Find HONOR at the core of the gospel,
and save 50% on 2 or more books while supplies last!
Browse about half of the book here!
To order your copy now:
— email GlobalGospel@theMissionNetwork.org, or
— send payment (as directed here)
Also, get the related Mission Frontiers!
The Global Gospel explores in detail the rich honor/shame dynamics “hidden in plain sight” in our Bible:
— enhancing our understanding of Scripture, and
— freeing us from Western assumptions so that the gospel we present can speak directly to the core concerns of Muslims and other Majority World peoples.
(get the
Kindle edition
here for $9.99)
Consider these simple points:
- Honor is a more powerful and sustainable motivator than the world’s needs.
- The military is an honor culture (you can’t pay people enough to die).
- Obedience is a natural result of honoring God.
Understanding honor as the pivotal cultural value in which the Bible was written impacts far more than the words we use in a gospel presentation; it has profound implications for how we pursue mobilization, evangelization, discipleship and community.
Growing Attention
- Last July the International Orality Network held a conference on this.
- This book guides the theme for the next Mission Frontiers (Jan/Feb 2015).
- Four Missio Nexus webinars in February will cover this subject.
- The April Evangelical Missions Quarterly will feature it prominently.
- And the next International Orality Journal will highlight it as well.
Share this offer with your friends, and
be among the first to encounter The Global Gospel!
The Global Gospel will transform how the gospel is grasped, and how it is shared!
Save 20% ($5) on books while supplies last.
Why The Global Gospel?
Individualistic Westerners don’t naturally grasp the honor/shame dynamics inherent in collectivistic societies (including those in which the Bible was written). This reduces our own appreciation of the gospel’s richness, and puts a glass ceiling on the gospel’s reception in many cultures.
The Global Gospel reveals that the Bible itself can speak far more richly to collectivistic cultures—and to Westerners—than we have realized!
An illustration
The Global Gospel details nine honor/shame dynamics and one motif. Consider just one of these dynamics, as developed here:
Imagine yourself in a Hindu, Muslim or Buddhist culture obsessed with dietary limitations, ritual cleansing from defilement, and seeking honor.
Now consider a gospel presentation that starts with what you already “know,” rather than asking you to think like a Westerner about personal guilt:
All flesh is defiled, and from before birth needs to be cleansed. But ceremonial rituals aren’t enough because dirt can’t make itself clean and darkness can’t make itself light.
Yet God is light. In Him there is no darkness at all! And just as a candle drives darkness from a room by entering it, He alone has the power to drive out our defilement and give us true enlightenment.
God saw that our own best efforts to cleanse ourselves are like dressing in “filthy rags.” So He provided our only hope. God Himself embraced and destroyed defilement by entering His own creation in the person of Jesus Christ, the only man to ever live undefiled. The Bible describes Jesus as “the true light that enlightens every man.”
Not only did Jesus destroy defilement through his holy life, but He also demonstrated that He is God by driving disease out through his touch and even his spit! No mere prophet could touch a leper without being contaminated, and a prophet’s spit is just as foul as anyone else’s. So Jesus’ miracles—healing blind eyes with spit and the leper with His touch—prove that Jesus alone is God, come to deliver us from our defilement and our diseases.
And not only did Jesus destroy defilement and disease by embracing them, He also embraced the greatest enemy—death itself—and then destroyed it by rising again to prove that He truly is God.
Thus our only hope for true cleansing and enlightenment lies in inviting Jesus Himself to cleanse our defilement, and to send His Spirit to enlighten us, by living in and through us.
All your life you have sought cleansing that you can never achieve on your own. Are you ready to accept what God has done for you by turning to Jesus, letting go of defiling ways, and following the only one who can cleanse you, free you and deliver you?
Adapted with the author’s permission from Bruce “Thomas” Sidebotham’s 1994 Article in EMQ: The Gospel for Shame Cultures. See his 2002 revision.
For other gospel adaptations for the majority world,
see the 5-minute video Back to God’s Village, or
Werner Mishke’s The Father’s Love booklet.
Brief history of this paradigm
Twenty years ago Bruce “Thomas” Sidebotham posted the illustration above in Evangelical Missions Quarterly. He observed that our Western Christianity teaches people to think like Westerners so that they can appreciate our understanding of the gospel. In so doing we and they miss out on how the full richness of Biblical imagery best address the dominant concerns of their own culture.
A few years later Roland Muller’s books stirred awareness that in some cultures honor and shame are of greater concern than guilt, notably in the Muslim world. But he only scratched the surface without attempting to plumb the significance of this observation.
The Global Gospel plunges into these issues with unprecedented depth and readability.
Explore FREE book excerpts
- Q&A with Samuel Chiang of the International Orality Network
- Second Foreword by Steve Hawthorne of WayMakers and Perspectives
- Chapter 1.3: Why our blind spot about honor and shame?
- Chapter 1.4: The canopy of biblical truth
- Chapter 2.0: Honor-status reversal as a motif of the Bible
(Note: The full manuscript is available on request for preview by thought leaders and qualified buyers.)
The author
Werner Mischke
has been serving with Mission ONE since 1992, and is currently Executive Vice President and Director of Training Ministries. A 2009 ministry trip to Lebanon inspired Werner to research honor-shame dynamics in the Bible. This led to extensive reading, researching, training, and collaboration in developing resources about honor/shame for the missions community.
Mission Network arranged this opportunity for mission agencies and individual missionaries to get an extra discount on this deluxe hard-back edition before all the publicity scheduled for early 2015. (Early next year the book will feature prominently in Mission Frontiers, Evangelical Missions Quarterly, and four Missio Nexus webinars!)
A sampling of many endorsements:
A compelling read that helps frame the gospel in the … dynamics of honor and shame.
— Marv Newell, Senior Vice-President of MissioNexus
The Global Gospel will enrich our understanding of who God is and change the way we do cross cultural mission forever.
— Terry Dalrymple, Coordinator of the Global CHE Network
The value of the material … in The Global Gospel is immeasurable.
— Paul Gupta, President of Hindustan Bible Institute and College
“Aha” wisdom to shape the way we reach the last and the least within the Majority World.
— Pat Murdock, Executive Director of Issachar Initiative
We have much to learn from our brothers and sinners in honor-and-shame cultures, and …Werner Mischke guides us along …!
— Richard Mouw, Former President of Fuller Theological Seminary
Thorough, targeted, touching, timely, theologically sound … and teeming with applications ….
— Tom Steffen, Professor Emeritus at Biola University
Do yourself and your team a favor—devour this book!
— Edward Smith, President of Williamson College
Get a new Bible in the deal!
The Global Gospel will open your eyes to vast treasures “hidden in plain sight” in your own Bible! Familiar passages will take on additional richness with personal application to your own circumstances as well as your cross-cultural ministry!
For example Paul is often read as teaching simply that all boasting is wrong, yet he writes in 1 Cor 9:15: “… I would would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.” Once we have eyes to see the honor/shame dynamics in the Bible, we discover that Paul is not against boasting, but advocates replacing a cultural basis for honor with one rooted in God and the honor He gives. Suddenly so much more of the Bible makes sense.
Order one or more copies now by emailing
GlobalGospel@theMissionNetwork.org
Please indicate
- your vocational involvement in the global mission effort (if any), and
- whether you want one copy for $15 (shipping included), or
how many you want (minimum 2) at $12.50/book (shipping included).
We’ll reply to confirm your order, and to get the following information if you haven’t already send it:
- payment to confirm your order,
- your U.S. shipping address, and
- names and email addresses of those who shared this deal with you
(so we can pay them a small referral).
Questions?
Email GlobalGospel@theMissionNetwork.org,
or call or text me (Robby) at 360 420-5634.
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