In the Midst of Much-Doing

Reading this book in the midst of my “much-doing,” teetering on the edge of exhaustion, it was both a salve to my soul and a prophetic shot in the arm. Charles humbly deconstructed his nearly five decades of radical mission with the poor, stumbling toward a way of being that could sustain and energize the whole church’s calling as whole-life disciples who are contemplative in our doing and on mission in our meditating, all in pursuit of union with Christ for the life of the world.

Dave Benson, PhD
Director of Culture and Discipleship,
The London Institute for Contemporary Christianity

For evangelicals whose mission activism has become increasingly wearisome, this book is a must-read. But the work does far more than present cogent arguments for a missional spirituality, it engages the reader existentially as the author shares from his own personal struggles. For me, this is the book’s most attractive feature.

Simon Chan, PhD
Editor, Asia Journal of Theology
Formerly Earnest Lau Professor of Systematic Theology,
Trinity Theological College, Singapore

Charles Ringma says that this is no work of academic theology, and in a sense that is true. Yet it draws upon a wide range of theological voices of many backgrounds and that gives the book an intellectual solidity. However, it is more invitational than instructional, more exploratory than expository. Above all, it is a work born of personal struggle through a now long life, which gives the book something of the feel of spiritual autobiography, weaving together many threads of a life that has been not only long but remarkably varied.

Mark Coleridge, PhD
Metropolitan Archbishop of Brisbane, Australia

In a digital and secular age where we struggle to pay any prolonged attention to God or our neighbour, this book offers the fullness of mature thought and practice from someone who has embodied this integral vision he espouses for a present-day missional Christianity. Please read this book. I have no doubt it will help you to live more deeply in your own human vocation as a bearer of the divine image in a tattered world.

Tim Dickau, DMin
Associate, Center for Missional Leadership,
St. Andrew’s Hall, Canada
Director, CityGate Vancouver, Canada

This is a book to read slowly and deeply. With a combination of rich theology and biblical reflection Charles Ringma invites the reader to follow Christ to that place where contemplation and action combine to make believers not only bearers of the message but an embodiment of it.

William Dyrness, PhD
Senior Professor of Theology and Culture,
Fuller Theological Seminary, California, USA

For centuries the church has struggled to find a way to bring the competitive sisters, the “Mary” of contemplative spirituality and the “Martha” of active serving, into a warm embrace. In this book Charles Ringma, writing as both scholar and mentor, shows us how. It is a work that will be read, marked, discussed and taught for a generation to come.

Maxine Hancock, PhD
Professor Emerita, Interdisciplinary Studies & Spiritual Theology,
Regent College, Canada

This book is an outstanding and welcome contribution to the growing area of the study of missional spirituality. It critiques our misplaced Western activism and offers in its place missional life that flows from the life of God made available to us through participation in Christ by the Spirit, in deep ecclesialcommunity where we are working with God, not for God.

Ross Hastings, PhD
Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology,
Regent College, Canada

Theology tends to work in the separate silos of its academic disciplines but Franciscan Tertiary and theologian Charles Ringma argues here for the integration of mission and spirituality. This important and original work draws on a wide range of sources, biblical and historical (including Luther, Francis of Assisi, the Anabaptists and Liberation Theology), but above all the author reflects on his own life engaged in a range of ministry in cross-cultural missional contexts.

Brother Christopher John, SSF
Minister General, First Order Brothers of the Society of St Francis

In the Midst of Much-Doing: Cultivating a Missional Spirituality provides rich and valuable resources for an integrative view of mission and spirituality. Drawing from various Christian themes and traditions, the book integrates theology, spirituality and mission in a thought-provoking manner. It challenges us to cultivate a missional spirituality that is wholistic and life-transforming.

Jean Lee
Abundant Grace Professor of Theological Studies,
China Graduate School of Theology

This book is clearly the result of a long journey in Christian discipleship that seeks to integrate mind, heart and hands, drawing our attention to the neglected realities that hinder an integrated Christian life. This excellent work is an essential reference for all who seek a spiritual life that guides, sustains and strengthens Christian witness and service.

Ziel J.O. Machado
Honorary President, International Fellowship of Evangelical Students
Vice-Rector and Professor of Pastoral Theology,
Seminário Teológico Servo de Cristo, Brazil

This book is a comprehensive integration of the lifelong learnings of a social activist turned contemplative, a thoughtful synthesis of what the intellectual heirs of Greek dualism had rent asunder – wedding spirituality to service, prayer to praxis, mission to mysticism. Charles Ringma, drawing from church history and a plurality of spiritual traditions, as well as from his own personal journey across cultures, has woven these strands together into a narrative that compels attention describing what faith can look like when it is lived in its fullness and not broken up into pieces and stored into neat little boxes.

Melba Padilla Maggay, PhD
President,
Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture

Worthy reading for anyone who is seriously interested in the integration of church, prayer, and mission; and who is deeply concerned to explore what a missional spirituality could look like. The book will contribute towards the formation of practical integration of church, prayer and mission.

Moses Yamo Masala
Anglican Bishop of Rorya, Tanzania

This magnificent book invites us to an integrated life of contemplative missional servanthood. Dr. Ringma offers us the fruits of a lifetime of scholarship, crosscultural missionary experience and reflective wisdom that is truly breathtaking. He draws on the riches of our diverse Christian traditions and the experience of the church’s missionary endeavours through the ages.

Prabo Mihindukulasuriya, PhD
Adjunct Faculty, Colombo Theological Seminary, Sri Lanka
Postdoctoral Fellow in the History of Christianity, Regent College, Vancouver

Ringma’s book is a tour de force, the fruit of much intellectual labour in the Spirit. It is a veritable theological feast, which welcomes to the table readers from across the Christian spectrum. This book is a sure guide that will help the church to become a more faithful and vibrant witness in the world.

Charles E. Moore
Pastor, Teacher, Networker, the Bruderhof Community
Contributing Editor, Plough Publishing

In the journey through In the Midst of Much-Doing the reader will walk with its author in a mediated experience to learn about “missional Christian spirituality.” As a Latin American believer, I am convinced that the sections on the spirituality of liberation theology – for many an ignored aspect of this theology and its forefathers – will contribute to sustain, in a creative and hopeful way, the struggle for justice and peace in our world. I strongly recommend its reading and studying this book.

Josué Olmedo
IFES Logos & Cosmos Initiative in Latin America

Charles Ringma brings his astute theological mind, big heart for the lost, vast missional experience and quest for a sustainable missional spirituality together in this brilliant book. It is a tour de force. In an increasingly precarious global situation Ringma humbly but hopefully offers a way forward for formation of Christ-like “lovers in a dangerous time.”

Gordon Preece, PhD
Executive Director,
Ethos Centre for Christianity and Society, Australia

In this book, Charles Ringma has provided a valuable gift for students, teachers and practitioners of Christian mission – the fruit of a lifetime of service and reflection. By gathering together a rich collection of biblical and theological conversation partners, Ringma encourages a healthy breadth to missionalthinking, introducing readers to voices from a range of historical, geographical and theological contexts.

Rev. Jonathan Ryan, PhD
Presbyterian Minister,
Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand

This momentous volume sums up a lifetime of Charles Ringma’s personal mission engagement, his teaching interculturally, and his extensive research theologically, historically, spiritually, philosophically and practically. He also shows how our missional engagement animates our relationship with God and the deepening of our faith. The definitive work on the subject!

R. Paul Stevens, PhD
Professor Emeritus, Marketplace Theology and Leadership, Regent College, Canada
Chairman, Institute for Marketplace Transformation