Missions Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missional Professionals

by Larry W. Sharp

Publisher:

Hendrickson

, 2022

Overview

Most everything in the world has changed since the age of the “Greatest Missionary Generation,” which was an outpouring of missionaries following World War II that lasted until around 1985. Today, however, missionaries are no longer welcomed in most of the world, and Christian terms like evangelism, church planting, conversion, and missions are considered pejorative outside of the Western world. All this demands a reexamination of the theology of Missio Dei for today’s world and a theory for change that can be validated with credible research.

Author and former missionary Larry Sharp believes that the era of “professional missions” as we’ve known it is coming to an end. But since God still seeks to redeem his world, the future lies now with “missional professionals,” with a new set of rules for how the gospel of Jesus Christ can be proclaimed. Near the end of his life, Billy Graham said, “The great work of God in the 21st century will be through everyday believers living out their faith in the workplace.” Since the first century AD, there have been historical events—such the persecution of the early church, the Edict of Milan, and the Protestant Reformation—where major disruption resulted in the radical advance of the gospel. We are on the cusp of another disruptive innovation.

Through real-life narratives of international workplace professionals who have successfully integrated their faith with their work, Missions Disrupted describes how this new work of missions looks today. These inspiring stories come from the world of agriculture, manufacturing, medicine, information technology, education, engineering, music, and retail. It is up to the next generations to continue to share the Good News with the world, wherever and however that may be.

Key Features

• Describes how this new work of missions looks today.
• Explores how God still seeks to redeem his world.
• Explains God’s work will be through everyday believer.

Product Details

• Title: Missions Disrupted: From Professional Missionaries to Missional Professionals
• Author: Larry W. Sharp
• Publisher: Hendrickson
• Print Publication Date: 2022
• Logos Release Date: 2022
• Pages: 272
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
• Subjects: Conversion › Christianity; History; Missions; Missions › History 20th century; Missions › History 21st century
• ISBNs: 9781496471611, 149647161X
• Resource ID: LLS:9781496471611
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-06T21:02:07Z

About Larry W. Sharp

Larry W. Sharp is a missionary executive, educator, and business as mission consultant. He has lived cross-culturally for twenty-one years and traveled extensively in his role as a business as mission consultant. He has served as a VP at Crossworld and as president of a Brazilian mission. He is founder of the consulting group, IBEC Ventures. Sharp has degrees in Bible, education, and business with a PhD in Educational Administration from the University of Calgary. He teaches as an adjunct professor at Multnomah University in Portland, OR, and speaks in churches and at college conferences. He currently writes a weekly blog and lives in Seattle, WA, with his wife of fifty years, Vicki.