Where is the "mission field"? As a boy growing up in an evangelical church the United States, it never seemed like too tough a question. It was "over there," meaning anywhere outside my country. These were places captured in the slides of returning missionaries, locations like Papua New Guinea or Swaziland. We prayed that people would find Christ, and some of the older ladies in the church wrapped bandages for the mission hospitals, or collected clothing. Whatever form it took, one thing was clear: We were the ones who sent, and they were the ones who received.
Samuel Escobar's The New Global Mission: The Gospel from Everywhere to Everyone (InterVarsity, 2003) tells a different story. Missions is no longer the concern of just North America, or perhaps a handful of western European nations. Increasingly, Christian missionaries come from countries on many continents, including South America, Africa, and Asia. As God raises up messengers in many places, Escobar tackles subjects that all missionaries must master, no matter their country of origin. Two topics of special note address the Holy Spirit and the role of women in missions.
How is the Holy Spirit related to the missionary enterprise? Samuel Escobar responds: "The biblical pattern stresses the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church as the source of missionary dynamism" (pp. 118-19). Escobar keys-in on the testimony of Luke and Acts, where the guidance of the Holy Spirit first in the ministry of Jesus and later in the life of the early Church are unmistakable. Escobar (pp. 121-22) continues:
Mission in Jesus' way is only possible in dependence on the
Spirit. It is arrogant for missionaries to plan strategies based entirely
on human logic and calculation if their Savior and Lord could accomplish
his mission only through the power of the Holy Spirit. Like Jesus in the
desert, either the church as a community or individual missionaries are
many times tempted to work toward accomplishments that might be
impressive but are in fact acts of disobedience to God.
Escobar observes that the fastest growing sectors of Christianity are those who emphasize the reality of the Holy Spirit. This is especially obvious among the world's poor, who seem to be those the most open to a gospel message emphasizing divine power.
Our own Wesleyan-Holiness tradition historically has preached a two-fold message, namely that God's sanctifying grace produces both purity and power in the life of the believer. In recent years, however, the second part of that equation, i.e. power, appears to have been muted. Yes, it is power for holy living and evangelism (Acts 1:8), but the message of the book of Acts presents power more broadly. It is power for the Church to pray, power for the sick to be healed, even power to overcome demonic interference.
In Africa, these are the emphases that resonate with a people keenly aware of the spiritual combat all around them. Escobar does not develop all these themes, but his accent upon the Holy Spirit points us back to the New Testament where such themes are enumerated. We ignore them at our own peril.
Beyond the question of the Holy Spirit and missions, Samuel Escobar takes up the topic of women and their contribution to the missionary enterprise. He observes that "there has been a loss of memory about the participation of women in missions" (p. 32). Historians of mission - like Stephen Neill and J. Herbert Kane - fail to mention the women's missionary movement, though stellar talent, including Elisabeth Elliott, Amy Carmichael and Mildred Cable, have all made significant contributions to the advance of the gospel.
Escobar has touched on a valid concern. Too often, the Church has lagged behind developments in the larger culture when it comes to recognizing the equal place of women. Particularly in the realm of missions, women have been and continue to be intrepid as they answer the calling of God upon their lives. As a visiting instructor in missions at Southern Nazarene University, I saw the caliber of young women preparing for overseas service. We can be proud of the radical commitment they are making for the advance of the Kingdom. There should be no doors closed to them, no role out of bounds. God has graced both women and men for service. We must not leave half of our team sitting on the bench.
The New Global Mission is an excellent primer for reflecting on a number of issues the Church in mission faces today. Samuel Escobar - a native of Peru - opens our eyes to what God is doing not just in North America but around our world. His writing is clear, and his passion contagious. It is well worth the reader's time.
-- Dr. Greg Crofford is a missionary serving as director of the Nazarene Theological Institute, a decentralized ministerial education program active in 15 African nations. Previously, Greg and his wife Amy served for 13 years on the Africa West and French Caribbean fields, working in both theological education (Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti) and church planting (Bénin). This review is reprinted from his blog with permission.