My next book, Strangers Next Door: Immigration, Migration, and Missions Opportunity, is scheduled to be released with Biblica in March 2012.
While I have shared a few matters on Twitter, I want use today’s post to provide you with some detailed information that can’t be included in 140 characters.
This book is about the migration of unreached people groups to Western countries (not just the United States), and the need for the Church to respond appropriately. It is a book for you to use in your church to raise awareness of our present realities.
Global migration is one of the most significant forces shaping the way the Church will continue to advance the gospel. Missiologists have recognized this reality. For one of the growing sub-categories in the field of missions is that of Diaspora Missiology (the topic of the book, with a practical slant).
To give you an idea of the gravity of the matter of migration and missions, consider the following happenings:
- Many mission agencies have started to reorganize themselves and their missionaries around the migrations of peoples.
- Each year, conferences are held across the globe addressing the peoples on the move.
- Videos are being produced on issues related to diasporic issues.
- Seminaries are beginning to offer courses on the topic, with some schools already prepared to provide extensive training in reaching diasporic peoples.
- The Scattered to Gather booklet was distributed at Cape Town 2010
- Following Cape Town 2010, a Global Diaspora Network was created, with plans for a global Congress meeting in the Philippines in 2015.
- A few books have been published on this topic, with others in the works as I write this post.
While the majority of international migrants are presently moving to the traditionally non-Western countries, a very large percentage of such peoples are arriving in the West. And it is here that the opposition and challenges of sharing the gospel and planting churches among such peoples are not as great as those challenges found in their countries of origin.
I wrote this book out of a desire to share with the Church the contemporary migration realities and to cast the vision of the Great Commission opportunities that are present at this moment in history.
Here are the chapters:
Chapter 1 Migration, Immigration, and Kingdom Perspective
Chapter 2 What in the World is God Doing?
Chapter 3 The World’s Unreached in the West
Chapter 4 Migration and Kingdom Expansion, Part 1
Chapter 5 Migration and Kingdom Expansion, Part 2
Chapter 6 Migration and the West 1500-2010
Chapter 7 Students on the Move
Chapter 8 Refugees on the Move
Chapter 9 Stories from the Field
Chapter 10 Guidelines for Reaching the Strangers Next Door
Chapter 11 A Suggested Strategy for Reaching the Strangers Next Door
Chapter 12 Diaspora Missiology: A Conclusion or Just the Beginning?
Later this year, I plan to set up a twitter feed of statements from the book. Also, through Twitter and this blog, I’ll let you know when the book becomes available for pre-order. I hope to post some book excerpts in the future as well.
If you are wanting to know more about diaspora missiology, I have posted on this topic several times. You can find these posts here:
Series on Unreached People Groups in the West
The sovereign hand of God is moving the peoples of the world like never before. Unfortunately–to most of us–they are simply the strangers next door. Let’s be in the know of what the Lord is doing in our communities and respond with loving service and sharing the good news of Jesus.
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