Missions E-Book

Andy Johnson

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Building Healthy Churches
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 149

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

Every local church should be engaged with global missions, even if most individuals in the church aren't called to go overseas. But what does this engagement actually look like? How can local churches train, send, and support missionaries well? Unpacking principles from the Bible and applying them in the context of real life in a local church, this new book in the 9Marks: Building Healthy Churches series is filled with practical steps and advice for supporting missionaries, forming international partnerships, sending short-term teams, and engaging with the nations here at home. This book casts a vision for the local church as the engine of world missions—for the joy of all people and the glory of God.

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“I am grateful for Johnson’s wise, sensitive, and practical insights for the local church committed to going global. While written by a North American, this book is neither culturally bound nor ethnocentrically blind. The issues addressed apply to any healthy local church anywhere in the world. In other words, Missions is thoroughly biblical. And for this reason, those like me who minister in another culture will find its lessons doable. I heartily recommend it, praying that God will grant it a wide readership, for his global glory.”

Doug Van Meter, pastor-teacher, Brackenhurst Baptist Church, Johannesburg, South Africa

“I love this book. I love the way it begins and ends with the glory of God in the gospel. I love the way it places the local church at the center of both sending missionaries and the task of mission. I love the way it’s driven by biblical principles yet full of practical advice. All the ingredients are here to transform the place of world missions in your congregation. World mission is our responsibility, your responsibility.”

Tim Chester, pastor, Grace Church, Boroughbridge, United Kingdom; faculty member, Crosslands; author, Good News to the Poor and Mission Matters

“Johnson has given the church a gift in this practical guidebook for launching, sending, and sustaining missional endeavors in your local church. Every believer should read this book!”

Robby Gallaty, lead pastor, Long Hollow Baptist Church, Hendersonville, Tennessee

“In an increasingly post-Christian society, you may feel the mission pinch. How can we give our time, energy, attention, finances, and personnel to global missions when the needs are so great, and growing, here at home? If you feel buried in local needs, this short book may be exactly what you need to lift your head to God’s international work and glory, open your eyes to the global cause in which we minister, and expand your heart to be more like his. Perhaps what your busy and bruised church needs is precisely a vision and passion for what God is up to around the world and not just around the corner. Cultivating a heart for God’s global glory and sending our best people and resources into his cause will not detract from ministry at home. It will make it powerful and real.”

David Mathis, executive editor, desiringGod.org; pastor, Cities Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota; author, Habits of Grace: Enjoying Jesus through the Spiritual Disciplines

“Andy Johnson has given us a doctrinally sound yet highly practical blueprint to guide the local church in going global in the twenty-first century. I pray that this volume will be widely circulated among pastors and lay leaders.”

Al Jackson, pastor, Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn, Alabama

“As a pastor, I could not be more thankful for this book by Andy Johnson. Although books on missions abound, this one fills a void felt by any local church trying to discern how best to be involved in taking the gospel to the nations. Not only does it lay a much-needed foundation and framework for missions; it also answers the practical questions that inevitably arise. Both challenging and helpful, particularly for local church leaders, it is the book I’ve been looking for since I first began my pastoral ministry. I will make it available and encourage every member to read it.”

J. Josh Smith, lead pastor, MacArthur Blvd. Baptist Church, Irving, Texas

“A seasoned missions pastor, Johnson gives insightful, practical guidance to help churches reshape their missions strategies more biblically and faithfully. Especially valuable is his emphasis on the role of the local church, too often underplayed in missions circles today. I will eagerly hand this book out to all our church leaders and missionaries.”

John Folmar, senior pastor, United Christian Church of Dubai

“The church has been tasked with the mission of making disciples of all nations. Too often the local church is pulled in several directions without a clear guiding vision for its mission efforts. As a pastor, I am grateful for Andy Johnson’s book because it helps church leaders to develop a plan for their mission pursuits that is well-intentioned instead of ambiguous and proactive instead of reactionary. I highly recommend this book to all church leaders who desire a well-thought-out vision for engaging the nations with the gospel.”

Afshin Ziafat, lead pastor, Providence Church, Frisco, Texas

“In Missions, Andy Johnson argues that the church glorifies God not only in working to gather true worshipers from all peoples, but also in using the means he has outlined in Scriptures to fulfill those ends. Because there is much debate about what missions is, how to do missions, and who is a missionary, Johnson spends a great part of the book helping us find answers that are rooted in scriptural commands, examples, and principles. If you desire to do missions in a way that only God gets the glory, you’ll want to read this book and pass it around to others who love God and love to see unbelieving people become followers of Jesus Christ.”

Juan R. Sanchez, senior pastor, High Pointe Baptist Church, Austin, Texas; author, 1 Peter for You

Missions

9Marks: Building Healthy Churches

Edited by Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman

Church Discipline: How the Church Protects the Name of Jesus, Jonathan Leeman

Church Membership: How the World Knows Who Represents Jesus, Jonathan Leeman

Sound Doctrine: How a Church Grows in the Love and Holiness of God, Bobby Jamieson

Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus, Jeramie Rinne

Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus, Mack Stiles

Expositional Preaching: How We Speak God’s Word Today, David Helm

The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ, Ray Ortlund

Discipling: How to Help Others Follow Jesus, Mark Dever

Conversion: How God Creates a People, Michael Lawrence

Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global, Andy Johnson

Biblical Theology: How the Church Faithfully Teaches the Gospel, Nick Roark and Robert Cline

Prayer: How Praying Together Shapes the Church, John Onwuchekwa

Building Healthy Churches

Missions

How the Local Church Goes Global

Andy Johnson

Foreword by David Platt

Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global

© 2017 by Andy Johnson

Published by Crossway1300 Crescent StreetWheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Darren Welch

Illustration by Wayne Brezinka

First printing 2017

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

Scripture references marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-5570-1ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-5573-2PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-5571-8Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-5572-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Johnson, Andy, 1960– author.

Title: Missions: how the local church goes global / Andy Johnson; foreword by David Platt.

Description: Wheaton: Crossway, 2017. | Series: 9Marks: building healthy churches | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017006440 (print) | LCCN 2017025756 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433555718 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433555725 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433555732 (epub) | ISBN 9781433555701 (hc)

Subjects: LCSH: Missions. | Mission of the church.

Classification: LCC BV2063 (ebook) | LCC BV2063 .J535 2017 (print) | DDC 266—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017006440

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2025-03-21 02:58:27 PM

To my wife, Rebecca,

my best earthly partner in our joyful labor for

the spread of the gospel to all peoples

Answers can be given solely on the basis of Scripture. For the work of missions is the work of God; it is not lawful for us to improvise.

J. H. Bavinck, veteran missionary to Indonesia1

Contents

Series Preface

Foreword by David Platt

Introduction: Missions at a Crossroad

1 A Biblical Foundation for Missions

2 First Things First

3 Sending and Supporting Well

4 Getting the House in Order

5 Healthy Missions Partnerships

6 Reforming Short-Term Missions

7 Engaging the Nations by Other Means

Conclusion: Stepping toward the Nations

Notes

General Index

Scripture Index

Series Preface

The 9Marks series of books is premised on two basic ideas. First, the local church is far more important to the Christian life than many Christians today perhaps realize.

Second, local churches grow in life and vitality as they organize their lives around God’s Word. God speaks. Churches should listen and follow. It’s that simple. When a church listens and follows, it begins to look like the One it is following. It reflects his love and holiness. It displays his glory. A church will look like him as it listens to him.

So our basic message to churches is, don’t look to the best business practices or the latest styles; look to God. Start by listening to God’s Word again.

Out of this overall project comes the 9Marks series of books. Some target pastors. Some target church members. Hopefully all will combine careful biblical examination, theological reflection, cultural consideration, corporate application, and even a bit of individual exhortation. The best Christian books are always both theological and practical.

It’s our prayer that God will use this volume and the others to help prepare his bride, the church, with radiance and splendor for the day of his coming.

Foreword

Over a hundred years ago, George Pentecost said, “To the pastor belongs the privilege and responsibility of solving the foreign missionary problem.”1 Pentecost maintained that mission boards play important roles in missions: devising methods, fueling movements, and raising money. But it is the responsibility and privilege of pastors to feel the weight of the nations and to fan a flame for the global glory of God in every local church.

I believe he was right.

Let me be clear that I am not saying pastors should neglect ministry to people in our local churches. I know there are people in our churches who are hurting, whose marriages are struggling, whose children are rebelling, and who are walking through cancer and tumors and all sorts of other challenges in this life. We should not neglect local ministry to the body of Christ.

Nor should we neglect local mission in our communities or cities. We have been commanded to make disciples, and that command will most naturally and consistently play out right where we live, in the context of our immediate surroundings. Every church member ought to ask, “With the unique gifts God has given me and the Spirit of God who lives in me, how can I make disciples today right where I live?” In this way, there ought to be disciple-making and church-planting efforts where we live and across North America. Local mission is totally necessary.

At the same time, global missions is tragically neglected.

I was near Yemen not long ago. Northern Yemen has approximately eight million people. Do you know how many believers there are in northern Yemen? Twenty or thirty. Out of eight million people—the populations of Alabama and Mississippi combined. There are likely more believers in your Sunday school class or a couple of small groups in your church than there are in all of northern Yemen. That is a problem. It’s a problem because millions of people in the northern part of Yemen have no access to the gospel. They join millions and millions of other unreached people in the world who are born, live, and die without ever even hearing the good news of what God has done for their salvation in Christ.

It’s not primarily the job of missions organizations to address that problem. This is primarily the job of every local church. Specifically, it’s the primary responsibility of every pastor of every local church to love people in that church and to love people in that community, all toward the ultimate end that the name of Christ might be praised among every group of people on the planet. That’s what the Spirit of Christ wants, so that’s what every Christian, every pastor, and every local church should want.

When we read through the book of Acts, we see a clear priority within the roles of the local church: the priority of spreading the gospel across the globe. In Acts 13, we see the church at Antioch worshiping, fasting, and praying, and in the context of that local church with its leaders, the Spirit sets apart Paul and Barnabas as missionaries. The church prays over them and sends them out, supporting them as they go. Twice Paul returns to Antioch to encourage that local church, and then on his third missionary journey, he writes a letter to another local church, at Rome, to ask for their support in helping him get to Spain, where Christ has not yet been named. In this way, we see local churches sending, shepherding, and supporting men and women on global missions.

For this reason, I want to encourage every pastor and every leader of every local church to take up this mantle of global missions—to see the unique Antioch-type role God has given you and your church in the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth. But you may wonder, “Where do I begin?”

That is why I am so grateful for the simple, significant book you hold in your hands. Andy Johnson has done a great service to local churches and global missions in the pages that lie ahead. Grounded in God’s Word from start to finish, this book draws from experience in both the church where Andy serves and churches across the world he has worked alongside. As a result, it offers a treasure trove of wisdom available to leaders and members in churches of all sizes. After I finished reading this book, I thought, “I wish every pastor and leader of every local church could read this!” For if they did, I am convinced it would radically change not only the shape of local churches in our communities but also the cause of global missions in the world.

For this reason, I wholeheartedly commend this book to you, prayerful that God might use it to fan a flame for his global glory in your life and your local church.

David Platt

Introduction

Missions at a Crossroad

Beth stopped for a drive-through espresso on her way home from the church missions committee meeting. She hoped a shot of industrial-strength caffeine might tone down the headache throbbing in her temples. While she waited, she kept replaying the meeting in her mind. Everyone on the committee seemed to love Jesus and care about missions. So why were their meetings so frustrating? Another evening had been spent in misunderstanding and cross-purposes, with nothing finally accomplished. Despite their obvious concern for “missions,” Beth was beginning to wonder if they actually meant the same thing by that word.

Dave began the meeting chastising the committee for its “myopic” focus on evangelism. “What about the poor, the hungry, the oppressed?” he asked. “Isn’t it the mission of the church to care for all their physical needs too?”

And Olivia again suggested it would be so much better (and cheaper) to pay local pastors than to send out Western missionaries.

Then there was Harold’s comment. He had just read some study describing a new method that some missionary organization used to produce “87 percent more decisions for Christ among Muslims” than merely preaching the gospel from the Bible. Was a statistical study really the best way to decide what methods to employ? And what exactly were those Muslims deciding?

Patricia pressured the committee to stop supporting full-time missionaries altogether and instead focus on sending people overseas with their jobs. “The old model of churches sending supported long-term workers is just outdated in our modern, global economy,” she asserted. “Business as missions is the only way to go.” Beth agreed this could be a good thing to encourage, but she was pretty confident the apostle John’s command that we “ought to support” church-sent missionaries “that we may be fellow workers for the truth” still applied (3 John 8). But when Beth read that passage out loud, Patricia just rolled her eyes and encouraged her to stop looking backward and embrace the next wave of missions.

And, of course, Clarence concluded the meeting by encouraging them (again) to focus more on short-term trips rather than funding more long-term workers. “Short-term trips can be life changing for our people,” he reminded them, just before launching into the familiar story about his trip to paint a community center in Guatemala and how it had transformed his faith. But Beth wondered if those kinds of trips were really the best use of their missions funds and a missionary’s time.

The click of the drive-through window startled Beth out of her reflections. As she drove away nursing her double shot, she had a growing sense that there must be a better way. Surely God must have given more direction about what the mission is and how we should pursue it. But she couldn’t think of where to find that direction or where to start.