Mission and Evangelism in a Secularizing World

“There is something unique about the Canadian context when it comes to the challenge of secularization. A city like Toronto, a center of influence in Christendom and Global mission in the early 1900’s, has come on hard times. In Post Christendom Canada, churches are in decline. We are like a time lapse camera of where you are going. There is hope however. It is found in the missionary zeal of the diaspora who call Canada home. Santos and Naylor capture this emerging voice, the energy, and the way they are teaching us all to be the church. By gathering together diverse voices from a variety of contexts, they point to the hope of the gospel in the twenty-first century. A must read for those wanting to be the church in this time.”


—Gary V. Nelson, President Tyndale University College and Seminary





“At first glance, this book looks out of sync with what the sociologist Peter Berger describes, quite sweepingly, as ‘the desecularization of the world.’ From where I sit, societies have yet to secularize; people still see religion as the integrating point in their lives. And so-called ‘post-Christians’ are seeking some form of transcendence, but outside the usual frame of Christendom. This book is an important reminder that ‘irreligious secularism’ continues to pose a totalistic claim to our lives. That churches are being turned into pubs in Europe, and dying churches in North America are revitalized by diaspora peoples, are signs of both warning and hope that God is on the move, ‘shifting centers,’ as Andrew Walls puts it. This book invites us to invent fresh wineskins so that once again, the center holds.”


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