Dr. Richard Noble is the founder and director of the Center for Missional Engagement. He is also a pastor, an adjunct faculty member at Geneva College and Crown College, and the missions mobilizer for the Christian & Missionary Alliance denomination. As you can see missions is a major focus of his ministry. In this book the reader will see that he wants missions to be the major focus of every Christian church.

The main body of On Mission Together consists of nine chapters, an afterword, and six appendices. In the chapters the author covers many topics. The following is a sampling of a few  of the chapter titles: “In Partnership with God,” “What the Bible Says About Missions,” “Missions Awareness and Education,” “Praying for Missions and Missionaries,” and “Giving to Missions.” The main focus of this book is global missions (xviii). In the appendixes one will find, among other things, ideas for hosting a missions conference and some thoughts concerning short-term missions ventures.

Dr. Noble has a passion for missions, he was raised in a family that supported missions (page xv). This passion becomes clear near the very beginning of the book. In the preface he says that “missions is not just a particular ministry program of the local church but rather a priority and a lifestyle for every follower of Jesus Christ” (page xvii). He points out that as Christians we have been called out of the world and then sent back into it in order to transform it (page 24). Jesus said that we are to be salt and light in the world (Matthew 5:13-16). The author makes the observation that both salt and light “change the environments that they come in contact with” (page 44). The same holds true for us, we, as believers, are to change the world. Noble sees missions as the priority of all ministries in the church (page 25). This includes ministries to adults and children (page 27). While local missions are important Noble gives great attention to cross-cultural missions. Christians should be open to the idea of going overseas, at least for the short-term and possibly for the long-term. However, he recognizes that not everyone is called to go. Those who are sent are important but so are those who send them. Believers who remain at home need to pray, give, and minister to missionaries. The author is an advocate for missionary care and he offers a number of suggestions for how churches can provide this important ministry.

On Mission Together is a very practical book. The text includes biblical teaching but it also contains a wealth of information and ideas about how to actually make missions the focal point of church ministry. Some of the chapters contain a section called “Principle in Practice.” In these sections the author gives examples of what specific churches are doing in order to actively participate in a particular aspect of missions ministry. The examples he cites are diverse, they come from churches in different locations, different denominations, and different congregational sizes. The message that emerges from all this is that all churches can be mobilized for missions. In appendix F the author supplies a significant list of books about various topics related to missions. This is a great asset and may be of interest to those who want to read further on a particular topic.

One point that the reader will glean from this book is that churches need to be intentional about missions. And their intentionality needs to go beyond financial giving. In order for missions to take its rightful place in the church the involvement of the pastor is very important (pages 141-151). However, it is not just the pastor’s job to promote missions, Dr. Noble recommends having a team involved in the promotion of missions.

On Mission Together is a great resource, it is clearly written and easy to understand. This book will be a welcome addition to the libraries of missions directors, missionaries, pastors, missions committees, and anyone else who is interested in missions. Hopefully Bible schools and seminaries will become aware of it and use it in training their students. If the message of this book is taken seriously much more will be accomplished for the Kingdom of God around the world.

Reviewed by John P. Lathrop

In Richard Bustraan’s work, The Jesus People Movement, the author aims to describe and trace the Jesus People Movement within Pentecostal historiography. Although this work is a comprehensive research thesis, non-academic readers will be able to appreciate and enjoy Bustraan’s work. It’s content covers and tracks the movement from it’s inception in 1967 to the end of the 1970’s all the while exploring the historical, sociological, and theological nature of the Jesus People Movement and its eventual acceptance as another peripheral sensation among American Pentecostalism. The research is divided into six different chapters covering the emergence of Hippies, a historical overview of the Jesus People movement, a historical overview of the Pentecostal movement, the sociological identity of the movement, the theological identity of the movement and the author’s final conclusions. However, rather than summarize each of the chapters, I will look at the key strengths and weaknesses of the work as a whole.

From the beginning of the work, Bustraan successfully sets the backdrop for the Jesus People Movement by exploring the various factors and influences that gave rise to the hippies. After effectively showing how the 1960’s and the hippies were influential in setting the stage for the Jesus People movement, the author turns his attention to explore the historical, sociological, and theological nature of the Jesus People Movement, while consistently noting the lasting contributions made to Evangelicalism. Most notably, these contributions include the eventual formation of the Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) industry, emerging primarily because of “Jesus Music” (34), and the establishment of church networks and movements including Hope Chapel, Calvary Chapel and the Association Vineyard of Churches (35).

Perhaps the best part of the work in my estimation is the concentration on the continuities and discontinuities between Jesus People theology and classical Pentecostal theology due to this topic’s relevance today within modern Pentecostal scholarship. The author notes that the major discontinuity comes from the issue of “subsequence and consequence” relating to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and sign gifts (159). The author notes that although classical Pentecostal denominations struggled early on in the twentieth century regarding the timing and expectations of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the Jesus People Movement did not. There was no rigidness and singular demands regarding Spirit Baptism within the whole of the movement. Therefore Bustraan concludes that it allowed for theological variances regarding timing and expectations within the various segments of the movement (160). Since the issue of “subsequence and consequence” once solved within classical Pentecostal denominations has begun to resurface, I could not help but wonder if the Jesus People theology impacted this development.

Richard N. Soulen, Sacred Scripture: A Short History of Interpretation (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2009), xv + 216 pages, ISBN 9780664232467.

There are numerous books presenting overviews of the history of biblical interpretation. This book belongs near the top in terms of readability—it can be read at a fast clip with hardly any loss of comprehension.

Soulen takes the reader through more than 2000 years of reading Scripture, beginning with a survey of how the later books of the Old Testament engage the earlier books. (This part of the book is basically an extended report on Michael Fishbane’s treatment of the subject.) Soulen briefly discusses how different Jewish groups and the NT writers interpret Scripture. He then moves on to the patristic writers, introducing the most important figures and describing their contributions to the field of biblical interpretation. Soulen then moves to a trio of representative figures from the twelfth century, and then on to Luther. In a work that seeks to give only occasional and representative samples, there are, at this point, some rather surprising omissions. One certainly would have expected some discussion of the Reformed tradition, especially John Calvin himself. Wesley is likewise completely skipped, as is the entire Great Awakening. There is also no discussion of the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Princetonians (Warfield, etc.), an omission that perhaps accounts for the fact that the index to this work contains no entry for “inspiration”. I will grant that a work of this sort must skip some things, but the choices of what to skip and what to include often seem rather odd.

Another drawback of the book is that it attempts to promote the rather troubling (and poorly argued) views of Hans Frei. It almost seems, in fact, that the reason for the above-mentioned omissions is that the book’s real purpose is not so much to provide an overview as to serve as an apology for Frei. Soulen discusses Frei in two chapters, both times presenting him not so much as a historical subject but rather as a messenger of the truth regarding how Scripture should be read.

Readers who want an overview of the interpretation of Scripture should look elsewhere.

Reviewed by John C. Poirier

Preview: books.google.com/books?id=SXgAjvKQXBIC

Publisher’s page: www.wjkbooks.com/Products/0664232469/sacred-scripture.aspx

Richard N. Longenecker, ed., Community Formation in the Early Church and in the Church Today (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002), 251 + xix pages, ISBN 9780801046964.

The new believer is not likely to progress far in his or her spiritual walk before coming across someone calling the church today to return to our New Testament roots. One of the foundations of this call is the desire to discover (or rediscover) what may be called “the New Testament model” of church structure and Christian community. Some have even gone so far as to suggest the abolition of church buildings and worship centers and the return to small home groups as “the only true New Testament norm” for Christian fellowship.

Regardless of whether there is validity to these claims or not, a number of questions still remain: Does the New Testament present the 21st century church with a model for Christian community? If so, is it a normative model, exclusive of any other structures? Or is there a freedom to be enjoyed in how the church today can be structured? Is the decision to be based on theological bases, sociological bases, both, or neither? It is obvious that the most basic of observations reveal a wide variety of church structures along denominational lines, and even within those same denominations.

These are important questions to the life and ministry of the church in general and every Christian in particular, and that church (and Christian) has been blessed with a collection of twelve essays, from a variety of Canadian and American scholars, which examines these questions in detail. The general perspective that developed from these studies (originally presented in June 2000 at the Bingham Colloquium, held at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) is that Christian community formation is based on both the biblical doctrine of the gospel and the sociological elements that define each society in which that gospel is presented and followed.

As editor, Longenecker has grouped these essays into four natural sections. Beginning with the social context of the Greco-Roman world in the first few centuries of the church’s existence, the first three essay take us on a walk through the various communities, fellowships, and “voluntary associations” which were in abundance at that time and place. By way of archaeological descriptions and discussions, the reader discovers how closely the early church structures resembled similar structures of which the first Christians were well aware.

Archaeological examination is closely followed by biblical examination in the second section of the book. The fact that Christianity (and the church) stands or falls on the person of Jesus Christ, leads to the natural and necessary corollary that the ministry of the church should be guided and shaped by the ministry of Christ. “The paradigm of ministry for Christians was established by Jesus himself, whose example was followed—even though not always successfully or willingly—by his disciples and those who came to believe in him. Every model of ministry, therefore, if it is to be truly Christian, must be guided by the teaching and example of Jesus” (p. 59). Following on the heels of Jesus’ ministry was the ministry of his disciples, and Longenecker himself contributes a chapter on the vision and image of the church described by the apostle Paul in his missionary letters. The New Testament portion of the book continues with a look into Luke’s theology of ministry and leadership as presented in the book of Acts, and concludes with a look into the various elements of the New Testament congregations as described by Paul in his pastoral epistles.