The Facilitator Era

Some time ago, Ralph Winter brilliantly identified three eras of modern missions: Era 1: William Carey focused on the coastlands; Era 2: Hudson Taylor focused on the inlands; Era 3: Donald McGavran and Cameron Townsend focused on unreached peoples. With all the fast and furious changes swirling around us today in twenty-first century missions, have we entered a Fourth Era? If so, who are the people primarily involved? How are they selected? How are they trained? How long do they serve? Has the Third Era ministry focus-reaching the unreached-changed? If so, to what? Are there any successful case studies out there? Have McGavran and Townsend passed the baton to a new leader(s)? If so, to whom? This book seeks to answer these and related questions. Book jacket.

Tom Steffen and his family served with New Tribes Mission for twenty years, fifteen of which were in the Philippines, planting churches among the Ifugao and consulting for the agency. He is Professor of Intercultural Studies and directs the Doctor of Missiology program in the Cook School of Intercultural Studies at Biola University in La Mirada, California. He is the author of Encountering Missionary Life and Work (with Lois McKinney Douglas), Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business in Missions (with Steve Rundle), Passing the Baton: Church Planting That Empowers, and Reconnecting God's Story to Ministry: Crosscultural Storytelling at Home and Abroad.