All human action has eschatological foundations. God created us to face the future, and that is where we are all going, like it or not. This means that any task that we undertake is going to have some eschatology associated with it, either express or implied. If we try to deny this — by pretending …
The King of Missions
Missionaries should know the gospel, and be trained in the great doctrinal themes of the Bible. They should also be good-hearted people, but the good-heartedness does not supplant the need for craft competence. This is also true of the other areas that surround mission activity. Missionary pilots should be really good pilots. It is not …
Despite the Jesus Jargon
One of our central difficulties with missions is that we have not yet identified the bane of benevolence. We have not yet figured out how to protect the mission field from destructive do-gooding. Not only do we not prevent it, we still positively recruit for it. We learn a great deal from the parable of …
The False Gods of Missions
If the driving and fundamental motive for missions is to be joy over the resurrection of Jesus, resulting in the consequent message that He is indeed Lord over all, does this that we may have no other motives whatever? Well, we may have other motives, but there is a strict condition placed on it. If …
Driving Joy
The biblical motive for mission is to be joy, gratitude and excitement. Christ is risen. The first missionary movement was born out of persecution (Acts 8:1), but the disciples involved in it scattered in all directions, telling people the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:4). Declaring the good news about Jesus is the only point …