Book excerpt: We do not have to travel to some foreign country to locate the mission field. Right here, literally in our backyards, the world has come to us. The church's basic mission is to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God; this message has social and political aspects to its application. This is the fundamental responsibility of the church. This message is holistic and affects the total person. As the church develops a comprehensive and practical understanding of missions, this will propel Christians to act out their missional call. The challenge as to how to be truly missional requires those people considered to be disciples to engage their communities in their everyday lives. To capture the full essence of missions, this book introduces a process called strategic evangelism. This process serves to raise awareness by helping to clarify the nature of the structures and practices of the church relating to its missional focus, to develop a better awareness of local missions, and to introduce a process that will assist people to live out the mission by engaging their communities.