Mission Between the Times

Written to remind evangelicals of their true loyalties at a time when many found the siren allure of an idolatrous, self-serving state difficult to recognize let alone resist, the book could not have been more timely for those who had ears to hear and eyes to see. Kingdom citizens today, mostly found beyond Christianity's old heartlands, are much in need of Padilla's incisive biblical thinking. This book is for such a time as this.

Jonathan J. Bonk
Executive Director,
Overseas Ministries Study Center

Mission Between the Times is a classic of contemporary missiology. René Padilla wrote the essays in this book while he was engaged in evangelistic and discipleship ministries throughout Latin America and other parts of the world. Excellent as a textbook in Missiology, it shows the way in which a practitioner of mission reflects about his practice in light of God’s word.

Samuel Escobar
Professor Emeritus of Missiology,
Palmer Theological Seminary

According to Deuteronomy 18 a true prophet is one who speaks only words given by God. By this definition René Padilla is a true prophet who for nearly half a century has faithfully proclaimed to the evangelical world God's truth about the integral/holistic mission of the church. I rejoice that this new edition of Mission Between the Times gives a new generation an opportunity to hear what still needs to be heard.

Dewi Hughes
Theological Advisor,
Tearfund UK

We stand in debt to René Padilla. His writing and teaching on Integral Mission over the past decades offer the insights and convictions of a unique missiologist who is 1) a New Testament specialist, 2) rooted in the global south, and 3) a passionate follower of Jesus. His voice is prophetic, informed and committed to the mission of God's rule in a wounded world. I applaud the re-issue of Mission Between the Times and urge readers to pay particular attention to the three urgent missionary challenges Padilla presents in the introductory chapter.

Gordon King
Director of The Sharing Way,
Canadian Baptist Ministries

René continues to remind us that the mission of God is not a one-way exchange between sender and receiver; it is a divine partnership in spiritual, economic, and social development that will ultimately bring all honor and glory to God. The keys to holistic and interdependent transformation of communities remain education, healthcare, reduction of poverty, justice, and reconciliation in the context of integral mission.

Mike McAdams
President,
Center for Missional Leadership, Texas

As the father of integral mission, René Padilla's prophetic voice resonates throughout global evangelicalism. Biblical, faithful, and inspirational, the core message of this updated classic remains just as urgent as when it was first published. I am thrilled it is being made available for a younger generation of Christian leaders!

Dana L. S. Robert
Truman Collins Professor of World Christianity and Mission,
Boston University School of Theology

The call of Jesus is to live out a lifestyle engaged in integral mission and to squarely face the challenges of living as radical disciples, prophetically engaging the powers, and caring for creation as we witness to the Lordship of Christ. This book will remind us of that calling.

Cathy Ross
Manager of Crowther Centre for Mission Education
J. V. Taylor Fellow in Missiology,
University of Oxford

At strategic times in the life of the church, God raises up servants to call his people back to a more complete understanding of the gospel and a more faithful obedience. René Padilla is one of those servants. This vital book contains the original Lausanne presentation and other messages that René has contributed to the theological struggle for the gospel during the subsequent decades. Attentive readers will find many nuggets of biblical truth that can lead to a more faithful walk with God.

Lindy Scott
Professor of Latin American Studies and Director of the Costa Rica Center,
Whitworth University

In these essays, René Padilla addresses some key issues in mission, particularly the relationship between proclamation and social justice, the gospel and culture, and the methods and goals of mission, all under the overarching theme of the kingdom of God. Padilla's prophetic voice still speaks, and the church will do well to hear it afresh in the face of formidable challenges in the 21st century.

Damon W. K. So
Oxford Centre for Mission Studies

I well remember being challenged and encouraged in equal measure by this fine book when I got my first copy of it in 1985. It is a joy to see it revised, updated, and released again. In the four decades between Lausanne I and Lausanne III, René Padilla has been the most respected voice of Latin American evangelicalism. Not only has he given his life to the cause of integral mission in that continent, but he has strained every nerve and muscle to ensure that the voice of the Majority World church is heard worldwide, along with the distinctive concerns and perspectives from which that voice speaks. He has participated in many of the key consultations of the Lausanne Movement since 1974 and I have witnessed the strong personal friendship that existed between John Stott and René and his beloved wife Catharine, who is now with the Lord. Following John Stott's example, Rene Padilla's work is steeped in the Bible, in disciplined study of the Word combined with attentive engagement with the world. It is an added joy that, since John Stott is a founder of both the Lausanne Movement and the Langham Partnership, that this revised version of René Padilla's work is being published for Lausanne by Langham

1. Abbreviations
2. Acknowledgements
3. Preface to the First Edition
4. 1 From Lausanne I to Lausanne III
5. 2 Evangelism in the World
6. 3 Spiritual Conflict
7. 4 What is the Gospel
8. 5 The Contextualization of the Gospel
9. 6 Christ and Antichrist in the Proclamation of the Gospel
10. 7 The Fullness of Mission
11. 8 The Unity of the Church and the Homogeneous Unit Principle
12. 9 New Testament Perspectives on a Simple Lifestyle
13. 10 The Mission of the Church in Light of the Kingdom of God