1. Chapter 19:
Mission and the Future

2. Chapter Outline
• Theological Challenges
• Geopolitical Challenges
• Challenges from Emerging Models of the
Church
• Challenges from Emerging Models of
Mission
• Conclusion

3. Theological Challenges
• There can be little doubt that theological
tensions will increase in the coming years.
The larger cultural shift toward
postmodernism and the ongoing
relativization of truth even in the
evangelical church will pose a challenge for
the foreseeable future.

4. Geopolitical Challenges
• There is little doubt that new ethical, and
even globally threatening, issues will loom
larger and larger in the near future.
• Missionaries may very well find themselves
at the epicenter of devastation on a global
scale unheard of in human history. Will
they be prepared to minister in love in the
midst of such tragedy?

5. Challenges from Emerging
Models of the Church
• New models of what it means to be a church are
springing up around the world:
• The nonchurch movement in Japan
• African Initiated churches
• Base ecclesial communities in Latin America
• The “New Apostolic Reformation” churches scattered
around the world
• Megachurches in Korea, Brazil, and Nigeria
• They may very well be the fuel for the mission
movements of the twenty-first century and
beyond.

6. Challenges from Emerging
Models of Mission
• Mission agencies face daunting challenges
in the future, including finding models to
support missionaries financially
• Churches are likely to become more critical of
the agencies that represent the “old guard” and
are viewed as staid and unchanging long after
the time for meaningful reformation.

7. Conclusion
• The challenges missionaries face may
become increasingly daunting, but God
transcends them all.
• God will provide the skills and gifts
necessary through whatever ages and
challenges come to reach the peoples of the
world. That is God’s agenda; may it
increasingly become ours as well.