Customer Reviews

A Vision for Missions

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Mission needs to be done with the right motive, that is, because God is worth knowing and worshipping, or as John Piper puts it, mission exists because worship does not. This motive should be the primary one while people's need is secondary. Tom Wells brings up some important points where he started with comparing the man-centered versus God-centered view of mission in dealing with question why it takes so long before a particular people's group is evangelized. The man-centered answer is because we do not do a good job according to what Jesus commanded, while the God-centered one, quoting William Carey, is God ordained it because He has reasons for delaying the evangelization of a particular ethic group. Wells later studies this attitude in the lives of David Brainerd, William Carey and Henry Martin.

Another good point Wells brings up is contrary to the focus on training and method to do mission, he contends that to do mission right, we need to increase our knowledge of God to the point where speaking of His glory becomes a natural part of us (p.28). I agree with what he said here without neglecting the need to study cultures. There is inseparable connection between our view of God, and our attitude toward mission and the way we do mission and the kind of missionary we shall be (p.36). No doubt faith is a critical ingredient. It must feed on God. Faith, to be robust, must have worthy thoughts of God (p.39).

Here is where I see the mediocrity is. When discussing the attributes of God, there is a better book that talks about it, The Attributes of God by Pink, for example. In addition, there are resources out there where one can find the biographies of the three missionaries Wells uses as a case study to prove his points by studying bits and pieces from their mission journals.

Finally, when I read a mission-related book, I look at the credibility and experience of the writer in the mission field. I tend to believe more what people like Richard Wurmbrand or Tom White write who actually have been missionaries, as opposed to someone who seems to only tell readers how to do mission without any experience himself that makes it less credible. Wurmbrand wrote numerous excellent books, by the way, taken from a collection of his prison and ministry journals you can buy from the Voice of the Martyrs.