“... a brief, readable course in modern world geography and political history . . . puts the Pope, Billy Graham, the World Council of Churches, the world pentecostal movement, the population explosion, Mao Tze Tung and Biafra into a single picture, and tells us with hard statistics what has happened to Christianity and the World Christian Mission . . . . Illuminates crucial issues no one else is even thinking about . . . . a brilliant piece of work.” –C. Peter Wagner

An updated examination of ecclesiology from a Baptist perspective In this useful book, professor and former pastor John Hammett helps church leaders think through foundational questions about the nature of the church. Blending biblical teaching and practical ministry experience, Hammett presents a comprehensive ecclesiology from a historic Baptist perspective, examining crucial contemporary issues such as church discipline, the role of elders, and church ministry in a post-Christian culture. This second edition contains updates throughout, including: · Substantive changes to chapters on the nature of the church, Baptist church polity, and deacons · An expanded chapter on baptism and the Lord’s Supper · A thoroughly revised chapter on church models like multisite churches and missional churches · A brand-new chapter on meaningful church membership

The churches from the whole world are joined in the effort to reach the whole world. Although it has been documented that Western missionaries serving outside their countries still comprise the majority of world missions workers, the growth rate of majority world missionaries far outpaces that of the West. In recent years, while Western missionary forces are shrinking in numbers and possibly in influence, missions from the majority world have proliferated, bringing amazing progress and some challenges. Missions from the Majority World represents the thinking of 14 majority world mission scholars and 10 Westerners with lengthy experience in the missionary enterprise. The book shows the progress and challenges of missions from the majority world and illustrates this by case studies from Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

This long-standing series provides the guild of religion scholars a venue for publishing aimed primarily at colleagues. It includes scholarly monographs, revised dissertations, Festschriften, conference papers, and translations of ancient and medieval documents. Works cover the sub-disciplines of biblical studies, history of Christianity, history of religion, theology, and ethics. Festschriften for Karl Barth, Donald W. Dayton, James Luther Mays, Margaret R. Miles, and Walter Wink are among the seventy-five volumes that have been published. Contributors include: C. K. Barrett, Francois Bovon, Paul S. Chung, Marie-Helene Davies, Frederick Herzog, Ben F. Meyer, Pamela Ann Moeller, Rudolf Pesch, D. Z. Phillips, Rudolf Schnackenburgm Eduard Schweizer, John Vissers

APTS Press is privileged to offer this festschrift honoring Dr. Kay Fountain, who for more than twenty years has served the Lord at the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (APTS), in Baguio City, Philippines, first as a student, then as a faculty member and finally as the Academic Dean. Our hope is that this book will reflect her passion for teaching and understanding the Old Testament, which has instilled in her students that kind of passion for the ministry as well. From the Foreword

As we look at the growth of the Christian Church in today’s world, there is reason for both optimism and pessimism. In the developing world there is both an enthusiasm and a real growth while in many parts of the Western world the church seems to be in decline. However there are some religious groups and movements that are experiencing growth. The Authors of this book attempt to study seven of today’s movements to see why some are growing while others are either stagnant or declining. As we plan for the future it is important that we understand the dynamics of growth so as to be able to carry out the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus Christ and that is “To make disciples of all nations”.

The Third Force in Missions challenges readers to recognize the indispensable role of the Holy Spirit as power-for-mission. It confronts the Western mentality that ignores the miraculous in its missions strategy and the global Pentecostal movement. Paul Pomerville suggests that such activity—prompted and controlled by the Spirit—is key to fruitful biblical missions. When The Third Force in Missions was first published in 1985, Paul Pomerville sought to draw attention to the Pentecostal contribution to missions. At that time, he argued there was an "information gap" regarding the size of this movement, in spite of "two waves" of worldwide Pentecostal renewal. He argued that this gap existed because of evangelical bias against Pentecostalism, bias against "charismatics" in mainline churches, ethnocentrism toward Pentecostals in the developing world, and faulty reporting. Thirty years later, Pomerville once again argues the importance of the global Pentecostal movement, seeking to correct the ongoing tunnel vision of world missions programs, which since the Protestant Reformation have tended to ignore the Holy Spirit's work in today's missions. In this book, Pomerville exposes the serious methodological and theological flaws of such a one-sided position.