Book of the Day
The New Global Mission
Samuel Escobar (Plenary Speaker)
The New Global Mission, by Samuel Escobar
Review by Becky Stephen
When I left for India in 1988 for what I thought would be my lifetime, my Mom worried. One concern was what long-term missions experience would contribute to my work history and "career". She asked, "What will you do when you come back to the US?" I replied, "By the time I come back, the US will be Hinduized and I'll just keep on being a missionary!" After 5 years God unexpectedly sent me back to the States. Even in that short time what I'd anticipated had happened - American culture had rapidly turned from "modern" to "postmodern". People - especially young people - had ceased being irreligious and were now open to a kind of spirituality that now looking in many ways like the Hindu culture I'd been immersed in in India.
Samuel Escobar, in his new book, The New Global Mission, explains these kinds of changes in our world, how they are affecting missions and the demands they place on those involved in missions. For those up on the latest in missions literature1, the facts are not new. But Escobar's treatment of the facts made this book worth reading.
From the first paragraph about a Bolivian housewife's witness to a Spanish student in Germany, he recounts stories of people - unlikely people - moving the gospel across geographic borders. Escobar sweeps through Biblical and missions history, leading us through a trail of missionary activity that helps both current and future missionaries to think through lessons learned from Scripture and the past missionary enterprise.
I appreciate Escobar's introduction of different points of view, adding his own and calling the reader to look to God's word and to lessons learned in history to make our own judgments. His examples of different mission models, as well as pros and cons of mission theologies, realities and histories encourage us to think beyond stereotypes and preferences. He uses biblical, missions and global history, including the history of revivals, to trace the threads of human influence and the Divine communication of the gospel across history, continents and languages by the least likely people, some of whom we've heard and some who we will only hear of in heaven.
Some crucial issues addressed in the New Global Mission that demand reflection are:
- Social and culture shifts. Migration, immigration and globalization are changing the nature of all societies. Postmodernism2 has overtaken the Modernism of the West. All these impact the Church, theology, missiology, missionary methodology and structures, and the view of the gospel itself.
- Resources. Power and position have always belonged to those with resources. And those with resources have used them to carry the gospel globally. This has effected how the gospel is perceived - and received.
- Evangelical distinctives in ecclesiological diversity. The centrality of Scripture and the role of conversion, among other things, are demonstrated as critical to the missionary endeavor. Yet he speaks clearly about the necessity of involvement of other strains of the Church, such as Pentecostalism. In his portraits of the Church universal, we are called to re-examine contextualized forms the gospel has taken around the world.
- Evangelism and social justice. Compelling reasons are given for involvement in working for structural and economic change in the world, based on theological history, the pragmatics of conversion and the nature of the gospel itself. And implications for "new forms of partnership for mission" are spelled out.
Escobar's words, like Jesus, are full of truth and grace. His humble critique of previous missionary strategies enabled me to be open to learn, think and grow in my own understanding and practices. In his portrayals of the past we hear a plea to learn and change - and a warning to beware lest we think future mission activities and the next generation of missionaries will be fault-free. Escobar opens windows throughout history revealing sent people who, though often failing to be like Jesus, have still been used by Jesus to accomplish His purposes. The commendation Escobar bestows on past missionary generations made me grateful to God to be part of what He's doing in history. And gives me hope.
1. This book is a good resource to begin digging up other missions
resources. He weaves key insights from classic and critical missions books and
documents, ending with suggestions of dozens of books for further study and
thought.
2. I was glad to see Escobar correctly define Postmodernism
as a Western worldview which has nothing to do with the rest of the planet that
exists outside "modernism".
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