Changing the Mind of Missions: Where Have We Gone Wrong? (Paperback)

~ (Author), William A. Dyrness (Author) "A long day is finally drawing to a close..." (more)
Key Phrases: gracious revolution, kingdom paradigm, dichotomy between evangelism, First Church, Holy Spirit, Great Commission (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

They advocate sensitivity to the Holy Spirit and collaboration with native cultures. -- CBA Marketplace, April 2000

Product Description

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 from modernity to postmodernity?
• How can we reverse our assumption that missions means going from "here" to "there"?
• How can we recapture the vitality and comprehensiveness of the gospel for the complex plight of today's world?
• How can we reexamine our commitments to programs and strategies in light of the baseline fact that we are engaged in God's mission?

Here is a book that is sure to spark conversation among missionaries, students of missions, mission leaders and church mission committees. It points a way forward with the goal of increasing the spread of the gospel by every means possible to every corner of our world.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: InterVarsity Press (February 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830822399
• ISBN-13: 978-0830822393
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #246,430 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Asking the right questions, April 21, 2000

By	Keith Cobell, Jr. - See all my reviews

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.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Changing the Mind of Missions, February 3, 2003

By	David E. Black, MD (Honduras) - See all my reviews

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars thinking through missions is a good thing, April 2, 2002

By	Philip Fung "Always trying to read more" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.