Crossing Boundaries: Sharing God’s Good News through Mission
Mission: Conversation, Credibility, Connection
Mission is often dismissed as an extraneous add-on or treated as simply another program among many. This book advocates for a new understanding of mission, one that connects it to the heart of what it means to live the Christian faith in its fullness as we experience and share the good news.
While many books discuss local mission, domestic mission, or international mission, this book lays out principles that apply to all three. Further, it draws on Wesleyan theology to do so, something overlooked by many other resources. The author concludes by examining the powerful ways in which God transforms us and deepens our faith as we engage in mission. Relevant and readable, this book will be an indispensable guide for those seeking to answer God’s call to practice mission.
Mission is the practice of cultivating relationships across boundaries for the sake of fostering conversations in word and deed about the nature of God’s good news. To understand the boundaries that need to be crossed, this book demonstrates how we all exist in particular situations that shape our understanding of God’s good news and how to best share it. Readers will be led to think more deeply about their own contexts and others’ contexts as well as learn practical steps about how to cultivate relationships that lead to conversations about good news across differences in context. The author includes reflection questions suitable for group study.
David W. Scott, PhD, is the Director of Mission Theology for the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church. In this role, he teaches missionaries and mission leaders from around the world. Prior to his current position, he taught religion and leadership at Ripon College in Ripon, WI. He is the author of Mission as Globalization: Methodists in Southeast Asia at the Turn of the Twentieth Century in addition to several scholarly articles on mission. He is the editor and main author for the popular blog UM & Global.
Praise for Crossing Boundaries
“Dr. David Scott has given Christian churches a practical, biblical, and Wesleyan understanding of mission. His well-rounded and systematic presentation overcomes the false dialectic between mission and evangelism and shows how mission should be and can be central to Christian identity and congregational life. For pastors and church leaders seeking to deepen their congregation’s engagement with the gospel, this book is an excellent guide and offers useful tools for engaging individuals and groups in further reflection on God’s calling to enact the Gospel in word and deed.”
—Robert Hunt, Director of Global Theological Education, Perkins School of Theology
“David Scott has written a much-needed reframing of mission for the United Methodist Church. Crossing Boundaries is thought-provoking and an excellent resource for Methodists engaged in mission in their communities and beyond. In a time of divisiveness and anxiety, Scott encourages the church to reconsider mission practices as a bridge building. This text provides a way for people to look beyond mission projects and forge relationships with others in mission. I highly recommend Crossing Boundaries as a study for small groups or mission teams.”
—Lisa Beth White, Director, Sister of Hope Ministries, Sisterofhopeministries.org
