Spring 1987 · Vol. 16 No. 1 · pp. 3–17
A Mission Theology Which Anticipates the Future
Mission is the church carrying the gospel to the unevangelized in the world, calling on them to believe in Christ and to follow Him in faithful discipleship. Because the gospel is a matter of life and death, of hope or ultimate despair, it is intolerable that any human being should have to live his life without having the opportunity to hear and believe. Every Christian church should, therefore, have a mission in the world which reflects the love of God for all people and nations—a mission which makes Christ known where the gospel has not yet been preached, and which plants churches where none exist. The biblical mandate to do this is abundantly clear!
. . . underscore the centrality and priority of evangelism . . .
Do we then need to “theologize” this mandate? Do we need to articulate it in the context of the contemporary world needs, and in the light of conflicting perspectives of the mission of the church?
Yes, indeed! Every generation must search the scriptures in order to grasp with fresh spiritual illumination the mind and will of God for the church and for the world. The challenges and opportunities of our day require of us a new and motivating articulation of biblical perspectives {4} on the mission of the church. They also require us to counter interpretations which cut at the very nerve center of the biblical call to mission.
We live in a day of unprecedented receptivity to the gospel. A spiritual quest is evident among many peoples in the world. It is a day of religious pluralism. In the light of our increased understanding of the religions of the world (Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu), we need to articulate clearly and with strength the biblical approach to them. It is also a day of a major shift from a predominantly European and Western Christianity to a world Christianity. There are new opportunities of active partnership with growing churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America who are self-governing and self-theologizing and who are themselves a growing missionary force.
It is a day of world-wide struggle for social justice against oppression, poverty and violence. We need to explore more fully the implications of the gospel for the Christian life in such a world. It is a day of growing secularism in the Western world, with a rapid decline of church membership among the mainline churches—making the Western world a mission field. In addition, the movements of the peoples from all over the world to cities creates both an opportunity and a challenge for urban evangelism. It is a day of population explosion, particularly in the East, which calls for renewed efforts and new strategies in evangelism and church planting.
I will attempt to sum up some of the crucial issues which must be considered in formulating a biblically sound mission theology for our times.
MOTIVATED BY GOD’S MISSION IN THE WORLD
Our mission theology must be shaped by God’s central concerns as reflected in the Scriptures. But we must turn to the Bible for more than a few choice texts—whether the Great Commission, or the strategies of Paul’s missionary journeys, or the Good Samaritan, or the prophetic texts calling for justice, or other texts which kindle our enthusiasm. A selective use of Scriptures (prooftexting) has spawned a diversity of theologies of mission, some of which have fallen prey to contemporaneity.
The whole of Scripture bears witness to the mission of the church. A whole chorus of voices from Moses, the prophets, {5} the Psalms, and the New Testament speak eloquently to the mind and the will of God regarding His mission and the mission of His people. The whole Trinity in the full sweep of the Scriptures is engaged in world mission.
The most fundamental reason for the church’s involvement in mission is the fact that God is centrally involved in mission. As John Stott puts it, He is a missionary God!
The Universal Concern of God’s Mission
From the very beginning of the Bible God is profoundly concerned to bring alienated mankind back into fellowship. This is the heart of His mission! From the very beginning He watches over His creation. The Babel episode reveals God’s deep concern for the nations’ destiny with Him.
Abraham’s election focuses upon God’s worldwide missionary intention. God promised to make Abraham a great nation, to bless him, to make his name great—to the end that all the peoples on the earth would be blessed through him (Gen. 12:1-4).
The purpose of the exodus was to create a kingdom of priests in the midst of the nations. Israel was to be a holy nation—separated unto God and His purposes—in order to mediate God to the nations! (Exod. 19:4-6).
The prophets addressed the nations calling them to God. “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isa. 45:22). They anticipated the entrance of the Gentiles into a covenant relationship with God (Isa. 49:22; 55:5).
The coming Messiah is promised as a Redeemer of the nations: He will be a light to the Gentiles and bring salvation to the ends of the earth; He will bring justice to the nations (Isa. 49:6; 42:1). The purposes and promises of God find their consummation in the coming of Jesus Christ. John sums it up by saying, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him” (John 3:16,17). Paul also sums it up when he writes, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Cor. 5:19).
The focus of that reconciling act in Christ was His death on the cross, for “in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished upon us with all wisdom and understanding” (Eph. 1:7). It is in this Christ that God plans to bring {6} together all things in heaven and earth (Eph. 1:9).
The Meaning of History
God’s future for the world is, therefore, two-fold. Ultimately, with the second coming of Christ He will usher in new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness dwells (2 Pet. 3:13). This is God’s ultimate answer to the contemporary problems of violence, poverty, oppression, injustice and any other result or form of sin in the world. That coming world of righteousness and peace is the inheritance of those who believe in Christ.
Prior to that climactic event in history, God’s mission is to seek the evangelization of the world. His compassionate desire is that all be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:1-5). The ultimate meaning of history is therefore found in God’s present mission through Christ in the world. “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). God is delaying the coming of Christ until this task is completed; we are called to hasten His coming.
God’s mission must become ours! Without the gospel of the kingdom and without men and women entering personally into the kingdom to taste its transforming powers, there is no hope for the world! This is not triumphalism. We do not seek a spiritual imperialism by our powers or in accordance with human strategies. Rather, we seek to follow Christ in His call to witness and in the strength of His powers we seek His glory. Ladd captures well the importance of our identifying with God’s mission in the world:
This Good News of the Kingdom of God must be preached, if you please, by the Church in all the world as a witness to all nations. This is God’s program. This means that for the ultimate meaning of modern civilization and the destiny of human history, you and I are more important than the United Nations. What the Church does with the Gospel has greater significance ultimately than the decisions of the Kremlin. From the perspective of eternity, the mission of the Church is more important than the march of armies or the actions of the world’s capitals, because it is in the accomplishment of this mission that the divine purpose for human history is accomplished. No less than this is our mission (Ladd 65). {7}
As we introduce men and women to the kingdom, we seek with them to address the questions of injustice, poverty and violence that characterize our world. Only as the blessings of the kingdom are experienced is there power to forge a new society, and a hope for the world. Attempts to define the mission of the church purely in terms of social justice, international peace, racial integration, elimination of poverty, or changing economic and political structures in order to eliminate oppression are radical reconceptualizations of the biblical view of God’s mission in history. Social change must be rooted in the powers of Christ’s kingdom. Personal salvation and commitment to Christ must go hand-in-hand with social action. As Christians, we are called to be responsibly involved in our non-Christian societies. Social action is a consequence of evangelism, a bridge to evangelism, and a partner in evangelism. Evangelism and church planting need to be regarded as central partners in ministries of relief, development, and concerns for justice!
MOTIVATED BY CHRIST’S MISSION IN THE WORLD
Jesus expressed a clear self-consciousness of His personal mission in the world. He had come not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45). He was sent by the Father and desires His followers to share in His mission: “As the Father sent me, so send I you” (John 20). Jesus urgently sought to complete the task given to Him: “My meat and drink is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His task” (John 4:34).
Jesus’ Task Focused on the Kingdom of God
From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, the note of fulfillment was sounded forth. In Him the kingdom of God was at hand. His rule had come; as liberating King He had come to invade Satan’s territory. He exercised the powers of the kingdom as He preached the gospel, as He forgave sins, as He cast out demons, and as He healed. His efforts resulted in the defeat of Satan (Luke 10:18).
The kingdom became the highest priority for Jesus. Through repentance and faith and the movement of the Spirit of God, people entered the kingdom of God (John 3). Jesus called on His followers to seek first the kingdom of God {8} (Matt. 6:33). He taught them to pray. “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10). As women and men enter the kingdom of God’s Son, they enjoy His redemption and forgiveness of their sins (Col. 1:14).
Jesus’ Task Focused on the Cross and the Resurrection
Jesus knew He had come to die; His death was central to His mission—and to ours. He reminded the disciples that a grain cannot bring forth much fruit unless it dies. So, too, if He would be lifted up, He would draw all men towards Himself (John 12:32). On the cross He became the Lamb of God, taking away the sins of the world! There he dealt definitively with man’s alienation from God—bringing forgiveness, reconciliation and intimate fellowship. The crucified Christ dealt definitively with man’s enslavement—bringing freedom and liberty to all who believe.
The resurrected Christ has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). On the right hand of God He rules the church and the world—having been placed above all principalities and powers (Eph. 1:10). The restoring power of the crucified Christ and the energizing power of the risen Lord form the twin pillars in the mission of the church in the world!
God’s highest desire for people is that they might know Him; that they may form with Him a covenant community in which He will be their God and they will be His people. In Christ that became a reality. Jesus Christ summed up the completion of His earthly ministry in having given eternal life to men. That eternal life consisted in knowing the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He had sent (John 17:3). And God has placed in all hearts the desire to know Him and experience Him intimately.
It is, therefore, no trivial matter when God exhorts us to glory in knowing Him and understanding Him (Jeremiah 9:20-24). There is no greater subject which can entertain our minds and our hearts than God! His invitation is a call to the most exhilarating, the most energizing, the most stimulating, the most fulfilling preoccupation in life—to the end that we may be transformed into His image and that we may identify with His character and His purposes in the world!
Our mission is to present Christ as the only way for such knowledge. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man {9} comes to the Father but through Him (John 14:6).
Jesus’ Task Focused on the Lost and the Poor
Jesus clearly states that He had come to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Jesus viewed the crowds as those who had gone astray. They were as sheep without a shepherd (Matt. 9:35-36). They were distressed and bewildered having lost a sense of direction and purpose. They are also described by Him as being “helpless”: they were prostrate because they were weighed down. A similar understanding of the human condition is implicit in Jesus’ invitation, “Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). While Christ probably had in mind the many prescriptions and requirements laid upon the Jews through their legal system, all labor and are heavy laden if they seek to find salvation by their own efforts or by their spiritual quests.
Jesus also focused on the poor. In Luke 4:18, our Lord sums up His mission as follows:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. (Luke 4:18,19)
Responding to John the Baptist’s questions about His Messiahship, Jesus answers:
Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. (Matt. 11:4,5)
In Matthew 5:3 our Lord speaks of the blessedness of those who are poor in spirit. Who are the poor? The poor in Jesus’ language and in the language of the Scriptures of His day are the socially oppressed. They are those who suffer from injustice. They are those exploited and harassed.
At the same time the poor are those who recognize their own personal inadequacies and rely solely on God, not on man’s earthly power. They do not answer evil with evil, nor oppose injustice with injustice. Their hopes lie in the kingdom of God.
The deepest concern of Jesus was not that of merely redressing their social injustice. To them came the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus would respond to their hungering and {10} thirsting after righteousness. They longed for a deliverer. Our Lord is not speaking here only of righteousness which is the gift of God making them right with God, but of a kingly justice which the kingdom of God will ultimately bring. This justice in Christ is expected by the poor. This is why in the most profound sense they are the poor in spirit.
Christ’s care for the poor and the captives, the lame and the blind, went far beyond what might today be a secular Western agenda of medicine, literacy, relief and development. It directed itself to the hopes of His kingdom, the hopes and the blessings of His rule. Christ responded to immediate needs and to deepest hopes of a coming righteous and just rule of Christ, the King: the poor have the gospel preached to them.
Jesus’ Call to a Faithful Discipleship
- Discipleship means being motivated by the love and compassion of Christ, being deeply desirous of bringing the joyous news of the gospel of Christ to those estranged from the living God and their being without hope and without God in the world.
- Discipleship means being motivated by obedience. When He calls us to serve Him we obey. Obedience to Christ calls to a deep and continuous involvement in evangelism, church planting, and ministries to the unevangelized in the world.
- Discipleship means being motivated to bring honor to our Lord in the world. We desire to see the day when every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father (Phil. 2:11). We are taught to pray “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” To glorify God means to seek His unveiling among men that men might see His love, His grace, His mercy, and His justice, so as to find their delight in Him. To seek the glory of God is to have a burning desire that men might live with Him in a most intimate fellowship exalting God in every aspect of life.
- Discipleship means longing eagerly for the eschatological inbreaking of the kingdom of God. Discipleship means to yearn for a new heavens and a new earth in which only righteousness dwells, and to labor for it. Scripture teaches us that before Christ comes the gospel must be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations (Matt. 24:14). {11} J. Verkuyl suggests that “any church which does not eagerly long for the kingdom and for the ‘fulness of the Eden’ to come into it is no longer a church; it has become an exclusive club. Churches on every continent must begin to feel the throbbing desire to gather all people under one head, Jesus Christ, the only rightful owner of human lives” (Verkuyl, 167).
Motivated by the Mission of the Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the dynamic of the church in its mission: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you; you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Pentecost made the church a witnessing church because it brought power to the Great Commission. It is the Spirit who enables the church to break away from her preoccupation with self to her mission in the world; it is the Spirit who touches the hearts of men and women reminding them that all have a call to missionary service. It is the Spirit who was poured out upon all flesh creating churches among all nations.
In the farewell discourse of our Lord (John 14-17), Jesus promised to send the comforter who would be with them to guide, to teach, to remind them of the things He had said, to glorify Him, and to convict the world of its sin of unbelief. Whenever the Spirit of Truth, therefore, informs the life of the church in teaching, reminding, guiding, convicting and witnessing, the church cannot but be a missionary church! The Spirit who indwells the church brings life and empowering for witness.
The book of Acts is governed by one overriding motif—the missionary witness of the church in the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit as a missionary spirit galvanized the church into action—as summed up by Harry Boer, in his book Pentecost and Missions:
One hardly knows where in Acts to look for a distinction between church and missions. Restlessly the Spirit drives the church to witness, and continually churches rise out of the witness. The church is a missionary church. She is not a missionary church in the sense that she is ‘very much interested’ in missions, or that she ‘does a great deal’ for missions. In Acts missions is not a hobby of an ‘evangelical section’ of the church. The {12} church as a whole is missionary in all her relationships . . . If the missionary witness of Acts is inseparable from the church, it is equally inseparable from the Spirit (Boer 161).
The overwhelming concern of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures is to bring the alienated world which has strayed from God back to its Creator and Savior. God is a missionary God; Jesus Christ is a missionary Christ; the Holy Spirit is a missionary Spirit; the church of Christ is a missionary church!
To love our God with heart, soul and mind and to worship Him means to understand Him in His deepest passion and to participate in His desire and purpose in the world. His mission must be our mission. The mission of the church is rooted in the character and will of our God.
While it is true that mission activity is today carried out and needs to be carried out on every continent, it is also true that fewer resources are available for the Lord’s mission abroad. Not everyone can live and serve abroad, but everyone is able to be a world Christian as defined by David Bryant:
World Christians are day-to-day disciples for whom Christ’s global cause has become the integrating, overriding priority for all that He is for them. Like disciples should, they actively investigate all that their Master’s Great Commission means. Then they act on what they learn (Bryant 63).
CENTRAL MISSION ISSUES AS WE FACE THE FUTURE
The Faith to Complete the Task
A hundred years ago the Student Volunteer Movement adopted as its motto, “Evangelizing the world in this generation.” Today we have far more resources to evangelize the world than they had. In addition to that we have had a tremendous expansion and growth of the church in Third World countries! The question is, do we have a faith similar to theirs? Do we believe that we can complete the task given to us by our Lord when He called on us “to disciple all the nations”?
Jesus warned His followers of possible difficulties and conflicts—but He added, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). He promised them that they would {13} do “greater works” than He because He was ascending to the place of authority and power at the right hand of God. The mission our Lord entrusted to us is not an impossible task. The last 200 years have witnessed a marvelous movement of the Spirit of God among the various peoples of the world.
However, there are still three billion people who have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is estimated that 90% of all church workers in the world are in the West. Only 10% of Christian workers minister in the midst of the three billion unevangelized. David Barrett points out that Christians have resources to complete the mission given by Christ today. The sad fact is that 97% of these resources they spend on themselves, their families, their home churches, and local charities. Only 5% of the remainder is channeled into the overseas task of mission. Very little is being spent on reaching unevangelized peoples and completing the unfinished task (Barrett, 10). J. Herbert Kane, in his book Wanted: World Christians, calls for a new commitment to our missionary task when he describes a too-frequent perspective of our Western churches:
As long as the Christian church continues to regard world missions as one of the last and least of its responsibilities, and devotes only a tiny fraction of its total resources in men and money to the cause of Christ around the world, the task will never be completed. As it is, most of the churches in the Western world are self-centered, inward-looking, preaching self-denial but all the while practicing self-indulgence. They are preoccupied with their own problems and concerned almost exclusively for their own growth. They are playing at missions (Kane 205).
The will to follow our Lord in world missions and faith in the spiritual resources He provides to complete the mission is an issue for us today.
Training for Mission
The sense of call for mission, the participation in evangelistic outreach in the local churches, the biblical and theological opportunities at Bible institutes and colleges, Christian art colleges and seminaries make an important contribution towards the training of future missionaries. Meanwhile, rapid urbanization and the population explosion challenge evangelical churches today to more effective training for mission. {14}
By the fall of 1987 the Center for Training in Mission/Evangelism at Fresno under the leadership of Dr. Henry Schmidt will seek to develop a practical/conceptual approach in training for urban evangelism and church planting. The curriculum provides for studies in cross-cultural evangelism, mission spirituality, and biblical studies for a period of four-and-a-half months.
In the light of the call of MBM/S Board for 100 new missionaries during these five years, such training should enable us to field a capable missionary force.
Internationalization
This is the day of developing partnerships in mission on an international level. We are exploring partnerships in regional planning and in active evangelism. We are also exploring the possibilities of global planning and mission through a partnership of all participating Mennonite Brethren churches. The spiritual resources and personnel and physical resources of the international church need to be tapped to pursue our mission in the world more effectively.
Christian Mission in the Midst of Religious Pluralism
More than in previous history, we will live our lives in the context of religious and philosophical pluralism. Various non-Christian world religions are also sending their missionaries and building their places of worship among us. Barring major unforeseen developments, it is estimated that by the year 2000 only 16% of the world’s population will be Christian.
Christ’s call to disciple all the nations because He alone is the way to the Father is being questioned among many in our culture. There are those who advocate a new vision of a religious unity (Knitter, 9). The relationship between Christianity and other faiths will be a major issue in the next decades (Bosch 11).
To Serve Abroad or to Serve at Home
Why serve abroad when there are so many needs in Canada and the United States? Is not missions a task in all six continents of the world including the Western world? Because of the tremendous decline of church members in the West, there is talk of mission in reverse. David Barrett maintains that {15} an average of 53,000 people leave the Christian church in Europe and North America every week. In other words, the Western world is rapidly being paganized while Africa, for example, is increasing her Christian population by about 18 thousand per week.
In addition, the refugee and immigrant movements from all parts of the world have brought unevangelized peoples into our midst. Do we not have enough of a challenge here to engage in evangelism and church planting? Can we not leave the missionary task in the third world to the national churches which have been established in the Third World?
It is true that the Bible makes no distinction between home and foreign missions; it is also true that there are many unreached peoples in North America. The world is our mission field. Winning a person to the Lord in the West is just as important as winning a person to the Lord elsewhere in the world.
The reason why we need to pursue “foreign” missions more actively is that there are far fewer resources to meet evangelistic need abroad than there are at home. In North America there are ample resources to carry out the task of evangelism and church planting. Among the three billion people who are unevangelized the resources are very meager and sometimes nonexistent. We will need to continue to encourage and to assist our international churches.
Maintaining the Centrality of Evangelism and Church Planting
We affirm the concepts of wholism, ministering the whole gospel to the whole man and the whole society and of integration, combining evangelism and church planting effectively with social ministries of medicine, education and development. Indeed, the inseparability of these various component parts of our mission should be stressed. Jesus, our model, went teaching, preaching and healing. We also must witness to justice, peace, healing and reconciliation in situations of poverty, injustice, violence and inequitous social and economic structures.
Within this inseparability concept it seems appropriate to underscore the priority and centrality of evangelism and church planting on the basis of kingdom theology. The kingdom of God speaks to the whole range of evils plaguing mankind {16} in our fallen world. The kingdom of our Lord brings the powers of restoration, salvation and renewal to mankind today—anticipating the perfect kingdom of righteousness when Christ comes (2 Pet. 3:13).
Because kingdom powers form the necessary dynamic for individual and social renewal; because kingdom blessings bring life, righteousness, justice, peace; and because apart from entering the kingdom or participating in the kingdom there is no hope for individuals or for society as a whole, evangelism and church planting must be regarded as central and as our first priority in mission.
To speak of the priority and centrality of evangelism and church planting is not to separate that activity from social Christian ministries; neither is it to suggest that social ministries may not chronologically precede evangelism in certain situations. Social Christian ministries are signs pointing toward Christ. Social Christian ministries form bridges to the gospel. Social Christian ministries constitute pre-evangelism in many instances. Social Christian ministries are to be inseparable partners in evangelism. To minister to the physical needs of persons without seeking to disciple them is failing in our mission; likewise leading people to Christ but failing to help them in their hunger or illness or illiteracy is also failing in our mission.
The priority of evangelism and church planting is also based on Jesus’ value system. He placed supreme value on saving the soul.
For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. (Mark 8:36-37; Matt. 10:38)
If we believe that without Christ man is eternally lost and that he has no hope for his future destiny without hearing the gospel, we need to place supreme value on calling men, women and children to come to Christ. The mission of the church in the world needs to take into account both the inseparability of evangelism, church planting and social Christian ministries as well as the priority and centrality of having people and nations taste now the powers of the age to come! {17}
Mobilizing Our Bible Institutes, Colleges and Seminaries for Mission
It is generally true that surprisingly few students are prepared to engage in evangelism and church planting overseas. Biblical and theological studies are regarded as important in our Christian institutions—but not so much in order to produce missionaries and a missionary church. Seminaries are generally looked upon as institutions which are to prepare leaders for established Christian congregations. They are less often seen as training for mission and evangelism. What we need is seminary and college professors who seek to formulate a biblical theology in order to further God’s mission in the world. The Old Testament and the New Testament were so formulated by the prophets and the apostles.
In light of the tremendous need to carry out the mission of our Lord in the world, we need Christian educational institutions which foster concern for the world’s lost and which provide programs and disciplines which express the missionary intention of God in the world. It is from the study of Scripture that we derive our missionary fervor.
Our theological reflection, if it is true to the Scripture, should provide motivation and fervor, and those who thus hear the Word of God will be motivated to examine their own lives in the light of Holy Writ regarding their own calling (Soltau 165).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Barrett, David. “Getting Ready for Mission in the 1990s: What Should We Be Doing to Prepare?” Missiology: An International Review 15, No. 1 (Jan/1987):3-14.
- Boer, Harry, Pentecost and Missions. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1961.
- Bosch, David. “Vision for Mission.” International Review of Missions 76, No. 341 (Jan/1987):8-15.
- Bryant, David. In the Gap: What it Means to Be a World Christian. Madison, WI: Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, 1981.
- Kane, J. Herbert. Wanted: World Christians. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1986.
- Knitter, Paul F. No Other Name. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1985.
- Soltau, Adison P “Mobilizing the Seminaries,” Reaching the Unreached. Ed. Harvie M. Conn. Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reform Publishing Co., 1984.
- Verkuyl, J. Contemporary Missiology: An Introduction. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1978.
