Christian Mission Book Review Essay

Smedley, Audrey, and Brian D. Smedley. "Race as Biology Is Fiction, Racism as a Social Problem Is Real: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives on the Social Construction of Race." American Psychologist 60.1 (2005): 16-26. JSTOR. Web. 23 July

Counties were calling for a moratorium on western missionaries. It is only obvious why this occurred. The issues once again stemmed around many of the western missionaries attitudes that their ways were the ways for all. The young churches in some of the areas such as Asia, African and Latin America wanted to develop their own ways of doing things. The “missionary go home” movement included receiving money from western cultures. These churches that wanted to venture out on their own without the western control put blame on “missionary racism, paternalism, and colonialism.”

Rediscovering Discipleship emphases the importance of both evangelism and discipleship. While the two are different and distinct, both are crucial aspects to building the church. Gallaty gives helpful tips and insight on what discipleship looks like and how to cultivate discipleship groups in a church setting. The three most important things that I took away from this book are the following: thinking Hebraically, encouraging new believers to engage in ministry, and how to cultivate a healthy discipleship group.

“On a Christian Mission to the Top” by Laurie Goodstein and David Kirkpatrick deals with the controversial topic of religion, primarily the rise of evangelicals to the top of the social classes and their influence. The essay opens with a description of the differing religious groups in Brown University, originally a Protestant Christian school. After evangelicals surpassed other denominations of Christianity, the societal and political perspectives of America shifted to support Evangelism views. Goodstein and Kirkpatrick examine the attempt to sway colleges to evangelist perspectives. While I wholeheartedly encourage the freedom of religion, I do not support this attempt at mass conversion or the refusal of accepting of other cultures.

Christianity – integrated – Coming of the light – as a driving influence of colonisation

The concept of race and racism is considered a modern invention. According to Audrey Smedley in her article; “I argue that race was institutionalized beginning in the 18th century as a worldview, a set of culturally created attitudes and beliefs about human group differences.” There is evidence of dislike for peoples of different backgrounds before this time, but those differences were usually sparked by differences in religion. In ancient times populations worshiped more specific gods, and were fearful of other gods and the effects they could have on them. If one goes back further in time the record can not show racism but one must consider it as a possibility as prehistoric populations came

While racism is a more modern term, the prejudice beliefs behind it have been apart of history since the beginning of time. In the 15th and 16th centuries Spain enacted one of the most studied inquisitions in history. The Spanish Inquisition consisted of some of the darkest days in Jewish history and contains some of Christianities most shameful chapters. Extensive research has revolved around this particular inquisition in the attempts to understand how a seemingly tolerant society could take such a radical turn. There are numerous ongoing debates as to

“The Gospel for Those Broken by the Church” by Dr. Ron Rosenbladt is a presentation that focuses on those who have left the church behind and no longer associate themselves with it. He categorizes those who have left into two sections: “sad” alumni and “mad” alumni. Sad alumni are those people who really wanted to believe but never could really get it right, while mad alumni are those who were “conned” by the church into giving themselves over to Christ and trying to believe and then when things didn’t quite work out, they were tossed away. This presentation focuses on how to bring people like this back to the faith, both the sad and mad alumni.

Western Christians in global missions by Paul Borthwick is about the interdependence and unity of the global Church. The book starts at the conclusion of an era of missions where North America has taken the helm. As the global missions community changes, North America needs to reassess its role. There are 4 main integrated points that Borthwick makes that should change the perspective of the white American middle class missionary.

The author concludes that Christians are to live faithfully by the values of the bible. As members of society, we are expected to play a critical role in in our community rather than isolating ourselves from those opposed to Christian worldviews. There are ways for Christians to live out their faith, but still remain active parts in the community.

In conclusion, it is essential to recognize, that coaches encourage and assist the client(s) to construct better skills, vision, growth through life transitions, guide the client through their spiritual journey and speak the truth in love (Collins, 2009). Also, coaches will help people set goals and plan ways to reach these goals. In other words, when obstacles get in the way, coaches challenge, inspire, and give accountability so the individual (client) can overcome barriers and experience triumph. A Christian life coach is there for you, prayerfully listening to your concerns and making inquiries that will provide clarity on your circumstances, get you past your blocks, recognize your God-given potential, and challenge you to be your best. As a result of the partnership with the coach people, organizations, or churches can formulate a life-vision or life mission statements and makes those come truth.

In the nineteenth century biologist attempted to create a science of racial differences that would support the view of racialism. “These traits and tendencies characteristic of a race constitute, on the racialist view, a sort of racial essence; and it is part of the content of racialism that the essential heritable characteristics of what the nineteenth century called the “Races of Man” account for more than the visible morphological characteristics—skin color, hair type, facial features—on the basis of which we make our informal classification (Appiah 394). As of today, most scientists working in these fields continue to reject racialism. The claims of racialism are not supported by science. Plausibly, Appiah states that racialism doesn’t necessarily have to be an ethical issue. An individual may possibly acknowledge racialism but still believe that constructive moral characteristics are equally disseminated across the different races. But, what is logically possible and what usually occurs are two different things. “I believe—and I have argued elsewhere—that racialism is false; but by itself it seems to be a cognitive rather than a moral problem” (Appiah 394).

In this text, Hungry for Worship, authors Frank Page and L. Gray write about the hunger for worshipping God that all leaders should possess. In chapter 1, both authors begin the text with the concept of how the body has fallen in love with the method of worship and not the actual act of being in the Presence of God. They

There are many theories that attempt to identify the precise origins of racism. The three articles that were designated for reading each try to answer the question of what are the sources of racism. Of the three, I found that both Loewenbergs and Allports arguments combined best explain where racism stems from. By using the aforementioned articles I will assert my opinion of the subject, and use past and current class readings to support my argument. In doing so, some light may be shed upon what are the actual derivations of racism.

One could say that scholarly debate over the roots of race is a recent phenomenon even though its background stretches back to early anthropologists and sociologists. Franz Boas in his The Mind of Primitive Man (1911) rejects race as a determinant of culture, intelligence, or temperament (5-6). Articulating a concept of “cultural relativism,” Margaret Mead, in the year 1928, built on Boas’ assertions, articulated the idea that one must judge other cultures by their own criteria and not those of the observer’s community (234). Some anthropologists, by the 1940s, even rejected race and racism. Ashley Montagu offered such an argument in Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race (1942). According to Anderson, the debate on the origin of slavery was a more recent ancestor of the history of race and emphasizes that “in the past, most scholars had uncritically assumed that both race and slavery had existed from the first contact of white Virginians and unwilling African immigrants. With the latter subjected to reevaluation, it became possible for the former to be questioned as well.” (91) As such, the categories of