Mission in Praise, Word, and Deed

• This stimulating collection of addresses from the 100th anniversary celebration of Columbia International University invites individual believers, missions team leaders, pastors, missions agency strategists, missions workers in all their increasingly infinite variety, theological educators, and all who care about the Great Commission to zoom in on practical insights and best practices in a wide range of regions and specialties within global missions, and to zoom out to overriding questions, concepts, trends and stunning emerging opportunities. It encourages healthy and crucial reflection, re-evaluation, and either re-affirmation or humble and deliberate course correction.

  — Pat Hatch, Refugee and Immigrant Ministry Director, PCA Mission to North America

• This book is a delightful account of the learnings and reflections of several practitioners of mission in our contemporary era. It covers a wide variety of perspectives and provides fresh insights in the reality and practice of mission today. Anyone who desires to glance through the new expressions of mission in an era where mission has multiple centerss of influence all over the world must read this book.

  — Michel Kenmogne, PhD, Executive Director, SIL International

• This collection of reflections on missions allows you to hear from missionaries who have worked in some of the most fascinating—and often troubled—parts of the world. They have also been engaged in very diverse types of missionary work, from art therapy to medical missions, to Bible translation, to teaching in public universities overseas. But they all share some connection to Columbia International University, which—as this book reveals—is a global leader in missiology. And they all reveal their passion here to see “the nations be glad” in Jesus Christ. The story-telling style of the book is attention-grabbing, yet each author blends narrative with current missiological theory. If you are interested in missions, you will learn from this book, and you will find inspiration from it.

  — Kenneth Nehrbass, PhD, Associate Professor of Global Studies, Rawlings School of Divinity, Liberty University

• As missions continues to shift and regularly faces new challenges, churches and missionaries alike continually seek relevant and timely resources. Mission in Praise, Word, and Deed is that resource for today. By reflecting upon a variety of missions related topics, the contributors in this book offer a distinct look at where missions has been and where it is headed. The rich contextual and ministerial diversity of the contributors brings the world to the reader and encourages us all that God’s work is indeed extending to every region of the world through his multifaceted plans. Through all this, this book expands our perspective on missions and will inspire us all to creatively think on and do missions more effectively during our present time and the time to come.

  — Michael A. Ortiz, PhD, VP for Global Ministries and Associate Professor of Missiology and Intercultural Studies, Dallas Theological Seminary, Executive Director, International Council for Evangelical Theological Education

• Great legacies do not petrify through the passage of time, rather they transition with integrity. Whether in periods of peace, war, opposition, or disruption, they refuse to compromise values even as they adjust and broaden to new realities with new partners. That’s what you will discover in Mission in Praise, Word, and Deed. With each turn of this jewel, the reader will be reminded of past values being lived out a century later in ever-expanding ministries with those now representing the nations. What a legacy for the next century or until His return.

  — Tom Steffen, DMiss, Professor Emeritus, Intercultural Studies, Biola UniversityCo-author, The Return of Oral Hermeneutic

Authors

• Edward L. Smither
  Edward L. Smither

  Edward L. Smither (PhD, University of Wales-Trinity Saint David; PhD, University of Pretoria) is Dean of the School of Missions and Intercultural Ministry and Professor of History of Global Christianity at Columbia International University. Previously, he served for fourteen years in intercultural ministry in North Africa, France, and the USA. His previous books include Christian Mission: A Concise Global History and Mission as Hospitality.

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• Jessica A. Udall
  Jessica A. Udall

  Jessica A. Udall (PhD, Columbia International University) lectures at Ethiopian Graduate School of Theology in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is also adjunct professor of Intercultural Studies at Columbia International University. She has been active in cross-cultural ministry in Ethiopia and among immigrants in the United States for the past seventeen years. She is the author of Loving the Stranger: Welcoming Immigrants in the Name of Jesus.

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