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A Response to Engel and Dyrness: Changing the mind of missions?

What kind of mission?

A RESPONSE TO ENGEL AND DYRNESS:
Changing the mind of missions?
By Dr. Peter Back
Church & Mission Monographs
54 pages
ISBN 0 9535 108 7 5

'Empty stomachs', so we are told, 'don't have ears'. The thinking behind this is very common in Western Christian circles and, I believe, reflects a loss of confidence in the power of the gospel for salvation. This is the seriousness of the issue that the author addresses in this monograph.

The purpose of this short monograph is to give a response to 'Changing the Mind of Missions: where have we gone wrong?' by J.F. Engel and W.A. Dyrness (InterVarsity Press). To do this Back outlines Engel and Dyrness's ideas in part one before, more briefly, presenting a nine-point corrective with an examination of two 'key' biblical passages. The final appendix helpfully clarifies what is not being advocated. It is intended as a 'robust academic workƒ suitable for readership by the leadership team of a local church'. Back gives much food for thought for his limited target readership and he grapples with the current issues such as the purpose and goals of missions, ecology and the role of the local church.

I found the monologue thought-provoking but it is difficult to get maximum value without also reading Engel and Dyrness. It might have been helpful to distinguish between biblical mission and missions, the vehicles for enabling local churches to engage in biblical mission. I was also disappointed that of the two 'scriptures' examined one was the disputed Mark 16.15-16. If the issue dealt with was so crucial to the argument it would have been better to have looked at a less contested text.

Despite the above comments, I found myself in agreement with many of Back's arguments and feel, as he does, that the issues are 'crucial to the on-going discussion concerning the work of Western missions'. There are however some good books out on this at the moment: for example 'Ripe for Harvest - Christian Mission in the New Testament and in our World', edited by R.J. Gibson (Paternoster) and 'God's Mission and Ours - The Challenge of Telling the Nations', edited by P.T. O'Brien (The Good Book Company).

Andy Lines, Crosslinks