Scott W. Sunquist

2020 Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year ("Also Recommended," Church) Is a church just something we create to serve our purposes or to maintain old traditions? Or is it something more vital, more meaningful, and more powerful? This can be hard to believe when we look at what happens in any one congregation or denomination. Certainly not all churches act like Jesus in the world, and many individual churches in the West are dying. When it's so easy to be confused, frustrated, or simply apathetic about the church, how should we understand its purpose today? In this appealing introduction to the nature of the local church, set in the context of Christian history and global diversity, historian and missionary Scott Sunquist shows us the church in motion. Why Church? clarifies the two primary purposes of the church—worship and witness—and unpacks what the church is (and ought to be) using five movements of worship: come together stand to praise God kneel to confess sit to listen to the Word of God go out into the world Packed with stories and insights from experiences in churches around the world, this book explores cultural contextualization, the meaning of conversion, worship in both personal and communal aspects, and how mission combines telling the good news with being good news as a community. From Fuller Theological Seminary's renowned church-planting program, this primer is well suited to leaders and their core teams to read together and share with new attenders as they catch the spirit of the dynamic gathering that is the local church.

While understanding history has always been an essential task for God's people, rapid changes within the past two generations of Christianity have challenged many of our assumptions and methods for studying the past. How should thoughtful Christians—and especially historians and missiologists—make sense of global Christianity as an unfolding historical movement? Scott Sunquist invites readers to join him for a capstone course in historical thinking from a master teacher. Highlighting both the continuity and the diversity within the Christian movement over the centuries, he identifies three key concepts for framing church history: time, cross, and glory. These themes shed light to help us discern how the Jesus movement developed from the first century to the present, through an explosion of contextual expressions. Tracing these concepts through the centuries, we learn from the stories of Christians reflecting the glories of God's kingdom—and from their failures. Filled with historical case studies and stories from Sunquist's teaching around the world, The Shape of Christian History offers a framework for how to read and write church history. Even more, it demonstrates how the study of history illuminates God's mission in the world and sharpens our understanding of how to participate in that mission faithfully.

Christianity Today Book Award What does it take to be a church planter or other ministry entrepreneur? Most leaders start out with passion, a sense of calling, and a focus on building ministry skills. Such things might get some results, but they are not enough to sustain a healthy ministry—or a healthy life. Beyond the vocational capacities every church planter needs, there's a range of capabilities more difficult to measure but even more essential: what veteran church planter Tim Morey calls spiritual competencies. Morey provides here a practical guide to spiritual formation geared to the unique needs of church planters. He helps readers answer the questions, What are the spiritual capabilities that I as a church planter need to develop? How might I lean into the work Jesus is doing in these vital areas? Spiritual competencies have to do not just with behaviors but also with the motivations, agendas, and scripts that drive behaviors. Morey explores how church planters can become people who invest in their own physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual healthaccept limits and share responsibilitiescan be trusted with powerare able to stay resilient and grow through difficultiescan minister without being noticedfind a sustainable pace that helps them avoid burnout The health of a church or any ministry organization is directly linked to the health of its leaders. Church planters may be used to improvising, but when it comes to their spiritual lives, they can't afford to just wing it. Featuring real-life stories from leaders, suggested practices, and discussion questions in each chapter, this book will equip individuals and teams (and those who coach them) to commit to an intentional plan for spiritual formation—for the good of their churches, their relationships, and their own lives as disciples of Jesus.

There are many books that highlight the need and importance of mission toward unreached people. Unfortunately, few of them deal with the importance of understanding the real life of unreached people and how to analyze them. This book identifies conceptual issues for the development of receptor-oriented communication strategies among young, educated, urban Hui (YEU-Hui) Muslims in China's northwestern cities in order to achieve culturally relevant churches in those areas. It is written to help not only those who are interested in the unreached, but also those who are interested in Muslim evangelism, urban sociology, biblical exegesis, contextual church planting, communication, and mission strategy. Enoch Jinsik Kim utilizes a new approach--virtual community mission for planting offline churches--that integrates the use of local church-driven Internet community, traditional media, and offline task teams from a multi-ethnic local church. While the research focuses on the Chinese Muslim context, the identification of the young, urban, and educated as a strategic group for mission can be applied in other Muslim and non-Muslim contexts. This research is useful to cross-cultural communicators, church planters, and all those interested in interpersonal relationships. ""Enoch Jinsik Kim's thorough research on the YEU-HUI Muslim people exemplifies how to be a responsible missiologist who loves people, God, and the gospel. . . . As a former missionary in the field, I wish I had this to read before jumping into communicating the gospel in the missional context, and currently as a senior pastor of an immigrant church, reaching all generations and desiring to see younger millennials come to Christ, this virtual church strategy enlightens me on the implications behind it. The time spent on this book will be worth every minute for those who are in ministry, whether in the states or abroad."" --Tae Kim, All Nations Church, Senior Pastor He is a member of GMF and HOPE, and is the author of A New Entrance Gate in Urban Minorities (2011), 'Us' or 'Me'? Modernization and Social Networks among China's Urban Hui (2013), and ""Mission Strategy in the City"" (2017).

There are many books that highlight the need and importance of mission toward unreached people. Unfortunately, few of them deal with the importance of understanding the real life of unreached people and how to analyze them. This book identifies conceptual issues for the development of receptor-oriented communication strategies among young, educated, urban Hui (YEU-Hui) Muslims in China's northwestern cities in order to achieve culturally relevant churches in those areas. It is written to help not only those who are interested in the unreached, but also those who are interested in Muslim evangelism, urban sociology, biblical exegesis, contextual church planting, communication, and mission strategy. Enoch Jinsik Kim utilizes a new approach--virtual community mission for planting offline churches--that integrates the use of local church-driven Internet community, traditional media, and offline task teams from a multi-ethnic local church. While the research focuses on the Chinese Muslim context, the identification of the young, urban, and educated as a strategic group for mission can be applied in other Muslim and non-Muslim contexts. This research is useful to cross-cultural communicators, church planters, and all those interested in interpersonal relationships. ""Enoch Jinsik Kim's thorough research on the YEU-HUI Muslim people exemplifies how to be a responsible missiologist who loves people, God, and the gospel. . . . As a former missionary in the field, I wish I had this to read before jumping into communicating the gospel in the missional context, and currently as a senior pastor of an immigrant church, reaching all generations and desiring to see younger millennials come to Christ, this virtual church strategy enlightens me on the implications behind it. The time spent on this book will be worth every minute for those who are in ministry, whether in the states or abroad."" --Tae Kim, All Nations Church, Senior Pastor He is a member of GMF and HOPE, and is the author of A New Entrance Gate in Urban Minorities (2011), 'Us' or 'Me'? Modernization and Social Networks among China's Urban Hui (2013), and ""Mission Strategy in the City"" (2017).

Asia is the birthplace of Christianity. If Christianity is not usually seen as an Asian religion, that is because the history of Christianity in Asia has long been a difficult one. Whereas Christianity in the West received royal support, Asian Christianity has led a more nomadic and exilic existence. Today it is the least Christianized region of the world. Scott W. Sunquist is a recognized expert on the history of the Christian faith in Asia. Over the years he has published and spoken frequently on this theme. Explorations in Asian Christianity gathers his key writings on the topic and organizes them into four main categories: surveys that look at Asian Christianity in broad perspective, historical investigations that look at how Christianity shapes our understanding of history and historiography, missiological studies that look closely at issues of place, and finally essays on theological education. Topics explored in this volume include Ecumenism in AsiaThe cruciform nature of ChristianityA missiology of placeThe Christian view of timeGlobal migration Explorations in Asian Christianity sheds light on one of the most important but least well-known areas in Christian history. Missiological Engagements charts interdisciplinary and innovative trajectories in the history, theology, and practice of Christian mission, featuring contributions by leading thinkers from both the Euro-American West and the majority world whose missiological scholarship bridges church, academy, and society.

Christianity Today 2014 Book Award WinnerNamed one of Ten Outstanding Books of 2013 for Mission Studies, International Bulletin of Mission ResearchThis comprehensive introduction helps students, pastors, and mission committees understand contemporary Christian mission historically, biblically, and theologically. Scott Sunquist, a respected scholar and teacher of world Christianity, recovers missiological thinking from the early church for the twenty-first century. He traces the mission of the church throughout history in order to address the global church and offers a constructive theology and practice for missionary work today. Sunquist views spirituality as the foundation for all mission involvement, for mission practice springs from spiritual formation. He highlights the Holy Spirit in the work of mission and emphasizes its trinitarian nature. Sunquist explores mission from a primarily theological--rather than sociological--perspective, showing that the whole of Christian theology depends on and feeds into mission. Throughout the book, he presents Christian mission as our participation in the suffering and glory of Jesus Christ for the redemption of the nations.

Hearts Minds Bookstore's Best Books of 2015, Theology Toward the end of the twentieth century, Lesslie Newbigin offered a penetrating analysis of the challenges of pluralism that confronted a Western culture and society reeling from the dissolution of Christendom. His enormous influence has been felt ever since. Newbigin (1909-1998) was a longtime Church of Scotland missionary to India and later General Secretary of the International Missionary Council and Associate General Secretary of the World Council of Churches. The first installment in the Missiological Engagements series, the essays in this volume explore three aspects of Newbigin?s legacy. First, they assess the impact of his 1989 book, Gospel in a Pluralist Society, on Christian mission and evangelism in the West. Second, they critically analyze the nature of Western pluralism in its many dimensions to discern how Christianity can proclaim good news for today. Finally, the contributors discuss the influence of Newbigin's work on the field of missiology. By looking backward, this volume recommends and advances a vision for Christian witness in the pluralistic world of the twenty-first century. Contributions from leading missiologists and theologians, including: William BurrowsJohn FlettVeli-Matti KärkkäinenEsther MeekWilbert Shenk Missiological Engagements charts interdisciplinary and innovative trajectories in the history, theology, and practice of Christian mission, featuring contributions by leading thinkers from both the Euro-American West and the majority world whose missiological scholarship bridges church, academy, and society.

2015 Book Award for Excellence in Missiology, American Society of MissiologyNamed an Outstanding Mission Book of 2015, International Bulletin of Mission ResearchIn 1900 many assumed the twentieth century would be a Christian century because Western "Christian empires" ruled most of the world. What happened instead is that Christianity in the West declined dramatically, the empires collapsed, and Christianity's center moved to Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific. How did this happen so quickly? Respected scholar and teacher Scott Sunquist surveys the most recent century of Christian history, highlighting epochal changes in global Christianity. He also suggests lessons we can learn from this remarkable global Christian reversal. Ideal for an introduction to Christianity or a church history course, this book includes a foreword by Mark Noll.

Completes the first comprehensive account of Christianity as a world religion from its origins to the present. This volume completes a landmark history of Christianity. Reviewed and shaped by an international team of 43 consulting scholars, this history assigns a rightful place to the peoples of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the Near East in the unfolding of the Christian story, In the process a fuller and richer view emerges of Christianity as a religion constantly evolving in dialogue with new cultures, new questions, and new historical influences. Volume I traced the origins of Christianity up to the middle of the fifteenth century, Volume II continues the story up to the new millennium. Beginning with the early missionary expansion in Africa, Asia, and the Americas, the story goes on to trace the fracturing of Christianity among Catholic, Orthodox, and reformed expressions; the impact of modern colonialism and the emergence of a new global reality; the wars of religion, the impact of the Enlightenment, the rise of Christianity in North America, and the modern missionary movement. Throughout, the authors emphasize the expression of local forms of Christianity in diverse cultures, and the role of Christianity in helping to shape distinct national identities in an era of decolonization and globalization.

Traditional histories of Christianity focus on its consolidation in the West and subsequent export to the rest of the world. History of the World Christian Movement shows that from the beginning Christianity has been a world religion, informed and shaped through the interplay of gospel and culture, church and world. At last the people of Asia, Africa, and the Near East take their rightful place in an account of the unfolding of the Christian story. In the process a fuller and richer view emerges of Christianity as a religion constantly evolving in dialogue with new cultures, new questions, and new historical influences.