Theology and Reading
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 52, No. 2 – Spring 2010
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
Edited by Craig Van Gelder. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. 243 pages. Softcover, $20.00.
William Carey opined in his Enquiry that missions and mission work were the task and duty of every Christian. Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, missionary activity and missionary agencies were active in sharing the gospel with the “heathen.” The Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions perhaps was the apex of the missionary endeavor. Yet, after the Edinburgh conference of 1910 and World War I, the excitement of world mission seemed to come to an abrupt halt. As a result, world missions over the past 90 years have been primarily concerned with doing missions as they had been carried out during these two centuries. Craig Van Gelder and others posit that a change is needed in the church in order to effectively reach the contemporary, postmodern world with the gospel.
Van Gelder mentions that the “gospel in our culture” concept which permeated England during the 1980s has finally emerged as the term “missional” in the West. Authors such as Michael Frost, Alan Roxburgh, George Hunsberger, and Darrell Guder have elicited many ideas on the topic; however, few address it from the point of contextualization. Van Gelder recognizes that if any successful and biblical model of a missional life is to be examined, one must ultimately examine his context in order to discern the immediate needs of the community. He brings this point to light in chapter one as he argues, “It is interesting that the discipline of missiology, as it emerged in Western theological education, did not tend to focus its attention on congregations—at least not those at home. The missional church conversation offers a corrective to that focus” (13).
One of the primary movements within Christian circles in the twenty-first century is that of the Emerging movement. Although he does not directly involve this movement, Gary Simpson does address the notion that the universal or “catholic” church is emerging. He mentions that missions in the present environment has five things that are constant: Mission as promissio, communicatio, communio, confessio, and vocatio (65–93). Each of these represents a distinct area in the missional “reformation” that is presently engaged with the contemporary church. As the church continues to advance, the contextualization of mission in this manner encourages the people to God to connect in an effective manner to the world around them. This, Simpson deduces, is found most effectively in the life of the missional church.
Van Gelder divides the work into two sections. In the first four chapters, he focuses on contextualization and how that concept can be applied in terms of a missional life. In the second part of the book, he addresses case studies that deal specifically with the issue of contextualization. By doing this, he allows the reader to join in the conversation of missional contextualization by giving them practical, applicable examples of this strategy.
Van Gelder is a conservative scholar who approaches the issue of “missional” from a postmodern viewpoint in that he confesses that any discussion regarding “missional” should be done by way of a “conversation” (1). Postmodernism has forced the church to re-examine its strategies and ideas on not only evangelization and missions, but it has challenged the church to reconnect through the missional life to this postmodern generation. People in this age do not desire to be told “how to live”; instead, they seek authenticity and genuineness through a person’s life. This life, according to Van Gelder, is best lived when done so through contextualization.
Van Gelder has compiled a book that is not only encouraging, but it approaches an often difficult subject from a conservative point of view. He does not engage the reader with issues such as the social gospel, but instead, he focuses upon Christian community within the confines of this missional existence. As a result, his work is challenging, yet, a fresh read in an often over abused subject.
