Why Africa Matters
by Cedric Mayson Orbis Books, P.O. Box 302, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0302, 198 pages, 2010, $20.00. —Reviewed by Mike Nichols, program director for intercultural studies at Lincoln Christian University; former missionary to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Cedric Mayson wants to save the world from extinction and he claims Africa has the answer. Drawing on personal […]
Truth That Sticks: How to Communicate Velcro Truth in a Teflon World
by Avery T. Willis, Jr. and Mark Snowden NavPress, P.O. Box 35001, Colorado Springs, CO 80935, 238 pages, 2010, $14.99. —Reviewed by Samuel E. Chiang, executive director of the International Orality Network. Truth That Sticks is destined to become a timeless classic. Co-authors Avery Willis and Mark Snowden pooled their experiences in storytelling, discipleship, small […]
Serving Jesus with Integrity: Ethics and Accountability in Mission
by Dwight P. Baker and Douglas Hayward, eds. William Carey Library, 1605 Elizabeth Street, Pasadena, CA 91104, 403 pages, 2010, $14.99. —Reviewed by Ellen Livingood, president of Catalyst Services. Ethics is at its base something lived; it is a practice.” Based on that assertion in the book’s introduction, sixteen writers address thorny issues of ethical […]
Recovering from Traumatic Stress: A Guide for Missionaries
by Stephanie Laite Lanham and Joyce Pelletier William Carey Library, 1605 E. Elizabeth St., Pasadena, CA 91104, 120 pages, 2010, $12.99. —Reviewed by David A. Diaso, Mission to the World, Colorado Springs, Colorado. Recovering from Traumatic Stress is a great resource for missionaries. I’m not aware of any other books that tackle traumatic stress which […]
Orality Breakouts: Using Heart Language to Transform Hearts
International Orality Network/Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization. ION/LCWE, Hong Kong, 159 pages, 2010, $4.95. —Reviewed by Tom Steffen, professor of intercultural studies and director of Doctor of Missiology program at Biola University. Because I’ve been involved in storytelling since the early 1980s, I was anxious to get my hands on Orality Breakouts. I wondered what […]
MissionSHIFT: Global Mission Issues in the Third Millennium
by David J. Hesselgrave and Ed Stetzer, eds. B&H Publishing, 127 Ninth Ave. N., MSN 14, Nashville, TN 37234-0002, 312 pages, 2010, $26.99. —Reviewed by Donna R. Downes, School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. A cohesive, consistent, focused, theologically deep, missiologically broad and contextually appropriate Evangelical missiology has not yet emerged for this […]
Local Theology for the Global Church: Principles for an Evangelical Approach to Contextualization
by Matthew Cook, Rob Haskell, Ruth Julian, and Natee Tanchanpongs, eds. William Carey Library, 1605 E. Elizabeth St., Pasadena, CA 91104, 256 pages, 2010, $17.99. —Reviewed by Herbert Hoefer, missions chair at Concordia University in Portland, Oregon; former missionary to India for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. Local Theology for the Global Church is a pioneering […]
The Gospel among the Nations: A Documentary History of Inculturation
by Robert A. Hunt Orbis Books, Price Bldg, Box 302, Maryknoll, NY 10545, 290 pages, 2010, $35.00. —Reviewed by Dr. Allen Yeh, professor at Biola University. This book serves two purposes. Part 1 (chapters 1-4) is an introduction to the necessity of contextualization, including mission in the first-century Jewish context; mission in imperial Rome and […]
The Death of Missions: Response 4: We Need to First Ask Questions
by Alex Araujo It is true that the word “missions” has become confused in the minds of many today, and a change of vocabulary might help clarify things. Yet I would not press for change too quickly; instead, we first need to ask questions. First, English is used in many different cultures, and evolves differently […]
The Death of Missions: Response 3: Stirring the Hive with Perhaps Needed Redefinitions
by Bill Taylor The 64-year-old memory is still strong. As a child in Costa Rica, I visited the Ross family farm. Mr. Ross warned, “Billy, do NOT push a stick into the bee hives!” Of course, I did just that. To this day, I can still almost feel the stings. Perhaps Andrews has done just […]