Category: md-16

Harvey C. Kwiyani. Decolonizing Mission. London, UK: SCM Press, 2025. Paperback. 240 pp.

The complex relationship between Christian mission and imperialism is, and should be, a major topic in missiology and history. Since the latter half of the twentieth century, secular historians have often labeled missionaries as agents of cultural imperialism. In contrast, historians of Christianity offer more nuanced interpretations, arguing that missionaries relied on imperial structures but were primarily motivated by their convictions. Harvey C. Kwiyani, writing from a missiological perspective, offers a compelling contribution to this debate through the book under review here, Decolonizing Mission.

Kwiyani, Director of the Centre for Global Witness and Human Migration at the Church Mission Society, originally from West Africa taught theology, missiology, and leadership in Africa, Europe, and the United States. At Liverpool Hope University, he worked with eminent historian Andrew Walls. Kwiyani founded Missio Africanus: The Journal of African Missiology and has authored several books, including Sent Forth: African Missionary Work in the West (Orbis, 2014), Multicultural Kingdom: Ethnic Diversity, Mission and the Church (SCM Press, 2020), and Africa Bears Witness: Mission Theology and Praxis in the 21st Century (Langham, 2024), the last of which he considers a predecessor to this volume.

In the Preface and Introduction, Kwiyani articulates the dual significance of the term “decolonizing” in the book’s title: as a verb, the work refers to a decolonizing mission theology and practice; as an adjective, decolonized describes the nature of mission. Born in Malawi, where European missionaries established mission stations, Kwiyani shapes his argument from that background. He does not denounce individual missionaries, but rather the ongoing system linking mission and imperialism. Kwiyani warns against justifying wrongdoing by saying “God uses flawed people.” Drawing on his academic and practical expertise, instead, he offers a renewed, Jesus-centered, and decolonizing understanding of mission for the twenty-first century.

In Chapter 1, Kwiyani discusses his origin in Magomero, Malawi, to illustrate the intertwining of mission and colonization. He appreciates the efforts and sacrifices of white missionaries. Yet he argues that their mission was influenced by the ideology of white supremacy, the doctrine of discovery, and civilizing mission. Chapter 2, “Jesus and the Empire,” anchors the book theologically, with Kwiyani—like theologian John Howard Yoder—suggesting Jesus’ mission had the dimension of subverting the empire.

Next Kwiyani surveys the history of Christianity through a missiological lens. In Chapter 3, he highlights Paul of Thebes, whose mission model—going to the margins—suits those outside imperial power. Chapter 4 examines fifteenth-century Papal bulls that justified European domination and the Christianization of “pagans.” In the next chapter, the author notes that by the nineteenth century, the idea of a civilizing mission was closely tied to European imperialism and paternalism. Kwiyani notes that these attitudes persist in today’s mission, with global strategies and Jesuit-like military metaphors still influential. In Chapter 6, he argues that mission should not require imperial power, though missiology remains “white-dominated.” For Kwiyani, political correctness is not the motive for this reconceptualization but rather recalls Jesus’ mission without imperial backing. Thus, the author envisions mission led by those with little or no imperial power, especially in the non-Western world.

In Chapter 7, Kwiyani offers practical suggestions for decolonizing mission. Citing Andrew Walls, he urges breaking the “untroubled rule of palefaces” by amplifying non-Western voices in missiology. He notes the resistance faced by non-Western scholars, such as an Ethiopian woman who critiqued power imbalances in US missions. Kwiyani insists mission should be led by the less powerful, as in Jesus’ time, and be multi-directional. He challenges terms like “unreached people groups” and the “10/40 window” as Eurocentric, and calls for decolonizing Evangelical missions, which remains centered on US and UK institutions—even when involving non-Western Christians. The concept of “missional church” also needs decolonizing, as it often excludes non-Western perspectives and relies on church marketing.

In Chapter 8, Kwiyani adds nuance regarding the African context. When Africans engage in “mission,” their concepts can be borrowed from the West and remain colonial. However, contemporary African missiology, rooted in African identity, could foster a unique “lay-led missionary movement” blending Evangelical and ecumenical traditions. Kwiyani concludes in Chapter 9: “It is high time we agreed that God’s mission does not colonize… We need to learn how to engage in God’s mission…with no armies to make the way before us and no empires behind us.”

While the book provides rich historical accounts, the chronology is sometimes inconsistent, making it difficult to follow the historical flow. For example, Chapter 4 disrupts the timeline started in Chapter 2 by drawing freely on incidents from different eras, and later chapters jump between centuries. His thematic approach may justify this, but it requires closer attention from the reader.

This book will be of considerable value to scholars and practitioners engaged in the study or practice of Christian mission. Kwiyani carefully builds on previous scholarship and offers fresh insights relevant to missiology today. Members of Stone-Campbell churches should pay special attention, as Kwiyani is essentially talking about restoring Jesus’ vision of mission as reflected in the Bible. Furthermore, consistent with the book’s ethos, I recommend this book for non-Western Christians—not only in Africa, but also in Asia, Latin America, and Oceania—any who seek to participate in decolonizing mission.

Madinger, Charles, and Danyal Qalb, eds. Connecting Points: Bridging the Orality Gap to Minds and Hearts, vol. 1. Manila, Philippines: OralityResources.International, 2025.

Charles Madinger, who leads the Institutes for Orality Strategies team from Manila, and Danyal Qalb, Research Director with Orality Collaborators, offer an important resource for understanding orality and its significance in today’s world. This first volume, available for free online (https://oralityresources.international/connecting-points-1), addresses the first five “Traits of Orality”: Stories, Symbols, Rituals, Memories, and Spaces. Contributors from various regions engage these themes, while the editors frame each chapter with a dialogue between Abebe, an orphan boy, and AIDA, an artificial intelligence “friend.” These dialogues raise significant issues, especially the impact of colonization on predominantly oral cultures and the missionary movement’s frequent lack of awareness regarding oral-preference learners.

Chapter One, by Tom Steffen, explores the vital force of oral tradition, story, and narrative. Steffen challenges the dominant Western assumption that intellectual maturity is tied to linearity, rationality, and writing. He reminds readers that worldview formation is always narrative-shaped. Scripture itself bears witness to this: from Genesis to Revelation, God reveals himself through the great, unified story of God and humanity. Humanity, the crown of creation, is naturally attuned to story and poetry, just as human beings are created for intimate relationship with God and one another.

In Chapter Two, Samuel Law highlights the importance of symbols and nonverbal language for Christianity in the present century. He reminds readers that the biblical stories began orally, told and retold across generations before being written down. Law also urges readers to recognize that symbolic language in Scripture was, and remains, central to the formation of God’s people.

Chapter Three, by Jay Moon, shows how deeply symbols and rituals are linked to the hearts of a people. Symbols are essential to ritual formation, and rituals can imprint teaching “in the bones.” Moon argues that discipleship must attend to these dynamics, shaping people so that the principles of God’s kingdom are embodied, not merely understood.

Chapter Four focuses on the “oral zone” of short- and long-term memory. Larry Dinkins observes that the Bible, though now preserved in written form, was composed in literary styles that aid memorization. Approximately 70 percent of the biblical books are narrative, and another 23 percent are poetry. These oral literary structures have shaped and transformed worldviews across generations.

In Chapter Five, Jay Mātenga emphasizes the importance of place and environment in communal formation. In holistic societies, stories are preserved through symbols, rituals, songs, dances, and cultural artifacts. Mātenga shows that people do not merely inhabit environments; they belong to the environments that shape them.

The book does not disparage Western writing or linear thought. Rather, it invites readers to broaden their understanding of the linguistic and cognitive diversity of human societies across time and place. Each chapter is highly accessible for everyday readers while still engaging significant scholarly voices, including John Walton, Brent Sandy, Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Sanders Peirce, Paul G. Hiebert, James K. A. Smith, Mikhail Bakhtin, Thomas Aquinas, and others.

One feature I found less compelling was the dialogue framework between Abebe and AIDA. At times, it felt somewhat trivial and unusual. Still, I understand the editors’ choice, since the dialogues help situate each chapter’s themes in concrete, on-the-ground contexts.

Overall, this volume clarifies the care church planters must exercise in discipleship, especially in the reinterpretation of symbols and rituals, so that Christian formation does not become mere religious syncretism. It also demonstrates the richness of stories, symbols, rituals, memories, and spaces in human formation and cognitive development. Such insights can help those who share the good news do so more effectively and faithfully. As Samuel Law rightly states, “We need only look to Jesus, God become flesh, to understand that written words are not enough but require a living, divine symbol of relationship” (93).

Alan Roxburgh and Roy Searle, Forming Communities of Hope in the Great Unraveling: Leadership in a Changing World. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books (paperback), 2025. 214 pp.

Forming Communities of Hope attempts to speak broadly to recent shifts in Western Christianity. In previous works, Alan Roxburgh has teamed up with Fred Romanuk or Mark Branson to examine missional church leadership. His collaborator for this volume is Roy Searle, an English church leader keenly familiar with major shifts in church thinking across England and the UK. Together, they seek a new paradigm for construing church leadership.

The premise of Forming Communities is that the Western world is living through a period of enormous disruption and that the changes currently underway are immense and irreversible. These changes are having a significant impact on Western churches, resulting in an unraveling. That so many church leaders feel a lack of competence and confidence in the face of these forces is entirely predictable and understandable, they say.

The authors repeatedly state that “we’re in a place we’ve never been before” (6-8 and elsewhere). They describe their belief that our sustaining stories and methods no longer hold credence. The only healthy way forward, they argue, is to embrace the dissonance of the moment and allow God to reshape God’s people for a new season of life and mission. But this is unlikely, they suggest, without new approaches to leadership.

The book contains four sections: (1) a short introduction to the problem, (2) stories of God’s people who had to navigate similarly difficult and dark times, (3) suggested practices for leaders, and (4) the authors’ perspectives on what it takes to lead in this moment.

The fourth and final section is full of helpful thoughts and anecdotes. For example, they suggest that an important work of missional church leaders is to fight loneliness by building resilient communities. They write, “We have produced, in the language of T. S. Eliot, a wasteland in which, as caring pastors, we try to shore up spaces of sanity for our people. But it hasn’t worked” (100).

That leaders must consciously choose to dwell in their local communities and among their people is another important thought. “The modern story has colonized us with the lie that social mobility provides freedom, whereas dwelling means failure and loss of status” (121). Knowing, they suggest, requires relationships, and this is impossible without paying closer attention to the local than to the global.

While Roxburgh and Searle plant some wise signposts for Christian leaders, especially in the final section, the book feels disjointed. It reads like an off-the-cuff series of observations rather than a thoughtful product of careful research. The authors repeat many points and assume their foundational arguments rather than proving them. They often make strong assertions (such as at the end of a paragraph on page 179, “This is the task of leadership”) without enough definition. For example, they state (20), “The Euro-tribal churches are lost in the fog of it all.” They may expect the reader to nod in agreement, but they offer no nuance and little to support such a claim. These kinds of black-and-white statements may not need much explanation if one is familiar with Roxburgh’s books or with the Pioneering or Fresh Expressions movement in the UK. Still, new readers may struggle to follow such statements. Sometimes, they settle for making bold claims instead of rigorously building their case. I was also confused about why the authors footnote some statements but leave others without documentation. For example, on page 20, they present claims as interpretations of the current disruption, yet they offer no evidence to support them. Or on page 68, they frankly state, “we are at a tipping point where full-time, professional clergy are about to disappear.” Based on what evidence aside from their feelings? Or on page 14, they state that “Brooks calls [this] a conceptual blindness.” Who is Brooks, and where does he say this? I could go on, but you get the point. The authors lack thoroughness in their approach and argumentation.

Roxburgh and Searle have not missed the mark in their advice for church leaders. Indeed, I have taken several important notes from the book for my personal reflection. I wish they had built a stronger case for their sage words of wisdom.

Greg McKinzie. The Hermeneutics of Participation: Missional Interpretation of Scripture and Readerly Formation. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2025. 272 pp. Paperback, $35.00.

When was the last time you encountered the philosophers Paul Ricoeur and James K. A. Smith, as well as the Post-liberal theologians Hans Frei and David H. Kelsey, in a mutual dialogue with theologians Karl Barth and Jürgen Moltmann, and with missiologists David Bosch and Lesslie Newbigin? This is what happens in Greg McKinzie’s splendid The Hermeneutics of Participation, an interdisciplinary study based on his PhD dissertation at Fuller Theological Seminary.

McKinzie’s book is about making theological interpretation of Scripture missional through and through—and, more precisely, making it missionally embodied, engendering participation in the mission to the world by the Triune God. All the time, he is concerned about the limitations of making the interpretation of Scripture only an intra-ecclesial affair. Scripture is about God’s mission to the world.

The need for an authentically missional approach to the Bible is obvious:

On the one hand, theological interpretation of Scripture remains too missionally deficient to offer a convincing answer. On the other hand, missional hermeneutics remains too inattentive to the theological dynamics of readerly formation to address the question (20).

Therefore, the ultimate aim of the project is to help the church “become better readers of Scripture” (21) from the vantage point of the Triune God’s mission to the word. In other words, this study is an exercise in missional hermeneutics—a topic not foreign to mission theology. But the way Dr. McKinzie engages this complex issue is unique.

Here is the plan and outline of this remarkable study. After the Introduction, Chapter Two provides a case-study on the meaning, nature, and conditions of “missional participation.” This requires rehearsing the familiar terrain of debates about the interpretation and meaning of the Missio Dei and its implications for participation in the Triune God’s mission. Greg’s five-fold taxonomy of approaches is helpful.

Chapter Three takes a surprising turn to the doctrine of theosis (divinization, deification) as the key to participation in God’s mission. Following the groundbreaking work of the New Testament scholar Michael Gorman and a growing number of other scholars who are seeking the roots of this ancient Orthodox Church’s soteriological symbol, McKinzie also engages contemporary Evangelical[ly-friendly] scholarship to scrutinize deification. This alone would mark this study unique.

Chapter Four continues the search for embodied participation in the Triune God’s mission to the world by focusing on the embodied narrative—the way God speaks to us in Scripture. Taking a lead from the late J. Moltmann and Latin American Liberationists, Greg speaks of “solidarity” in embodied missional narrative. This conversation is further developed in Chapter Five, continuing dialogue with Ricoeur in search of helping the congregation to move “from embodied commitments to textual interpretation” (24). Following this, Chapter Six seeks to bring the main argument of missional hermeneutics to completion with the help of Ricoeur. The concluding Chapter sums it all up.

Having mentioned the study’s interdisciplinary nature, I really mean it: here you have a tour, on the one hand, across philosophical hermeneutics, theological interpretation of Scripture, historical and contemporary theology of mission, and systematic theology concerning the relationship between Scripture, church, and mission. On the other hand, you will also get a “crash course” in theological and philosophical anthropology, following the late J. Moltmann and other luminaries. I can only admire the capacity of the author to handle and manage so many theological, philosophical, and missional disciplines.

As a whole, Dr. McKinzie’s book is a wonderful premiere in all-things-missional hermeneutics and many-things-current-mission theology. As with any dissertation-based publication, there is a lot of familiar territory for us professionals—although, at the same time, both theologians and missiologists would be greatly helped with this tremendous resource:

• Missiologists, too often thin in biblical and theological scholarship, would be provided with a crash course in 20th/21st-century theological discussions about mission.
• Theologians, almost by rule, ill-versed in mission theology, would be served by a wonderful “one-stop” shop for getting the basics.

On top of that, Greg’s constructive proposal is worthy of much discussion and debate. Its greatest vision, namely connecting tightly the interpretation of the Bible and missional hermeneutics tightly, is a worthy call for all churches and theological movements.

Dave Coles, ed. God on the Move: Making Disciples Among the Nations. Pasadena, CA: William Carey Library, 2025. 136 pp. Paperback, $12.99.

The goal of forming movements of disciples from among the unreached and underserved people groups of the world has captured the attention and imagination of many today. Whether one is focused on the goal of Church Planting Movements (CPM) or Disciple Making Movements (DMM), there has been significant attention to testimonies of how God is working powerfully, as well as to what it would look like to follow movement practices and principles towards those ends. God is on the Move: Making Disciples Among the Nations (2025) is a condensed, accessible version of Motus Dei: The Movement of God to Disciple the Nations (2021). While broader conversations about reporting and numbers related to DMM and CPM most certainly still need further consideration, this resource is a helpful summary of the positive case for such movements and the Mission of God.

Structured into two sections of four chapters each, the first part focuses on what is happening in the world today, while the second part explores how to make sense of it. In the initial chapter, “Fifteen Years of Disciple Making Movements,” Samuel Kebreab sets the stage by unpacking the features of Disciple Making Movements and examining the roles of data collection and verification. In their analysis of 129 movements that have reached the DMM threshold, they note that they “found that, on average, it takes three and a half years (42 months) for a DMM engagement to reach the movement stage (one hundred churches and four generations)” (10). Unfortunately, the reader may miss that these stories of explosive growth have tended to happen in more tribal-type contexts. The reader may also miss that we are neglecting to consider the role of previous Christian witness in that context and how it may have prepared these soils for what appears to be rapid growth. One interesting rule of thumb gleaned from this chapter was the 4-3-2 rule: “finding roughly four persons of peace will produce three discovery groups, and three discovery groups will eventually become two churches” (13). This linkage, while setting a standard or expectation that may be unrealistic to replicate in every cultural context, could help keep important lead and lag measures in front of kingdom workers.

The remaining chapters in Part 1 provide useful case studies from East Africa, India, and Thailand. Chapter 2, “Transferring Spiritual DNA in East Africa” (Tasse and Corley), works through significant shifts needed for movements to take place. They noted, for example, that “the biggest challenge has been overcoming centuries of an individual-focused, information-heavy Western approach to discipleship” (21). Unfortunately, this chapter references but neglects to challenge some controversial advice from mentors like David Watson to “decontextualize, not contextualize, the gospel” (20). Could it be that one of the reasons why movements in some places (outside the scope of this chapter) have burned hot like a brush fire and then just as quickly burn out may be linked to this dismissal of the important practice of rooted contextualization? Tasse and Corley conclude as much with helpful reflections on their research methodology and initial observations from their overall analysis. Chapters 3 (“Bhojpuri Case Study” by John and Coles) and 4 (“A Thai Multiplication Movement” by Bailey) are also instructive and worthy of attention and reflection.

In Part 2, Farah’s “Discipleship Movements Today” made a significant impression on me. This chapter offers well-crafted, useful summaries of important perspectives on movements from history, ecclesiology, sociology, and practice. Then Craig Ott, in his chapter, explores the book of Acts and Church Planting Movements. Ott wisely counsels the reader not to “try to find a Bible verse to support every single mission strategy or method,” but balances that by noting that we should consider if CPMs “are consistent with the direction and theology of Acts” (74). While distilling principles from narratives can certainly be problematic, Ott models how to do so well. At one point, he notes that the “rapid growth of the Jerusalem church” was linked to “resolving conflicts among the disciples (Acts 6:1-7)” (76). It made me wish that an author had included those challenging reconciliation stories in the modern-day movement literature as well. I found chapter 7, on “God’s Expanding Family: The Social Architecture of Ekklesia Movements” (Larsen), to be the least helpful in this volume, as the sudden shift from CPMs and DMMs to his term “Ekklesia Movements” lacked definition and distinction. This chapter’s use of biblical texts alongside this author’s experience of a modern movement seemed to conflate the Ekklesia term in Scripture with the expression of the movement in this author’s context. The book finishes strong, though, with a chapter by Coles where he deftly answers eight main objections to CPMs and DMMs. The reader will find some useful gems in this section, like: “DMM is sometimes used to mean the same as CPM, but it is better understood as one of several processes leading toward a CPM” (96); and “So, rapid reproduction comes to us not as a promise but as a positive value in New Testament kingdom growth” (97).

Overall, this book is a useful resource for those who would like an introduction to the place of movements in Christian missions, and for those looking to think, speak, and participate in these movements today. I believe this book achieves what it set out to do: providing a “shorter and easier-to-read book” and functioning as an “appetizer for the full-course banquet” of the larger Motus Dei (2021) volume (xv-xvi). The book’s hope, then, is to inspire and edify readers with greater awareness of what God is doing around the globe (xvi). My only hesitation, then, in recommending this book is this: I worry that readers may fill up on the appetizers, exchange movement hope for movement hype, and make this volume their only stop on their learning journey. That concern is linked to the need for continued conversation, caution, and reflection about the role of numbers, metrics, outcomes, and accuracy in movement-focused missions literature. I certainly plan on sharing this book with others, but will do so in conversation with other voices for faithful and fruitful participation in Christ’s mission.

Bradley Bell and Ted Esler, eds. Missiology for Missions Pastors: A Practical Introduction for Church Leaders. The Upstream Collective, 2025. 229 pp. Paperback, $16.99.

I was excited about the prospect of reading Missiology for Missions Pastors because I have long respected Ted Esler and have found his work through Missio Nexus helpful. Also, I was feeling the need for an up-to-date book on this subject. It has been fourteen years since Paul Borthwick’s Western Christian in Global Mission (2012) was published and sixteen years since Fritz Kling’s The Meeting of the Waters (2010). No books have been more helpful to our work of equipping American churches for missions engagement at MRN. They have helped us set the context of global mission for American Missions leaders at the congregational level in accessible ways. But both books are getting dated. Much has happened since they were researched, written, and published. We have needed similar books for some time. Esler and Bell’s edited volume has made a significant contribution that helps fill the gap.

There is much to appreciate in this work. Like most edited compilations by multiple authors, the chapters can vary in quality and usefulness. Several of the chapters are summaries and updates of helpful companion books by their authors. For example, J.D. Payne and Brian Fikkert both contribute helpful chapters that draw on their other longer works.

Bell and Esler have done a great job of creating a helpful set of topics in well-aligned categories. Part one provides an introduction to missions, with three chapters devoted to defining the Mission of God, summarizing the history of missions, and offering an excellent update on the state of missions in today’s global church. This third chapter alone, by Jason Mandryk, is worth the price of the book. The data and analysis of the state of global Christianity are informative, inspiring, and useful for prioritization. The other two chapters are needed and helpful as well, but tend at times to overly simplify history and minimize problems with missions. They speak as if the best missions have been the norm, which is highly questionable.

Part two focuses on issues related to the local American church and the church’s role in missions. Chapters in this section describe the appropriate roles of American churches and mission pastors, both within the congregation and in works in other countries. While there are some helpful frames and suggestions here, these chapters are the book’s weakest. They point in some helpful directions and provide a few useful models, but often, there just isn’t enough direction to follow up on the suggested approaches. I do greatly appreciate the emphasis on getting local churches involved in raising up mission workers and getting congregations involved in supporting mission partners in a variety of ways. But just as helpful suggestions were being articulated, they were dropped, and the subject changed.

In fairness to the authors of chapters in this section, each was given topics too big for the scope of the chapters they were asked to write. I got the sense that each chapter could have been a helpful book, and that the authors had a lot more help to provide, but were not given the space to go into enough detail. Such is the nature of survey works.

Part three, called “Application of Missions,” is sort of a miscellaneous drawer of subjects that need attention but are not easily categorized. There is a helpful chapter on Short-term missions and on Mid- and Long-term missions. Again, there is a lot of helpful material here that begs for further development. They point in the right direction and provide some useful perspective, but are also overly optimistic and minimize concerning issues.

However, the final two chapters by Brian Fikkert on issues of dependency and sustainability, and by Ray Mensah on global partnerships, are both substantive and appropriately challenging. While Fikkert’s larger work, When Helping Hurts, is well known, it is still highly important. Mensah’s chapter on partnership is just as essential as Fikkert’s, but fewer Americans are aware of how complicated and yet essential a healthy global partnership is. Along with Mandryk’s chapter on the state of mission (mentioned above), these two chapters make this volume a good purchase.

I am thrilled to see Bell’s and Esler’s book made available, and I’m thankful to The Upstream Collective for commissioning it. It is long past time for local American churches to live into their responsibility to steward global missions. For too long, most local churches have outsourced global ministry to missions agencies. This has resulted in a massive gap between American expatriate workers and the church in their passport country. Agencies can do many things well, but they are not churches (despite some IRS legal categorization). They cannot be the community and spiritual support that American churches can and should be for global workers. In addition, when mission is outsourced to agencies, beyond funding, American Christians feel little to no connection to their global partners. They cannot be inspired or informed by what God is doing in other countries, which should be shaping what we do in the United States.

There are also some disappointing aspects of this book, more like missed opportunities than wrong directions or improper conclusions. With many chapters, there is some degree of minimization and even denial about the harm done by cross-cultural workers and approaches. The authors seemed to be afraid of offending or discouraging their readers. This is highly likely if their target audience is mission committees composed of laypeople. But I would expect missions pastors to realistically handle nuanced topics with greater cross-cultural awareness than the authors seem to assume.

At times, the authors are overly practical. They don’t provide much substantive missiology. The book claims, in its title, to be practical, which it is. But there are deeper concepts of missiology that directly impact the practice of mission but are glossed over or ignored, such as issues of Western superiority mindsets, racism on a global scale, gender and leadership, and various funding models and economic issues related to business-as-mission efforts.

While this book is helpful and serves an important need, it aims too low in my opinion. It is a great resource for lay members of a missions committee or missions support team at a local congregation level. However, I would expect a book aimed at mission pastors to dive deeper and accomplish more. However, mission pastors are limited to very large or mega churches. Most congregations have missions ministries led by lay volunteer committee chairs. This resource is well-suited to them. All things considered, this book claims to be both an introduction and a practical resource. So, perhaps my expectations are excessive.

Some of my favorite quotes from Missiology for Missions are:

We cannot, however, let the dark science of missiology and its attendant fear of making disciples keep us from obedience to what God has commanded his church regarding global mission. – Ted Esler, p. 3

Christian mission is a driver of change, a product of change, and a means by which we become aware of change. – Jason Mandryk, p. 38

But we can be fairly confident our task is nowhere near complete when 28 percent of humanity—2.3 billion people—are without meaningful access to the gospel, a number increasing by around 50,000 people every day. – Jason Mandryk, p. 38

Good trips are ones that help missionaries stay on the field longer. — Julius Tennal II, p. 125

The most effective missionary work flows from deep, intentional discipleship within the local church. – Nathan Sloan, p. 129

The four most dangerous words today are “I. Don’t. Need. You.” – Ray Mensay, p. 166

In summary, this is a great resource for mission pastors to give to the volunteers in their church who help discern what mission projects to engage and who are seeking to understand what they are doing and how to support them. It would provide helpful conversation starters for a wide variety of topics needed to train missions committee members for effective service, and which can be developed in more depth from other resources, often coming from the same authors of the various chapters. For these reasons, I am grateful this book is now available. In our work of church equipping at Mission Resource Network, we will certainly recommend it to churches we are training and coaching in missions stewardship. But we will also recommend that a dedicated missions pastor or minister on staff wrestle with more substantive works of missiology.

Two such books I recommend are:

• J.D. Payne, Pressure Points: Twelve Global Issues Shaping the Face of the Church, Thomas Nelson, 2013.
• B. Hunter Thompson with Bala Khyllep, Freeing Congregational Mission: A Practical Vision for Companionship, Cultural Humility, and Co-Development, IVP, 2022.

Uchenna D. Anyanwu, Pathways to Peacebuilding: Staurocentric Theology in Nigeria’s Context of Acute Violence. Pickwick Publications, ASM Scholarly Monograph Series 61, 2022.

As a response to Nigeria’s long-standing history of ethnic, political, and especially religious violence, Uchenna D. Anyanwu’s Pathways to Peacebuilding is a well-thought-out book filled with theological and missiological ways of addressing Nigeria’s acute context of violence that can also be replicated in other African countries or other contexts. In Nigeria, religious violence “occupies the top rank of Nigeria’s history and timeline of acute violent incidents” (1). Therefore, Anyanwu’s book attempts to situate a peacebuilding theology, specifically a staurocentric peacebuilding theology, at the cross to prepare the church in Nigeria, Africa, and all churches to faithfully and constructively respond to Islamist-orchestrated violence. I evaluate Anyanwu’s arguments, structure, strengths, weaknesses, and limitations in his book.

The central idea of Anyanwu’s book is captured in his guiding research question: How can the church in Nigeria articulate a staurocentric peacebuilding theology that contributes to transformational peacebuilding in contexts of acute Islamist violence? Anyanwu primarily focuses on three denominations: the Church of Christ in Nations in Nigeria (COCIN), the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), and the Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN), which have been most affected by Islamists’ acute violence in northeastern Nigeria. Anyanwu does not offer sociological or political scrutiny, but provides a theological and missiological model as a tool for peacebuilding.

Acknowledging momentary solutions of the Nigerian military to the country’s history of violence, which has been orchestrated by Boko Haram, Maitatsine, Ansaru, and Fulani militant herders, Anyanwu argues for a permanent peacebuilding effort involving non-state actors such as the church. Political and religious histories address British colonial practices and earlier Islamic expansion, particularly Usman dan Fodio’s jihad, which created foundations for today’s tensions. The British colonial practices and Islamic expansion account, in part, for the acute violence. In light of the lack of peacebuilding concepts throughout Africa, contextual theologies recognize that Islamic concepts offer noteworthy resources that can be integrated into Christian peacebuilding. This shows that “a number of African concepts for peacebuilding exist” such as communal reconciliation, restorative practices and local mechanisms for conflict resolution, as well as a staurocentric theological model which presents the cross (σταυρός—stauros) and the resurrection of Jesus as “the triune God’s method for defeating evil, death, sin, and violence” (7). These are five research models that Anyanwu addresses. Anyanwu synthesises Islamic, African, and staurocentric elements into a peacebuilding theology intended for practical use in Nigerian churches.

Anyanwu’s effort to see beyond the salvific nature of the cross and envision its missional and ethical significance as deeply rooted in biblical, theological, and historical reasoning is commendable. The cross becomes a powerful tool to overcome evil and violence and a framework for Christian engagement. Anyanwu’s interdisciplinary approach brings together Nigeria’s political history, African cultural practices, Islamic peace concepts, and Christian theology, harnessing each to engage with and resolve conflicts on the African continent, especially in Nigeria. The interdisciplinary nature of Anyanwu’s approach recognizes the complexity of Nigeria’s religious plurality and the demonstration of respect for the Muslim community in their peacebuilding efforts. Also, Anyanwu’s personal experience of Islamist violence leading to the death of a friend and his fieldwork done in the areas deeply affected by the Boko Haram violence give weight and authenticity to the book’s argument.

Anyanwu’s work fills a gap by articulating a constructive and integrated approach to African peacebuilding theology and creates a framework for preventive peacebuilding, rather than merely adopting a reactive stance. His effort to incorporate African and Islamic concepts with Christian theology is a rare and fruitful “theological trialogue.” Finally, I find his proposal appealing and well thought out, as it advocates that churches go beyond evangelism to engage in mission by understanding peacebuilding as part of missio Dei, and by supporting the government in dealing with Islamic violence in Nigeria.

While recognizing Anyanwu’s excellent work on peacebuilding, his work is not without limitations. Though Anyanwu dedicates a whole chapter to discussing concepts from the Islamic community of faith, he does not include Muslims as interviewees. The lack of Muslim participation reduces the empirical depth of the interreligious analysis. Another limitation is the lack of a socio-political critique of Nigeria’s context, which contributes significantly to violence. Also, Anyanwu’s heavy theological framing of the steps to peacebuilding could prove too dense for readers who are not Christians or not involved in theological exercises.

Without doubt, Anyanwu’s work, Pathways to Peacebuilding, is a systematic research work. It is an original and profoundly contextual theological work intended to make peacebuilding proactive and relevant. By situating his concept of peacebuilding within African realities and drawing on perspectives from Islam and Christianity, Anyanwu provides a compelling model for engaging Nigeria’s violence through redemptive and transformative practices. The book is an excellent resource for scholars, pastors, and peace practitioners in Nigeria, throughout Africa, and worldwide, as it provides a roadmap for faithful Christian witness and mission in contexts of deep suffering.

Moerman, Murray. Movimientos de Multiplicación: Perspectivas de Liderazgo para Discipular Naciones Enteras. Quito: Red de Multiplicación, 2020. Distribución gratuita.

Moerman’s model of multiplication presents a well-designed, strategic, and theologically grounded approach, yet it risks generating church structures that reproduce without genuine inner renewal. This review recommends enriching Moerman’s proposed framework with a theology of spiritual formation centered on sanctification, discernment, and maturity of the soul, so that multiplication remains integral and spiritually transformative, not merely organizational.

La obra de Murray Moerman ofrece una síntesis amplia y estructurada sobre la expansión de la Gran Comisión mediante procesos nacionales de plantación de iglesias y formación de discípulos. El autor propone que la clave del crecimiento eclesial no reside en la adición numérica, sino en la multiplicación generacional, orientada a reproducir comunidades y líderes que se multipliquen a su vez. Su planteamiento integra fundamentos bíblicos, reflexión misional y estrategias prácticas que avanzan desde la visión teológica hasta la ejecución táctica. El autor aporta a esta obra la autoridad de más de cuatro décadas de experiencia en liderazgo misionero y desarrollo de movimientos eclesiales a nivel global. Su trayectoria en la fundación de DAWN (Discipling a Whole Nation) y su participación en redes como la Global Church Planting Network (GCPN) y el National Church Planting Process (NC2P) respaldan la dimensión práctica de su propuesta. El autor escribe desde una experiencia transcontinental que integra reflexión teológica y estrategia organizacional, lo que otorga al texto una perspectiva global y aplicable. Sin embargo, esa misma amplitud puede conducir a una lectura más técnica que contemplativa, donde la preocupación por la eficacia del movimiento eclipsa, en parte, la formación espiritual profunda necesaria para sostener la transformación que la misión busca generar.

El libro organiza su contenido en torno a componentes de movimientos saludables, nueve aceleradores de multiplicación y siete contextos desafiantes, lo que proporciona un marco sistemático de acción para líderes, docentes y formadores. El autor articula dos corrientes claves dentro de la literatura misional contemporánea: los movimientos de formación de discípulos (Disciple Making Movements) y los movimientos de plantación de iglesias (Church Planting Movement), vinculándolos con procesos de alcance nacional e iniciativas globales como DAWN en Filipinas, MANI (The Movement for African National Initiatives) en África y NC2P en Europa. Esta articulación ofrece una visión cooperativa que conecta la teología bíblica con la praxis organizacional, la planificación estratégica y la colaboración interdenominacional. Estas iniciativas evidencian que la cooperación interdenominacional y la planificación estratégica permiten a la iglesia movilizarse hacia la visión de “discipular a toda la nación”, unificando la dimensión espiritual del discipulado con la organización práctica de la plantación de iglesias. Desde mi perspectiva teológica, considero que los procesos de multiplicación que se describen requieren ser complementados por una formación espiritual más profunda, orientada no solo a la expansión de comunidades, sino a la transformación interior del discípulo y de la comunidad misma. La multiplicación, sin transformación, corre el riesgo de reproducir estructuras sin regenerar personas. En este sentido, el desafío actual de la misión no es únicamente estratégico, sino ontológico y espiritual: cómo cultivar líderes y comunidades cuya práctica misional surja de un proceso continuo de santificación, discernimiento y comunión con Dios. Solo una espiritualidad transformadora puede sostener la multiplicación auténtica que la obra vislumbra, evitando que la eficiencia organizativa eclipse la centralidad de la conversión del corazón y la madurez cristiana.

Desde una perspectiva docente, la combinación de teología, historia y praxis convierte esta obra en un recurso formativo de alto valor para cursos sobre liderazgo misional, estrategias de multiplicación y misión intercultural. A la vez, el texto puede servir como material de estudio aplicado en talleres o seminarios pastorales, dado su estilo accesible y su estructura orientada a la acción. El libro, además, presenta un marco global que subraya la necesidad de movilizar a “toda la iglesia para discipular a toda la nación,” retomando la visión de DAWN (Discipling a Whole Nation) y actualizándola mediante ejemplos contemporáneos y aprendizajes obtenidos en más de cuatro décadas de experiencia ministerial. No obstante, al analizar su pertinencia para el contexto latinoamericano y mexicano, emergen ciertas limitaciones. La noción de “discipular naciones enteras” puede resultar demasiado homogénea al abordar realidades tan plurales como las de México o América Latina, donde coexisten diferencias culturales, sociales y religiosas profundas. El modelo global propuesto requiere una relectura contextualizada, sensible a los factores históricos, socioeconómicos y políticos que configuran la práctica misionera en estos entornos. En este sentido, el libro aporta un marco útil para la discusión crítica, pero su aplicación directa necesita ser mediada por la teología contextual latinoamericana, la misión integral y los estudios sociales de la religión.

Metodológicamente el libro se apoya en la praxis acumulada del autor más que en la investigación empírica o comparativa. Este enfoque refuerza su valor práctico como guía operativa, aunque limita su aporte teórico y analítico. El autor combina exégesis bíblica, revisión histórica y reflexión teológica aplicada, acompañadas de estudios de caso y apéndices con herramientas de autoevaluación, pasos estratégicos y ejemplos de mejores prácticas. Estos recursos lo convierten en un texto pedagógico útil para el desarrollo de capacidades de liderazgo, planificación y cooperación en contextos eclesiales diversos. En su conjunto, el libro presenta una visión estratégica, teológicamente fundamentada y globalmente informada sobre el discipulado de naciones. Su propuesta eclesiológica une espiritualidad y planificación, destacando que la misión requiere tanto apertura al Espíritu Santo como estructuras organizativas efectivas. Entre sus fortalezas sobresalen la claridad argumentativa, la orientación práctica y la capacidad de traducir principios teológicos en acciones concretas. Sin embargo, podría beneficiarse de un diálogo más profundo con las ciencias sociales, la antropología cultural y los modelos latinoamericanos de misión integral o de teología de liberación, a fin de enriquecer su análisis sobre poder, cultura y transformación social.

En síntesis, es una obra valiosa por su claridad estructural, su integración entre teología y práctica, y su contribución al debate sobre la multiplicación de discípulos a escala global. Sin embargo, su enfoque, centrado en la expansión organizativa de la iglesia, deja abierta una pregunta crucial: ¿puede haber verdadera multiplicación sin transformación espiritual profunda? La propuesta impulsa una visión estratégica de la misión, pero corre el riesgo de reducir el discipulado a un proceso de reproducción eclesial más que a una experiencia de renovación interior y comunal. Desde una perspectiva formativa, el desafío no consiste solo en desarrollar estructuras eficientes, sino en cultivar una espiritualidad que regenere la conciencia, el carácter y la comunión. En este punto, resulta necesario complementar la visión de la obra presente con una teología de la formación espiritual que integre procesos de santificación, discernimiento y madurez del alma. Solo cuando la multiplicación se sustenta en la transformación del ser, y no únicamente en la expansión del hacer, la misión puede volverse verdaderamente integral, profética y liberadora. Por ello, aunque el libro constituye un manual inspirador y operativo para líderes, docentes y estrategas misioneros, su impacto sería más duradero si incluyera una dimensión espiritual formativa que acompañe la praxis misional con una pedagogía de la interioridad. Integrar esa dimensión permitiría pasar de la iglesia como movimiento a la iglesia como misterio: una comunidad en continuo proceso de conversión, que evangeliza no solo por extensión, sino por intensidad espiritual y profundidad transformadora.

Larry W. Caldwell, Marty Shaw, Jr., and Enoch Wan, eds. New Frontiers in Missiology: Exploring Innovation, Global Shifts, and the Future of Mission. Littleton, CO: William Carey Publishing. 228 pp. 2025.

Published by the Evangelical Missiological Society (EMS), New Frontiers in Missiology: Exploring Innovation, Global Shifts, and the Future of Mission is a publication dedicated to exploring new shifts and innovations for the future of mission. The Evangelical Missiological Society is an organization of professionals committed to supporting the Great Commission with scholarly resources. This book adds to current missiological discussion by exploring emerging challenges and possibilities in global mission, such as AI, gaming as a mission field, interplanetary mission, urbanization, and animistic practices in Islam that are certain to shape the future of missiology. The editors divide the book into three parts, each containing twelve chapters written by sixteen contributors.

Part One is dedicated to foundational issues and includes a discussion on the shift of Christianity from the Global North to the Global South while introducing two new paradigms for approaching mission. The first is the concept of “missional imagination,” introduced as a means of innovation for God’s kingdom purposes. The second paradigm, “apostolic imagination,” is proposed to clarify the church’s confusion about its purpose, identity, and mission language. Part Two of the book, “The Future is Now,” proposes new “frontiers” in mission, such as Artificial Intelligence, online gaming, and interplanetary missions. Finally, Part Three identifies areas for equipping future missionaries and missiologists, including animistic practices within Islam, mobilizing Generation Z, urbanization, and more.

I appreciate the EMS for identifying future challenges to mission with optimism and eagerness. The two articles on Artificial Intelligence are noteworthy, as this technology is rapidly being forced on us. The fulfillment of the Great Commission is the underlying principle of this journal, as stated in the EMS’s mission statement. Thus, every new “frontier” is a potential space for making disciples; the assumption is that we should take every opportunity for evangelization. If this is not a guiding principle of a reader’s missiology, this fundamental commitment will color the reading of this book, operating as the basic concern throughout.

Much of the language is entrepreneurial and business-laden. For example, the article “The Final Frontier of Mission” discusses the ambitions of billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos for space tourism and that “evangelicals should eagerly seek opportunities to follow their neighbors into space to bear witness to Christ there” (108). Although the article briefly raises critiques of the ethics and concerns of interplanetary travel, such as climate change, the weaponization of space, etc., these concerns are brushed aside as secular, progressive thought (98). The fundamental rationale is that “if we are sending sinners into space… we should send missionaries to proclaim the gospel to this new frontier.” (98). In the article “Gaming as a New Frontier in Missiology,” the online gaming world is proposed as a potential missiological space for engaging gamers from around the world—for the sake of the Great Commission. The authors, while writing about the time and money gamers invest in games, say, “While some may view countless hours spent in virtual worlds as frivolous, Christians can recognize this dedication as a form of passion and commitment” (87). Later, a way Christians can engage with gamers online is through social media and influencer outreach. The authors recommend that churches dedicate their resources to these things (91–92). They note how this content is created to “capture the attention” of their audiences (92). The authors give no consideration to how the virtual world is forming us or to whether mission should engage in technology that is increasingly stealing our attention and disconnecting us.

The authors seek to address these global and technological shifts creatively; however, for Christians, theologians, and missiologists, foundational questions remain. How do these technologies form us spiritually? What does it mean to be human? What are the purposes of these technologies? Do they bring life? Or do they disembody, foster addiction, and isolate? The authors miss the larger questions of how to approach these issues as people who live life with God. The means do not always justify the ends, and mission is just as much about the kind of people we are becoming as it is about someone else becoming a disciple of Christ. How we do mission matters just as much, if not more, than the results. The two articles on AI maintain a healthy skepticism of this new technology, noting the ways our calling “defies mere efficiency” (68). The church must be an alternative, embodied community in a world that I believe will soon be weary of the virtual and the ways it dehumanizes us.

Two articles that bring awareness to the challenge of mission in today’s world are “The Urbanization of the Mission Frontier” and “St. Paul Hiebert’s or Ours? New Frontiers in Missionary Anthropology and the Advancement of the Great Commission.” Both articles note a global shift toward urbanization and highlight how old missional paradigms need to be updated with current anthropological insights. Many cross-cultural workers are no longer working in mono-ethnic environments and find themselves swimming in a sea of diversity and globalization as a result of diaspora. Working in such an environment, I recognize that my mission training centered on serving mono-ethnic groups. Of course, theory is never perfect in practice, but I had to think creatively about my work when interacting with multiple cultures and linguistic groups. I do not think old mission paradigms are outdated, but we need to think theologically and creatively in a diverse, highly globalized world. For those serving in urban environments, New Frontiers in Missiology helpfully identifies areas such as those mentioned in this book that the church will face in the future. May God make us a people that listen to his voice to respond thoughtfully and faithfully.

Kristin Caynor and Werner Mischke, with Brad Vaughn. One New Humanity: Glory, Violence, and the Gospel of Peace. Littleton, CO: William Carey Publishing, 2025. 365 pp. Paperback. $17.99.

In One New Humanity: Glory, Violence, and the Gospel of Peace, Kristin Caynor and Werner Mischke have undertaken a work of audacious proportions. From one angle, it is an extended, meandering meditation on one chapter of the New Testament book of Ephesians. From another, it is an exercise, albeit peculiar, in theological anthropology. From a third, it is a kind of missiological soteriology. Readers might ponder still more angles. This, in other words, is a multifaceted offering. These complexities and combinations can be dizzying at times, but taken as a whole, they are an accomplishment worthy of serious engagement.

Caynor was, at the time of One New Humanity’s publication, a PhD student at Trinity College, Bristol/University of Aberdeen, already developing a career in global theological education. Mischke led the training ministry and served as vice president of Mission ONE from 1992 to 2024. He has numerous prior publications, the most relevant of which are in the field of honor-shame studies. One early-career scholar and one late-career practitioner have together composed a work that feels both personal and scholarly, both urgent and measured, both hopeful and sober.

The book’s opening sentence articulates its essence: “One New Humanity argues that Ephesians 2 offers a radical vision of human glory and peace that challenges cycles of shame and violence—from the Roman Empire to the contemporary world” (xxi). The reader should not assume, therefore, that Caynor and Mischke present an interpretation of the text of Ephesians 2 in any straightforward sense. Instead, there unfolds a fairly sprawling argument, which goes something like this: (1) the “new humanity” in Ephesians 2 is about glory/honor and entails relational harmony (peace); (2) a holistic definition of sin accounts for cycles of shame and violence that should be understood both spiritually and socially; and (3) failure to integrate glory and peace in the church’s understanding and practice of new humanity according to Ephesians 2 has many consequences, including (a) Christian participation in violence, even genocides and (b) missiological distortions that produce polarization rather than reconciliation. As someone who feels that sprawling arguments can be well-made, I’m open to the approach on offer here. But caveat lector: how it all hangs together is not exactly obvious.

Happily, the authors offer a variety of resources for making connections. Each chapter begins and ends with bulleted summaries and concludes with questions for further reflection. Likewise, the final paragraph of each chapter addresses “being human,” creating a clear anthropological throughline. The book is organized into three sections: Glory and Shame, Violence and Sin, and The Gospel of Peace and Its King. The Introduction helpfully outlines each section, repeatedly asking, “What does it mean to be human?” Numerous graphics and charts illustrate key ideas throughout the book. In lieu of a conclusion, an afterword by Dr. D. Zac Niringiye, “former assistant bishop of the Anglican Church of Uganda” (xviii), aptly identifies the book as part of an ongoing conversation that raises many questions (265–68). And finally, three appendices, a bibliography, and Scripture and topic indices round out the volume.

Of special note is the first appendix, an essay by Brad Vaughn titled “Reconciling Atonement in Ephesians 2.” This is an important contribution because exegetically minded readers will likely wonder about the treatment of Ephesians 2 at numerous points in the book. In many instances, an older “biblical theology of mission” approach to interpretation dominates One New Humanity, explaining Ephesians 2 by reference to other biblical texts. In this sense, Vaughn’s exegesis is a strong complement to the body text. It is worth mentioning, though, how minimally honor—the theological lens through which Caynor and Mischke draw their more creative conclusions—figures into Vaughn’s reading. Given Vaughn’s focus on honor-shame dynamics as a New Testament scholar, the contrast is telling.

One final observation about the distinctive character of the book: the authors add personal reflections on memories, relationships, and experiences to each chapter, which stand in interesting tension with the otherwise academic style of their writing. On the one hand, this is just one more feature of a book marked by an eclectic communication strategy. On the other hand, these vignettes contribute something significant. They are not “preacher’s stories” or trivial anecdotes. Some of the most gripping moments in the argument are present here.

One New Humanity suffers from a lack of coherent argumentation. This is not to say a coherent idea is missing. The problem is presentation: no organizing thesis, no clear conclusion. For the attentive reader, however, Caynor and Mischke portray a significant vision of humanity, sin, and salvation. In recent years, honor-shame studies have made major contributions to missiology. But many of us who stand outside the expert discourse on this topic are left wondering, so what? The need for wider theological connections is acute, and this book has made some critical connections. In essence, the authors have suggested the inseparability of glory and peace in Christian soteriology by way of anthropological exposition. Accordingly, Christian theologies of reconciliation, including interpretations of Ephesians 2, must account for the honor-shame issues that play out in real, and really serious, socio-cultural situations. Glory/honor is not secondary or peripheral; it is basic for both what it means to be human and what it means to be saved.

This book is a challenging read, but it is well worth the effort. I am convinced about the impossibility of peace without addressing the shame-violence cycle. I am impressed by the authors’ critique of theologies and missiologies that attempt to do so. I am compelled by their rendition of the gospel. What does it mean to be human? Caynor and Mischke helped us answer the question.