Review of Tom Steffen's The Facilitator Era

The Facilitator Era is the latest work from well-known missiologist Tom Steffen. Presently, Steffen is professor of intercultural studies at Biola University and directs the Doctor of Missiology program at Biola’s Cook School of Intercultural Studies. Prior to assuming his present role, Steffen served with New Tribes Mission as a church planter among the Ifugao people of the Philippines for fifteen years, after which he consulted the mission in church planting for another five years. His previous books include Passing the Baton: Church Planting that Empowers (1997), Great Commission Companies: The Emerging Role of Business in Missions (with Steve Rundle, 2003), Reconnecting God’s Story to Ministry: Crosscultural Storytelling at Home and Abroad (2005), Business as Mission (with Mike Barnett, 2006), and Encountering Missionary Life and Work (with Lois McKinney Douglas, 2008). Steffen has also contributed numerous other articles to missiology journals, particularly in the area of church planting and orality.

True to his own convictions, Steffen masterfully frames the arguments in this book around an engaging story. In nine weekly encounters, intercultural studies professor Dr. C.P. Nobley meets with his former students, Bill and Bev Beaver, who are on furlough after two years of service in the Philippines. Questioning their role as international transcultural workers, they approach Dr. Nobley who helps them (and the audience) reflect critically on a new paradigm and period of missions—the facilitator era. Referring back to Ralph Winter’s three eras of mission history—the coastlands (led by William Carey), the inlands (led by Hudson Taylor), and unreached peoples (led by Cameron Townsend and Donald McGavran)—Steffen, via this story, proposes that the most useful role for missionaries today is to help facilitate the pioneer church planting ministries of national believers.

Read the rest of the review on pp. 6-8 of the Fall 2011 edition of the Occasional Bulletin of the Evangelical Missiological Society.