Toward the Twenty-First Century in Christian Mission

This is a good collection of essays on Missions from a variety of perspectives. It's a great overview and introduction on what is going on in terms of missions work in the mid- to late- 1990s. It's not all theoretical (as there is some practical stuff), but gives a lot of history and context, as well as a variety of places for missions, and some missiological issues. It is written from a varied Christian background.The book is divided into 4 sections, and every essay is approximately 10-15 pages:Section 1: Christian Families in mission. Four essays are presented, from Evangelical Missions, Conciliar Missions (i.e., the Ecumenical movement within Protestantism, usually associated with liberal Protestantism, and the World Council of Churches), Roman Catholic Missions, and Pentecostal & Charismatic Missions. Each of these essays gives some background of history, assumptions, theology and missiological background (e.g., for the Roman Catholics, Vatican II plays a very strong influence, and is discussed).Section 2: Christian Mission by Region. This is a very practical section, discussing missions in various parts of the world. The areas covered are Southern Asia, the former USSR (i.e., the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)), Africa, North America, Oceania, Latin America, Northeast Asia, Europe, and Middle East.Section 3: Foundational Disciplines of Mission. This chapter is on more of the theory and theology behind missions, and how to interact with other cultures (and their religions). Essays in this section include one by Bosch on "Reflections on Biblical Models of Mission," and others on Mission Theology, Spiritual Formation for Mission (written by Catholics, so they emphasize dialogue, mentoring, developmental psychology understanding of peoples, and understanding culture, religion, tradition, rather than the Protestant approach of in spiritual formation of piety, conviction based upon Scripture, and then Contextualization through Incarnation), Mission Strategies (mostly an essay about applying strategies), Contextualization in Mission, (towards) Forming Indigenous Theologies, and Popular Religions.The final section, section 4 presents special challenges in mission: The teaching of missions, women in mission, mission and the Problem of Affluence, Mission and Social Justice: An American Dilemma, Urban Mission, Christian Dialogues with Other Faiths, Christian-Muslim Relations, Church-State Relationship and Mission, and then some stuff about Gerald H. Anderson.I think, if one was looking for a book to be introduced to what's going on in missions and some different views on this topic, this would be a good book. It doesn't strike me as the type that has a timeless classic feel to it (unlike Bosch's book, Transforming Mission) or Stott's book, Christian Mission.Nonetheless, it's good supplement to hearing first-hand stories on missions.