With perceptive insight and vigor, Dr. Braaten addresses today's crisis in ministry in Protestant and Catholic communities. Numerous studies reveal widespread confusion about the nature and scope of the church's mission. There is a split consciousness in the church at all levels between evangelism and social action, and between lay and ordained forms of ministry. The Apostolic Imperative summons the church to embody the apostolic norms of primitive Christianity in its theology and practice. A misinterpretation or neglect of the apostolic norms in the life of the church makes the church captive to narrow traditions or victim of fashionable trends, says Braaten. The aim of this book is to ground our theological thinking in the essentials of apostolic faith, its witness to the cross and resurrection of Jesus, and its obedience to his command to convey his message to all the world. The theology of mission in this book is biblically based, evangelically motivated, ecumenically oriented, and practically posed to grapple with the issues of the immediate future.