Changing the Mind of Missions

by James F. Engel and William A. Dyrness

The world has changed much since earlier Western missionaries set sail across the seas. And as a new millennium dawns, even greater global and cultural changes are overtaking us. Yet missions has remained much the same.In Changing the Mind of Missions James F. Engle and William A. Dyrness offer a courageous analysis of the challenges facing North American and other Western Christian missions:

How can we work within a world context that is shifting...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830822399
• ISBN13: 9780830822393
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.1" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

The Good and Bad of Missions

Everyone is in to this question: What has gone wrong with Christianity? For the bad of the book: Certainly the world has changed. When hasn't it? To argue that the major premise is to come out of a modernity paradigm for missions to a post-modern one that is still emerging is inappropriate in my mind. This is all the rage in missiology today, paradigm shift and meeting the changes of culture. When will we realize that Christianity spans across cultures and paradigms and what we are about are cultural pilgrims, strangers, vagabonds who are on our way to the City of God, thus in the world but not of it. The Bible leads us to believe that as this journey nears its end (either for each generation or for all) the world moves further away from truth and into greater rebellion against God. The answer here which is different is provided wonderfully by Willimon and Hauerwas "Resident Aliens." Further, to suggest that conversion must always be balanced by social transformation betrays what Jesus and the apostles were about: let it alone. This is confusion of kingdom of God and kingdom of secular authorities that God places and disposes of for His own purposes and use. For the good: I appreciate their rejection of pragmatic utilization of managerial techniques and programming and sloganeering as main missions thrust to save the billions who are going to hell and we must do it now! attitude. Their strong conviction and suggestion that we return to engagement one person at a time with the gospel to include them as disciples in community with Bride of Christ is to be praised.All in all, mediocre book which doesn't rightly address the Biblical concepts of missions, but spends much too much time engaged with models and concepts outside Scripture, which is modern demise of missions. The power of God to save is the pure Gospel preached and taught and rightly distributed in the Sacraments as Christ mandated them. When will we believe and trust in what Christ has graciously given us, the mysteries of God to save? This is not even stressed at all here to the detriment of all who follow the authors' proposals.

Changing the Mind of Missions

As a retired medical doctor living, and working informally, here in Honduras, I find this to be a fairly accurate account of the futility of the activities of American churches, with their expensive spiritually blessed "mission trips." I am very actively involved with 4 - 5 different indiginous churches' social action projects here. Thankfully, I am non-traditional enought to be learning FROM them how to help them help each other. (In fact my attention was directed to the book by a local Honduran priest who has been here for more than 26 years.)Very few Americans are intellectually or spiritually, capable of profitting from this book. I, too, found the fictional case study presented to be of little value, but did not find it significantly distracting. However, in the few pages in which the authors described and praised the "mega-ministry" of Perimeter Church in Atlanta, Georgia, I thought I could not help but wonder if the story did not get inserted by mistake from the word processor of the Public Relations or Fund Raising Departments of Perimeter Church itself. How they could present Perimeter Church as anything but an another example of American excess, that makes anything vaguely reminiscent of the Gospel a travesty, I do not know. Within that example, they again praise a sister 17,000 member congregation in Guatamala City, which cannot be anything other than another example of the ineffective Christianity that the book is warning against. A "gospel" with has no "good news" for anybody, let alone somebody in trouble. I think they could have safely used these 2 churches as examples of what they were speaking against rather than their fictional account.So puzzled am I by this lapse, that I'd like to hear from the authors themselves as to whether they are serious about the rest of the content of the book in view of their praise for this church in Atlanta.

thinking through missions is a good thing

First, this bok is not for those who are thoroughly opposed to any sort of evangelizing/proselytizing. If you don't believe that Christians should obey the Great Commission, then this book has little to offer you. However, for the rest of us, this is particularly applicable. I can't address others' comments about this book being out of date, since the authors have been writing since before I was born, but it was a great read for me in helping think through my own involvement with missions, and working through my understanding of what the Gospel is supposed to be. it definitely challenges some ideas about para-church organizations, while trying to give some solid action points. Although some may claim this is outdated, I would also argue there are many many churches who are still behind in working/thinking through some of these ideas to see what they can and should implement for the greater glory of God. If you're interested in missions, and understanding what role various communities of Christians can and should play, this book will be great for you.

Giving us direction for the next phase of world missions

This book is a must read for all who desire to be involved in Christ's mandate for world missions. He begins with a brief critique of the modern mission movement and how we have allowed our Western managerial mindset to influence missions. Yet, missions has changed dramatically as the mission centers are no longer in the West but in the 2/3rds world. The greatest challenge is to see how missions in not just a one shot evangelistic experience but rather to see spiritual formation take place in the lifetime of a believer. He encourages global partnerships to form between us and the national leaders of other nations where God's Spirit is at work. His example of using "GHM" as an missions study of one organization was so very helpful in applying his critiques to a "real" agency. This is a book that is a must read!

Asking the right questions

Engel and Dyrness frankly and faithfully engage the difficult issues related to current missions thinking and its implications for the church. This book is as much about ecclesiology (the church) as it is about missiology (the work of the church in the world). That the church and its mission to the world is interdependant challenges the church to reevaluate its vision and how that vision is lived out. This book will undoubtably be a starting point for lively discussion in the years ahead.