Christian Mission

A CONCISE GLOBAL HISTORY

EDWARD L. SMITHER

Christian Mission: A Concise Global History

Copyright 2019 Edward L. Smither

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, niv® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan, www.zondervan.com. All rights reserved worldwide.

Print ISBN 9781683592402

Digital ISBN 9781683592419

Lexham Editorial Team: Todd Hains, Erin Mangum, and Claire Vandervelde

For Mike Barnett (1952–2015)

Contents

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

Introduction

Further Reading

1 Mission in the Early Church (100–750)

Further Reading

2 Mission in the Medieval Church (750–1500)

Further Reading

3 Mission in the Early Modern Church (1500–1800)

Further Reading

4 The Great Century of Christian Mission (1800–1900)

Further Reading

5 The Global Century of Christian Mission (1900–2000)

Further Reading

6 Mission from the Majority World (Twenty-First Century)

Further Reading

Epilogue

Index

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank a number of people who have encouraged or challenged me in the process of completing this project:

Students in my one-semester history of mission course over the last decade who’ve been great conversation partners and ultimately provided the environment to write this book.

Colleagues in the Evangelical Missiological Society and Evangelical Theological Society who’ve listened to and offered feedback on research—much of which has found its way into these pages.

Ruth Buchanan, beta-reader extraordinaire, who read every word of this manuscript, exhorting me to the active voice, helping to undangle modifiers, and coaching me toward producing a readable book.

Todd Hains, my capital E editor at Lexham. Thanks for going the extra mile to help this work become accessible, relevant, and accurate. Thanks especially for the pushback on mission in the Protestant Reformation. You, your emojis, and gifs, and excessive use of the word ain’t made this project a lot of fun.

My leadership at Columbia International University who encourage me and offer space to research and write.

My teammates in CIU’s College of Intercultural Studies who’ve sat at coffee and/or lunch, allowing me to think out loud about ideas and themes that made it into the book.

My wife Shawn and my kids who love me and have accepted the fact that my main hobby (besides road biking) is reading, writing, and trying to figure things out.