Month: August 2020

Dyron B. Daughrity. To Whom Does Christianity Belong?: Current Issues in World Christianity. Understanding World Christianity. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. 301 pp. $25.45.

World Christianity has emerged as an important academic discipline. Reflecting the shift in Christianity’s center of gravity from the Western world to the non-Western world, the discipline aims at exploring the global development of Christianity, with a particular focus on non-Western forms of Christianity. Over the last few decades the discipline has developed through the publication of scholarly articles and books, as well as the production of reference works and new academic journals. Dyron B. Daughrity’s To Whom Does Christianity Belong?: Current Issues in World Christianity contributes to the development of the discipline in a unique way. Previous books have attempted to explain the shift of Christianity’s center of gravity to the global South or the contours of today’s Christianity throughout the globe. Daughrity’s book goes beyond those aims: it summarizes the development of the discipline of world Christianity, and it discusses significant overarching themes that are likely to shape the future of world Christianity discourse.

Daughrity, Associate Professor of Religion at Pepperdine University, is well suited to write this book. He has already been a significant participant in the world Christianity discourse, as he has authored, among others, The Changing World of Christianity: The Global History of a Borderless Religion (2010), a useful textbook on the subject, and “Christianity is Moving from North to South: So What About the East?” (2011), a provocative article in one of the leading journals of the discipline.1 Daughrity has also taken part in the global conversations of Christians through his involvement with the World Council of Churches. With this background, Daughrity serves as the editor of a new series from Fortress Press, Understanding World Christianity, and To Whom Does Christianity Belong? is the introductory volume of the series.

The book has four parts. Part 1, “Introduction,” helps the reader quickly comprehend some of the key issues in the recent development of the world Christianity discourse. The section of chapter 1 titled “‘Global Christianity’ or ‘World Christianity’?” is particularly helpful in this regard. It discusses important and sometimes controversial issues in a well-balanced manner, referring to various perspectives offered by such scholars as Lamin Sanneh and Robert Wuthnow (9–13). The first part also sets the tone of the book by explaining why defining Christianity is a difficult task, in view of Christianity’s historical and geographical/cultural diversity. In order to analyze the complex nature of global Christianity, Daughrity examines in Part 2 certain aspects of Christianity that are theologically and phenomenologically important: the churches and their pastors, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and Pentecostalism, and the afterlife. In Part 3, “The Church and the World,” the author talks about Catholics and Protestants, as well as secularization and migration. Part 4 engages the contemporary situation, discussing global issues relating to marriage and sexuality, women and gender issues, and music. Daughrity skillfully helps readers understand how people throughout the world view these issues differently.

The book has a number of strengths. First, Daughrity’s thematic treatment of world Christianity, including the discussion of contemporary themes, is fresh and perceptive. Many introductory books on world Christianity divide the content geographically. The geographical approach could potentially hinder the analysis of the transnational and transcultural nature of the issues involved in world Christianity today. Daughrity’s approach avoids such pitfalls. Readability is another strength of the book. Arguments are presented clearly and succinctly. Perhaps reflecting his extensive knowledge of church history, his experience with Christians in various parts of the globe, and his familiarity with the mindset of today’s university students, Daughrity frequently utilizes stories and mentions contemporary topics and names, from ISIS to Katy Perry. The book certainly deals with issues of scholarly interest, but the content is presented in ways readers with various backgrounds can follow easily. The book also contains fair amount of Scriptural references, which I consider part of its strength. Non-Christian readers will be able to understand how Christian claims are related to the Bible; Christian readers in the West who have less familiarity with world Christianity can learn how the use of Scriptures has been a key element in the development of Christianity in the non-western world.

Although many key issues in the world Christianity discourse are treated in the book, consideration of the polycentric paradigm is missing. As Lamin Sanneh and others have argued, part of the theoretical framework of the present world Christianity discourse is multiculturalism, which is reflected in the prevalent insistence on the polycentric nature of world Christianity. On the one hand, there has been a contextual need for the polycentric paradigm, as it has effectively put away the Eurocentric paradigm, which Daughrity appropriately characterizes as obsolete (xi). On the other hand, several scholars, such as Namsoon Kang and Charles Farhadian, have raised concerns about the polycentric paradigm, pointing out that it has the potential of fostering disconnectedness or isolationism. In light of today’s growing nationalistic or isolationist tendencies in the world, it would have been better if the book dealt with this issue and provided suggestions for overcoming isolationism and exploring connectedness.

Overall, To Whom Does Christianity Belong? is an excellent introduction to the world Christianity discourse, and it should be a welcome companion for university and seminary classes, as well as congregational Bible studies. Those who have already been engaged with the discipline can also benefit from the book, especially if they seriously consider the questions raised in the book and discover more questions to ponder.

Yukikazu Obata

PhD Candidate

Fuller Theological Seminary

Gunma, Japan

For all people, food plays a role in everyday life. While some who are busy may see food as simply a means of subsistence, meals have a deeper meaning in most cultures, including those found in the Bible. Meals can be associated with issues like a deep concern for the poor and the value of community sharing amongst followers of Christ. Another biblical aspect is the use of meals for the purpose of missions. With so much time spent on the repast, it is not a surprise that Jesus used the mealtime—in addition to communion with believers—to transfer the gospel message to unbelievers. Meals are a good way to do evangelism.

Meals are woven into the fabric of life. Every tribe, tongue, and culture dines, with many taking great pride in their native fare. Regardless of national pride, a great amount of time is spent in the shopping, preparing, cooking, eating, and washing of the mealtime experience. If the average person eats three meals a day for a year, that amounts to 1,095 meals per person, and if, hypothetically, the average is one hour of time spent per meal, almost forty-six days of time is devoted in a year just to the event of consumption.

Meals bridge every civilization, offering any individual an instant cultural experience. A meal as a tool of evangelism bridges any cultural gap. While foreigners may not easily share in the customs, celebrations, mores, and language of a new land, they can always share in its food. Since Jesus used the mealtime as a significant aspect of his time on earth,1 a study of his meals proves fruitful to applied missiological studies. John Koenig writes, “Well before the origin of our Christian Eucharist, Jesus used a meal setting to inspire a vocation for outreach in his followers.”2 Koenig continues, “My guess—in fact my conviction—is that we have seriously undervalued our church meals, both ritual and informal, as opportunities for missionary discernment, planning, and outreach.”3

In particular, the writer of Luke records many of Jesus’s meals—nineteen total and thirteen that are specific to the Gospel.4 Jesus uses the mealtime as a significant aspect of fulfilling his purpose on earth. Robert Karris writes, “There is considerable truth in what one wag said about Luke’s Gospel: Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal.”5 Markus Barth writes, “In approximately one-fifth of the sentences in Luke’s Gospel and in Acts, meals play a conspicuous role.”6 With Jesus’s overall purpose, as stated by Luke, being that he came to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10), the significant attention to Lucan meals would signal a substantial tool in fulfilling this purpose. Whether it was communal sharing, fellowship with believers, discipleship, training, or evangelism/mission, Jesus was very purposeful during the repast. Karris pushes further: “The extent, though, of Luke’s use of the theme of food is appreciated only when the reader realizes that the aroma of food issues forth from each and every chapter of Luke’s Gospel. Food is definitely an important theme and, as such, draws the reader into Luke’s faith-inspiring kerygmatic story. It is a theme which, because of its elemental nature, resonates at the depths of our contingent being.”7

Jesus was very purposeful during the repast.

Thus, while other helpful resources look at the meaning of Jesus’s meals as a whole, this article will focus on Luke 5:27–32 as a paradigm for making meals a means of evangelism.8 First, we will note secular research on meals.

Non-Ecclesial Research on Meals

Secular studies demonstrate that meals have a deeper meaning to various groups and cultures. David Bell and Gill Valentine state, “the history of any nation’s diet is the history of the nation itself, with food, fashion, fads and fancies mapping episodes of colonialism and migration, trade and exploration, cultural exchange and boundary-marking.”9 Food choices driven by culture and forms of consumption ultimately came to be grasped as “distinguishing” citizens and nations.10 Pamela Kittler and Kathryn Sucher write, “Eating, like dressing in traditional clothing or speaking in a native language, is a daily reaffirmation of cultural identity.”11 Catherine Palmer adds, “Rituals and practices relating to food consumption are often used to define and maintain boundaries of identity; boundaries that serve to define the identity of a minority ethnic community from the dominant core identity of the nation with which it resides.”12

Secular studies have shown that this thought persists today. Bell and Valentine find that food is a mode of communication that “articulates notions of inclusion and exclusion, of national pride and xenophobia.”13 According to Palmer, “it is the embodiment of such notions in the foods themselves and in the uses to which these foods are put that enables food to act as a boundary-marker between one identity and another.”14 Paul Fieldhouse finds that “food habits are an integral part of cultural behavior and are often closely identified with particular groups – sometimes in a derogatory or mocking way. So the French are ‘Frogs,’ and the German’s are ‘Krauts,’ the Italians are ‘spaghetti eaters.’ . . . The word ‘Eskimo’ is an Indian word meaning ‘eaters of raw flesh,’ and was originally used to express the revulsion of one group toward the food habits of another.”15

Meals’ Deeper Biblical Concept

Eating together is more than just filling up on food; in Biblical times, it represented an association and acceptance of the individual(s) with whom one was dining. Dennis E. Smith adds: “Table fellowship is a symbol of community fellowship. The table designates a special relationship between those who sit at the same table. Jesus eats with sinners and tax collectors (Luke 5:27–32; 7:34; 15:2). He goes to the house of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1–9). The table is for the oppressed, handicapped and disenfranchised (Luke 7:22; 14:12–14).”16

The table designates a special relationship between those who sit at the same table.

According to Jeremias:

In Judaism . . . table-fellowship means fellowship before God, for the eating of a piece of broken bread by everyone who shares in the meal brings out the fact that they all have a share in the blessing which the master of the house had spoken over the unbroken bread. Thus, Jesus’ meals with the publicans and sinners . . . are not only events on a social level but had an even deeper significance. . . . The inclusion of sinners into the community of salvation, achieved in table-fellowship, is the most meaningful expression of the message of the redeeming love of God.17

Meals carry a deeper meaning than just repast consumption. The Scriptures communicate a social, spiritual, and communal dimension. Reta Halteman Finger especially emphasizes the intense communal sharing of goods as a significant aspect of biblical meal and argues that much of this has been lost in interpretations of texts like Acts 2:42–47.18 Finger adds, “Luke’s description is so simple in Acts 2:42–47. The believers were united spiritually and shared material possessions so that none were in need, and they ate together every day with joy. . . . Faith, work, family relationships—Luke presents a seamless whole in the daily lives of people in a subsistence economy struggling to keep themselves and each other alive and thriving.”19 Finger’s research portrays the biblical meal as not just a time of sustenance but of community survival and sharing in which each member looked at another as part of a community that lived and depended on one another. Yet, Fingers is realistic when applying the meal of the New Testament times to today: “Anyone with historical and cultural sensitivity knows that social practices cannot be imported whole from an earlier time and place to our present modern and postmodern societies. . . . Even if this practice was tried with great effort, the theological meaning of those meals might change or look forced.”20

Though the intense communal meal and sharing aspects of Finger’s research may not be easy to apply to today’s situations, using the meal as a tool for evangelism will be. The rest of the article will focus on how Jesus used the meal as a means to add people to this fellowship of communal sharing.

Luke 5:27–32: Meals as a Means of Evangelism

One of the best examples of Jesus using meals as a means for missions is the story of his disciple Levi, also known as Matthew (Luke 6:15). When Luke introduces this character, he makes it clear that Levi is a “tax collector” and not a disciple of Jesus. His conversion does not occur until Jesus approaches him and says simply: “follow me.” At this request, the text reads that Levi left his tax booth, leaving behind his vocation to follow Jesus, becoming his disciple. According to Morris, “Matthew must have been the richest of the apostles. . . . When Levi walked out of his job he was through. They would surely never take back a man who had simply abandoned his tax office. His following Jesus was a final commitment.”21

The next scene is Levi holding a banquet for Jesus in his home.22 The guests are highlighted. Though Jesus’s disciples are present,23 they are not the invitees who are emphasized. Joel Green adds, “In this pericope . . . the disciples of Jesus are again present, but they are only indirectly developed. . . . At this juncture they remain only stage props, so to speak.”24

The crowd is fellow tax collectors and “others” who the Pharisees later designate as “sinners.” These guests of Levi, with whom Jesus is dining, are scandalous in the eyes of the religious leaders.

The Pharisees, mentioning tax collectors and sinners together, are in fact communicating that these two groups are conceptually unified.25 Tax collector would be another way of identifying a sinner. Robert Stein writes, “ Tax collectors . . . were dishonest and practiced distortion (cf. Luke 5:32). Note the advice of John the Baptist to them in 3:12–13, which assumes dishonesty, and Zacchaeus’s behavior in 19:8–9.”26 Therefore, tax collector and sinner would be one unified concept.

Jesus eating with such a group communicates to the Pharisees that Jesus accepts them as people but in no way endorses their lifestyle; it is clear Jesus’s purpose is mission. According to Darrell Bock, “Jesus reclines with them in meal fellowship. In doing so, he is carrying out his ministry to the spiritually needy. At the same time, Jesus offends the separatism of the Pharisees, who would have never shared a meal with such rabble.”27 Bock goes on to write:

The problem in their view is not mere contact with sinners, but table fellowship that seeks out and welcomes these people. As Jesus’ reply in 5:32 makes clear . . . sinners . . . refers to a wide group of people, including the potentially impious, like tax collectors. In other words, it refers to any who need to be healed and not only to the worst sinners in the harshest possible sense. . . . The Pharisees regard the disciples and Jesus’ association with such people as inappropriate for any religious leader.28

Conflict arises between Jesus and the Pharisees regarding his associations. Jesus knows, just as the Pharisees that he dines with “sinners” but it is precisely their state that makes them a priority to associate with. Jesus can free the sinner with the gospel message.29 Jesus makes his intentions clear in 5:31–32: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance” (ESV). Luke develops the issue of repentance more deeply than either Mark or Matthew with the understanding that repentance is “leaving all and following Jesus.”30 Jesus’s eating a meal with Levi’s guests is his way of trying to reach them with the message of the kingdom, and uses the mealtime as an opportunity to communicate the gospel to those who are “sick.” Jesus knows that during the meal there will be opportunities to talk and given the fact that news about Jesus began to spread (see Luke 5:15), those dining with him could possess knowledge that he could be Messiah and ask him questions related to his messianic position.

But Jesus’s decision to share meals goes deeper than ministry efficiency—he also is making a theological point. He is modeling the need to share meals with the “sinners,” for it is clear that the religious leaders of the day discouraged meals with “sinners”. Finger writes, “Rather than excluding people, Jesus especially welcomed those who could not or did not meet Pharisaic regulations. This strongly suggests that Jesus’s open table fellowship was a strategy used to challenge social and religious exclusivism wherever it was officially sanctioned or accepted as normal.”31 Jesus models to the religious leaders and those present that dining with those who need repentance is crucial. Because meals are such an important aspect of every culture, Jesus’s example is crucial for people in his day and today to follow.

Because meals are such an important aspect of every culture, Jesus’s example is crucial.

Conclusion

With such a heavy emphasis on meals in Luke, it is clear that the writer is trying to communicate that the mealtime can be used for the purpose of seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10). Luke 5:27–32 shows that meals communicate the worth and acceptance of a person as an individual by spending time with them over food, allowing a chance to communicate the gospel of the kingdom of God. Since Jesus used mealtime so purposefully, the church should take the meal as a means of evangelism. Meals offer a time of relaxation, enjoyment, and instant cultural engagement, an ideal milieu for discussing spiritual topics, particularly the gospel. Jesus clearly had this as one of his goals for dining with unbelieving people and Luke 5:27–32 offers one such glimpse in how he did it.

Michael Chung has taught New Testament and Christian Formation at Fuller Theological Seminary–Texas, Biblical and Theological Studies at Houston Baptist University, and is visiting faculty to Calvary Theological Seminary in Indonesia. He was a missionary to Asia and served CRU from 1997 to 2005. He has published in journals from North America, Europe, and Asia and is the author of the forthcoming book The Last King of Israel: Lessons from Jesus’s Final Ten Days.

Comparative Review

Reggie McNeal. Kingdom Come: Why We Must Give Up on our Obsessions with Fixing the Church—and What We Should Do Instead. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Momentum, 2015. 224 pp. Paperback. $11.95.

Scot McKnight. Kingdom Conspiracy: Returning to the Radical Mission of the Local Church. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2014. 304 pp. Paperback. $15.16.

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt 4:17). Jesus inaugurates his ministry in Galilee with these words. After Pentecost, Jesus’s followers began preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God throughout the Roman empire. For the early church, the gospel of Jesus was intertwined with the kingdom. But how should we understand the kingdom of God? What does the kingdom mean for us living in the twenty-first century? How do we, individually as Christians and corporately as church, participate in this kingdom?

Typically, responses to these questions fall into two distinct categories. Some see the kingdom as political and social action, working for justice and equity in our world on behalf of the oppressed. Others define the kingdom as the church itself, with its worship, service, activities, and teachings. Two recent books written by Scot McKnight and Reggie McNeal help illustrate these different approaches to the kingdom of God. Although they discuss similar themes—the identity of and participation in the kingdom of God—they come to different missiological conclusions due to their differences in ecclesiology and soteriology.

In his book Kingdom Come, Reggie McNeal contends that the American church has become so enamored with doing church and fixing the church that they have missed out on the kingdom of God. Churches spend the vast majority of their assets (time, money, energy, attention, and people) on what happens during the assembly on Sunday, but they fail to make a difference in the communities that surround them. The church scorecard is measured in terms of “celebrated church activities on church property led by church people for other church people” (McNeal, 3). In McNeal’s eyes, the church has spent so much time trying to get the message right that it has forgotten about mission. That mission is what he wants the church to recover.

At its core, McNeal’s book contends that the kingdom is not synonymous with the church.1 Jesus did not come to establish the church but to expand the kingdom. The key to this mission is found in John 10:10—“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” Evil and sin are anything that destroys or diminishes life, whether from intentional and immediate actions or consequences of actions done long ago. This sin affects our relationships with God, one another, and all of creation. The kingdom is working systematically to restore abundant life to those affected by sin. These efforts can include anything from feeding the hungry to teaching newly released prisoners to raising money for a local charity to creating art and music. Anything that involves “people helping people to experience life as God intends it” is a manifestation of the kingdom of God (McNeal, 41). Jesus’s ministry was characterized by healing the sick, driving out demons, and feeding the hungry; adherents of the kingdom are those who do the same.

McNeal also argues that the kingdom of God is bigger than those who claim allegiance to its king. For McNeal, “whenever and wherever God’s character and will are displayed, the Kingdom is made evident” (McNeal, 25). Any initiative that demonstrates love, mercy, compassion, and justice, among other godly attributes, is a manifestation of the kingdom. Those that participate in these actions, whether believers and followers of Christ or not, are part of the kingdom of God. Those who follow Jesus should look for the initiatives where God is at work and collaborate with those who are doing them, whether or not they claim Christ as their motivation.

McNeal’s desire for the church is a shift from self-orientation to kingdom-orientation. For church-centric thinkers, the church’s practices of worship, sacraments, and teaching are the reason for its existence. But McNeal wants the church to recover its identity as a kingdom of priests sent out to bless the world. As he contends, “The church was created on purpose, for a purpose—to partner with God in his redemptive mission here on earth” (McNeal, 90). Church is more about a way of being in which every aspect of life is an organic and incarnational manifestation of faith (McNeal, 8–9).

For McNeal, this does not mean that the church is irrelevant. Indeed, he directs his book to current church leaders and those who are involved in church but yearning for something more relevant. His overarching desire is for the church to speak and work prophetically in the culture, looking for ways in which God is already at work confronting the effects of sin and partnering with those who are participating in God’s redemptive work. The church must begin to work to transform culture, both the culture in the surrounding community and, more importantly, the culture of the church itself. The priorities of the church must shift from activities that built up the organization to kingdom-focused initiatives.2

In his book Kingdom Conspiracy, Scot McKnight calls views of the kingdom like McNeal’s the “skinny jeans kingdom.” According to adherents of this position, “Kingdom means good deeds done by good people (Christian or not) in the public sector for the common good” (McKnight, 8–9). The kingdom, then, boils down to anything done in the world that helps better the human life or experience. The other extreme, according to McKnight, is the “the pleated pants kingdom.” Adherents of this position focus on understanding the nature of the kingdom and the timing of its arrival, specifically through the lens of personal redemption. The kingdom is boiled down to those who are personally “saved” from sin and those who are not. This kingdom is about those who believe and those who do not, and the kingdom only exists as a “not yet” because not everyone believes. For these, the kingdom will only be fully realized at the eschaton (McKnight, 9–13).

McKnight contends that both understandings of kingdom run counter to the biblical concept. When the Bible talks about a “kingdom,” it always has in mind a group of people in a physical place under the rule of a king. Thus, the kingdom of God is where “there is a king (Jesus), a rule (by Jesus as Lord), a people (the church), a land (wherever Jesus’s kingdom people are present), and a law (following Jesus through the power of the Spirit . . .)” (McKnight, 99). For McKnight, the biblical narrative is about more than just creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. Rather, the biblical story describes how God is at work extending his rule throughout time and space through Jesus the Messiah, the Lord and King (McKnight, 23–35).

For McKnight, the kingdom cannot be divorced from the church. Throughout history, God has always chosen to work through a people, regardless of how messy and broken they were (and still are.) The church of today is the group of people who accept the lordship of Jesus Christ, even though it might seem marred and distorted at times. Indeed, McKnight says “the church now is the church gathered in broken leadership, broken fellowship, broken holiness, broken love, broken justice, and broken peace” (McKnight, 94). But the church now is leading toward the “church not yet,” the eschatological realization of all that the church (and the kingdom) are meant to be. There is an integral overlap between the kingdom and the church of today in that “they are the same people governed by the same king living out the same law under the same kingdom redemptive powers” (McKnight, 95–96).3

For McKnight, salvation is multidimensional, involving salvation from sin, Satan, and systemic evil. Sin is the “Adamic condition” of rebellion against God, and redemption means a return to right relationship with God through his sacrifice on our behalf. Salvation also rescues us from the dominion of the evil one, which entraps us in death and distortion. Finally, redemption fights against the effects of systemic evil by “principalities and powers,” both demonic and political. The church is made up of individuals who have accepted the redemption of God through the lordship of Christ and practice a cruciform lifestyle of righteousness living and loving service. The church is working to establish redemption through “kingdom community in the here and now,” while realizing that the kingdom can only be partially experienced in the present (McKnight, 157). For the church, this means offering holistic salvation that addresses the spiritual, physical, emotional, and social needs of the world.

For McKnight, the key is recognizing the integral connection between the church and the kingdom. The kingdom does not exist apart from the church, and the mission of the kingdom cannot be realized outside of the participation of the church. While McNeal and other missional church advocates would state that any work that brings “life” is a manifestation of the kingdom, McKnight would not call these expressions of kingdom mission. These benevolent actions are done for the common good, but when they have no impact on the local church nor lead to people accepting the kingship of Christ they are not kingdom endeavors. Indeed, McKnight contends that social activism becomes idolatry when it replaces the church (McKnight, 121–22). But if the church is truly following Jesus as its king, it will engage in a mission of extending justice, equity, peace, and redemption into the world, confronting the effects of sin, Satan, and systemic evil. “Any kingdom mission that does not offer this kind of redemption is not kingdom mission” (McKnight, 158).

While McKnight and McNeal make different assertions through their books in regard to salvation and mission, their desire is the same: they call the church to truly be the church on mission in the world. For McNeal, this means realizing that following God is about more than just what occurs on Sundays. Kingdom participation is not just about showing up on Sundays and “doing church” but is also about participating with God in what he is doing in the world to bring light into darkness. McKnight wants to caution against the millennial mindset that the church is outdated and unimportant, and that kingdom work must often be done outside of the local church. Instead, kingdom work is about building up and edifying the local congregation as it participates in the mission of God.

There are parts of each book that also miss the mark. While McNeal argues that the book is written to help the church be the church, it often feels more like a guide on community activism devoid of the church entirely. His treatment of sin is relatively light, as well, addressing only the ways in which sin “damages life” in social and economic parameters. Anything that enhances beauty or “restores life,” including classical music, are seen as redemptive manifestations of the kingdom. McKnight’s view seems to negate the possibility that God is at work in ways outside of the church. Kingdom mission and advancement is solely the responsibility of the church, yet that is out of step with other biblical examples (e.g., Cyrus being God’s “anointed” to return the people from Exile; the work of the Holy Spirit in the world convicting the world of sin.) The church is called to join God in what he is already doing in the world, which also means participating with others who are engaged in kingdom initiatives. While McKnight reminds us of the primacy of the church, his contention that the kingdom is restricted to the church’s actions is overstated.

Both of these books add to the ongoing conversation about the way in which the church participates in the mission of God to extend his lordship over all of creation. McNeal reminds us that we are not called simply to be “churchy” but to be redeemed people participating actively in redemption. McKnight reminds us that this redemption should not be separated from the life and mission of the church because the church is God’s chosen instrument. When read in conversation with one another, McNeal and McKnight call us to a deeper understanding of the kingdom and the mission of God than we may have considered before.

Daniel McGraw

Minister

West University Church of Christ

Houston, TX, USA

Dean Flemming. Why Mission? Reframing New Testament Theology. Nashville: Abingdon, 2015. 184 pp. Kindle ed. $14.99.

The dichotomy between theory and practice is, as Kevin Vanhoozer has put it, “a mortal fault line that runs through the academy and church alike.”1 Missiology has often stood across the chasm from theology, mission being stereotypically the realm of practitioners with little patience for the abstractions of academic theology. Yet, advocates of missional hermeneutics have begun exploring a space in which textual hermeneutics, ecclesial commitments, missional practices, biblical studies, and constructive theology converge. Even in missional hermeneutics, however, the theory/practice dichotomy tends to manifest in articles and books that discuss interpretive theory without practicing exemplary exegesis.

In this context, Dean Flemming’s slender volume Why Mission? is a welcome contribution. Aware that, to date, “no other study engages in a missional reading of a range of New Testament books within one volume” (Kindle loc. 177), Flemming showcases the application of a missional hermeneutic to a variety of New Testament texts. The book’s six chapters undertake missional readings of Matthew, Luke-Acts, John, Philippians, 1 Peter, and Revelation. Following closely on the heels of Michael Gorman’s watershed missional interpretation of various Pauline writings,2 Why Mission? widens the scope of the current discussion considerably.

As the fourth volume in the Reframing New Testament Theology series (ed. Joel B. Green), the book participates in the contemporary shakeup of the biblical theology movement. This “reframing” is driven by “a keen sense that scripture has in the past and should in the present instruct and shape the church’s faith and life”—challenging the theory/practice dichotomy from another angle.3 Flemming, who holds a PhD in New Testament Exegesis from the University of Aberdeen, is specially qualified to take up the question of mission’s particular contribution to this churchly engagement with the biblical text. He was a missionary for the Church of the Nazarene from 1987 to 2011 and is now Professor of New Testament and Missions at MidAmerica Nazarene University. By itself, the rarity of a New Testament scholar with long-term missions experience makes Flemming’s work an exciting addition to both the reframing of New Testament theology and to the missional hermeneutics movement.

The introduction briefly explains the premise of Flemming’s intention “to read scripture in light of God’s comprehensive mission” (Kindle loc. 189). He asserts: “Perhaps we can speak of two essential dimensions of a missional hermeneutic. One has to do with what the Bible is about. The other concerns what the Bible does. The former sees the Bible as a witness, the latter as an instrument” (Kindle locs. 204–6). Flemming accordingly structures subsequent chapters by examining each biblical text as both “a witness to God’s mission” and “an instrument of God’s mission”—the assumption being that every New Testament book can help answer “two foundational questions: ‘What is God up to in the world?’ and ‘What is the church’s role in what God is doing?’” (Kindle loc. 274). In this way, he clearly addresses the series’s concern with both New Testament theology (producing a multifaceted theology of mission rooted in whole books rather than proof texts) and the church’s life and faith (consistently highlighting the ways these texts send and shape the church in mission).

The exegesis itself is uncomplicated by technical issues and relatively readable—very accessible for seminary students and trained church leaders but probably heavy going for the average lay reader. Flemming works in broad strokes, connecting major themes to his guiding missional questions. Although every chapter deals with its biblical text’s role as witness and instrument, each one is different. The chapter on Matthew, for example, plays with the theological notion of recapitulation, whereas the chapter on 1 Peter deals narratively with the concept of identity. Occasionally, Flemming engages a scholarly dispute, such as J. Todd Billings’s critique of the term incarnational or Brian Peterson’s denial of the Philippians’ practice of verbal evangelism, characteristically taking a moderating position. More commonly, Flemming simply traces the missional contours of a body of mainstream biblical scholarship that has emerged in recent decades, providing ample footnotes for the studious reader. These missional readings, in other words, solidly represent critically engaged New Testament scholarship. They are concise, insightful, and well worth the price of the book.

The book’s primary weakness is that it gives priority to the “text itself” (Kindle loc. 203), as though the text alone, if read correctly, yields understanding of and participation in God’s mission. To his credit, Flemming’s epilogue states that “at the end of the day, we can only read scripture faithfully as communities of people who are actively engaged in God’s mission, in our various contexts and cultures, just as the original authors and readers of the New Testament were caught up in the missio Dei” (Kindle locs. 3415–17). Yet, his conclusion on this basis is that “a missional reading of scripture, then, seeks to bring about not only a clearer understanding of scripture but also a better grasp of what it means to live as a missional people today (Kindle locs. 3418–19). His hermeneutic still runs in one direction, from text to understanding to active engagement. This approach assumes that the bridge across the theory/practice divide is built from one side. Missional hermeneutics, however, cannot afford to ignore the interpretive implications of practice. Certainly, Scripture shapes the participation of the missional church, but if, in turn, participation in God’s mission shapes the reading church, then practice is not merely a result of the text’s formative influence. It is also a hermeneutical key.

Greg McKinzie

PhD Student

Fuller Theological Seminary

Pasadena, CA

DAN MCVEY. Confronting the Hubris of Hope: A Christian Reflection in an Islamic Mirror. San Bernardino: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2014. 184 pp. $9.99.

Dan McVey serves in an adjunct role with Abilene Christian University, primarily with the International Studies Department in the Study Abroad programs. He is also adjunct with Heritage Christian University in Accra, Ghana, and the University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan Province, China. McVey tries to spend his time building bridges between Christians and Muslims, especially in Europe and Africa, where his work quite often takes him. Due to his experience both as a missionary and a teacher in primarily Muslim contexts, McVey is well equipped to address and reflect on this topic.

Confronting the Hubris of Hope is a challenging text in which McVey asks difficult questions about both Christianity and Islam. For example, McVey asks, “How can any religion contain all that is good, true, virtuous, and honorable?” (157). According to McVey, such a religion does not exist. Rather, all of our religious traditions are simply human attempts at explaining divine revelation. It is impossible to place ourselves in the historical contexts of those who originally received the Scriptures (i.e., the Bible and the Qur’an). McVey challenges both Christians and Muslims to speak out for each other on common concerns, and to rush to defend one another whenever possible. He questions Christians’ reliance on creedal definitions (e.g., the development of the title “Son of God”) that are restrictive for cross-cultural communication. Likewise, McVey asks Muslims to be more open-minded regarding shared theological conversation (e.g., regarding the role of Jesus).

The “Hubris of Hope” is the strongest chapter, in my opinion. For McVey, a cursory glance at religious history reveals that both Christians and Muslims have done unspeakable things in the name of God, Allah, or their respective religions. Rather than meeting each other as equals, Christianity and Islam have often met due to conquest, oppression, and violence towards one another. We must not let the hubris of our hope in our respective religions (e.g., Christianity and Islam) blind or prevent us from respecting and loving one another. This hubris deceives people into believing that their religious tradition has a monopoly on absolute truth. For Christians, the hubris of certainty regarding God leads to aberrations of the teaching of Jesus. As McVey writes, “Certainty seeks no partners” (126). McVey cautions against equating the authority of God with our own authoritarian tendencies. When we speak of God, we always speak from limited knowledge. There is a measure of ambiguity in the Scriptures, as humans must interpret them. Rather than confusing our limited understandings of God with Truth, McVey encourages Christians and Muslims to allow the ambiguity to “make room not only for tolerance in mercy that reflects God’s own character, but also for dialog” (135).

The book seems unorganized in places. However, McVey does provide a qualification at the beginning of the book, writing, “I am by nature and experience a practitioner rather than a theoretician or academic, so please excuse the clumsiness of thought” (7). Yet, where the book lacks in organization, it certainly makes up for it in content. The reader will not discover a detailed bibliography or footnotes but will learn from McVey’s personal experiences and reflections following years of living in primarily Muslim contexts. These reflections from an experienced cross-cultural practitioner are valuable and challenging—both to the lay and academic reader.

The text is particularly relevant for Christians seeking to engage with Muslims. However, this book will be challenging for the reader who has a limited scope for what McVey defines as hope. McVey believes, “hope is a mellowing influence upon faith, an admission of the incomplete nature of religious allegiance in that recognition by all humble believers that whenever we speak about God, we always speak in incomplete knowledge and terminology” (124). Likewise, an unobservant reader might accuse McVey of pluralism. However, McVey is simply calling for an end to religious fundamentalism. A Christian approach can, historically, range from crusade to colonialism, and from triumphalism to hubristic intolerance. Because of this, McVey hopes that it will be our goal to be Christlike rather than Christian. For McVey, the Way of Jesus is not a set of beliefs. Rather, “the brilliance of Jesus is seen in the fact that his prescription that we should love our enemies in fact requires us to get to know our enemies” (158). We ought to humbly acknowledge our incomplete understandings of the divine, apologize for our failures that have hurt others, and seek to work together in our pursuit of truth.

Brady Kal Cox

Graduate Student

Graduate School of Theology

Abilene Christian University

Abilene, TX, USA

Jared Looney. Crossroads of the Nations: Diaspora, Globalization, and Evangelism. Urban Ministry in the 21st Century. Portland: Urban Loft Publishers, 2015. 330 pp. Paperback. $16.99.

Jared Looney is the executive director of Global City Mission Initiative (http://globalcitymission.org), a nonprofit organization that equips churches and evangelists for ministry among immigrant communities in major urban centers. He writes Crossroads of the Nations, the first book in the Urban Ministry in the 21st Century series (Urban Loft Publishers), encouraging dominant culture churches of North America to take advantage of the opportunities for mission now at our doorstep thanks to the twin forces of urbanization and international migration. For clergy and lay persons desiring a well-informed introduction to the changing face of urban ministry that does not bog down in scholarly minutiae, Crossroads of the Nations is a great place to start.

After an adulatory foreword by diaspora missiologist Enoch Wan, Looney’s first chapter opens with a number of poignant anecdotes on the ways that globalization and migration are transforming North American cities. His use of stories and real-life examples strengthens the book, lending to its accessibility and readability. Chapter one summarizes the book’s major themes and arguments—the central argument being that urban centers ought to be the focus of missiological thinking and strategy. Chapter two furthers this argument by exploring the strategic importance of cities in a world of transnational social networks, which, among other things, give Western churches unprecedented access to many unreached people groups.

Chapter three, the most impassioned chapter of the book, addresses anti-immigrant sentiments within the dominant culture, arguing that hospitality toward the migrant is the biblical standard. Chapter four then revisits the missional opportunities afforded by diaspora networks in order to challenge churches to reimagine church multiplication strategies, cross-denominational partnerships, and adaptive community structures that better reflect society’s growing mobility. With the decline of the church in the West and the rise of Christianity in the global South and East, Looney repeatedly points to the influx of Christian immigrants, the growth of ethnic churches, and their potential missionary force as signs for hope.

Chapters five and six turn to the topic of how to equip churches for evangelism among diaspora communities. Here, the author maintains that our evangelism and church planting must be relational, reproducible, and easily contextualized. Looney concludes chapter six with a particularly insightful discussion of ways that churches can take advantage of diaspora networks to make short-term mission trips more strategic and relational. The final chapter challenges congregations to reclaim their missionary identity, to train their congregants for cross-cultural ministry, and to intentionally build relationships outside their usual sociocultural circles. He closes by highlighting the importance of hospitality and of creating safe and welcoming spaces outside of church buildings for engaging unreached migrants.

Reflection questions at the end of each chapter facilitate the use of this text in small group settings (which likely explains some of the book’s repetitiveness). Lay readers will benefit from the many practical examples of how churches can get involved in mission among migrants. This book is a timely read in this controversy-ridden election year, as it represents a challenge to the large population of majority-group Christians in our country who have too often been fertile soil for anti-immigrant sentiment. Looney calls Christians to think missionally about the immigrant among us, and I long for that day when our conversations on immigration sound less like Trump and more like Looney. I long for the day when we stop seeing immigrants as threats to national security and instead welcome them as partners in global mission. I long for the day when we no longer see them as drains on our economy but as “bringers of blessings” (71) for the work of global mission.

Looney locates his book within the field of “diaspora missiology” and draws heavily on the research of major proponents Enoch Wan, Sadiri Joy Tira, and J. D. Payne. Unfortunately, much of their research unintentionally characterizes immigrants (two-thirds of whom are Christians!1) as objects of missionary outreach in need of help, training, and mobilization from Western sources and thus falls short of fully grasping the significance of non-Western initiatives and movements for the future of the global church. Thankfully, Crossroads of the Nations is more balanced in portraying Christian migrants not only as objects of mission but also as agents of mission whose dynamic faith and evangelistic zeal are contributing significantly to the revitalization of the church in the West. The inclusion of more research on ways that migrants and their congregations are already shaping the American religious landscape would have strengthened this excellent text. At its core, Crossroads of the Nations is the fervent appeal of a well-informed practitioner for Western churches to embrace our missionary identity, and my hope is that Looney’s book will spark many long-overdue conversations among majority-culture churches throughout North America.

Martin Rodriguez

PhD Student

School of Intercultural Studies

Fuller Theological Seminary

Pasadena, CA

Jared Looney

A rapidly changing context presents new opportunities for evangelism, church planting, and related outreach. Christians can and must become missionaries in their hometowns and cities throughout the US.

Introduction: Beyond Past Assumptions

How do you picture the state of missions in the United States? Do you think of sharing the gospel narrative with people who have never heard the story? In my team’s experience with the growing number of citizens of non-religious America and among adherents of various world religions, this is an accurate picture. Do you think of reaching out to Muslims? The church in the United States may have an emerging consciousness when it comes to loving our Muslim neighbors. In places like New York City, where one out of ten people is a Muslim, or in cities like San Francisco, Tampa, Atlanta, Houston, or Minneapolis, encounters with Muslims are increasingly commonplace. Do images of lovely countryside chapels come to mind, or does mission in the United States—a society long considered to be eighty percent urban—conjure up images of high-rises, ethnic enclaves, and sprawling suburbs?

The changing face of the US and Canada now means that Somalis in Columbus, Arabs in Brooklyn, Sikhs in Vancouver, and Kurds in Nashville represent our newest neighbors. It may mean that the emerging leaders of the American church speak English only as a second language. In large states like Texas, California, and Florida, Hispanic/Latino populations represent a growing demographic. For instance, in California Latinos have surpassed whites as the largest group profile in the state.1 Dan Rodriguez’s work in A Future for the Latino Church documents some of the most dynamic new churches in the US, which stunningly are still not considered “mainstream.”2 While we may not think in terms of people who have never actually heard the gospel narrative before when we think of missions in the United States, between the growing number of religiously unaffiliated households and an influx of immigrants from the majority world, it is increasingly common to encounter individuals who have never heard of Jesus.

Our world is increasingly a globally connected place, and that affects the American church. The first step in addressing missions in the United States may be to move beyond our assumptions and see the dynamic, diverse harvest before us. There can be little doubt that our context for missions has been experiencing some shifts in the cultural landscape. While there are emerging challenges, we must recognize the opportunities for missions in the twenty-first century.

We must recognize the opportunities for missions in the twenty-first-century US.

Globalization & Migration

As I have discussed at length in Crossroads of the Nations: Diaspora, Globalization, and Evangelism, flows of migration, globalization, and urbanization deeply impact the context for Christian missions.3 This is especially true in the United States, as it is a top receiving country of immigrants. This reality presents opportunity. It means that the majority of American Christians can participate in cross-cultural missions without moving to another country. In some cases the most unreached nations or tribes in our world are within our own cities or neighborhoods. This global reality also entails some significant challenges. Can the American church move beyond nationalist ethnocentrism and cultural isolationism to reach out in friendship as a respectful witness to the “other”? Will leaders of evangelism and church planting efforts in the US be mindful of missions principles such as contextualization and avoid the pitfalls of syncretism? Will Christians in the US be willing to follow experienced Christian leaders who don’t sound or look like them, or will they relegate them to second class status in our leadership circles? The current realities of the American context raise numerous, pressing questions.

Urbanization

The United Nations has forecast that by 2050 nearly seventy percent of our planet’s population will live in metropolitan areas, and the United States is already an urban majority nation.4 Yet, the churches of the Stone-Campbell tradition, like other evangelical traditions, come from a rural background. Will we be able to overcome our origins to face the urban reality? These days, most missions leaders in the US realize the need to launch their ministry efforts in cities, but I can’t help but wonder if we are only scratching the surface of urban realism. In other words, ministries strategies will need to adjust to the changing environment impacting the task of Christian missions. With increased urbanization comes increased stresses impacting the psychology of daily life. Therefore, how do we form disciples facing increased pressures on people’s time and availability as they labor within the oppressive demands of the global economy? How do we develop grassroots leaders in markedly fragmented societies? How do we nurture families and build community despite the busyness of urban life? Are we prepared to take advantage of the missional opportunities presented by a networked society? I suspect that we have only begun to shape our ministries around the questions raised by a predominantly metropolitan existence.

Post-Christendom

While international immigration, the global economy, ongoing urbanization, and similar factors are making an impact on the cultural landscape of the US, there is another cultural current that has been steadily on the rise: a post-Christendom culture. Christendom is a context in which cultural Christianity holds the position of greatest influence and authority in a society, especially when it comes to shaping laws, influencing common values, and impacting moral expectations. In very recent years, it seems that a growing number of Christian leaders are acknowledging the demise of Christendom, exchanging it for something that we can presently only label as “post.” This leads to more questions. How do followers of Christ evangelize among groups of people who do not inherently assume the Bible speaks with authority? How do churches pursue spiritual formation among a community that is only hearing the gospel narrative for the first time? How do we approach church planting in communities that are suspicious of the church as an institution? The American church is being forced to recover its identity as aliens in a strange land.

The US church is being forced to recover its identity as aliens in a strange land.

Meeting the Challenge

When we began Global City Mission Initiative (http://globalcitymission.org) only a few years ago, we recognized that there is a need to address these challenges head on and to embrace the opportunities that this new world presents. We saw the need for a missions organization to work strategically to advance evangelism through the context of global cities. In our first three years, we have connected with several evangelistic contacts who have in turn shared what they are learning from the gospel to family or friends in their home country. Working locally in urban neighborhoods in the United States, we have encountered numerous Americans who have never heard the most basic stories of the gospel. We are a network of missionaries working intentionally to spark disciple-making at global intersections where local and global often overlap.

Meeting the challenge for the American church means embracing our identity as a missionary people. This is more than just a conceptual self-understanding. It means that American Christians will need to learn how to move across cultures if they want to reach their neighbors. Church planters in the United States will need to take contextualization seriously. Churches will need to earn trust rather than assume it. Many of our friends are going to be starting from different authority structures than we might have for ourselves. And it means that multitudes of Christians in the United States will have the opportunity to share the story of Jesus with those whose ears would hear it for the first time.

American Christians will need to learn how to move across cultures to reach their neighbors.

In a global world, old dichotomies of missions as “foreign” or “domestic” are not only less relevant, they may even be a hindrance. Indeed, many of the structures built to advance Christian missions were not constructed with the emerging realities of our contemporary society in mind. It wasn’t very long ago that the idea of “change” represented a religious battleground of sorts, but in an urban world change is the only constant. Adaptability is an essential ministry skill in the twenty-first century. A world once built on stability is now operating around the axes of mobility and connection. This new world might seem scary and intimidating for the American church and its leaders. However, I want to raise a rallying cry here to open our eyes to the harvest and seize the amazing and unprecedented opportunities that overshadow even the greatest challenges. Global partnerships offer new possibilities for the mission of the church, and leading theological voices from around the world can provide what we need for us all to learn together in mutual humility. Not only can American churches participate in global missions within a few square miles of their building and share the joy of the gospel with first-time hearers, but the enormity of the challenge, I believe, is actually forcing the American church to recover her true identity as a missionary people—as exiles in a foreign land.

Dr. Jared Looney is the executive director of Global City Mission Initiative (http://globalcitymission.org). Serving in NYC for 15 years, he has worked in evangelism, church planting, and teaching in multicultural communities, and has spent several years training new missionaries in NYC sent from multiple missions agencies. He currently lives with his wife and daughter in Tampa, Florida.

Missional mentoring is at its best when marked by three core traits: a healthy distinction, drawn on the part of the mentor, between the particulars of his or her calling and that of the younger leader; the fostering of an adventurous, risk-taking faith on the part of the protégé; and the encouragement of a fixed attentiveness to the promises and activity of God on the part of both the mentor and the protégé. This article explores the traits of missional mentoring by considering the examples of three biblical mentors as well as the author’s experiences of mentorship.

Missional mentoring is an intentional style of mentoring that encourages young leaders to embrace change and innovation in their pursuit of God’s mission. The challenge is that missional mentoring requires older leaders to confront their own instinctive resistance to change and instead encourage younger leaders to intentionally pursue God’s mission along new and unexpected paths. Charles Handy focuses on this challenge for older leaders noting, “The paradox of aging is that every generation perceives itself as justifiably different from its predecessor, but plans as if its successor generation will be the same.”1 These words are a reminder that it is one thing to initiate change and quite another to have change foisted upon us by others! Missional mentoring is at its best when marked by three core traits: a healthy distinction, drawn on the part of the mentor, between the particulars of his or her calling and that of the younger leader; the fostering of an adventurous, risk-taking faith on the part of the protégé; and the encouragement of a fixed attentiveness to the promises and activity of God on the part of both the mentor and the protégé. This article examines the examples of three often-overlooked biblical mentors who teach us to transform mere mentoring into missional encounters: Eli, Naomi, and Elizabeth. Along the way I will reflect on the intentional mentoring efforts of older leaders who have blessed my life.

In its simplest form, mentoring is a relational experience in which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources, such as knowledge, skills, tools, connections, habits, and insights.2 This type of relational connectedness does not happen accidentally. Mentoring is a voluntary relationship that is marked by intentionality, intensity, exclusivity, and persistence.3 Eli, Naomi, and Elizabeth shed light on missional postures that transform ordinary mentoring into purposeful missional relationships.

Eli, Naomi, and Elizabeth shed light on missional postures that transform ordinary mentoring.

Eli: Missional Mentoring as Fostering a Spirit of Healthy Indifference

The reader may recall the night young Samuel was awakened by a voice calling to him within the tabernacle (1 Sam 3.) Samuel awakened Eli three times, mistakenly assuming his mentor had been calling him. Eli finally instructed Samuel to respond to the voice by saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”4 When the Lord next spoke, the young man found himself listening to an announcement that would prove unsettling for Eli. God revealed a message of judgment on Eli and his entire family. God had also revealed a divine determination to launch something new in the unfolding story of his mission. The function and status of Eli’s priestly family would soon be obsolete (1 Sam 3:11–14.) Later that morning Eli required that his young protégé reveal everything the Lord had spoken. Awkward!

The details of this story have much to teach older mentors about the importance of maintaining a healthy distinction between the particulars of their own calling and that of younger protégés. Without a proper sense of healthy neutrality about the particulars of the younger companion’s calling, an older mentor may unwittingly hinder the emerging leader from fulfilling his or her calling. The intention is not to foster a disregard for the protégé. It is instead to foster a spirit of neutrality: a calculated awareness that younger leaders are sometimes called to follow God in paths the mentor never imagined. It is easy for older leaders to assume that younger leaders function merely to prop up and maintain the older leader’s plans and purposes. This assumption hinders a younger leader’s ability to freely enter into a new era of missional strategy. Eli’s interactions with Samuel remind us that emerging leaders might be called by God to pursue different paths than that of their predecessors. Indeed, older leaders ought also to be reminded, however painful it might be, that God’s new steps forward may portend the end of their own ministry systems and structures.

Younger leaders are sometimes called to follow God in paths the mentor never imagined.

I suggest that Eli’s finest leadership was exhibited not in what he did but in what he did not do. Once Eli realized that it was the Lord calling Samuel, Eli took a step back and gave Samuel the necessary space to encounter God on his own.

The text reveals that visions from the Lord were rare in Eli’s days (1 Sam 3:1). Certainly Eli might have welcomed the opportunity to be present in the room when God finally chose to speak. It is highly instructive that Eli did not intrude into Samuel’s experience. Instead of returning to the room with Samuel to “help” the lad hear from God, Eli stepped back. He sent Samuel back to hear God, alone. This should remind older leaders that we are not to be the focus of our protégé’s attention. Mentoring serves to help the leader focus on God, not to focus the leader on the mentor. God is to be the sole focus! It is also instructive that Eli made no attempt to restate, inform, interpret, or control the negative intent of Samuel’s message. Even though Samuel’s emergence ultimately undermined Eli’s leadership, nothing indicates that Eli resented or resisted the new direction God’s mission took through Samuel. Eli appropriately differentiated his calling and functions from those God had assigned to Samuel. This is set before us clearly in Eli’s response to God’s judgment: “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him” (1 Sam 3:18).

Mentoring becomes missional when it prompts young leaders to pursue the next steps in God’s mission. This pursuit must be encouraged regardless of the consequences for the preexisting structures and personnel. To embrace this type of relationship, older mentors must maintain a healthy awareness of the distinctive differences in the shape and contours of the protégé’s mission and their own. Missional mentors understand that what has been true for them might not be true for the next leaders. What has worked in one generation may no longer work in the next. In order to foster this healthy spirit of neutrality, older leaders might find it helpful to reflect upon Jesus’ response when Peter inquired into the particulars of his fellow disciple’s calling. Jesus’s response to Peter was brief and to the point: “What is that to you?” (John 22:22).

Mentoring becomes missional when it prompts young leaders to pursue the next steps in God’s mission.

The mentor who in my life most clearly exhibited an ability to differentiate between his own calling and that of younger leaders under his mentorship was Bob Sloniger, the director of the Chicago District Evangelistic Association.5 Bob led a church-planting ministry that focused on the greater Chicagoland region. It was Bob who hired me straight out of seminary and assigned me the task of starting new church-planting churches in the suburbs North of Chicago. Bob served as my supervisor during my first thirteen years of ministry. My first assignment under Bob was to launch a church for unchurched people, using only unchurched people to do it. Bob, and his board, wanted to see what might happen were a new church to start without taking members out of neighboring churches. This assignment was a daunting task, and it stretched our imaginations, calling many long-held assumptions into question. Many of the methods the resulting new church utilized were unfamiliar and uncomfortable for Bob. But he faithfully provided me with the gift of a healthy indifference regarding my methods and strategies. Over the years I witnessed Bob fostering a studied willingness to allow younger leaders to try new and unproven ideas. He was not perhaps the most creative leader with whom I’ve worked, but he was one of the most open-minded and tolerant. The spirit of Bob’s indifferent perspective toward methodology was summed up one morning when he sent me home from a meeting with these words: “You just do what you’re called to do, and I’ll watch your backside.” I can’t help but wonder how many young leaders have found themselves held back by older leaders who are unable to properly differentiate between themselves and their calling, and that of the emerging leader. May God give us the ability to foster a healthy distinction between the particulars of our calling and that of emerging leaders!

Naomi: Missional Mentoring as Fostering a Spirit of Adventurous Risk-Taking.

As the story of Naomi and Ruth opens we discover that the wheels had fallen off their lives. Their husbands are dead. They are childless, penniless, homeless, and separated from family. In Naomi’s words, her life has gone from being full to being empty (Ruth 1:21). Naomi summarizes this sharp reversal of fortunes by changing her name from Naomi (meaning pleasant) to Mara (meaning bitter). Ruth faced the additional complication of being an outsider in Israelite society. She was from Moab. Upon their arrival in Bethlehem these women faced two immediate and stark challenges: they needed food and sustenance, and they needed to reestablish connection with their extended family. It was not easy for unattached women to navigate Israelite society. Fortunately, Israel’s traditions provided the possibility that a male relative might take them into his household, care for them, and perhaps even provide them an heir who could continue their husband’s lineage. To do so was to play the voluntary role of being their kinsman redeemer.

Ruth’s passionate refusal to abandon her mother-in-law (Ruth 1:16–17) reveals that a healthy mentoring relationship existed between them. Ruth felt a deep love and affection for Naomi. Ruth’s statement also reveals that her personal faith had been nurtured through Naomi’s instruction, as Ruth referred to God as “your God” (Ruth 1:16–17). But as the story unfolds the reader can witness Naomi’s mentoring advance beyond mere mentoring into missional mentoring as she encourages Ruth to take risky and adventurous steps toward securing a marital relationship with a potential kinsman redeemer.

The barley harvest had just commenced when the two women arrived in Bethlehem. The harvest offered them a lifeline. Ruth took advantage of the opportunity to secure food by venturing into the fields to glean behind the harvesters. This was risky behavior. Naomi and Boaz both confirm that gleaning alone, as a single woman, was dangerous (Ruth 2:9, 16, 22). The dangers associated with gleaning alone in the field, however, paled in comparison with the risks associated with implementing Naomi’s scheme for getting Ruth married to Boaz.

Noticing that Ruth has met Boaz, one of their potential kinsman redeemers, Naomi took it upon herself to initiate plans for Ruth to become Boaz’s wife. Naomi’s strategy was for Ruth to watch and wait until Boaz had properly celebrated the end of his harvest and had enjoyed enough wine to be in good spirits. Ruth was to note where Boaz settled down to sleep so she could later quietly approach Boaz in the dark, pull back his blankets, and settle in beside him until he awakened. After that, well—the plan was risky. Naomi instructed Ruth: “Go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do” (Ruth 3:4). Having executed Naomi’s scheme flawlessly, Ruth returned home to join Naomi as they waited to see what Boaz would do next.

This story highlights a distinction between mentoring and missional mentoring. The missional nature of Naomi’s advice can be seen in the way she fostered and encouraged Ruth’s adventurous spirit of risk-taking faith. Naomi did not attempt to hide or remove the risks she encouraged Ruth to take. Neither did Naomi attempt to artificially boost Ruth’s confidence with a façade of false bravado. She simply pointed Ruth to faint signs of God’s presence and provision. Upon a slight indication of God’s presence and activity Naomi declared that the Lord’s “kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead” (Ruth 2:20). Robert Hubbard notes that the book of Ruth “offers no awesome display of divine might” or “terrifying glimpse of the divine being” but instead depicts God as “present, though invisible to human view.”6 Naomi was spiritually sensitive, showing Ruth how to find faith and courage in dark and uncertain times. As we saw with Eli, Naomi did not presume to act in Ruth’s place. Naomi instead pointed Ruth in the right direction and stepped back to see what would happen. Naomi let her younger companion work things out herself. But she did require that Ruth embrace the adventurous steps needed to prompt Boaz into action.

Normal mentoring can happen without encouraging younger leaders to take risks. But missional mentoring will always involve risk. God’s mission is always moving forward, and those who are called upon for leadership must step out in faith as they follow God’s prompting. The mentors in my life who most fostered adventurous risk-taking faith are the leaders with whom I worked while we launched Stadia: New Church Strategies.7 As our church-planting ministry spread across North America we repeatedly found ourselves facing faith-stretching decisions. Dean Pense, Roger Gibson, Marcus Bigelow, and Dan Converse worked together and mentored me, introducing me to the prayerful process of discerning God’s direction and activity. Under their leadership I witnessed a team embracing God’s next steps forward. And even as I ventured out on my own to launch Nexus: Church Planting Leadership,8 starting churches in partnership with Independent Christian Churches and Churches of Christ, I continued to benefit from their missional mentoring. They encouraged me to embrace the risk that is always attendant with God’s missional ventures. I often wonder how ministry might have been different had I not been encouraged to take risks, try out new ideas, and foster a playful spirit of adventurous exploration. May God give us the ability to foster an adventurous spirit of risk-taking faith in emerging leaders as they pursue the mission of God!

Missional mentoring will always involve risk. God’s mission is always moving forward.

Elizabeth: Missional Mentoring as Fostering a Fixed Attentiveness to God’s Promises and Provision

Luke tells us how John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, found herself unexpectedly mentoring her younger relative Mary, the mother of Jesus. Mary’s miraculous pregnancy threatened to derail her marriage with Joseph (Matt 1:18–19). Whereas Ruth had enjoyed the benefit of Naomi’s companionship, Mary initially faced her crisis alone. Fortunately, the angel had told Mary about Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy (Luke 1:36). Mary hurried to Elizabeth’s side (Luke 1:39–40), opening the door through which Elizabeth could help Mary fix her attention on the promises and provision of God.

Elizabeth’s relationship with Mary took on the traits of missional mentoring when she proclaimed Mary to be a blessed woman (Luke 1:41–42). This proclamation helped Mary place her circumstances in proper perspective. Norval Geldenhuys notes that it was not after the angel called Mary “highly favored” that she sang praises to God (Luke 1:28). Mary instead sang God’s praises only after Elizabeth, an older companion, had called her the “mother of my Lord” (Luke 1:43).9 Elizabeth’s perspective helped Mary appreciate the fact that God was with her even though events were threatening to ruin her life (Luke 1:45). Missional mentoring helps younger companions perceive God’s present activity in current circumstances.

Missional mentoring helps younger companions perceive God’s present activity.

Missional mentors also help protégés sort through and clarify what they believe about God. It is likely that Elizabeth helped Mary craft the Magnificat (Luke 1:46–55). Luke places Mary’s song in the context of the three months she spent with Elizabeth (Luke 1:56). It is possible that they coauthored the song during their time together. A handful of manuscripts actually attribute the song to Elizabeth and not to Mary.10 As these two women compared their situations it is likely that they would have sought to discern what their surprising pregnancies revealed about God’s purposes and intentions. The Magnificat reveals an intimate knowledge of God’s word, as the lyrics are comprised almost entirely of Old Testament quotations and phrases.11 It celebrates the Mighty One who has begun to turn human society upside down, ushering in the Messianic age (Luke 1:52-53). The shared knowledge that both of their sons would serve God’s purposes in special ways may have boosted Mary’s ability to trust in God. In light of their shared experiences Elizabeth helped Mary realize, “All generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48). Elizabeth’s mentoring was missional to the extent that it helped her protégé fix her attention solely on God’s promises and provision.

We should remember to read this story in light of the fact that Elizabeth was herself experiencing a miraculous pregnancy. Her pregnancy, at such an old age, made her the object of much attention. After so many years of being barren, Elizabeth finally had her opportunity to be the center of attention. Even so, Elizabeth focused the attention on Mary and not on herself. Instead of letting Mary fuss over her, Elizabeth fussed over Mary. Once Mary entered the scene Elizabeth’s “baby leaped in her womb,” and in a loud voice Elizabeth proclaimed Mary to be the truly blessed one (Luke 1:41–42). Instead of standing back and expecting to hear how blessed she was to have her barrenness reversed, Elizabeth firmly pronounced Mary—an unwed girl, roughly ranked as the very least in Jewish society—blessed above all women. As with Eli and Naomi, Elizabeth willingly and joyfully vacated the spotlight to focus attention on her young companion. In this vein, older leaders need to approach younger companions with a similar spirit of humility. Younger leaders cannot flourish and discern God’s presence and promises in difficult circumstances when older leaders continually seek to be the center of attention.

John the Baptist, Elizabeth’s son, might later have reflected the humility he learned from his mother when he responded to a question about Jesus’ rising popularity by stating, “He must become greater, I must become less” (John 3:30). In saying this John responded to Jesus in similar fashion that his mother had responded to Mary. As Jesus observed, “everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40). While we do not know the particulars of how Elizabeth trained her son, it is surely not a far reach to assume that her spirit of humility is reflected in the disposition of her son. Like his mother before him, John’s attention was fixed on the promises and provision of God. Missional mentoring turns everyone’s attention to that end.

Missional mentoring turns everyone’s attention to the promises and provision of God.

The mentor who best helped me learn to discern God’s promises and provision was a former seminary professor, Dr. Bill Bravard. Bill surprised me after graduation by calling each month. My surprise grew as he continued, calling each month for the next twenty-five years. I admit that I did not initially warm to Bill’s calls. I was too busy. Too focused by goals. Too captivated by accomplishments. Moreover, Bill’s calls were not designed to encourage work-focused sensitivities. He never asked about my ministry. He always asked about my wife, our children, our marriage, and what I was learning from the Lord. Bill eventually helped me realize that life consists of more than task-oriented pursuits. J. Robert Clinton points out that younger leaders often focus on their accomplishments. They should instead focus on the transformation God is accomplishing within them. This is because healthy leaders minister out of who they are, not out of what they do.12 Bill’s monthly calls weaned me from being focused on my own achievements and quietly led me to focus on the identity I have in Christ. Instead of fixating on what I was doing I learned to give attention to God’s promises and provision, and ultimately to God’s plan. Interestingly, it was not the specific content of Bill’s calls that made the difference. After twenty-five years of calls, which ended last year with Bill’s death, I am unable to recall the specifics of any particular conversation. Bill did not exert his influence in any particular thing he said, but by what he did not say, or more specifically, what he did not ask about. His missional mentoring gradually shifted my focus from my own purposes to the promises and provision of God. May God give us the ability to foster within young leaders a fixed attentiveness on the promises and provision of the God who calls them into his mission!

Conclusion

I have suggested that missional mentoring is an intentional style of mentoring. It is a mentoring posture that encourages emerging leaders to embrace change and innovation as they pursue God’s mission. We can glean from the examples of Eli, Naomi, and Elizabeth that missional mentoring is at its best when marked by three core traits. Eli highlights the importance of mentors maintaining a healthy distinction between the particulars of their calling and that of the younger leader’s calling. From Eli we learn that sometimes the next step in God’s mission might involve the closure of the older leader’s systems and structures. Eli also reminds us that sometimes our best leadership moment comes not in what we do but in what we permit. From Naomi we learn that older leaders best serve younger protégés when they intentionally foster within them an adventurous, risk-taking faith. The steps God wants us to take to pursue his mission will likely require faith, which in modern vernacular might be best identified as risk-taking. Finally, from Elizabeth we learn that missional mentoring involves both the mentor and the protégé meditating on the promises and provision of God.

These three missional mentors filled critical roles in the unfolding drama of Scripture. Eli and Naomi served during the transition from the period of the Judges into the Davidic monarchy. Elizabeth played a vital part as the Davidic kingdom found its ultimate fulfillment in the arrival of the Davidic Messiah. In each instance these mentors had no way of imagining how impactful the mentoring they accomplished with young and unproven leaders might prove to be. They did what they needed to do by helping the next generation do what it needed to do.

I reflect again on Charles Handy’s words: “The paradox of aging is that every generation perceives itself as justifiably different from its predecessor, but plans as if its successor generation will be the same.” Perhaps a slight alteration of his wording better captures missional mentoring: The advantage of missional mentoring is that every generation perceives itself as justifiably different from its predecessor, and makes proactive plans to ensure its successor generation does the same! May God raise up mentors who empower the next generation to passionately pursue the mission of God!

Dr. Philip Claycomb is the director of Nexus: Church Planting Leadership (http://nexus.us). Nexus starts churches through collaborative partnerships between Independent Christian Churches, Churches of Christ, and other like-minded congregations. Nexus is based in Texas but currently works in fifteen states throughout the central portion of the US. Phil and Barb have been married thirty years and have invested their energies in starting new churches. They spent their first thirteen years of ministry starting four new churches in Chicago. They then worked with Stadia: New Church Strategies for five years (during which time Stadia started seventy-two churches.) Since starting Nexus in 2006 they’ve been blessed to see forty-three new churches launched. Phil spends most of his time mentoring emerging leaders, creating church-planting partnerships, coaching churches and networks, and teaching leadership and spiritual formation courses at Cincinnati Christian University.