Encountering the History of Missions (Encountering Mission): From the Early Church to Today

by John Mark Terry, Robert L. Gallagher

This new addition to a highly acclaimed series portrays the sweep of missions history, revealing how God has fulfilled his promise to bless all the nations. Two leading missionary scholars and experienced professors help readers understand how missions began, how missions developed, and where missions is going. The authors cover all of missions history and provide practical application of history's lessons. Maps, tables, box inserts, sidebars, and discussion questions add to the book's usefulness in the classroom.

418 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 22, 2017

About the author

John Mark Terry (PhD, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary) is professor of missions at Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary in Malaysia and has served as a missionary.

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taking on a history of world missions is a gargantuan task and worth of respect. Terry and Gallagher have done this and managed to cover 2000 years of history in a way that is interesting and often insightful.

The book is clearly designed to be and introductory reader and is suitable for undergradate and some seminary courses. More advanced students of mission with find that it is often too basic and at time lacks the level of critical analysis that the subject demands. Like most histories of mission, it has a "West to the Rest" emphasis that is getting harder and harder to overlook as most mission sending is from the global south. It also lacks any mention of two very important modern mission themes - namely, business as mission and diaspora mission - both of which had developed significant missiological literature by the time of this book's publication.

There are times when the book rises to the level of greatness as when covering the Nestorians and Moravians among other sections. These sections go well beyond what one normally finds in a survey and clearly were labors of love for the authors.

[Robert Munson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote a longer review in my website. Here I would say that I strongly recommend the book for anyone interested in Christian missions. It is focused on Evangelical Christian missions, especially in the more recent decades, but respectfully describes mission work in many faith traditions and mission movements through the centuries.

Its content and research is solid, but it's style and formatting makes one (at least myself) want to finish chapters, and then move to the next chapter to see what happens next.

[Ryan Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

An impactful overview of missions history from Acts to today. The authors did a faithful job of surveying the different eras of the gospel being carried and the church being established around the world. They provided insight into where missionaries succeeded and failed, as well as what insights and applications can be gained for believers today. I would recommend this book for a one volume overview of the history of missions.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great overview of 2000 years of history. Because it is meant to be introductory, it lacked some of the detail and nuance that would’ve been helpful, particularly on the negative side of missions, but a good read nonetheless.

[John R DeValve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent summary of missions history in less than 400 pages. Now I want to see a book combining church and missions history.

[Levi Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8/5

Technically still had a chapter or two left but those aren't gonna get read...

The content of the book was good. The structure was not well thought through, on both a macro and micro level, which made it to be a distracting read. The book started out chronologically, then moved topically, then finished chronologically which was confusing. Each chapter was broken down into individual sections; however, you would hear the same content or idea spoken of three or four times from the introduction to the chapter to an introduction to the section to the actual section. Sometimes a topic would be introduced in the introduction as though it would be talked about first but then it would be talked about in a different order from how it was introduced. Just a poorly thought out job on the editors'/authors' part.

The best chapters were those on the beginning of modern missions focusing on Pietism, Methodism, and Morovianism.

[Dan]

The Great Commission, which Christ gave to his followers before He ascended into heaven, is the mission at all who follow Christ must obey. It is their Earthly duty which glorifies God and bringing His people back to Him. Throughout the centuries, since Christ ascended into heaven, there have been many attempts to fulfill the Great Commission, each with a specific bent. The work, Encountering the History of Missions: From the Early Church to Today, by John Mark Terry and Robert L Gallagher, details the ongoing attempt to fulfill this obligation.
Encountering the History of Missions, is an all-encompassing book which does the job it sets out to do and in just over 400 pages Terry and Gallagher give a phenomenal account of missions through the ages. Their study gives a good balance of the past 2000 years with a higher focus on the post early church time frame. While some of this work uses a broad brush stroke, the authors do hone in on a few areas, looking specifically at 17 different areas of missions.
Each section details the specific theology behind a certain group or time period of missionaries as well as the movers and shakers of the group or time. Due to the structure of this work, it is best used as either a reference work or as a textbook for a college-level (or above) class. For use in academic study, specifically in the area of the history of missions, there are multiple case studies at the end of most chapters, which are then followed by a section of “reflection and discussion”. These sections are aimed at a student who is looking to apply the content to their daily life. This section is also of great value to a professor looking to use this work as a textbook in their class.
With specific regard the readability of this work, Encountering the History of Missions, is easy to read comparatively to most textbook like works. Furthermore the detail in this work is outstanding, jam-packed with information without becoming unreadable to anyone but a scholar. Additionally the reference list, located in the back of the work, encompassing over twenty-pages, and would be suitable for any student college or above to use for further study in this area.
As a pastor who is intimately familiar with the history of missions, I see this book as a great introduction to this most important Heavenly obligation. I therefore recommend it to all pastor, students of missions, and prospective missionaries who desire to know of Saints who came before them in the field of overseas missions.
This book was provided to me free of charge from Baker Academic in exchange for an unbiased, honest review.

[Debbie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Encountering the History of Missions" is a textbook about missions history. The authors started at around AD 100 and went up to 2017, but the book was only loosely in chronological order. They took groups (like the Jesuits or Moravians) or movements (church growth movement, etc.) and looked at their missionary efforts. The focus was on how various individuals and groups spread the gossip (methods) and what the results where--did the church last or send out missionaries of its own?

They mainly looked at European and Asian missions efforts, though they did briefly touch on missionary work from all around the world. They looked at all Christian missions, including Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant. However, they mostly looked at Protestant missions after describing the Reformation. They talked about missionary councils and congresses, movements, various specializations within missions (radio, Bible translations, etc.), and suggested what we can learn from past missionary efforts.

Most of the early sections gave some background to explain why the missionaries acted as they did and then gave short biographies for the notable missionaries from that group. There were also case studies and side bars with discussion questions. Overall, I found the information interesting as it provided an overall arc that I've not gotten before. But while I grant that this is a textbook, it isn't likely to keep the attention of someone not already interested in the topic.

I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

The authors take a different approach to teaching the history of missions than the traditional approach used by textbooks such as Neill's History of Christian Missions. Instead of a strict chronological approach, they look at movements influencing Christians to reach the world. It thus becomes a more theological and philosophical approach than the traditional manner the subject is taught to undergraduates. The book is better suited to graduate-level courses in the history of missions as it lacks the ability to create interest for persons without a prior one. The use of documents and writings of the persons involved is commendable. The authors' coverage includes effort of the church growth movement of the late 20th century. Questions for discussion and reflection are included, mainly in sidebars, but occasionally in the main text. A lengthy bibliography is included. I received an electronic advance review copy of the book from the publisher through NetGalley for review purposes.