Book Review
EMQ » January–March 2019 » Volume 55 Issue 1
Kingdom Pursuit: Exploring the Many Facets of Missions
By Carl D. Chaplin and Sue Harris, eds.
Committee on Discipleship Ministries, 2017
Lawrenceville, GA
323 pages
ISBN: 978-1944964153
USD $10.95
Attempts to explain what exactly missionaries do can often be confusing. Such is the task undertaken in Kingdom Pursuit, edited by Carl Chaplin and Sue Harris. The volume is a collection of 28 essays written by both long-term missionaries and their partners from the Presbyterian Church of America’s international mission body, Mission to the World. Topics range from mercy ministry to church planting endeavors, focusing particularly on how Western missionaries and their national partners can work together. Special emphasis is placed on how both missionaries and nationals are “interdependent,” meaning that they need one another to carry out the mission task, in contrast to a less healthy one-way dependency.
The book is divided into five sections. Section 1 concerns compassion and justice, such as viewing the present refugee crisis as a unique door for Muslims to find Jesus through holistic mercy ministry. One insightful chapter, written by Natee Tanchangpogs of Thailand, builds a strong case for peacemaking and justice ministry as “shalom-making” (p. 97). Section 2 discusses collaboration and partnership with nationals, wrestling with reasons that partnerships often fail. Readers will be especially challenged by Mamadou Diop’s reflections as a West African pastor and encouraged by veteran church planter Paul Taylor’s thesis that God is able to work through us despite our weaknesses. Sections 3 and 4 target church planting specifically looking at evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development. One intriguing essay, written by Sarah Newkirk, admonishes missionaries not to downplay ministries that focus on children, who make up one-third of the global population. The final section develops several mission principles, such as Christopher Wright’s missional hermeneutic and how best to hold missionaries accountable. The latter concept is handled wisely by Brian Deringer, who suggests that the “grace of caring” is a suitable term for the accountability missionaries have to their sending churches (p. 284).
One strength of Kingdom Pursuit is its practicality. The concepts discussed in each chapter are not mere theory. Written by actual missionaries and several of their non-Western partners, each ministry is field-tested, honestly evaluated, and biblically supported. Mission to the World is to be commended for their desire to hear directly from the field how missions is being conducted.
One weakness that should be noted is that there is no forthright example of how financial dependency can be prevented. The concept of “interdependency” in which both parties reciprocally need one another, does not provide a robust answer to how indigenous churches may move from supported to self-supporting. Lloyd Kim’s chapter comes the closest to such an answer by positing a way forward for new Khmer churches in Cambodia, but does not give tangible evidence that “interdependency” leads to self-supporting churches. Yet perhaps the implementation of Kim’s suggestions is a story that will soon be written.
Kingdom Pursuit is an important contribution to missions literature that deserves to be referenced by pastors, mission leaders, and mission-minded Christians. The humility of Christ resonates throughout, pointing readers to the missionary God to whom the book is dedicated.
Reviewed by Cameron D. Armstrong, International Mission Board, Bucharest, Romania; PhD candidate, Biola University
For Further Reading
Elmer, Duane. Cross-Cultural Servanthood: Serving the World in Christlike Humility. Grand Rapids: InterVarsity, 2006.
Pocock, Michael, Gailyn Van Rheenen, and Douglas McConnell. The Changing Face of World Missions: Engaging Contemporary Issues and Trends. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2005.
