Book Review - Missions
One of my hopes is to get good books on Global Missions into your hands and the following work, reviewed here by Leo Parris, our US Global Missions Coordinator, is a great place to start! The books called ‘Missions - How the Local Church Goes Global’ and it’s an outstanding read. Here’s what Leo has to say about it…
Out of the plethora of books you could read in order to begin to develop your theology of global missions, there is one book that tops the list. It’s the Bible. But my second recommendation to you would be this small yet powerful Resource. Do you want to be a missionary? Are you a pastor trying to sort out how your already overburdened church can be faithful to the great commission? Or are you merely trying to make sense of Jesus’s global command to every believer (Matt 28:18-20)? In a mere 120 pages, Andy Johnson provides a theology of global missions that is saturated with practical wisdom for local churches and Christians. Take and read!
Johnson begins by laying a foundation for global missions in chapter 1. He argues for the priority of spiritual concerns in the church’s global work and that the motivation for global missions must be God’s glory. He then demonstrates that the local church is the primary and normal means by which God plans to accomplish this mission. Johnson then spends the remainder of this book unpacking these important theological principles.
He begins to do this by carefully defining the terms gospel, missions, and missionary. He argues that “missions” means “the unique, deliberate gospel mission of the church to make disciples of all nations. . . [and] evangelism that takes the gospel across ethnic, linguistic, and geographic boundaries, that gathers churches, and teaches them to obey everything Jesus commended” (p 35). By defining his terms in this way, Johnson prepares for requiring gospel proclamation and prioritizing church centered works in missions.
Johnson then dives into 3 John to derive 5 principles for the sending of missionaries. He encourages local churches to assess aspiring missionaries by focusing on character, fruitfulness, and Bible knowledge. He emphasizes that “the core of missions preparation is not missions studies. It is godliness and Bible knowledge and evangelistic zeal and love for Christ’s church and a passion to see Christ glorified.” (p. 47) Churches should assess and send their best as missionaries, only their best. After encouraging churches to equip their people through classes, international trips, and local engagement with internationals, Johnson challenges local churches to support missionaries generously and engage with a missions agency, but to maintain primary responsibility for their missionaries.
Churches that have encouraged global attention in their midst know the pressure of the many opportunities of need that arise. In Chapter 4, Johnson encourages churches to focus their support on reaching the unreached, work that is being done well, and those whom they know and trust. He concludes this chapter by cautioning against the temptation to seek out fast growth strategies, and urges churches to look more for faithfulness than impressive statistics.
After marking these priorities in choosing works to support, Johnson then begins to flesh out the characteristics of a healthy partnership between churches and global partners. In his experience, healthy partnerships are servant-minded, pastor-led, relationship-based, commitment-centered, congregation wide, and long term in focus. These values of humility, service, love, and committed community are values that we have long held dear in Sovereign Grace Churches. Johnson reminds us that these features will mark partnerships if they keep gospel believing and living at the center of their commitment.
In chapters 6-7, Johnson spends time cautioning against common mistakes churches make in short term teams. He urges churches to ensure that these trips are useful and a blessing to the partners that they join hands with. He challenges churches to focus on the needs of global partners rather than their own experience or desires. Johnson then considers other ways that churches can engage in global work (chapter 7). He points to the outreach of internationals locally, the planting of international churches in areas of common migration, tent-making in other countries, and those who work as supporting teams to missionaries. Rather than illegitimating these options, Johnson sees these options as viable and harmonious to the work of pioneer missionaries. Each type of approach carries with it important challenges to be noted, but each can be ways that God uses different kinds of Christians to reach the nations.
Whether you are a member eager to learn more about global missions, an aspiring missionary seeking to begin their study, or a pastor seeking to clarify your church’s global vision, I highly recommend that you read this book.
