Missiology Made Simple

A collection of essays on Missiology for missionaries

Missiology is said to be the mother of all theology; for it is out of the gospel’s engagement with culture that theology develops. Without proper missiology, there is a good chance that Christianity will be looked upon as a foreign religion. This collection of essays on missiology represents the collective wisdom of two missiologists, Dr. Gary Fujino and Dr. Michael T. Cooper. Based on their life-long learning as missionaries and missiologists, these essays will provide foundational concepts for being a successful missionary.

Gary and Michael have been doing missiology together for 20 years. They bring more than 60 years of missions experience as field missionaries and academics who have been equipping missionaries around the world. Their missiological collaboration began on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School as they embarked on their doctoral studies at the turn of the millennium. Many hours were spent working through missiological issues raised by Paul Hiebert, Robert Priest, Tite Tienou, and Harold Netland. Gary and Michael’s passion has always been in making missiology accessible to missionaries.

Check back often as new essays appear regularly.

About the Authors

Dr. Gary Fujino earned a PhD in Intercultural Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School focusing on how biblical forgiveness is appropriated differently among expat and Japanese Christians in an intercultural context. He is currently Professor of Diaspora Studies for the online Missional University with a focus on diaspora theory and practice for mission. He is a member of the Global Diaspora Institute, Global Diaspora Network and the North American Diaspora Educators Forum. He formerly served as an evangelist and church planter in Japan and among the Japanese diaspora with the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Fujino has written extensively on diaspora both generally and specific to the Japanese context, as well as on church planting and issues of identity, race and ethnicity.

Dr. Michael T. Cooper earned a PhD in Intercultural Studies with a focus on religious movements and a minor in theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He currently serves as a missiologist for a missions agency where he focuses on missiological research and equipping missionaries for effective cultural engagement. He has thirty years of missions experience, including ten years as a pioneer church planter in Romania after the fall of communism and has equipped church planters and leaders in Africa, Europe, North America, South America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. He has written and contributed to more than 30 books and academic articles and has presented conference lectures at the London School of Economics, University of Bordeaux, Loyola University, Baylor University, and many others. His recent book, Ephesiology: The Study of the Ephesian Movement is a best seller at William Carey Publishing.

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