No Shortcut to Success E-Book

Matt Rhodes

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: 9Marks
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Avoid "Get-Rich-Quick" Missions Strategies and Invest in Effective, Long-Term Ministry Trendy new missions strategies are a dime a dozen, promising missionaries monumental results in record time. These strategies report explosive movements of people turning to Christ, but their claims are often dubious and they do little to ensure the health of believers or churches that remain. How can churches and missionaries address the urgent need to reach unreached people without falling for quick fixes? In No Shortcut to Success, author and missionary Matt Rhodes implores Christians to stop chasing silver-bullet strategies and short-term missions, and instead embrace theologically robust and historically demonstrated methods of evangelism and discipleship—the same ones used by historic figures such as William Carey and Adoniram Judson. These great missionaries didn't rush evangelism; they spent time studying Scripture, mastering foreign languages, and building long-term relationships. Rhodes explains that modern missionaries' emphasis on minimal training and quick conversions can result in slipshod evangelism that harms the communities they intend to help. He also warns against underestimating the value of individual skill and effort—under the guise of "getting out of the Lord's way"—and empowers Christians with practical, biblical steps to proactively engage unreached groups. - Biblical Ministry Advice: Examines the work of respected missionaries throughout history - Encourages Professionalism in Missions: Rhodes teaches missionaries to invest in theological education, communication, and technical skills - A Great Resource for Ministries: Includes specific advice for singles, parents, and other groups - Insightful: Examines strengths and weaknesses of recent missionary movements

Leseprobe

Thank you for downloading this Crossway book.

Sign up for the Crossway Newsletter for updates on special offers, new resources, and exciting global ministry initiatives:

Crossway Newsletter

Or, if you prefer, we would love to connect with you online:

“No Shortcut to Success tells it like it is. Rhodes is correct that there are too many ‘shortcut hopefuls’ with simplistic formulas that promise less time and effort with guaranteed results. His view from the field is of a journeyman in the trenches, crying out for would-be disciple makers and church planters (particularly among Muslims) to get real, count the cost, and be ready to pay it!”

Greg Livingstone, Founder, Frontiers

“I love this book! Some people will find it disturbing, but Rhodes does not provoke for provocation’s sake. His key ideas challenge many core presuppositions that underlie modern missions. He reminds us that the Protestant missionary enterprise was born when William Carey wrote of our obligation to use ‘means’ to bring people to Christ, and warns, ‘Today, as in Carey’s day, the “means” are in danger of being despised.’ While critical of popular contemporary shortcuts to ministry, Rhodes’s proposal is careful and constructive. His practical suggestions deserve serious consideration. Even if one disagrees with Rhodes, this book will sharpen our thinking about missions practice. The church desperately needs to read this book.”

Jackson Wu, Professor of Theology, International Chinese Theological Seminary; Editor, Themelios

“I am extremely grateful for this honest, commonsense, reasonable, and respectful response to current trends at play among us who labor tirelessly in the unreached regions. This book is not for the faint of heart or the ‘weekend warrior missionary,’ but for the bold and courageous. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to follow our Savior deeply into the lives and societies of the unreached. Maybe, like me, some who are a bit weary from the ‘long approach’ will find refreshment herein to quicken their pace and catch a second wind. Please, I beckon you, whoever you are, to consider deeply the contents of this book. Let us wrestle deeply with each one of the issues Rhodes has addressed. Why? Unreached people’s very salvation is at stake!”

Matt Arnold, church planter; Missionary Trainer, Ethnos360

“Never have I read such a timely book on the imperative of global outreach. Currently there are countless moving parts in mission strategies and Rhodes has examined many of these through a biblical lens that ultimately brings the reader back to the wonderful basics. He illustrates that the foundation of missions has historically been commitment to gaining fluency in both culture and language. Rather than proposing a ‘silver-bullet’ approach, he calls us back to the hard work of being professional ambassadors of the gospel. I hope this book will be read by all those contemplating missionary service and those in leadership, in sending churches and mission organizations alike.”

Mark Dalton, Director of Missions, Shadow Mountain Community Church

“For years I’ve been asked, ‘What can I read to get a balanced view of the radical changes happening in missions today?’ No Shortcut to Success is an indispensable tool, not only addressing destructive trends in today’s missiology, but also making a persuasive, scriptural case for historic methods and values that have been set aside. For those wanting solid, well-researched data and biblically sound principles that allow us to evaluate today’s methods, this book is a vital resource.”

Brad Buser, church planter, Southeast Asia; Founder, Radius International

“New missions (like Narcissus of old) has become so enamored with its own image that it struggles to see beyond itself. To any who believe that modern missions has had the last word, No Shortcut to Success is a merciful wake-up call, taking us back to the first words of Scripture and the sound wisdom of generations of missionary endeavors. With thoroughness and thoughtfulness, each chapter explores and critiques current trends in missions, but rather than promoting yet another new strategy, it instead urges a return to the solid foundation of biblical and historical mission. This is one of those books you must read slowly, with pen in hand, as each page proves to be both provoking and refreshing, sobering and heartening, challenging and encouraging.”

Jacob Edwards, church planting team leader, North Africa

“In a day when there are so many voices advocating for new methods and what can appear to be formulaic approaches to ministry among the unreached, I find Rhodes’s book to be full of helpful corrections. I especially appreciate his clarification on our role as ambassadors for the King. I believe he is spot-on in calling us to clarity, credibility, and boldness in our communication. I hope that all those aspiring to be a part of what God is doing cross-culturally in our day will read and heed the encouragement to approach the task of proclaiming Jesus seriously and with great care and preparation.”

Dave Myers, global pastor, Chicago, Illinois

“Matt Rhodes has stated very clearly that there truly is ‘no shortcut to success.’ It takes time and involvement for an extended period to learn another culture, including another language. We don’t all learn at the same pace, but it is necessary for missionary church planters to go through the learning process in order to communicate the message of the gospel with clarity and understanding. The Holy Spirit, in creating understanding, does not bypass the process. I commend No Shortcut to Success to you as a critical component in the process of evangelizing and planting churches among unreached peoples.”

Gary Coombs, Missions Pastor, Shadow Mountain Community Church; President, Southern California Seminary

“Biblical, wise, encouraging, and practical. This combination of adjectives is rarely apropos to a contemporary book on missions. From the deft hand of a current practitioner in the field, we have been given a gift of clear biblical thinking regarding Christ’s mission for his church and the way sacred Scripture prescribes for fulfilling it. I look forward to getting this book into the hands of pastors, missions committees, and missions candidates.”

Chad Vegas, Senior Pastor, Sovereign Grace Church; Founding Board Chairman, Radius International

“Rarely does a person agree with every point in a book, and this book is no different. What is different about this book is the call back to the Scriptures and away from the fad and allure of new things in missions. Rhodes pushes us to consider the mundane, ordinary, and hard work of missionary efforts. We can no longer trust in shiny, new, quick fixes if the 3.1 billion unreached people are going to be truly reached by the powerful gospel of Jesus. We need people with grit and perseverance who will see his kingdom come and his will be done. No Shortcut to Success is that herald in the wilderness of missions strategy, calling people to not despise the small beginnings. To do the long, hard work of seeing the church planted among the unreached. If you are in the vicinity of missions, you should read this book.”

Justin Raby, Campus Pastor, South Overland Park Campus; Director of Mobilization, Campus Support

“I deeply enjoyed reading this short but very informative book from a current frontline practitioner. Missions, and its ever-changing terminology, can feel inaccessible to the average lay person, but this is a great resource to help them understand what is being said in the current missions discussion. Filled with history and wisdom from the likes of Paton, Judson, Taylor, and Carey, this book is a must-read not only for lay people but also for pastors, missions pastors, and anyone involved in the Great Commission.”

Brooks Buser, President, Radius International

No Shortcut to Success

Other 9Marks Books

Edited by Mark Dever and Jonathan Leeman

One Assembly: Rethinking the Multisite and Multiservice Church Models, Jonathan Leeman (2020)

The Rule of Love: How the Local Church Should Reflect God’s Love and Authority, Jonathan Leeman (2018)

Church in Hard Places: How the Local Church Brings Life to the Poor and Needy, Mez McConnell and Mike McKinley (2016)

Why Trust the Bible?, Greg Gilbert (2015)

The Compelling Community: Where God’s Power Makes a Church Attractive, Mark Dever and Jamie Dunlop (2015)

The Pastor and Counseling: The Basics of Shepherding Members in Need, Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju (2015)

Who Is Jesus?, Greg Gilbert (2015)

Nine Marks of a Healthy Church, 3rd edition, Mark Dever (2013)

Finding Faithful Elders and Deacons, Thabiti M. Anyabwile (2012)

Am I Really a Christian?, Mike McKinley (2011)

What Is the Gospel?, Greg Gilbert (2010)

Biblical Theology in the Life of the Church: A Guide for Ministry, Michael Lawrence (2010)

Church Planting Is for Wimps: How God Uses Messed-Up People to Plant Ordinary Churches That Do Extraordinary Things, Mike McKinley (2010)

It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement, Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence (2010)

What Does God Want of Us Anyway? A Quick Overview of the Whole Bible, Mark Dever (2010)

The Church and the Surprising Offense of God’s Love: Reintroducing the Doctrines of Church Membership and Discipline, Jonathan Leeman (2010)

What Is a Healthy Church Member?, Thabiti M. Anyabwile (2008)

12 Challenges Churches Face, Mark Dever (2008)

The Gospel and Personal Evangelism, Mark Dever (2007)

What Is a Healthy Church?, Mark Dever (2007)

No Shortcut to Success

A Manifesto for Modern Missions

Matt Rhodes

Foreword by Mark Dever

No Shortcut to Success: A Manifesto for Modern Missions

Copyright © 2022 by Matt Rhodes

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, 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: Lindy Martin, Faceout Studios

First printing 2022

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from The New American Standard Bible®. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-7775-8 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-7778-9 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-7776-5 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-7777-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rhodes, Matt, 1979– author.

Title: No shortcut to success : a manifesto for modern missions / Matt Rhodes ; foreword by Mark Dever.

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2022. | Series: 9Marks | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021014534 (print) | LCCN 2021014535 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433577758 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433577765 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433577772 (mobipocket) | ISBN 9781433577789 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Missions.

Classification: LCC BV2061.3 .R475 2022 (print) | LCC BV2061.3 (ebook) | DDC 266—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021014534

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021014535

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-01-06 09:08:20 AM

Contents

Small Beginnings (Zechariah’s Hymn)

Foreword by Mark Dever

Series Preface

Introduction: The “New Missions”

Part 1

Where Shortcuts Have Led Us: Surveying the Problem

1  Professionalism and the Use of “Means”

2  Movements and Rumors of Movements

3  In the Scales of the Scriptures

Part 2

Correcting Our Course

4  Ambassadors for Christ

5  New Testament Missionary Communication

6  Communicating Clearly Today

7  Credibility and Boldness Today

8  A Long-Term Path for Missionaries

9  Equipping and Sending

10  Work and the Holy Spirit

Conclusion: Words from William Carey

Acknowledgments

General Index

Scripture Index

Small Beginnings (Zechariah’s Hymn)

Matt Rhodes

Do not despise the day of small beginnings,

when mountains do not move, when we must wait

upon a silent world, still slowly brimming

up, but not yet full. Do not forsake

these small tasks. God seeds humble, human labor

with hidden strength, and every seed, when sown,

seems weak beneath the mountains’ weight, but later,

tiny shoots spring up and split the stones.

Our waiting—like all waiting—serves a purpose:

faith is forged through heat and long exposure.

One day it will emerge, mature and perfect.

Today, the mountains still loom, cold and sober,

and we are formed beneath the frozen surface

in rooms where magma seethes and boils over.

Foreword

The author of this book is no friend of mine. I don’t mean to suggest I dislike him. Rather, I simply don’t know him. As far as I can remember, we have never met or directly communicated. He hasn’t asked me to write this foreword. And, what’s more, I don’t think he knows I’m doing it. He may not even use it!

Then why am I writing this?

Because some mutual friends sent me the manuscript of this book. I read it, and concluded that I not only liked this book, but thought that it would be important for it to be published and read widely.

What I know of the author is good. He has experience professionally working with statistics. And he has, for some years, been a full-time Christian worker in a fairly closed country. It’s out of that experience that he raises questions about much current missions thinking.

Those of us who are pastors know that much missions literature these days reads like “get rich quick” testimonials. “I did this and that and then thousands and thousands of churches were started and millions came to Christ!” Did you know that there were Christian fads that lure young Christians and even pastors to think that the best missions work can be done cheaply and quickly?

I should be careful with the word “lure.” That sounds ominous. One of the things this author does is to assume and even show the good motives of so many of those who are presenting missions in new, exciting, and yet ultimately unbiblical ways.

This book tries to help us recover what so many generations of heroic Christians before us knew—this work of taking the gospel where it has never been is normally work that is hard and long. But in our generation, a number of writers have risen up (and the author names them and quotes them) who would deny this, or at least would reshape what the effort is. Language learning and in-country residence are contrasted with prayer and remote, nonresidential missionaries. And, what’s more, in many circles this new thinking has prevailed.

Like those whose methods he’s questioning, our author wants to see churches planted among people who previously didn’t know the gospel. Unlike those he’s questioning, our author doesn’t see years of careful preparation as being opposed to such church planting, but as the normal means of it. We prepare like ambassadors, because we represent the King.

One thing this book is clear on is the importance of teaching to the missionary task. Whether it is verbal preaching or writing, knowledge of the local language is essential to what missionaries are called to do. Missionaries should work to be able to proclaim their message clearly, credibly, and boldly.

Particularly important are chapters 2, 3, 6, and 9. In chapters 2 and 3, the author lays out specific criticisms of contemporary “church planting” and “disciple making” movements. In chapter 6 he lays out a careful argument for great energy and time being given to language learning. And in chapter 9, he gives wise counsel for finding, sending, and sustaining missionaries.

I could say more, but I’m keeping you from reading the book. Head on into the book. It’s well done. And it’s important if we’re going to use the means that God has given us to reach the nations with the gospel.

Mark Dever

April 2020

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 is 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.

With hope,

Jonathan Leeman

Series Editor

Introduction

The “New Missions”

My brother Patrick is a high-school teacher. A few years ago, his administration introduced new methods for teaching mathematics to children: the “new math,” they called it. The phrase struck me because I remember, back when we were children, teachers were also introducing a “new math.” Presumably, in the years since then, more than a few “new maths” have come and gone. Today’s is newer than yesterday’s, and tomorrow’s will be newer still. There has always been a new, cutting-edge way of teaching mathematics to children.

This push toward newness, of course, shows up in many disciplines—parenting, psychology, technology, the list goes on. Fads come and go, and each arrives with the thunderous certainty of absolute truth.

As we talked about this, Patrick said something that caught my attention. He said, “After ten years of teaching, I finally feel like I’m starting to become a good math teacher.” Ten years! It took that much time for him to excel in his profession. Why? Because teaching math is complicated. It requires imparting complex information. But it also requires holding students’ attention. And a good teacher must know how to motivate and how to discipline, when and how to involve parents, how to help when children have issues at home that keep them from focusing in school, how to deal with self-esteem and relationship issues, and how to value the awkward but precious teenage souls that are given into his care.

I’m a missionary, and I’ve been one long enough to realize that fads come and go in missions too. Insider movements, business as mission, the Camel Method, CPM, DMM, T4T: I’ve seen them all roll over us. I’ve read the stories and statistics. I’ve heard the proponents of each new methodology claim that it’s the solution we’ve been looking for! I’ve seen these methodologies presented as the only true way back to the New Testament pattern.

But there’s a difference between the “new math” and the “new missions.” People don’t uproot their families in order to teach the “new math” to the uneducated. Teachers don’t die on the mathematics field. Fads in missions—if they are just fads—are more dangerous than fads in math teaching because what missionaries teach is more important than math.

We can learn from these fads, of course. Each has unique strengths. But I’m becoming more and more certain that it may be impossible to become a “good missionary”—just as it is impossible to become a “good math teacher”—without the slow acquisition of professional skills. After all, like good math teachers, we’re trying to impart information. We also do so in a complex world of relationships, self-esteem issues, and family problems. And because we work cross-culturally, we struggle to understand the complexities of that world. Perhaps it will take more than ten years to become a good missionary?

It may bother people to suggest that we need professional skills to be good missionaries. We don’t mind saying that someone is a good math teacher based on whether he or she knows how to teach well. But we struggle with the idea that missionaries—after all they have given up—might still be fundamentally ineffective if they don’t master the ropes of their job. We think to ourselves, Even if missionaries don’t learn languages well, even if they’re unfamiliar with the cultures they work in, even if they have no more theological insight than most believers, surely they’ll be okay. After all, teaching the message of Jesus must be different than teaching math! Won’t Jesus’s message be obvious in missionaries’ joyful, loving lives, even if they can’t communicate that message in ordinary language to the people they’re ministering to?

I suppose this can happen. God works in mysterious ways, and we should never set limits on him. All the same, depending on God to work in unlikely ways just because he can do so is unwise. My mother met my father at a Bible study when they were in high school. She remembers thinking that he was handsome, and after he said something that she thought was wise, she went home and scrawled in her journal that she was going to marry him. They eventually started dating and were married a few years later. Today, they have a vibrant and happy marriage and are living proof that God can use love at first sight to point us in the direction of a good marriage partner. But the fact that this can happen doesn’t mean we should expect it! In the same way, simply being a loving Christian can win people to Christ, but that doesn’t mean it’s enough to make someone a capable missionary.

This is hard for us to grasp because we think of missions as fundamentally different than secular vocations. But it’s not. We all work “unto the Lord.” Christian doctors, Christian firefighters, and Christian math teachers all have to master a set of professional skills before they can expect God to bless others through their work. It is no different for missionaries. The Spirit works in unique ways in each vocation, but—and this is critically important—he does not bypass our humanity when he works through us. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21). And just as God worked through Jesus’s ordinary human presence, Jesus’s ordinary human touch, Jesus’s ordinary human words, so God works through our humanity. When the Spirit works in New Testament missionaries, he does not bypass ordinary patterns of human communication, relationships, or reasoning. Instead, he works through them.

Christian doctors, Christian firefighters, and Christian math teachers all have to master a set of professional skills before they can expect God to bless others through their work. It is no different for missionaries. The Spirit works in unique ways in each vocation, but . . . he does not bypass our humanity when he works through us.

Take Paul, for example. People are convinced of Christ as Paul and other missionaries engage in ordinary, human processes of discussion and debate (Acts 17:2–3; 18:4, 28; 26:28). Discipleship occurs in the trusting, human relationships (2 Cor. 11:29; 12:14; 1 Thess. 2:11–12) that Paul builds over time. Discipleship depends on human processes of learning and teaching (Acts 20:20). In the following chapters, we’ll examine the Scriptures in detail to see how these processes work in the ministries of Paul and other New Testament missionaries.

For now, I simply want to suggest that missionaries, like math teachers, have a set of very human skills they need to learn. The most difficult of these skills have to do with communication, since most missionaries work in foreign cultures and languages. While basic linguistic and cultural competency can be achieved within a year or two, it takes considerably longer to reach the fluency we need to navigate or even partake in spiritual conversations marked by high emotions, nuanced concepts, and fast, colloquial speech. Simply put, missionaries need to master the languages and cultures we are working in to a level that few missionaries today even imagine is possible. Fortunately—as missionaries of past generations knew well—this level of mastery is entirely possible. But amid all our other tasks, we’re going to reach it only if we believe it’s an indispensable part of being a “good missionary.”

This work, of course, is difficult. Perhaps we tell ourselves that bypassing these efforts saves time. This is particularly tempting today when missions agencies sprint around the globe, touting newfangled methods that dangle the carrot of easy, explosive movements of thousands or even millions of new believers. Such stories tend to be hyper-anecdotal and impossible to verify. They’re rarely, if ever, what they seem; in fact, as I will explain, these methods tend to make long-term success less likely.

So we need to rethink our easy acceptance of these new, silver-bullet methods. We’ve too quickly abandoned the painstaking, time-honored path to professionalism that William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, and others pursued. They spent years studying Scripture, acquiring a new language, and understanding the culture of those to whom they ministered. They discipled people slowly and patiently. The Spirit multiplied their efforts and gave their work success.

I can’t promise results—those are still in God’s hands. I can’t offer shortcuts or magical formulas—there are none. But while there’s no one-size-fits-all road map to success, there are key guideposts along the way. In this book, I will describe a scriptural path for missionaries to follow. I will show how it wove through the ministries of great missionaries of the past, and I will describe what it means for missionaries today.

It can be painful for missionaries who have invested so much to question their approach to their work. But it will be worthwhile if it sharpens them in their efforts to reach the lost. After all, I’m writing this book for the lost, for those we hope to reach using every means within our grasp. But I’m also writing for the missionaries who have given up so much for the cause of Christ. I want their efforts to succeed. In my career overseas, I’ve been consistently humbled by the quality of the men, women, and even children I’ve had the privilege to work alongside, many of whose shoes I am not worthy to untie. If these insights contain some grain of truth—if they’re not simply my own personal missions fad, of which I too will repent in another ten years—then I hope to bless these great men and women.

Part One

Where Shortcuts Have Led Us: Surveying the Problem

1

Professionalism and the Use of “Means”

We no longer have a highly professional missionary force. Many in the missions community are untroubled by this. In fact, professionalism is widely panned. Consider these quotes from influential modern-day missions thinkers:

Ying Kai, architect of the widely practiced Training for Trainers (T4T) church-planting methodology, blames his sense of professionalism for his decision not to share the gospel with a dying man: “I had a chance, but my professional mind thought, ‘This is not good timing.’”1David Garrison, author of Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World, writes that “Church planting is not rocket science (so don’t leave it for the professionals; everyone should be planting churches).”2David Watson, principal designer of the Disciple Making Movements (DMM) methodology, writes that “Professional leadership in the church has resulted in a reduction of those who feel qualified to minister. The net result is a weaker church, one that does not have the infrastructure to multiply, expand, or grow.”3

We could go on, but for now these quotes will suffice. Professionalism, of course, is a stale-sounding word. It evokes images of old textbooks quietly molding away on library shelves. To some of us, applying such a word to missions work may seem classist and Pharisaical. Even worse, it can come across as an attempt to wrench the work of ministry out of the Spirit’s lively control and put it in the cold hands of an elite, seminary-trained few. To others, the word “professional” might sound clinical, distant, and impersonal. We want missionaries to be loving, relational, and dynamic—not professional.4

But perhaps these ways of understanding professionalism are a bit uncharitable. And I wonder, would we really prefer amateurism?

In every other area of life, we clearly wouldn’t. It would sound absurd to apply statements like those that we read above with regard to other vocations:

Imagine a police officer blaming her “professional mind” for her decision not to rescue a child in danger. Would she not blame her lack of professionalism?Imagine a medical professor telling students that “Surgery is not rocket science (so don’t leave it for the professionals; everyone should be doing surgery).”Imagine a dentist lamenting the fact that professional practice in dental work had resulted in a reduction of those who felt qualified to pull teeth.

When we do business with people of other vocations, we know that we are at their mercy. We depend on their diligence and expertise. If they take shortcuts or don’t have the skills they need, then we’re going to get hurt. We may suffer financial loss, injury, or even death.

Perhaps ministry is not so different. Perhaps missionaries, like practitioners of other vocations, can be guilty of malpractice, and for the same reason: people under our care can be hurt by our negligence and lack of professionalism just as they could be hurt by the amateurism of untrained medical professionals, marriage counselors, or mechanics. A burning heart and a Bible are not enough.

Perhaps missionaries, like practitioners of other vocations, can be guilty of malpractice, and for the same reason: people under our care can be hurt by our negligence and lack of professionalism just as they could be hurt by the amateurism of untrained medical professionals, marriage counselors, or mechanics.

Sadly, I’ve seen this play out. I’ve seen inexperienced pastors give glib marital advice. I’ve watched untrained preachers badly misinterpret Scripture. I’ve seen missionaries miscommunicate important truths in languages they don’t know. All of these individuals can do real damage in people’s lives. “Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys” (Prov. 18:9). If we believe in the importance of the missionary calling, then we need to realize that unprofessional, slipshod missions work may do far more damage than unprofessional, slipshod medical work.

The Case against Professionalism

Where does our distaste for professionalism come from? Political and social analyst Yuval Levin suggests that within society at large, “confidence in our institutions has been falling and falling.”5 This has resulted in “widespread doubt of many forms of professional authority—of the physician, the scholar, the scientist, the journalist, the expert of any kind.”6 If Levin is right, our distaste for professionalism in missions circles may be a result of broader trends in secular thinking. But even from a secular perspective, these trends are unfortunate. Levin reminds us that professionalism helps us by providing “broadly accepted general standards, means of training new professionals . . . and a strong ethic and straightforward set of common commitments.”7 Couldn’t missionaries benefit from having clearer standards to guide them?

Of course, Christian teachers who minimize the importance of professionalism in ministry do so with the best of intentions. They believe their ideas are grounded in solid theology, not taken from streams of secular thought. Let’s see if their reasons for dismissing professionalism hold up.

First, they rightly emphasize that missionaries and other ministers are not a superior caste of Christians. David and Paul Watson write,

In place of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, we now see a strengthening of the priesthood of the pastor only. . . . By promoting and insisting on a professional clergy, the church has limited its ability and capacity to reach the world for Christ.8

The Watsons are correct to insist on the priesthood of both laypeople and clergy. But if laypeople and clergy share the same priesthood, why should we imagine that the clergy can work effectively without professional qualifications when laypeople cannot? After all, the Watsons acknowledge elsewhere that discipling people through emotional problems “may mean a professional counselor.”9 If God uses the training of professional counselors to disciple people through emotional problems, why wouldn’t he use the training and expertise of missionaries to disciple them in other parts of their spiritual lives? Indeed, missionaries aren’t so different from other believers. Diligent, excellent work is commended throughout Scripture (see Prov. 14:4; 20:4; 24:30; Eccles. 10:10; Col. 3:23), and like other believers, we need to offer the best we can to God in our work. Tim Keller writes,

There may be no better way to love your neighbor . . . than to simply do your work. But only skillful, competent work will do.10

Second, those who argue against the need for professionalism in missions rightly want to guard us against depending on our own efforts rather than the grace of God and the power of the Spirit. But it doesn’t need to be an either/or. As Dallas Willard has written, “Grace is not opposed to effort but is opposed to earning.”11 We certainly cannot earn the salvation of the unsaved, but in missions, as in other vocations, the Holy Spirit works through our efforts. For example, Paul writes,

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. . . . each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. . . .

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. (1 Cor. 3:6–10)

God gives the growth, but he gives it through our planting and watering, so we should do good work. The Spirit’s work isn’t disconnected from our human efforts just because they’re human. Rather, he inhabits our efforts, as human as they are.

Jesus says, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (John 20:21). The Father sent Jesus into the world “in human form” (Phil. 2:8), and God worked in Jesus’s human words, human presence, and human touch. God will also work through our humanity and through the human qualities we bring to ministry. To forget this is to take a subtle step toward gnosticism,12 imagining that the human aspects of our work and ministry are contemptible and incompatible with the pure, untainted work of the Spirit. But God is pleased to reveal his divine power through ordinary, material things.13 He works through things as human and as seemingly “unspiritual” as study, intelligence, relational instincts, and the professional wisdom that can be acquired only through years of experience.14 In fact, the first person mentioned in Scripture as being filled with the Spirit is Bezalel, who builds the tabernacle. Moses states,

[The Lord] has filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, . . . to work in gold and silver and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, . . . with skill to do every sort of work done by an engraver or by a designer . . . by any sort of workman or skilled designer . . . in whom the Lord has put skill and intelligence to know how to do any work in the construction of the sanctuary. (Ex. 35:31–36:1)

Can the Spirit really work through such “human” things as the intelligence and skill of engravers, workmen, and designers? Might he be at work in the “human” skills and abilities of missionaries too? I believe he is. Paul echoes this passage15 when he writes of his own skill as a builder of God’s sanctuary:

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation. . . . Let each one take care how he builds upon it . . . with gold, silver, precious stones, wood. . . . each one’s work will become manifest. . . . Do you not know that you are God’s temple? (1 Cor. 3:10–16)

Human work—and the human ways in which we do the work—have always been part of God’s plan. In the beginning, he ordained humans to work, to “fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over” it (Gen. 1:28). In the end, we will still “reign forever and ever” (Rev. 22:5; see also 2 Tim. 2:12). As surprising as it may be, we still find human work at the center of God’s plan for the world.

To illustrate how starkly we forget this, I’d like to share an email that recently went around a major mission board’s discussion forum. The situation it describes—and the writer’s evaluation of it—is not at all unusual. Rather, it’s indicative of a widespread approach to missions in which the Holy Spirit is seen as working in ways that entirely bypass ordinary human relationships, communication patterns, and realities. Here’s what the email said:

Subject: To all the saints who have thought . . . do I have what it takes . . .

We invited 6 university students to come spend two weeks with us. They didn’t know the language; the[y] didn’t know the culture. All they knew was that they loved Jesus, and they prayed, and they did what they felt God was leading them to do.

So, one day as they were leaving their hotel to go to our institute, one of the young ladies, “D”, felt led to put a 10-rupee note in her pocket. After getting dropped off at the end of our street, they noticed in the early morning light that the street was empty, except for one woman sweeping the street. As the group was filing past her, a girl in the front of the group smiled to her. The woman smiled back. “D”, at the back of the group, felt that the 10 rupees she had put in her pocket was for this woman, so she gave the woman the 10-rupee note.

The two women locked eyes. Not knowing the language or what to say, “D” just said, “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.” The street sweeper’s eyes filled with tears and she fell into “D’s” arms, embracing her for some time. When she stepped back, the woman looked upward, put her hands together as if in prayer, pointed toward Heaven, and said, “Thank you. Thank you.”

As a cross-cultural worker for 6–7 years, when I heard about this encounter, it struck me (once again) that effectiveness in ministry comes from Jesus, his presence, his power, his sovereignly ordaining events—and perhaps our childlike trust & dependence upon his leading. May it always be so in our work here. Amen.

There’s much to commend in the story above. The six university students took a bold step in coming to a country where they didn’t know the language or culture. They clearly desired to obey the Holy Spirit. They showed compassion and generosity to the impoverished street-sweeper. Their kindness touched her and may have helped her find hope. In all these things, I believe God was honored.

Nevertheless, let us return to the subject line of the email: “To all the saints who have thought . . . do I have what it takes . . .” This story is about a group of people who—though bold and charitable—clearly didn’t possess many vital parts of what it takes to do missionary work well. They didn’t speak this woman’s language and couldn’t share the gospel with her—all they could do was pronounce Jesus’s name. The woman seemed to understand the one word the student said to her, “Jesus,” so she might assume that Jesus is generous. On the other hand, in the absence of any other teaching or guidance, receiving free money in Jesus’s name could also lead her to understand a very different gospel than the one Jesus preached.

Note that the writer of the email—himself a long-term missionary—sees the situation as not only healthy, but emblematic. In his view, the enormous obstacles posed by these students’ lack of training are irrelevant because “effectiveness in ministry comes from Jesus, his presence, his power.” He’s half-right. Effectiveness in ministry does come from Jesus. But the success Jesus gives in ministry is usually mediated through practical abilities, including the ability to speak the language of the people with whom we hope to share his message.

Going Back to the Start

I am hoping, then, to reintroduce a question that is as old as the Protestant missionary enterprise itself: Every missionary acknowledges the vital role of the Spirit, but what role do we play? When William Carey first proposed sending missionaries to unreached nations, he was famously rebuked by an older pastor who told him, “Young man, sit down! When God pleases to convert the heathen, he’ll do it without your help or mine either.”16 Carey responded by writing a pamphlet titled An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. This groundbreaking pamphlet became the “charter for Protestant missions.”17 In it, Carey explained that appeals to God’s sovereignty don’t take away our obligation to responsibly steward the “means” he has given us for the spread of the gospel. Rather, God sovereignly plans for his Spirit to work through the skills and choices of ordinary men and women. Carey’s observation is a timely reminder for us. Today, as in Carey’s day, the “means” are in danger of being despised.

Today, as in Carey’s day, the “means” are in danger of being despised.

What Would a Professional Approach to Missions Look Like?

Can I take a short detour to provide a working definition of professionalism here? When I speak of professionalism, I’m not necessarily thinking of a seminary education, which may help some missionary candidates but will be prohibitively expensive for others. Rather, when I speak of professionalism in missions work, I’m suggesting that we approach ministry with responsibility and devotion to excellence. This includes:

investing in adequate theological education;acquiring technical skills—including mastery of the language and culture we minister in—to clearly proclaim the gospel of Jesus among peoples who have never heard;avoiding shortcuts by allocating adequate time, energy, and resources to the task;and evaluating practical circumstances as we make decisions.

What human means are necessary as we proclaim the gospel? Might pragmatic wisdom really be a part of how we seek God’s will? And is it really possible that God might work through something as bland and everyday as the acquisition of “technical skills”?

It is very possible indeed. When William Carey wrote his pamphlet, he addressed the need not only to send missionaries but also to equip them to deal with the practical problems of reaching the unreached, including “their distance from us . . . the difficulty of procuring the necessaries of life, or the unintelligibleness of their languages.”18

Carey knew missionaries needed to navigate the distance and the harsh living conditions. They needed to prepare for cross-cultural communication. They needed to know the Scriptures. They needed to acquire a high degree of fluency in foreign languages and cultures. One of his biographers put it this way: “[Carey and his colleagues] regarded it as the duty of a missionary to obtain as complete a knowledge as possible of the language and religious institutions, the literature, and the philosophy of the people among whom [they] labored.”19

Early missionary statesmen like Carey, John Eliot, Adoniram Judson, Hudson Taylor, and John Paton first acquired these skills. And only then—after long, patient years honing their abilities—did they begin to teach.20 But why does it matter what missionaries did centuries ago? Perhaps times have changed, or perhaps we’ve come to know better or learn more quickly than the Adoniram Judsons and Hudson Taylors of history? To be sure, we understand some things better than earlier missionaries. But they may have also understood some things better than we do. Yuval Levin reminds us that in any profession, those who have gone before us can both provide expertise and show us how to put that expertise to use.21 So before we turn from the path they so carefully carved for us, we had better make sure we know what we’re doing. We may need to focus more on rebuilding the traditions they left us than on tearing them down, more on renewal than on revolution.

Sequentialism, and How We Turned from It

Sadly, many modern missions efforts not only leave historic missions practices behind—they disdain them as primitive and dangerous. It’s impossible to overstate how David Garrison’s book, Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World, has influenced the missions community. Garrison writes,

Missionaries naturally think in sequential steps. First, you learn the language, then you develop relationships with people, then you share a witness, then you win and disciple converts, then you draw them into a congregation.22

Garrison calls this type of thinking “sequentialism” and labels it “the third deadly sin” of church-planting work.23 Mike Shipman—the architect of Any-3, a widely used approach to missions—agrees that such an approach is dangerous, explaining that learning a people’s culture and beliefs before sharing the gospel with them is actually detrimental to missions work. Shipman explains, “We find being a bit ‘dumb’ [is] better than being too smart, as expertise in the local culture can provoke defensiveness.”24

Garrison’s and Shipman’s ideas are widely popular on the field. But do you notice how different their approaches are from those of previous generations? What Judson and Taylor and Carey considered necessary is now considered “deadly.”

I’ve seen firsthand how influential these modern ideas have become. Veteran team leaders discouraged me from seeking out formal training in the Scriptures before going to the field, and throughout the first years of my ministry I was encouraged to invest less in language learning in order to become more involved in “ministry.” I’ve lived in three North African cities. Surprisingly, in every city, the vast majority of long-term missionaries had little theological understanding of either Christianity or Islam, the area’s predominant religion. Most missionaries also had a poor grasp of the local languages and cultures. None of this disturbed them as they went about trying to share the gospel. Missionaries tended to focus on seeking out “divine appointments,” praying for the sick, and telling the simple stories about Jesus their limited language abilities allowed. They operated on the assumption that if they “lived out the gospel” and prayed hard enough for a “breakthrough,” their ministries would bear fruit. Again, this approach is colored with a kind of gnosticism or hyper-spiritualism that overlooks God’s pattern of working through ordinary, human means. Does it make sense to pray for “divine appointments” to share the gospel with people while neglecting to learn their language well enough for them to understand the gospel when I explain it?

Of course, there are exceptions, but this kind of amateur approach to missions is happening around the world. But why? What instincts and assumptions have contributed to this trend away from and even against professionalism? I can think of a few.

An Overemphasis on Speed

As early as 1900, missionaries were developing plans for “the evangelization of the world in this generation!”25 Since then, no less than nineteen such campaigns have been devised.26 Let me be clear: The need around the world is urgent—indescribably so!—as people live and die without the saving knowledge of Christ. But none of these plans appears to have reached its goal. Is it possible that working too quickly makes us ineffective? In the intense pressure they feel to complete the Great Commission, missionaries often bypass the slow, unflashy work of acquiring professional skills like theological education and language fluency.

An Overdependence on “Silver-Bullet” Strategies

Missions has been inundated by a stream of “silver-bullet” strategies. Many of these make lavish promises, ensuring well-meaning participants that after reading a book or completing a short training they are now ready to lead huge movements of unreached people to Christ.

For example, Mike Shipman describes his widely practiced method, Any-3, this way: “A person can learn Any-3 in an hour, practice it with a friend that afternoon, and have fruitful interaction with Muslims that evening!”27 According to these strategies, explosive replication of churches is a healthy norm: “If a church didn’t reproduce itself after six months it was considered an unhealthy church.”28 Such methods aim to bring hundreds of thousands—even millions—of unbelievers to Christ through rapid, exponential growth. But this emphasis on speed rarely leaves time for the careful discipling of new church leaders. After all, Jesus spent three years, rather than six months, with his apostles. The insistence on both speed and silver-bullet reproducibility works against a more careful, professional approach. At the time of this writing, the most dominant of these new strategies include Church Planting Movements (CPM)29 and other closely related approaches like Disciple Making Movements (DMM),30Training for Trainers (T4T),31 and Any-3.32

An Oversized Role Given to Short-Term Mission Trips

Up until 1945, largely due to the difficulty of international travel, short-term mission trips were essentially nonexistent.33,34 In the 1960s, short-term missionaries made up approximately 2 percent of the Protestant missionary force; twenty years later, this rate had increased to more than 50 percent—and it is presumably higher today. This increase has blurred the lines between senders and traditional, long-term missionaries. In fact, short-term missionaries are increasingly seen as vital to the completion of the Great Commission. I don’t mean to demean the good work that often happens on short-term trips. But short-term missionaries, by definition, won’t have the professional commitment of long-term workers, nor will they have time to develop the professional skills (e.g., fluency in the language) that long-term missionaries historically have felt were indispensable.

An Overweening Skepticism of Intellectual Preparedness

Many evangelical churches in the United States feel an unfortunate distrust of intellectualism, which has led them to discount the importance of training in ministry.35 This trend shows up in missions circles, too. For example, David Garrison encourages us that enormous movements of people may turn to Christ through “simple actions that anyone can take.”36 Jerry Trousdale explains that discipleship is so simple that no teaching is needed: “Do not teach or preach; instead . . . when people are simply exposed to the scriptures, God will reveal the truth to them.” He goes on to quote a missions leader explaining that this is because of “the simplicity of the Bible.”37 If the task and message are simple, then are training and a professional skill-set really necessary? Shouldn’t it be enough simply to love people and “be Jesus” to them?

Indeed, there is a beautiful simplicity to many core truths of the gospel. But while the most profound truths of Scripture (“God loves you”) are simple, most people still need to work through complicated and deeply personal questions before they come to believe in these simple truths.38

There’s an undeniable trend toward doing things more quickly and with less preparation. Countless good-hearted men and women have been trained to think this way and have been sent out under these assumptions. They’ve sacrificed greatly to go and live overseas. And so, questions that strike at the heart of their method will be painful. But we must ask them all the same: Is it wise to downplay a methodical, professional approach to missions? Or have we lost irreplaceable tools for communicating the gospel by encouraging lower levels of preparation?39

In this book, I’m going to argue for a different approach to missions. I’m going to argue that there is in fact a set of knowledge and skills that missionaries need to acquire in order to do their work well. I’m going to describe what a professional approach to the missionary calling might look like.