his goal for presenting a program for training national lay people. According to his personal testimony of its success in Brazil, the program is valid for use in cross-cultural situations. However, it is in essence one program among many that exist. Whereas Akins’ slant is on equipping the lay person to do evangelism, other programs take different approaches. The success of Akins’ presentation is in its minimalism in relation to evangelism training. Not much is needed to begin this program, and any materials involved accompany the manual in an appendix. This is a positive facet to being so straightforward, but it might present a too simplistic approach for some. 

Positive Aspects of the Book

Effective Church Planting Model

The church planting model that Akins presents really does work in some contexts. Akins presents a plan that he personally has proven. The introductory testimony of Brazil’s rapid growth is reflective of an emerging church planting movement. Many books have been written from a theoretical perspective, but Akins brings practical experience into play. As such, Akins argument for using the Pioneer Evangelism method is only strengthened. The model of starting new groups is basic and simple to implement.    

Empowering the Laity

Akins takes a biblical approach to his church planting process. As Akins shows from his survey of Scripture regarding the role of pastor, the average church member should be equipped to do ministry. Each church member should be expected to be involved in the evangelistic outreach of the church. Akins capitalizes on this biblical principle. Perhaps this is one of the most positive elements of the Pioneer Evangelism program.

Evangelistic Emphasis

Akins’ program expresses the heart of the gospel. Akins believes that various evangelism methods like “personal testimony, sharing the plan of salvation directly, Bible studies without studies, Bible studies using indirect methods [and] storying” (48) can be used successfully to reach people for Christ. Although he claims that the Pioneer Evangelism method is not a program that can be canned and presented, he does a great job in compiling the best of many evangelism programs to create a toolbox of potential evangelistic instruments.

Negative Aspects of the Book

Clergy/Laity Confusion

There is some confusion as to what Akins defines as pioneers. At first, he says that evangelists are “those that proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ with the purpose of winning souls,” and that “these are the people we are calling ‘pioneers’ in the Pioneer Evangelism ministry” (22). Later, he says a team of disciples in a church “is what we call the Pioneers in this training manual” (25). He insists that the trainers in this program must be the pastors, but he then explains that the lay pioneers are paid or supported by the churches as well. Each pioneer must become a PEL, or pioneer evangelism leader, but he later equates the PEL to a pastor’s role while the saints are the lay people. In the beginning, the pioneer is an evangelist. He wins souls and afterwards teaches these new believers the basic doctrines of the faith. However, the next step is to raise up local leaders, leaving he work in their hands, in order for him to start new work in a new neighborhood or city (44). This confusion in roles could be diminished or greatly reduced without such a sharp distinction between clergy and laity, but Akins cannot get away from the two traditional categories.

Complex Reproduction

Although Akins’ model is straightforward at the beginning stage of starting a new group, it

involves a complexity at the reproductive level that unnecessarily burdens the process. Perhaps

this is due to the inability to see each group as a church, Akins waits until several groups are formed to combine their strength into one congregation. This is perhaps practical in areas where groups are formed at a rapid rate, but in areas where groups are separated by large distances or even subcultures, the complexity of combining groups lends itself to a cumbersome structure. It would be much simpler to allow the individual groups to exist as separate churches. Related to the complex burden of starting multiple groups before a worship service can be created is the issue of sequentialism. It seems that Akins’ model is rather linear in thought, something that might not work well in an eastern environment where step-by-step progression is not valued.

House Church with Traditional Baggage

There are several points throughout his book where Akins seems to deal with his own internal ecclesiological conflict. At one point, Akins talks about training new leaders in democratic principles for church polity and the need for strong leadership to govern the group (40). At other times, although he cites Paul’s examples of house church as the biblical model, he speaks of training pioneers in sermon preparation, something that is typically more associated with traditional church models. Moreover, he insists that several good news groups must be combined to make a worship service. The more traditional elements of the western church seem to direct his end vision of what a church must look like. Akins insists that laymen must become officers of the church by fulfilling the evangelism role. If lay people are to have an official position, there is no distinction between laity and clergy; however, this confusion is more reflective of traditional church models than simple house churches.  

Applications to Church Planting

Function of Church

Akins defines church functions as the roles that are given in Ephesians 4:11–12. Although others tie the function of the church to passages like Acts 2:42–47, Akins outlines four functions that each church must fulfill (22). The sending role, the preaching role, the evangelizing role and the training role make up Akins’ ecclesiastical utility. Although there is some confusion as to the difference between pastor as trainer and evangelist who later becomes a trainer, Akins believes these elements should exist in healthy churches.

The problem then arises when a new church plant is seeking its identity as a growing church. If a church plant does not ever have a member who becomes pastor but only a trainer who is an evangelist, it might never see itself as a church. In his training manual, Akins offers no instruction for the place of fellowship and ministry as a function of the church. Because his coaching leans so heavily to the evangelistic side, there are potential problems with helping a maturing body to function more healthily.    

Western Emphasis on Intellectual Decisions

Akins’ teaching is a reflection upon western Christianity’s emphasis on making decisions for Christ. Akins does not approach the elements of pre-discipleship or household conversion as is so often prevalent in church planting movements. Moreover, Akins’ approach is that of a classroom discussion where a lecturer passes information on to her students. Granted he admonishes an inductive approach to bible study, but his training methods are more of direct instruction rather than allowance for self-theologizing.

            In some locations throughout the world, missionaries must train by hands-on example instead of classroom instruction. Although Brazil is open to this type of traditional western style, some countries like Russia and some people groups like the Udmurt and Chuvash find it difficult to understand linear instruction. They instead must see the work being done.

Church Planting Funding

Another issue at stake in the pioneering church planting model is that of funding. Although Akins does not address the issue of funding in his training material, church planters worldwide have to deal with the issue of who will pay for the ongoing training. If training is linked to materials that must be reproduced or neutral places to rent, at some point money has to be discussed. Akins readily accepts the idea of a self-supporting church, but he does not address the funding of pioneer work where there are no churches or where an existing church has no means to produce photocopies of training materials. This will be an ongoing discussion as missionaries try to find more reproducible ways at lower costs to spread the gospel.

            Akins’ book is a step toward more rapid reproductive evangelism, but it is still not church planting movement methodology. Therefore, what Akins offers is an invaluable tool in the church planting toolbox. However, it is only one tool and must be used with other tools to see its potential for greater reproducibility.

Review of Wolfgang Simson's Houses that Change the World

Wolfgang Simson, Houses That Change the World: The Return of the House Churches.

Carlisle, UK and Waynesboro, GA: OM Publishing, 2003, c1999.

You can order a hardcopy of the book through Amazon or you can dowload a free PDF version here

Wolgang Simson’s primary thesis is that there is only one type of church structure that is adequate for fulfilling the Great Commission. Simson’s book has as its major premise that house church is the only real biblical model of church and therefore has the advantage over all other models. This book is self-defined as a vision statement, a manifesto and a church planting manual.

Simson begins his argument by defining the current status of church planting in the world. Keep in mind that this was written over a decade ago. By focusing on four main themes–women, family fathers, five-fold ministry and pastors–Simson believes he can help define the major factors that will affect the future of the Christian church. He starts this in chapter one with a discussion on the church gap resulting from the huge exodus of people who have been dissatisfied and frustrated with the existing church. This dissatisfaction, he believes, is a result of an improper understanding of church and a refusal to meet where God intended it to meet. If churches would meet in homes, women, fathers and pastors could exercise their natural roles to help the church experience its fullness in the home.

Simson does a good job in chapter two of giving an historical overview of the institutionalized church throughout the Dark Ages. The professionalization of the priesthood mixed with the banning of the house church led to an acceptance of only state-sanctioned and state-controlled church structures. Although men like Luther, Schwenkfeld and Spener made some efforts to reform the institutionalized church, their attempts often were thwarted or redirected. Wesleyan cells and the Anabaptist movement experienced a revival of sorts, since both insisted upon the house-based church structure. Simson comes close at the end of that chapter to identifying all opposition to house church as false prophets.

In chapter three Simson explains the nature of house church. His main point is that the structure or locale of house church drives the nature of the church. The elements of a shared meal, shared possessions, mutual teaching and corporate prayer made up the essence of house church. Simson draws upon biblical references to prove that churches met in homes, and then he makes some practical applications based upon the theory that entire families were involved in those meetings.

Simson explains the five-fold ministry more fully in chapter five. After a unique rendition of calculations and multiplication theorems, he jettisons into a discourse of pastors, prophets, apostles, teachers and evangelists. These roles of church leadership are exercised in three areas–eldership, five-fold ministers and apostolic fathers. The proofs for his argument are backed by biological examples of acidic soil.

To solve the current problem of frustration with church, Simson suggests house church as the natural solution. He enlists the example of Yonggi Cho’s cell model to contrast an imperfect solution. The more natural and more biblical model of house church has thirteen reasons why it has the advantage. Among those are the shared leadership, the success rate in peaceful countries, the holistic nature of house church, a flat structure, elder-led in a decentralized format, flexible worship format and low visibility. These kinds of advantages make the house church a more successful model for church planting.

In chapter six Simson deals with the blessing of persecution. His argument is not just how to survive persecution but how to thrive under it. With almost a martyrdom syndrome, Simson celebrates the historical examples of growth under persecution and then moves to identify the persecutor as religion itself.

Chapters seven and eight are devoted to change. As a basic call for revolution, Simson outlines how a traditional church can transition into a house church. He lists some of the potential positive outcomes for this transition and then gives practical advice in how to move a church through the change process.

He entitles the next chapter “QSQ” to describe the movement of the Holy Spirit to initiate a different kind of quality into the church that is spirit-led. That quality leads to a new structure, the right one being house church. And then that structure drives the quantity, more reproduction of smaller groups. He draws upon the work of German research Christian Schwarz to justify his theory that smaller groups reproduce more quickly and thereby become more healthy churches.

The last three chapters of his book are more of a pep-rally to enlist the reader’s support for a house church movement. He again solicits the family image for a clearer picture of discipleship, and that can be accomplished only in house churches. Practical issues like fiscal responsibility and waste in overhead costs as well as the exercise of spiritual gifts are seen as obvious support for the house church model over the traditional church. Simson calls upon the reader to make a decision in the last chapter to become a part of this sweeping movement and to make small but significant steps to change the world by starting a house church.

Overall, Simson’s book is a worthy read, but there are some inherent dangers in his presuppositions. It is quite telling about his theology of the church, but perhaps a couple of flaws are worth noting. His insistence upon house church as the only biblical model is revelatory of his hermeneutical principle in reading the book of Acts and the epistles. To Simson, scriptural references to church planting are all prescriptive and not really descriptive. He leaves no room for the possibility that churches in the first century chose to meet in homes more out of preference or circumstance; instead, he posits that this was the apostolic model to be followed explicitly.

Furthermore, his comparisons between house and traditional church preaching are somewhat biased. He makes the assumption that no traditional church is doing any of the quality ministry that can be accomplished only in houses, therefore the preaching of today is also inadequate in comparison with the spiritual dialogue of house churches in the first century. Taking a step back from his apparent biased presuppositions would probably strengthen Simson’s argument tremendously. 

What do you think? Is the church that meets in a home inherently better than a church that meets in a storefront? or school building? or under a tree? or in the park? or in a coffee house? or in a white cinder-block building on a rural dirt road? The biggest question in my mind is whether the rejection of one form over another is warranted. If Simson's book is viewed as an introduction to a larger conversation about the missional activity of the local church, it's a worthy ice-breaker. 

Review of Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith

Andrew F. Walls, The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 2007) Available at Amazon

Andrew F. Walls has been a lay Methodist preacher for over fifty years and served as missionary to Sierra Leone and Nigeria. He is the founder of the Centre for the Study of Christianity in the Non-Western World. He is also a Professor Emeritus at the University of Edinburgh. He helps to guard the collections for the Afroki-Christaller Memorial Centre for Mission Research and Applied Theology in Ghana. He received a BA and MA from Oxford University with an emphasis on both theology and church history. The Missionary Movement in Christian History, his first book, was named one of the hundred most influential Christian books in the twentieth century.

Andrew Walls’ two books are both complementary as well as continuous. The Missionary Movement in Christian History was his first contribution of nineteen essays laying the groundwork for a supposition that the world’s center of missiological influence has shifted from the West to the South. He divided his book into three sections. Each section has its own flavor and uniqueness, but the thought does flow logically with the one building upon the argument of the former.

            Entitled “The Transmission of Christian Faith,” his first section deals with a historical overview of missions. In six essays he posits that missiological expansion was really only an episode in Christian history, a blip on the screen. But instead of downplaying its importance, Walls conversely highlights both the diversity and universality of Christianity as expressed in this movement. In one of the essays, the process is displayed in six phases moving from the apostle Paul to Europe and then on to Africa. He deals largely with the interaction between the spread of the gospel and how it transforms culture, so he hints at Africa’s importance in this section.

            In the second section he makes a transition to a clear emphasis on Africa. He interacts with the primal religions of Africa as well as with African Christianity in this section. He identifies exponential growth patterns and charismatic cultural tendencies that now characterize the African Christian Church. However, most interesting is his insistence in making a distinction between the history of the African Church and the history of Christian missions there. Whereas missions in Africa was historically led by Europeans, Walls argues that the evangelical revival in the African church was truly indigenous.

            Part three sets the stage for missiology. Walls believes there is a new era in Christian theology that is largely due to the demographic shift in global Christianity. He sees theology being shaped more by southern Christians than western ones. Issues like non-western art, scholarship, medicine and organizational methodology highlight the generational and gradual shift in values in southern countries. Walls believes that “Christians outside Africa will have to make some responses to the questions raised in the African arena” (146).   

The Cross-Cultural Process in Christian History, his second book contribution and continuation of the first, is divided into three parts as well. The first section is four chapters long and deals with a historical survey of how Christianity expanded in the West over the last twenty centuries and then declined. Relying heavily on Latourette’s History of the Expansion of  Christianity, the book culminates with an emphasis on the declining influence of Christianity on the European continent by the end of the last century. This section concludes with an essay entitled “The Ephesian Moment” wherein Walls arguably makes his most significant theological statement and identifies the current situation as yet another blending of cultures to experience Christ.  

            The second part is more non-Western focused with a special emphasis on Africa, Walls’ locale of missionary service. Describing a shift in the missions center of gravity from the West to the South, this section is also somewhat of a historical survey of the African continent. Walls’ main thrust in this section is what he calls a shift of influence from the North and West to the southern hemisphere. With this observation he also posits that mainstream Christian theology will be greatly influenced by African theologians in the coming years. He never identifies Africa as third world, but he predicts a future missiological climate change that will place greater emphasis on these southern continents that have typically grouped into that category. He includes three noteworthy essays that detail how Christianity engaged Islam in Africa during the nineteenth century.

            The final portion of his book returns to the western scene to survey the history of missions involvement in Europe and America. He highlights the volunteer movement, the introduction of laity to missions, the emergence of missions associations and the shift to protestant leadership in missions. Walls then ends this section with an article by David J. Bosch that summarizes the preceding emphases by bequeathing the title missiology to this study of Christian history.

Walls’ books have great merit for missiology and specifically for missiological historical studies. Although at times his books seem to be a haphazard collection of his essays from various time periods, Walls makes no apology. In fact, he readily admits at the outset that his books may seem repetitive and unyielding. Collected and lectured over a number of years, the essays cover a wide range of topics. Perhaps the three greatest emphases from his essays are the ebb and flow of missions progression, the distinction between foreign and indigenous conversion and how culture is transformed by the gospel. The several other unique emphases that Walls makes give the books academic value as well as practical worth, but it is these three that arguably yield the greatest contribution to missiological dialogue.  

Non-Western View of Missions History

Walls views missions history in a unique way. To Walls, Christian history is not a linear progression from Paul to the present but waves of victorious expansion and unfortunate recession. At times missions succeeds and Christianity does in fact progress, but at other times there is a waning aspect to whatever progress was made. This non-sequential aspect to Walls’ understanding of the missionary movement places him in a category by himself. Whereas Latourette shows a progressive expansion of Christianity from Pauline origins, Walls’ emphasis on the ebb and flow of this progression identify clear shifts in geographic and political power. Therefore his historical survey is not divorced from the social aspect of cultural change, neither internally nor externally.

Walls expands his notion of this non-linearity to describe new centers of Christian witness that in time also influence the next stages of Christian development. He builds upon this theme in defense of his ultimate thesis that the center of missions history is now in Africa. Walls is brazenly supportive of Africa. For him, Africa is representative of the Copernican shift that has taken place in Christianity. The world’s Christian population has relocated from a western center of influence up to the early twentieth century and dramatically transferred to the southern hemisphere.

Given the nature of this global shift in Christianity, the emphasis Walls places upon Africa is understandable. However, his books seem slightly unbalanced as they place an entire section of the emergent African theology without representing Latin America at all. He does nod slightly at the theological development within India, but this appears to be more in conjunction with the necessary interaction between Eastern Christianity and Islam throughout the Middle East. Unfortunately this omission creates a noticeable vacancy in the larger picture.

He tips his hand though in his last chapter as he hails David Bosch at the “greatest theologian of the twentieth century” without any apparent connection to the rest of his book. Granted Bosch was a great thinker, but his only connection with Walls’ thesis is that he came out of South Africa, a geographic location that could be argued is still more western in culture than southern. Walls’ thesis that a Copernican revolution in Christianity has replaced the influence of the West with that of the South, most notably African, is a challenge. Perhaps that is why he relies so heavily on African theology as almost a case study for the nonlinear argument.

Non-Western Conversion

Another significant observation is that Walls’ books are both historical and theological in nature. He often brings the two spheres into dialogue, but at times he seems to blur the two. Walls strongly asserts that Christendom no longer exists, and he is critical of the western notion of superiority with its idea of being chosen for missions expansion. Moreover, this non-western historical bias is displayed specifically in the theological understanding of conversion.

            Whereas the West has placed an emphasis on conversion as an intellectual decision to turn from a former life to a new one in Christ, Walls challenges the western notion that conversion is equivalent to proselytizing. For the West conversion implies a change in culture and finding Christ outside the cultural experience. Walls instead argues that a non-western understanding of conversion would be that of finding Christ already within the culture itself.

            This difference in theological understanding is, for Walls, “of fundamental importance” (68) and one of “the great issues of twenty-first-century Christianity” (69). This theological stance entails a more ecumenical approach to ecclesiology, but it also affects missiology. According to Walls, if there is to be “cooperation between native and foreign workers” (70), the West must allow for these non-western theologies to have equal footing on mission fields.

Walls’ books could truly be considered a survey of Christian missions but with a twist. His goal is to make the West aware of the coming non-western influence. He cites the Irish revival for its influence upon evangelicalism much in the same way that Luther impacted European Protestantism.

He challenges the reader to offer that same influential seat to African theology today. In doing so he drafts the missionary movement from its earliest post-Pauline endeavors to lay the groundwork for his predictions that today is the day of the African missionary movement. When Walls deals with the new emerging Ephesians moment, he attaches considerable significance to some potential pluralistic elements. Comparing the historical theological development as Greeks interacted with Jews to create new categories for Christ, Walls states openly that theologies, including those that detail how we understanding doctrines like atonement, will be drastically altered by the emerging influence from the South.

Non-Western Translation of Culture

Walls argues that Christianity evolves or morphs when transferred from one culture to another. The idea of cultural transformation by the gospel is not new. However, Walls capitalizes on this accepted fact to capitulate that the culture also transforms what is defined as good news. In doing so, he makes room for liberation theology among other ideas.

            Specifically, he creates a roundtable discussion for cultural nuances and their interplay with evangelism. He identifies several African cultural elements that have shaped evangelism, namely demons, ancestor veneration and objects of power. He admits that the relationship between ancestor veneration and evangelism “has been ill-defined and sometimes uneasy one, with theory and practice sometimes in tension and different inferences drawn from similar premises” (127). However, this is exactly what he considers to be the problem. These tensions cannot be ignored. Instead, he suggests it requires “a degree of reorientation from the missionary model of Christianity” (122), a clear judgment on the side of culture.

            Perhaps the most startling statement about cultural transformation is his personal observation that “the principal evidence of the ongoing life of traditional African religion is within African Christianity” (120). This is case in point that the gospel and the culture have already merged. When Africans deal with questions like the fate of their unevangelized ancestors, for example, they theologize in ways that westerners would have never imagined. Thefore, Walls commits this insight into non-Western theology as a study of the way the gospel translates the culture and thereby translates theology.

Missiological Implications

The aforementioned issues that Walls raises in his books have some serious missiological implications for both historical studies and theological dialogue. Although his essays deal with a wide range of topics, his emphases on nonlinearity, conversion and cultural transformation are specifically important in missiological settings where Christianity has to deal with other world religions. The several other unique emphases that Walls makes give the books academic value as well as practical worth, but it is these three that arguably yield the greatest contribution to interfaith dialogue. 

For example, Walls’ article on the history of Christianity’s dialogue with Islam in Africa in the nineteenth century is insightful and could rightly inform the current situation in Europe where the demographics are swiftly shifting to a greater influx of Muslims. As in the cases where Samuel Agayi Crowther of Yoruba and Harry Alphonso Ebun Sawyerr of Sierra Leone wrestled with Islam, Walls asserts that it is the indigenizing principle that “ensures that each community recognizes in Scripture that God is speaking to its own situation” (12). If Christian missionaries are ever to fully embrace a dialogue with Muslims, they must also deal with the very issues that Walls raises.

It is helpful to understand the historical gains and advances from a missiological perspective, but equally helpful is the humility that is expressed in such an approach. This attitude will only benefit a roundtable discussion. For too long, western missionaries have approached missiological history as a conquest or crusade rather than an organic move of God. 

It is also helpful to understand how Muslims can find conversion to Christ a matter of biblical transformation of their own culture rather than a conversion to western culture. Although this idea can be dangerous when taken to the extreme, a theology of conversion that is both consistent with Scripture and benevolent to Middle Eastern culture provides a more robust forum for intercultural dialogue. Viewed in this light, Walls’ position on another Ephesian moment is warranted.

Complementary to indigenous conversion, the idea of cultural transformation is still being discussed by theologians and missiologists. What constitutes cultural transformation and what indigenous elements of a culture are neutral or even positive are issues that have been on the forefront of missiological dialogue for many years. Walls’ theology of cultural transformation can indeed inform missiology as new strategies are drafted for evangelism and as missions agencies attempt to create exit strategies for their presence in Islamic locations. 

Review of David J. Bosch's Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission

This is my reflective review of Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission: Paradigm Shifts in Theology of Mission. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 2007.

There is apparently a new framework for understanding mission in the world. Bosch calls his framework the “emerging ecumenical paradigm of mission” (p. 8). It is this paradigm that he attempts to describe in part three of his book. He lays the groundwork for his discussion in chapters 10 and 11 by surveying the postmodern perspective, but he specifically breaks out the elements of the emerging ecumenical paradigm in chapter 12. Almost as a postscript he ironically poses the question as to what really defines mission in his final chapter. However, his macro-definition in chapter 13 helps to clarify his arguments in the previous three chapters.

            Bosch characterizes the postmodern movement as basically a reaction to modernism’s enlightenment with its elements of rationality and industrial progressive thought. The ideologies of the last century are rejected, and so has any absolutist approach to mission. Now, mission is in flux with an emergent paradigm that lends more toward the priority of unity and mutual tolerance. Missiologists must therefore answer this call for relevance if we wish to engage in dialogue with current thinkers.

For Bosch, mission has become transitional, and the individual elements that make up this new paradigm are many. He in no way implies that these elements are complementary or exclusive, but together they are held in a creative tension of sorts. Bosch tasks modern missiology with understanding this creative tension and pushing its agenda into a cross-cultural dialogue. I agree with the changing nature of missiology, and I believe missiologists of all schools of thought have to find new ways to engage each other. But Bosch suggests that even “the distinction between sending and receiving churches is becoming pointless. Every church is either still in a diaspora situation or has returned to it.” (p. 380). So with this transitional nature of mission, missiology as a discipline must also change. This, to me, is an interesting deduction.

One interesting note is how Bosch promotes missiology to a meta-discipline that really should be free from the constraints of just one field. To Bosch, missiology should not only inform all other dimensions of theology, but it should “permeate all disciplines” (p.  494). This is truly a valid holistic approach, but this holistic perspective brings evangelization into the same priority as humanitarian aid and the fight for justice. In this regard, Bosch lays his emphases on the elements with no regard to priority.

I agree with his stance on the need for social justice and the call to reject a theology that is full of “excessive individualism” (p. 438). However, I think his adherence to liberation theology’s relevance for the dialogue with postmodernists is a naive reflection on the tenets of postmodernism. I am not convinced that an evangelical agenda of social justice will be the thing that draws postmodernists into a peaceful coexistence with evangelicals who also hold to aggressive evangelism for example.

I agree with his stance on contextualization along with its dangers of relativism.

However, I disagree that mission should be so broadly defined so as to incorporate every possible element of Christian activity. I also disagree with his movement toward a more comprehensive understanding of salvation so as to incorporate meeting social needs as part of the “integral character of salvation” (p. 400). This seems to border on a dangerous watering down of the gospel message.

In his attempt to be holistic, Bosch has overemphasized liberation and justice to the detriment of conversion. Moreover, he has underemphasized the eternal good news element of mission. He attempts to divorce evangelism and mission by making stringent definitions for the two. His attempt is ambiguous at best, because mission is defined as the “total activity of the Church” (p. 412) whereas evangelism is just a dimension of that. His insistence that evangelism be contextual is warranted, but Bosch also warns of the potentially dangerous construct of a variety of theologies. Although at first glance, this insistence seems sufficiently benign, but it becomes problematic if evangelism loses the unique claims of Christianity in an attempt to make a theology of witnessing more relativistic.

I believe Bosch has missed an essential element of Eastern Christianity in the dialogue as well. He has spoken from a framework that is largely western protestant and Catholic. Although he takes enormous strides in describing the emerging paradigm among western Protestants and Catholics, he totally ignores the eastern half of the world where these discussions have been taking place for generations.

Oddly enough perhaps in raising the question about how postmodernists receive the exclusivist claims of traditional mission, Bosch reveals the deeper heart of the issue. There at the very core of the discussion is the question as to the validity for dialogue among world religions about mission. If mission is defined as something other than evangelism, and if other world religions engage in those same activities, can their activity be classified as mission? And if so, should Christianity have missiological dialogue with non-Christian religions? These are important questions that linger on the edge of this paradigm shift in missiological thinking. For this reason, Bosch’s contribution is invaluable.  

            Bosch’s main thesis that mission is not an activity of the church, but rather the essence of the church, is well-founded. Seen in that light, as the “missio Dei which constitutes the church” (p. 519), mission becomes much more important. All of our theology should be mission-informed theology. All of our projects should be mission-driven projects. All of our worship should be mission-enhanced worship. As such, Bosch’s admonition to understand the changing nature of the mission dialogue is compelling.

Review of Andreas J. Kostenberger and Peter T. O’Brien, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Mission (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2001)

Get it on Amazon 

A primary thing to note about Kostenberger and O’Brien’s presentation is their integration of history, literature and theology to draw some very pointed theological borders. From a historical perspective, they survey some of the Old Testamental period, a brief portion of the era of the second temple and a large section of the New Testamental period. From a literary standpoint, they place an emphasis on the role of Israel as a mission tool and yet exalt the role of the Christian church as missionary. With a theological vantage, they also put a heavy emphasis on redemption. Where Kostenberger and O’Brien excel though is how they clearly outline the bounds for such a study on exegetical grounds.

Biblio-Historical Parameters

Just as any debate must have rules of order, any theological discussion must have standards by which participants can establish their positions. Kostenberger and O’Brien make no apologies for the parameters they set for a discussion of Missio Dei. Using the biblical record as the primary source for their dialogue, they readily admit that God’s mission begins at the fall of man in Genesis and ends before entrance into the new heavens in Revelation. There is “no mission in the Garden of Eden and there will be no mission in the heavens and new earth” (251). With the lines drawn, Kostenberger and O’Brien launch into their biblio-historical argument.

This parameter setting is significant, because as they evaluate earlier studies on Missio Dei they do so in light of the biblical text. All the more so, Kostenberger and O’Brien seem to place a greater emphasis on New Testament texts than on Old Testament ones. Their study is a thematic snapshot of Old Testament passages that simply lay the grounds for God’s historical mission work through the people of Israel. And they quickly move to a large survey of New Testament texts to show how God’s mission is being fulfilled in the Christian church. When extra-biblical history is used, it is done so with a set purpose of discounting its relevance to the central subject of God on mission.

Interestingly, it is for this very reason that Kostenberger and O’Brien not only stand out in writings about Missio Dei but also come under academic fire. Whereas other popular theology writers tend to draw from extra-biblical texts quite freely, these two authors have confined their points to what the Bible actually says about the matter. Although some have ridiculed them for an exegetically anemic biblical theology, it is Kostenberger and O’Brien’s insistence on exegesis that allows construction of a steady structure for missiological study.

Uniqueness of Christianity

According to the authors, using the Bible as primary source and exegesis as primary means for extraction concludes only with a picture of Christianity as the hallmark of Missio Dei. The authors place the person of Jesus Christ as the central figure in God’s mission. All history prior to Christ’s advent pointed to him and all history since his ministry on earth reflects back to him. Accordingly, any Jewish mission would have been only a temporary glimpse of a Christological model and the greater mission to the Gentiles completes the purposes of Christ’s body in the world. In fact, “the Gentile mission in which the early church engaged

(after some hesitation) was rooted in a command of the risen Lord Jesus Christ himself” (107).

Mixed with the thought that God grants human participation in his missionary work is a great hypothetical certainty that the mission will in fact be completed. The conclusion to this hypothesis is that the church will play its role in being the missionary tool for bringing the news of salvation to the ends of the earth.

In opposition to traditional thought, Kostenberger and O’Brien seem to argue that Israel had no missionary task of outreach. To conclude that God had given a commission to the children of Israel and that they had failed to complete the commission is not only paradoxical but “unsatisfactory both exegetically and theologically” (35). In fact the authors make an even stronger argument that “there is no suggestion in the Old Testament that Israel should have engaged in ‘cross-cultural’ or foreign mission” (35). On the contrary, any action on Israel’s part to include Gentiles would have been “largely apologetic or nationalistic,” with purposes to naturalize more than to convert (67).

            This logically leads to only one conclusion, that Missio Dei as a movement of God to draw the world unto Himself finds its fulfillment most completely in Christianity. The indicative purpose of the Christian church is one of outreach and inclusion. To be anything other than evangelistic would contradict the meaning of the church. Kostenberger and O’Brien do not appear to be anti-Semitic; rather they simply highlight the uniqueness of Christianity over Judaism in accomplishing God’s mission purposes. “The presence of the church itself is the manifestation of the hidden secret [God’s salvation-historical plan]” (167). This is a distinctive stance in today’s missiological discussions.

Theological Emphasis on Redemption

Perhaps the greatest contribution that Kostenberger and O’Brien make is their fresh accent on the role of redemption in Missio Dei. Liberation theologians, feminists, and post-modernists might argue that there are other results to God’s mission than spiritual, but these two authors bring to prominence God’s redemptive plan for man’s soul. It is this central message that unites the separate texts throughout the bible. 

            Throughout the Old Testament, God’s plan is revealed to use the people of Israel as a tool through which God’s blessing would be administered. Kostenberger and O’Brien briefly point to the exodus and God’s covenant with Israel, but they promptly move into a discussion of Jerusalem as an eschatological prototype for God’s mission to the world. It is amidst this backdrop that the picture of the suffering servant prophecy is painted.  In short, Israel experienced God’s redemptive love in part and could be used as a channel through which the complete redemptive work of Messiah might find fulfillment.

            At that point, the Messiah is revealed in the New Testament in Jesus Christ. God’s redemptive plan is fulfilled first in Christ’s atonement for sins, and then it is experienced in the church’s participation in spreading the news of his plan to all nations. The church becomes responsible for winning the world. This is exhibited in “the fact that Jesus’ followers are called not merely to disciple individuals, but entire nations, indeed all nations” (104). Thus, the church is equipped with ministers and missionaries who also take on a global mission thrust. 

            The apostle Paul “understood his missionary activity to Gentiles within the context of an Old Testament expectation in which the Gentile nations would on the final day partake of God’s ultimate blessings to Israel” (164). Paul understood his calling as apostle to win as many Gentiles as possible (I Cor 9:19-23) as his ultimate purpose as missionary and their ultimate purpose in God’s redemptive plan (181). Paul’s missionary activities propagate God’s redemptive plan for the entire world, and thus become the archetype of modern mission theology.Get it on Amazon