I am really excited about the impact of this book Approaching Integral Mission. When the church is committed to Integral Mission, it will incarnate the values of the Kingdom of God and witness to God's love and the justice revealed through Jesus Christ.
Peter Batchelor (1926-2016) took his Christian faith seriously to be applied in practice to every aspect of life and believed this should be shared accordingly. Thus he was led to spend his life engaged in integral mission, founding Faith & Farm in Nigeria in 1958, becoming an early trustee of Tearfund UK from 1968, and co-founding RURCON Africa in 1971. The late Bishop Simon Barrington Ward KCMG speaking in 2008 to RURCON Communications Unit UK Trustees & Advisory
Council of which he was Chairman for 30 years from 1980-2010, said:
Integral mission is to help people to make their corporate dwelling with Christ for fullness of life now, so that all of it is transformed (farming and so on), so that Jesus Christ will be found and find them again and again.
Integral Mission enables the church to bring a prophetic word, addressing the whole person, including their physical, social, and spiritual needs. By the power of the Holy Spirit, this leads to transformation at all levels - individual, family, and community. The task of the local church is to equip and mobilise men and women for God's mission - integral mission,
not exclusively in the church building, but in ways that will honour the Lordship of Jesus Christ throughout all the diverse fields of human endeavour.
Andrew Gwaivangmin,
Executive Secretary of Nigeria Evangelical Missions Association (NEMA) & former Team Leader/CEO of RURCON Africa.