Books
Recommended Books By Servants Missionaries And Advisors
Downward Discipeship
DOWNWARD DISCIPLESHIP: How Amy Carmichael Gave Me Courage to Serve in a Slum, Anita Rahma (2024), follows in the footsteps of Amy Carmichael, whose defiance against injustice shined a light in India’s darkest corners. Downward Discipleship beckons you to learn from Amy’s life—a beacon of true discipleship in our world of pain and injustice. While many in the world clamor to climb the ladders of success and financial security, Rahma invites the reader on a different journey: to follow our savior to unlikely places, meet him among the world’s poor, and experience the joy of abundant life.
FIRE and FAITH
FIRE and FAITH: The Untold Story of Sebastian Castellio’s Epic Battle with John Calvin, Kristin Jack (2023), recounts the dramatic life and courageous work of a mainly forgotten hero of faith. It’s 1563 and Europe teeters on a knife-edge. Catholics and Protestants are on the brink of a war so catastrophic that it will kill millions and rage for a hundred years. One voice cries out—pleading for peace and calling for tolerance. Will that voice be heard, or will it be silenced?
Today, as much as ever, we need to hear this voice.
Shalom
Shalom: a 30 day prayer guide for Jakarta’s Urban Poor, Anita Rahma and Joy Baker (2023), is a beautiful and poignant compilation of stories and prayer prompts. SHALOM, the blessing of life as God intends it to be, is explored through six themes: Safety, Health, Attitudes marked by hope, Loving families, Opportunity and Meaning. Each theme is the focus for 5 days, each with a story from Jakarta’s slums, and related prompts for prayer. Life in Jakarta’s slums is far from how God intends – join us to pray for and seek Shalom. This is a free e-book in pdf format, available for viewing and download at the link below.
beyond our walls
Beyond our Walls: Finding Jesus in the Slums of Jakarta, Anita Rahma (2022), provides a unique window into what ministry in an urban slum setting can look like. Anita Rahma, long-term Servants worker in Indonesia shares the amazing story of God’s faithfulness in her life, as she follows Jesus into the slums of Jakarta, Indonesia, and still lives there twelve years later with her husband and two young sons. Not only have her Muslim neighbors had an opportunity to get to know a follower of Jesus, but the author herself has been forever changed by her experiences.
fight like jesus
Fight Like Jesus (2022) walks day by day through Holy Week, where two competing approaches to peacemaking collide. What if we’ve embraced the wrong one? On Palm Sunday, tears streamed down Jesus’ face as he cried out, “If only you knew the things that make for peace.” From that moment, until a week later when he triumphantly declared, “Peace be with you,” Jesus spent each day confronting injustice, calling out oppressors and contending for peace. We desperately need to recover this radical vision of peacemaking that Jesus embodied throughout Holy Week.
subversive mission
Subversive Mission: Serving as Outsiders in a World of Need, Craig Greenfield (2022). Join former International Coordinator of Servants on this inspiring journey in Asia and beyond as he rediscovers the fivefold missional gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher, and demonstrates how each of these must look radically different in a crosscultural context. Along the way, you’ll discover your own missional type through the Missional Type Inventory and come face to face with the five most common pitfalls that Westerners face in crosscultural settings.
subversive jesus
Subversive Jesus by Craig Greenfield (Zondervan, 2016). Craig lives life a little crazier than most people. He comes from New Zealand but he has lived in some of the most broken (and beautiful) places in the world, including the drug ruled Downtown Eastside inner city of Vancouver, Canada and the slums of Cambodia. Convinced that Jesus places love for the poor and the pursuit of justice as central, Craig Greenfield has sought to follow in Christ’s footsteps by living among people at the edges of society for the last fifteen years.
the sound of worlds colliding
The Sound of Worlds Colliding (2010) is a collection of Servants’ stories from ministry in the slums over the last 25 years. Edited by Kristin Jack, the book provides a comprehensive portrait of our lives and work amongst the poor. Philip Yancey says this about The Sound of Worlds Colliding: “You say you care about the poor. Then tell me, what are their names?” asked Gustavo Gutierrez. This book introduces us to the poor, their stories as well as their names. I felt a collision with my own world as I read these gripping accounts of life in the raw.”
Rubble & redemption
“No Europeans live there!” exclaim the locals when the Schneider family moves to the slums of Manila. Yet garbage dumps and tin shacks are to be their home for many years. It’s here that they encounter chief witness Nick, doomed Jessabel, rapist Arol, billionaire Doña, guerilla Nardo, burnt-out development worker Rob … The couple’s gripping, first-hand account tells of countless fascinating encounters, of friendship and betrayal, of floods and shoot-outs in broad daylight, of prayers, dreams and fears, of meaningless death and meaningful life. Christian Schneider, a trained nurse, and his wife, Christine, a primary school teacher, spent over nine years with Servants in the slums of Manila with their two children. Through their life with the poor, they helped develop therapeutic communities for former drug addicts, prostitutes and street children. Christian and Christine now live back in Switzerland, but continue to support the aid organization Onesimo they founded in Manila.
HIMMEL UND STRASSENSTAUB
Leben als Familie in den Slums von Manila „Da leben keine Europäer!“, sagen die Einheimischen, als die Familie Schneider in die Slums von Manila zieht. Und doch werden Abfalldeponien und Wellblechhütten für viele Jahre ihr Zuhause. Hier begegnen sie dem Kronzeugen Bic, der todgeweihten Mariebell, dem Vergewaltiger Arol, der Milliardärin Dona, dem Widerstandskämpfer Noel, dem ausgebrannten Entwicklungshelfer Rob … Der fesselnde Erlebnisbericht des Ehepaars erzählt von unzähligen spannenden Begegnungen mit Menschen, von Freundschaft und Verrat, von Schusswechseln auf offener Straße und Überschwemmungen, von Gebeten, Träumen und Ängsten, von sinnlosem Sterben und sinnvollem Leben. Die Geschichte von Christine und Christian Schneider ist aufregend und aufrüttelnd. Sie erinnert daran, dass der christliche Glaube kein Fahrstuhl in den Himmel ist. Sondern der Motor, etwas zu bewegen. Hier und jetzt. Für Gott und Menschen.
companion to the poor
Companion to the Poor: Christ In The Urban Slums (1990, updated in 2014) by Viv Grigg. When Viv Grigg, the co-founder of Servants, entered the Manila squatter settlement of Tatalon in 1979, he knew what he wanted to do, but not how to do it. The need was obvious – to establish a Christian church among Asia’s forgotten people, the impoverished slum-dwellers of its vast megalopolises. The challenge was to find a way that did not treat people’s spiritual needs in isolation from their poverty, without simply becoming another economic or social relief program with no evangelistic component.
The New Friars
The New Friars: The Emerging Movement Serving The World’s Poor by Scott Bessenecker (IVP 2006). There’s a significant movement going on throughout the world: young people serving in solidarity with the poorest of the poor. This movement shares values and goals with ancient monastic and missional orders known as friars. But pouring yourself out in humble service looks different in every era. Scott Bessenecker looks at the new friars in the context of the old, inspiring us to look at the world differently: every person, regardless of station, is our brother or sister, and our love for God must translate into love for them. The book looks at 5 “New Friar” organizations, including Servants.
Living Mission
Living Mission (2010). With a survey of the history of new friar movements, this seminal book, edited by Scott A. Bessenecker, paints a picture of mission that is new only because it has been neglected for so long, a mission that is truly good news to the people in its path. With contributions from Viv Grigg, Craig and Nayhouy Greenfield, Derek Engdahl, Jean-Luc Krieg, Chris Heuertz, Darren Prince, Jose Penate Aceves, John Hayes and Ash Barker, this book brings together a chorus of voices at the front lines of what God is doing through the new friar community.
Overturning tables
Overturning Tables by Scott Bessenecker (Authentic Media 2007). For many years, Scott Bessenecker has traveled the world with thousands of college students, ministering to those in need and learning from the global church about what God is doing in the world. In Overturning Tables he shows, through stories and analysis, that the mission of God reaches well beyond the grasp of the free market, and if we are willing to reach as well, we will see God do amazing things, even as the world sees the gospel in its fullest sense.
Plan Be
Plan Be by Dave Andrews (Authentic Media 2008). Plan Be rescues the Beatitudes from their obscurity as a poetic introduction to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and reframes them as a set of radical ‘Be-Attitudes’ that can enable us to ‘be the change we want to see in the world’. According to Dave Andrews, who is on the Servants Board of elders, the ‘Be-Attitudes’ are an original, imaginative and brilliantly do-able set of realistic ideals that introduce us to Jesus’ ingenious way of engaging our world of poverty and violence. Visit the Plan Be website: www.wecan.be
the urban halo
The Urban Halo by Craig Greenfield (Authentic Media 2007). The Urban Halo was written in the final days before Craig and Nay Greenfield and their two children were evicted from the Cambodian slum they lived in for several years, to challenge conventional thinking on the needs of millions of orphans around the world and offer a creative new alternative. It is the story of their community, the orphans they met there, and the new paradigm in orphan-care that was birthed and now reaches hundreds of children orphaned by AIDS… Read more on the official Urban Halo website.
cry of the urban poor
Cry of the Urban Poor (1992, revised 2005) It is the story of a young man’s struggle in the slum of Tatalon, Manila. A struggle to find a way to live among the poor, preach good news to the poor, and transform the poverty. Entering into poverty, struggling with sickness, rejection and the many experiences of engagement in a dark place, out of it came the formation of a faith community and the birthing of a new pattern of evangelical theology of preaching grace, forming communities of faith and love, effecting economic change and doing justice.
poetry and prophecy
After living in the slums of Phnom Penh, Cambodia for 17 years, Kristin Jack published this collection of poems that strive to speak into the impact this magical place and beautiful people had on him. The poems capture something of the heartbreak, the anger, the joy and hope that engulfed and sometimes overwhelmed Kristin. You can read this publication in full online by clicking on the above picture.
costly Mission
Costly Mission: Following Jesus Into Neighbourhoods Facing Poverty by Michael Duncan (UNOH Publications 2007). Michael Duncan, former Servants Manila Team Leader, offers this candid personal story of mission in the slums. He speaks honestly of the struggles of an urban missionary and reminds us that such a calling is costly at a personal level. If you are considering full-time urban ministry, you will want to read this before setting out; if you are already engaged in mission, this is a helpful reminder of the price you pay and the reward you receive.
SERVANTS’ QUARTERS
Servants published this (more or less) quarterly magazine from 2012 to 2015. Each edition took a theme from our shared principles and values, such as Celebration, Servanthood, and Wholism.
INTO THE PRESENCE
A booklet of themed liturgies for each of our 5 principles and 5 values, compiled by Servants workers from various countries. Each liturgy includes suggested songs, prayers and Bible readings.