IVP Readers' Choice AwardMission, missions, missional, and all its linguistic variations are part of the expanding vocabulary and rhetoric of the contemporary Christian missionary enterprise. Its language and assumptions are deeply ingrained in the thought and speech of the church today. Christianity is a missionary religion and faithful churches are mission-minded. What's more, in telling the story of apostles and bishops and monks as missionaries, we think we hav...

The urgent task of our day is to reimagine the church’s witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet, a mere attempt to rehabilitate or revise the modern mission tradition will not do. Mission as a rhetorical and conceptual framework is the problem. The ethos and spirit of modernity with its ideas of progress, individualism, commodification, and conquest are hardwired into mission, and thus, this modern mental model undermines faithful witness and service. Now is the time to transcend the mo...

The Meeting of the Waters identifies seven trends having a major impact on the Church around the world—and on every Christian at home in every country.The global community of Christians is stunning in its scope and spiritual impact. But what is happening to the Church as new technology, marketing, and generational shifts make their unavoidable mark? And what difference does it make for Christians in day-to-day life? Equal parts travelogue, character study, and global docum...

The story of Japan's hidden Christians is the subject of a major motion picture by director Martin Scorsese, based on Shusaku Endo's famous novel, Silence.From the time the first Christian missionary arrived in Japan in 1549 to when a nationwide ban was issued in 1614, over 300,000 Japanese were converted to Christianity. A vicious campaign of persecution forced the faithful to go underground. For seven generations, Hidden Christians—or Kirishitan—preserve...

Transplanted Christianity is a comprehensive collection of documents detailing the history of the church in New Zealand from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century to the present day. Informative introductions and explanations by Allan Davidson and Peter Lineham fill in the context and make this a book of interest to the serious student of church history and the casual reader alike. This fifth edition is revised and has an extensive additional chapter covering issues facing the chu...

Despite the growth of religion in general and Christianity in particular around the world, Western Europe and the UK remain overwhelmingly secular, with the church increasingly seen as backwards and irrelevant.In this provocative book well-known speaker and author Michael Green gives a snapshot of various different revivals from the UK's history, as well as describing how the early church started and focusing on various revivals around the world. Be bold, writes Michael - revival c...

Did Paul ever meet Jesus and hear him teach? A century ago, a curious assortment of scholars - William Ramsay, Johannes Weiss, and James Hope Moulton - thought that he had. Since then, their idea has virtually disappeared from New Testament scholarship, to be revived in this monograph. When Paul Met Jesus is an exercise in both biblical exegesis and intellectual history. After examining the positive arguments raised, it considers the negative influence of Ferdinand Christian Baur, William ...

In this work, the author covers the beginning of the so-called Reformation in England during the first 20 years of Henry VIII's destructive reign. In 1521 he was awarded the title of 'Defender of the Faith', but by 1540 the schismatic king had rejected Catholic Order through the adoption of Martin Luther's heretical notion of the 'Divine Right of Kings.' Henry was indeed a 'king with a Pope in his belly.' Readers are introduced to Brother Martin Luther, the rebel Catholic monk who, in a de...

Dr Jean Uayan comprehensively weaves the story of six Protestant Chinese churches in the Philippines into the local history of their individual settings in this important study. Uncovering new insight and historical information from extensive primary and secondary sources, Uayan presents a rich and previously unacknowledged heritage and support from four American mission organisations during the US occupation from 1898–1946. The seeds sown amongst Chinese communities across the Philippines...

«Human Integrated Touch» (HI-Touch) is a pastoral care approach that could be a response to the lingering problems of Christianity marred by an insufficient organic link between faith and daily life in Nigeria. Arguing for an integrated approach to humans and the human condition, the study presents the HI-Touch as a form of pastoral care that is not only based on religious affiliations, but also on human authentic values vis-a vis an authentic Christian faith in a dynamic society....

Historically, studies of the church in Africa have tended to focus on church history or church-state relations, but in this publication David Zac Niringiye presents a study of the Church of Uganda focused on its ecclesiology. Niringiye examines several formative periods for the Church of Uganda during concurrent chronological political eras characterized by varying degrees of socio-political turbulence, highlighting how the social context impacted the church’s self-expression. The author’s...

This new addition to a highly acclaimed series portrays the sweep of missions history, revealing how God has fulfilled his promise to bless all the nations. Two leading missionary scholars and experienced professors help readers understand how missions began, how missions developed, and where missions is going. The authors cover all of missions history and provide practical application of history's lessons. Maps, tables, box inserts, sidebars, and discussion questions add to the book's use...