What do you think?
Rate this book
Exploring World Mission: Context and Challenges
Book by Myers, Bryant L.
87 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
22 people want to read
About the author
Bryant L. Myers
14 books12 followersBryant L. Myers is professor of transformational development at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. A lifelong activist dedicated to Christian relief and development work around the world, Myers served as vice president for international program strategy at World Vision International. He resides with his family in Southern California.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 2, 2013
The idea behind this book of showing different statistics the way they are shown was very good. There were a few things that I found very helpful, but I need to add a caveat. I believe many of the statistics are incorrect (another reviewer mentioned this as well). I am glad I read it to get a broad picture of things, but I wouldn't use any of the statistics as fact.
May 11, 2017
There is much in this book that is relevant and much that is deserving of skepticism.
The introduction was partially inspiring and partially sickening. Particularly, the author's continual use of "inclusiveness," a buzzword describing a phenomenon bordering on idolatry among the followers of a certain, modern political group. He also seemed to buy into such fake or misnamed "problems" like overpopulation, taking in the colossal fallacies of Ehrlich, et alias.
In general, the statistics seems skewed. It is more than the fact that the majority of them come from 2000-2002; they seem, in some cases, even less plausible for those dates. For instance, there are more atheists in the world than Hindus and Buddhists put together? On the "Religious Freedom" graph on p28, North Korea is considered "partly free"? 25% of Kazakhstan is Christian? 16% of Indonesia?! These statistics seem to come with no qualifiers; how did they come to be collated? Some further difficulties: the "Health Divide" graph on p34 was based upon expenditure rather than services. Income inequality, idiotically, is cited as a problem, rather than poverty! The author decries globalism in one section, yet later faults uneven global economic integration as leaving some countries "outside." He broadly calls all fundamentalisms a "fracturing force." He seems to condemn all rich people, who "enjoy" or "receive" income - as if it dropped out of the sky, rather than having been earned. And last, he states that "the rawest expression of capitalism" is a "shadow economy," where bribes, child labor, and sexual exploitation are "normal." Marx would be proud.
Some important assertions that were actually correct include: equating economic freedom with economic progress, showing how little of missions funding or activity takes place in the least-reached corners of the world, emphasizing "acting restoratively," and correctly supporting the opposition of the wrongs of social injustice, even if he typically mentions the incorrect ones, if any at all.
All in all, it is worth one reading, then to be discarded for its poor, too-broad method of delivering information.
The introduction was partially inspiring and partially sickening. Particularly, the author's continual use of "inclusiveness," a buzzword describing a phenomenon bordering on idolatry among the followers of a certain, modern political group. He also seemed to buy into such fake or misnamed "problems" like overpopulation, taking in the colossal fallacies of Ehrlich, et alias.
In general, the statistics seems skewed. It is more than the fact that the majority of them come from 2000-2002; they seem, in some cases, even less plausible for those dates. For instance, there are more atheists in the world than Hindus and Buddhists put together? On the "Religious Freedom" graph on p28, North Korea is considered "partly free"? 25% of Kazakhstan is Christian? 16% of Indonesia?! These statistics seem to come with no qualifiers; how did they come to be collated? Some further difficulties: the "Health Divide" graph on p34 was based upon expenditure rather than services. Income inequality, idiotically, is cited as a problem, rather than poverty! The author decries globalism in one section, yet later faults uneven global economic integration as leaving some countries "outside." He broadly calls all fundamentalisms a "fracturing force." He seems to condemn all rich people, who "enjoy" or "receive" income - as if it dropped out of the sky, rather than having been earned. And last, he states that "the rawest expression of capitalism" is a "shadow economy," where bribes, child labor, and sexual exploitation are "normal." Marx would be proud.
Some important assertions that were actually correct include: equating economic freedom with economic progress, showing how little of missions funding or activity takes place in the least-reached corners of the world, emphasizing "acting restoratively," and correctly supporting the opposition of the wrongs of social injustice, even if he typically mentions the incorrect ones, if any at all.
All in all, it is worth one reading, then to be discarded for its poor, too-broad method of delivering information.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews