2015 Smith/Wynkoop Book Award presented by the Wesleyan Theological Society 2014 Choice Outstanding Academic Title During the Progessive Era, a period of unprecedented ingenuity, women evangelists built the old time religion with brick and mortar, uniforms and automobiles, fresh converts and devoted proteges. Across America, entrepreneurial women founded churches, denominations, religious training schools, rescue homes, rescue missions, and evangelistic organizations. Until now, these intrepid women have gone largely unnoticed, though their collective yet unchoreographed decision to build institutions in the service of evangelism marked a seismic shift in American Christianity. In this ground-breaking study, Priscilla Pope-Levison dusts off the unpublished letters, diaries, sermons, and yearbooks of these pioneers to share their personal tribulations and public achievements. The effect is staggering. With an uncanny eye for essential details and a knack for historical nuance, Pope-Levison breathes life into not just one or two of these women-but two dozen.

For decades, Operation World has been the world's leading resource for people who want to impact the nations for Christ through prayer. Its twofold purpose has been to inform for prayer and to mobilize for mission. Now the research team of Operation World offers this abridged version of the 7th edition called Pray for the World as an accessible resource to facilitate prayer for the nations. The Operation World researchers asked Christian leaders in every country, "How should the body of Christ throughout the world be praying for your country?" Their responses provide the prayer points in this book, with specific ways your prayers can aid the global church. When you hear a country mentioned in the news, you can use Pray for the World to pray for it in light of what God is doing there. Each entry includes: Timely challenges for prayer and specific on-the-ground reports of answers to prayer Population and people group statistics Charts and maps of demographic trends Updates on church growth, with a focus on evangelicals Explanations of major currents in economics, politics and society Join millions of praying people around the world. Hear God's call to global mission. And watch the world change.

On a sweltering June morning in 1933 a fifteen-year-old Muslim orphan girl refused to rise in a show of respect for her elders at her Christian missionary school in Port Said. Her intransigence led to a beating--and to the end of most foreign missions in Egypt--and contributed to the rise of Islamist organizations.
Turkiyya Hasan left the Swedish Salaam Mission with scratches on her legs and a suitcase of evidence of missionary misdeeds. Her story hit a nerve among Egyptians, and news of the beating quickly spread through the country. Suspicion of missionary schools, hospitals, and homes increased, and a vehement anti-missionary movement swept the country. That missionaries had won few converts was immaterial to Egyptian observers: stories such as Turkiyya's showed that the threat to Muslims and Islam was real. This is a great story of unintended consequences: Christian missionaries came to Egypt to convert and provide social services for children. Their actions ultimately inspired the development of the Muslim Brotherhood and similar Islamist groups.
In "The Orphan Scandal," Beth Baron provides a new lens through which to view the rise of Islamic groups in Egypt. This fresh perspective offers a starting point to uncover hidden links between Islamic activists and a broad cadre of Protestant evangelicals. Exploring the historical aims of the Christian missions and the early efforts of the Muslim Brotherhood, Baron shows how the Muslim Brotherhood and like-minded Islamist associations developed alongside and in reaction to the influx of missionaries. Patterning their organization and social welfare projects on the early success of the Christian missions, the Brotherhood launched their own efforts to "save" children and provide for the orphaned, abandoned, and poor. In battling for Egypt's children, Islamic activists created a network of social welfare institutions and a template for social action across the country--the effects of which, we now know, would only gain power and influence across the country in the decades to come.

The Reality Check series makes just one assumption: that you re serious enough about your spiritual journey to investigate Christianity with an open mind. This isn t about joining anyone s religious club---it s about being real with yourself and with the others in your group. Since no one has all the answers, there s plenty of room for discussion. After all, if there is any truth to the Bible s stories about Jesus, then one thing he d welcome are questions and opinions that come from honest, earnest hearts. What does it take to win at life? A good education? A lucrative career? A loving family? Jesus had a lot to say about winning---and losing---in life. He also had a way of connecting with his listeners through stories that cut straight to the heart of their personal lives and values. Winning at Life revisits six of those stories. Some will challenge you. Some will encourage you. All of them offer a clearer vision of what life is really about. Winning at Life includes these sessions: Rollover Investments Four Kinds of Dirt An Unexpected Homecoming Warning Signs Lame Excuses Unlikely Hero For the Group Leader Reality Check is for spiritual seekers of every persuasion. Uncompromisingly Christian in its perspective, it steers wide of pat answers and aims at honesty. This innovative and thought-provoking series will challenge you and those in your group to connect heart to heart as together you explore the interface between Jesus, the Bible, and the realities of this world in which we live."

All mission is local?the people of God joining the work of God in a particular place. In Starting Missional Churches Mark Lau Branson and Nicholas Warnes introduce us to seven missional churches while examining common challenges regarding their genesis. Using stories, interviews with pastors and a look at common preconceived notions of church planting in the West, this guide brings together resources of the missional church conversation with the creativity and energy of those who are experimenting with diverse planting activities and practices across the country. Curated by a pastor and a professor, this work highlights diverse modern examples of congregations focused on reaching their communities with a missional mindset. Learn from these stories how to build a vibrant, engaging church--one that generates redemptive witness in our neighborhoods and in our world.

The growth of Christianity in the global South and the fall of colonialism in the middle of the twentieth century caused a crisis in Christian missions, as many southern Christians spoke out about indignities they had suffered and many northern Christians retreated from the global South. American Christians soon began looking for a fresh start, a path forward that was neither isolationist nor domineering. Out of this dream the ''sister church'' model of mission was born. In this model, rather than Western churches sending representatives into the ''mission field,'' they set up congregation-to-congregation partnerships with churches in the global South. In Sister Churches Janel Bakker draws on extensive fieldwork and interviews with participants in these partnerships to explore the sister church movement and in particular its effects on American churches. Because Christianity is numerically and in many ways spiritually stronger in the global South than it is in the global North-while the imbalance in material resources runs in the opposite direction-both northern and southern Christians stand to gain. Challenging prevailing notions of friction between northern and southern Christians, Bakker argues that sister church relationships are marked by interconnectivity and collaboration.

Has the God who prepared the gospel for all people groups also prepared all people groups for the gospel? Don Richardson, author of the bestselling book Peace Child, has studied cultures throughout the world and found startling evidence of belief in the one true God within hundreds of them. In Eternity in Their Hearts, Richardson gives fascinating, real-life examples of ways people groups have exhibited terms and concepts in their histories that have prepared them for the gospel. Read how Pachacuti, the Inca king who founded Machu Picchu, the majestic fortress in Peru, accomplished something far more significant than merely building fortresses, temples, or monuments. He sought, reached out, and found a God far greater than any popular "god" of his own culture. And there have been others throughout the world, like him, who lived to receive the blessing of the gospel. Get ready to be amazed at these intriguing examples of how God uses redemptive analogies to bring all men to Himself, bearing out the truth from Ecclesiastes that God "has also set eternity in the hearts of men" (3:11).

Church members among the ethnic Somali population in the Horn of Africa constitute a culturally marginalized and persecuted minority. Despite more than a hundred years of Protestant missionary efforts, the growth of the church has remained slow and protracted. The very concept of "Somali Christian" accordingly continues to constitute a contradiction of terms in the mindset of most Somalis. Moreover, the few Christian congregations that have been established have most often remained unstable and in flux. Through empirical research, A Reconciled Community of Suffering Disciples: Aspects of a Contextual Somali Ecclesiology explores the background for such a development and interprets it within Somali cultural and religious patterns. By emphasizing the key aspects of contextual relevancy and theological coherence, it suggests a way forward for the Somali church. A Reconciled Community of Suffering Disciples is particularly relevant for courses on contextual theology in contexts of religious persecution. It offers insights for anyone with an interest in the Somali church and Somali culture in general.

The vibrancy of faith and the fast growth of different churches in Nigeria seem to obscure the reality of some precarious historical challenges that call for crucial and genuine ecclesiological inquiry. The Nigerian Church's unique history loaded with various facets of indoctrination and the peculiarities of her constituents demands an urgent ecclesial and theological attention. Following an exploratory, analytical, critical and historical methodology, this book finds Francis Alfred Sullivan's explication of the intricate nuances of the Four Marks of the Church as a fitting ecumenical model for the Nigerian ecclesial situation. It delves into this model and presents the findings through a catechetical prism as an alternative for effective and sustainable de-indoctrination. The author also finds dialogue as a probable effective tool for de-indoctrination, but also acknowledges that legitimate ecclesiological dialogue does not rule out difficulties in the process. He therefore argues that the consciousness of the ecumenical worth of the Four Marks of the Church as well as faithfulness to the principles of dialogue will lead to the resolution of much of these differences.

This book examines the career of Rufus Anderson, the central figure in the formation and implementation of missionary ideology in the middle decades of the nineteenth century. Corresponding Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions from 1832 to 1866, Anderson effectively set the terms of debate on missionary policy on both sides of the Atlantic and indeed long after his death. In telling his story, Harris also speaks to basic questions in nineteenth-century American history and in the relationship between American culture and the cultures of what later came to be known as the third world.

The most basic questions everyone faces in life is Why am I here? What is my purpose? Gerard Kelly presents the stories that make up the overall story of God in the world. And here we find our purpose for each of our individual Christian lives. Our purpose is as distinctive as our fingerprint and we will connect with it when we connect with our identity and origin in God. God remembers how he made us and is committed to the fruitfulness and fulfilment of our potential. We discover the importance of finding our place of service and usefulness, knowing that our lives have meaning in the purposes of God.

The research and reflections in The Fourth Self come from the author's almost thirty years of interaction in mission endeavors, primarily in Kenya, starting with an evangelism and church planting emphasis, to maturing young churches, and then various methods of leadership development. Much of what the author has learned on his pilgrimage in search of the fourth self, he owes to his Kenyan brothers and sisters with whom he has shared this journey. The Fourth Self will assist the reader in sharing in this journey more fully. Given the influence of the Western theological heritage in East Africa, it is important that the value of the theological education be evaluated from the perception of the participants in the educational process. This intercultural pilgrimage has been in the making for many decades, and it has been a journey for both African and Western participants as they both learned from and taught one another. This volume articulates the voices of the participants in a theological process while engaging their cultural contexts with the gospel, searching for what Paul Hiebert calls the "fourth self", self-theologizing. Furthermore, it evaluates which factors in the theological education process and ministry experiences contributed significantly to the leaders developing their own theological understanding of scripture as it applies to their cultural and ministry contexts, that is, practicing the fourth self. Professors, especially cross-cultural theological educators, will find this text to be useful in delving into the always dynamic cauldron of contexualization, self-theologizing, and global theologizing. In addition, this volume sets a solid foundation for improvements in ministry, theological interchange, and theological education in Africa.

Proposes an understanding of development in which the physical, social, and spiritual dimensions of life are seamlessly interrelated.

"A masterpiece of integration and application that draws widely on the best Christian and scientific sources on development and draws solid conclusions from what we have learned from experience in ministries around the world." From the Foreword by Paul G. Hiebert

"A book from which Christians of every church tradition can draw deeply and profit greatly. The practical wisdom found here can only be the result of what is expressed by its title: 'walking with the poor.'"¬ --Stephen B. Bevans, Catholic Theological Union

In this revised and updated edition of a modern classic, Bryant Myers shows how Christian mission can contribute to dismantling poverty and social evil. Integrating the best principles and practice of the international development community, the thinking and experience of Christian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and a theological framework for transformational development, Myers demonstrates what is possible when we cease to treat the spiritual and physical domains of life as separate and unrelated.

SPANISH EDITION. Learn more key verses from the Bible in your efforts at personal evangelism.

This discussion guide is a companion to either the Alpha Film Series or Alpha with Nicky Gumbel. This guide is divided up by session with an easy-to-read outline so that guests can follow along during each talk. With simple bullet-point organization and plenty of room for notes, the guide functions as an invaluable resource to the guest during Alpha, and as a reference tool for individual reflection long after Alpha. It is considered an essential resource for Alpha guests as well as the host and helpers on Alpha. Alpha creates an environment of hospitality where people can bring their friends, family and work colleagues to explore the Christian faith, ask questions and share their point of view. Alpha makes it easy to invite friends to have spiritual conversations which explore life's biggest questions in a safe and respectful way. Alpha's approach to hospitality, faith, and discussion is designed to welcome everyone, especially those who might not describe themselves as Christians or church-goers. Each session includes time for a large group meal, short teaching and small group discussion. This resource is written in Spanish.

The Language of Disenchantment explores how Protestant ideas about language influenced British colonial attitudes toward Hinduism and proposals for the reform of that tradition. Protestant literalism, mediated by a new textual economy of the printed book, inspired colonial critiques of Indian mythological, ritual, linguistic, and legal traditions. Central to these developments was the transposition of the Christian opposition between monotheism and polytheism or idolatry into the domain of language. Polemics against verbal idolatry - including the elevation of a scriptural canon over heathenish custom, the attack on the personifications of mythological language, and the critique of "vain repetitions" in prayers and magic spells - previously applied to Catholic and sectarian practices in Britain were now applied by colonialists to Indian linguistic practices. As a remedy for these diseases of language, the British attempted to standardize and codify Hindu traditions as a step toward both Anglicization and Christianization. The colonial understanding of a perfect language as the fulfillment of the monotheistic ideal echoed earlier Christian myths according to which the Gospel had replaced the obscure discourses of pagan oracles and Jewish ritual. By recovering the historical roots of the British re-ordering of South Asian discourses in Protestantism, Yelle challenges representations of colonialism, and of the modernity that it ushered in, as simply rational or secular.

John Hosier has spent almost his entire working life leading local churches, particularly in the fast-growing Newfrontiers group of churches. He explains, "In the second half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century there has grown up what have variously been referred to as House Churches, There has been a passion to get back to the kind of church life about which we read in the New Testament, while wanting to be absolutely relevant to the present age." This book lays out the key convictions of many new churches about the Body of Christ: how it functions, and what it seeks to achieve. What is apostolic ministry? The nature of baptism? The role of women? How should spiritual gifts operate? What is the church's mission?

Civilizing Habits explores the life stories of three French women missionaries--Philippine Duchesne, Emilie de Vialar, and Anne-Marie Javouhey--who crossed boundaries, both real and imagined, to evangelize far from France's shores. In so doing, they helped France reestablish a global empire after the dislocation of the Revolution and the fall of Napoleon. They also pioneered a new missionary era in which the educational, charity, and health care services provided by women became valuable tools for spreading Catholic influence across the globe.
Philippine Duchesne traveled to former French territory in Missouri in 1818 to proselytize among Native Americans. Thwarted by the American policy of removing tribes even further west, she turned her attention to girls' education on the frontier. Emilie de Vialar followed French troops to Algeria after its conquest and opened missions throughout the Mediterranean basin in the mid-nineteenth century. Prevented from direct evangelization, she developed strategies and subterfuges for working among Muslim populations. Anne-Marie Javouhey evangelized among Africans in the French slave colonies, including a utopian settlement in the wilds of French Guiana. She became a rare Catholic proponent of the abolition of slavery and a woman designated a "great man" by the French king.
Paradoxically, through embracing religious institutions designed to shield their femininity, these women gained increased authority to travel outside France, challenge church power, and evangelize among non-Christians, all roles more commonly ascribed to male missionaries. Their stories teach us about the life paths open to religious women in the nineteenth century and how both church and state benefitted from their initiative to expand the boundaries of faith and nation.

A 16th century Italian Jesuit, Matteo Ricci was the founder of the Catholic Mission in China and one of the most famous missionaries of all time. A pioneer in bringing Christianity to China, Ricci spent twenty eight years in the country, in which time he crossed the cultural divides between China and the West by immersing himself in the language and culture of his hosts. Even 400 years later, he is still one of the best known westerners in China, celebrated for introducing western scientific and religious ideas to China and for explaining Chinese culture to Europe.
The first critical biography of Ricci to use all relevant sources, both Chinese and Western, A Jesuit in the Forbidden City tells the story of a remarkable life that bridged Counter-Reformation Catholic Europe and China under the Ming dynasty. Hsia follows the life of Ricci from his childhood in Macerata, through his education in Rome, to his sojourn in Portuguese India, before the start of his long journey of self-discovery and cultural encounter in the Ming realm. Along the way, we glimpse the workings of the Portuguese maritime empire in Asia, the mission of the Society of Jesus, and life in the European enclave of Macau on the Chinese coast, as well as invaluable sketches of Ricci's fellow Jesuits and portraits of the Chinese mandarins who formed networks indispensible for Ricci's success.
Examining a range of new sources, Hsia offers important new insights into Ricci's long period of trial and frustration in Guangdong province, where he first appeared in the persona of a foreign Buddhist monk, before the crucial move to Nanchang in 1595 that led to his sustained intellectual conversation with a leading Confucian scholar and subsequent synthesis of Christianity and Confucianism in propagating the Gospels in China. With his expertise in cartography, mathematics, and astronomy, Ricci quickly won recognition, especially after he had settled in Nanjing in 1598, the southern capital of the Ming dynasty. As his reputation and friendships grew, Ricci launched into a sharp polemic against Buddhism, while his career found its crowning achievement in the imperial capital of Beijing, leaving behind a life, work, and legacy that is still very much alive today.

In Toward Our Mutual Flourishing: The Episcopal Church, Interreligious Relations, and Theologies of Religious Manyness, the author tells the story of The Episcopal Church's development of an official rationale for its ongoing engagement with religious diversity. At once a work of historical, moral, and practical theology, this volume contextualizes and explains what one church teaches about how religious difference may be interpreted in Christian terms. Through guided reading of noteworthy documents, this book explores such themes as this church's preference for ecumenical interfaith work, its particular attention to Christian-Jewish and Christian-Muslim concerns, the relationship between missiology and theological understanding of religious diversity, and the intersection of interreligious relations with other ecclesial concerns - peace and justice activism, liturgical reform efforts, and what it means to be "the Body of Christ" in the twenty-first century. The author thus positions this multinational, multicultural, multilingual denomination within the Interfaith Movement, the Anglican theological tradition, and the various schemes for analyzing Christian theologies of religions. About The Episcopal Church (but not just for Episcopalians), about Christianity (but not just for Christians), this book is an excellent resource for courses in interreligious dialogue, Christian ethics, and American religious history.

"As the Father has sent me, I am sending you" (John 20:21). With the reality of broad-scale secularization in the West and the attendant cloud of insignificance hanging over the church, is there any hope for the re-evangelization of the West? In this comprehensive theology of mission, Ross Hastings directs the fretful gaze of the church to the trinitarian commission of John 20. There we find Jesus granting peace to his disciples by breathing his Spirit on them. He formed them into his community of shalom. Leaving their locked room, these "sent ones" went out to participate in God's own ongoing mission to the world. Hastings also tackles the dual challenges of isolation from and accommodation to the surrounding culture. Building on the works of David Bosch, Lesslie Newbigin, Christopher Wright and Darrell Guder, the author corrects numerous dichotomies that hinder the church. In the power of the Spirit the gathered church is spiritually transformed and also scattered as it proclaims God's forgiveness and freedom. This comprehensive theology of mission opens possibilities for renewal of faithful effort as we join in Christ's mission to the world.

Biblical Foundations Book Award "God cannot lead you on the basis of information you do not have." --Ralph Winter What is God's mission in the world? For anyone passionate about discovering God's heart for the nations, Discovering the Mission of God will reveal his plans for you. Written by 21st-century field workers, scholars and church leaders, this book weaves together the basic components of God?s global mission and challenges readers to identify where they fit in the mission of God. Discovering the Mission of God explores the mission of God as presented in the Bible, expressed throughout church history and in cutting-edge best practices being used around the world today. Drawing from a new generation of scholar-practitioners, this comprehensive reader provides global perspective, recent missiological research, case studies, recommended further readings and relevant discussion questions at the end of each chapter. Contributors include: Bryan E. Beyer Karen O'Dell Bullock R. Bruce Carlton Gary R. Corwin Don Dent Robert Edwards Nathan Evans David Garrison H. Al Gilbert Kevin Greeson Jim Haney J. Scott Holste R. Alton James Patrick Lai William J. Larkin Christopher R. Little Alex Luc Stan May Clyde Meador A. Scott Moreau D. Kurt Nelson Howard Norrish Meg Page John Piper Robert L. Plummer Jerry Rankin Nik Ripken Tom Steffen Ed Stetzer John Mark Terry LaNette W. Thompson Greg Turner Preben Vang Joel. F. Williams Christopher J. H. Wright William R. Yount Discovering the Mission of God is an indispensable resource for anyone wanting a better picture of what God is doing in the world and how to find one's place in God's global plan.

The Emerging Church movement developed in the mid-1990s among primarily white, urban, middle-class pastors and laity who were disenchanted with America's conservative Evangelical sub-culture. It is a response to the increasing divide between conservative Evangelicals and concerned critics who strongly oppose what they consider overly slick, corporate, and consumerist versions of faith. A core feature of their response is a challenge to traditional congregational models, often focusing on new church plants and creating networks of related house churches. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork, James S. Bielo explores the impact of the Emerging Church movement on American Evangelicals. He combines ethnographic analysis with discussions of the movement's history, discursive contours, defining practices, cultural logics, and contentious interactions with conservative Evangelical critics to rethink the boundaries of "Evangelical" as a category. Ultimately, Bielo makes a novel contribution to our understanding of the important changes at work among American Protestants, and illuminates how Emerging Evangelicals interact with the cultural conditions of modernity, late modernity, and visions of "postmodern" Christianity.

The study is an intellectual and comparative history of French, Spanish, and English missions to the native peoples of America in the seventeenth century, c. 1610-1690. It shows that missions are ideal case studies to properly understand the relationship between religion and politics in early modern Catholic and Calvinist thought. The book aims to analyse the intellectual roots of fundamental ideas in Catholic and Calvinist missionary writings-among others idolatry, conversion, civility, and police-by examining the classical, Augustinian, neo-thomist, reformed Protestant, and contemporary European influences on their writings. Missionaries' insistence on the necessity of reform, emphasising an experiential, practical vision of Christianity, led them to elaborate conversion strategies that encompassed not only religious, but also political and social changes. It was at the margins of empire that the essentials of Calvinist and Catholic soteriologies and political thought could be enacted and crystallised. By a careful analysis of these missiologies, the study thus argues that missionaries' common strategies-habituation, segregation, social and political regulations-stem from a shared intellectual heritage, classical, humanist, and above all concerned with the Erasmian ideal of a reformation of manners.

John Erskine was the leading evangelical in the Church of Scotland in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Educated in an enlightened setting at Edinburgh University, he learned to appreciate the epistemology of John Locke and other empiricists alongside key Scottish Enlightenment figures such as his ecclesiastical rival, William Robertson. Although groomed to follow in his father's footsteps as a lawyer, Erskine changed career paths in order to become a minister of the Kirk. He was deeply moved by the endemic revivals in the west of Scotland and determined that his contribution to the burgeoning evangelical movement on both sides of the Atlantic would be much greater as a clergyman than a lawyer. Yet Erskine was no "enthusiast." He integrated the style and moral teachings of the Moderate Enlightenment into his discourses and posited new theories on traditional views of Calvinism in his theological treatises. Erskine's thought never transgressed the boundaries of orthodoxy; his goal was to update evangelicalism with the new style and techniques of the age without sacrificing the gospel message. While widely recognized as an able preacher and theologian, Erskine's primary contribution to evangelicalism was as a disseminator. He sent correspondents like the New England pastor Jonathan Edwards countless religious and philosophical works so that he and others could learn about current ideas, update their writings, and provide an apologetic against perceived heretical authors. Erskine also was crucial in the publishing of books and pamphlets by some of the best evangelical theologians in America and Britain. Within his lifetime, Erskine's main contribution was as a propagator of an enlightened form of evangelicalism.