by Gregg Okesson (Author)
Christianity Today 2021 Book Award Winner (Missions/Global Church)
Outreach 2021 Resource of the Year (Cross-Cultural and Missional)
2020 ASM (American Society of Missiology) Book of the Year Award
One of Ten Outstanding Books in Mission Studies, Intercultural Theology, and World Christianity for 2020
How can Christians witness to the complexity of our world? Gregg Okesson shows that local congregations are the primary means of public witness in and for the world. As Christians move back and forth between their churches and their neighborhoods, workplaces, and other public spaces, they weave a thick gospel witness. This introduction to public missiology explains how local congregations can thicken their witness in the public realms where they live, work, and play. Real-life examples from around the world help readers envision approaches to public witness and social change.
Back Jacket
"A bold signal that a new movement in mission thinking is underway"
How can Christians witness to the complexity of our world? In A Public Missiology, Gregg Okesson demonstrates that local congregations are the primary means of public witness in and for the world. As Christians move back and forth between their churches and their neighborhoods, workplaces, and other public spaces, they weave a thick gospel witness. This introduction to public missiology explains how local congregations can thicken their witness in the public realms where they live, work, and play.
"Drawing on rich personal experience, illuminating case studies, and several academic disciplines, Gregg Okesson paints a vibrant picture of how congregations can offer public witness to Christian faith and life in ways that are compelling, beautiful, and substantive. In a book that is richly theological and missiological, he challenges churches to embrace a gospel that is sufficiently comprehensive to speak into our complex world. Writing in a way that is accessible but also packed with insight, Okesson has produced a book that is deeply engaging and very important. I highly recommend it!"
--Christine D. Pohl, professor of Christian ethics, emeritus, Asbury Theological Seminary
"In this book Gregg Okesson provides a bold signal that a new movement in mission thinking is underway. Public missiology means that the identity, practices, and witness of the church cannot remain the same once we have recognized how fundamentally the gospel of Jesus Christ is a fully public announcement. Okesson combines a keen sense of the public life of ordinary people, a rootedness in the best traditions of mission theory and practice, and a deep commitment to the local congregation as the community of witness to the purposes of God. This book speaks to what ails us and welcomes us to a powerful new journey."
--George Hunsberger, professor emeritus of missiology, Western Theological Seminary
Author Biography
Gregg Okesson (PhD, University of Leeds) is dean of the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission and Evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and the Ira Gallaway and D. M. Beeson Professor of Leadership Development, Mission, and Evangelism. He previously served in East Africa as a church planter, educator, and administrator.
Number of Pages: 288
Dimensions: 0.6 x 8.9 x 6 IN
Publication Date: April 21, 2020
