Missionary Quotes

“‘Not called!’ did you say? Not heard the call,’ I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father’s house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world. – William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

“At the moment I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer’s love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself.” – John G. Paton

“And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives…and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.” – Nate Saint

“I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages – villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world.” – Robert Moffat

“It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home.” – J. Hudson Taylor

“Oh, that I had a thousand lives, and a thousand bodies! All of them should be devoted to no other employment but to preach Christ to these degraded, despised, yet beloved mortals.” – Robert Moffat

When I get to China, I will have no claim on any one for anything. My claim will be alone in God and I must learn before I leave England to move men through God by prayer alone” – J. Hudson Taylor

“While vast continents are shrouded in darkness…the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by God to keep you out of the foreign mission field.” – Ion Keith-Falconer

“I have but one passion – it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.” – Count Zinzindorf

“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” – C.T. Studd

“It’s amazing what can be accomplished if you don’t worry about who gets the credit.” – Clarence W. Jones

“The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity.” – Mike Stachura

“Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ.” – Francis Xavier, missionary to India, the Philippines, and Japan

“God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him.” – Hudson Taylor, missionary to China

“The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time” – Carl F. H. Henry

“If you found a cure for cancer, wouldn’t it be inconceivable to hide it from the rest of mankind? How much more inconceivable to keep silent the cure from the eternal wages of death.” – Dave Davidson

“We who have Christ’s eternal life need to throw away our own lives.” – George Verwer

“Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live. The noblest thing a man can do is, just humbly to receive, and then go amongst others and give.” – David Livingstone

“What are we here for, to have a good time with Christians or to save sinners?” – Malla Moe

“The reason some folks don’t believe in missions is that the brand of religion they have isn’t worth propagating.” – Unknown

“Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is – where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge.” – Robert C. Shannon

“It is possible for the most obscure person in a church, with a heart right toward God, to exercise as much power for the evangelization of the world, as it is for those who stand in the most prominent positions.” – John R. Mott

“As long as there are millions destitute of the Word of God and knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote time and energy to those who have both.”
– J. L. Ewen

“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” – Henry Martyn, missionary to India and Persia

“Today five out of six non-Christians in our world have no hope unless missionaries come to them and plant the church among them.” – David Bryant

“In no other way can the believer become as fully involved with God’s work, especially the work of world evangelism, as in intercessory prayer.” – Dick Eastman

“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed” – Hudson Taylor

“People who don’t believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took Him at His word and went East, West, North and South.” – J. Howard Edington

“The more obstacles you have, the more opportunities there are for God to do something.” – Clarence W. Jones

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light” – John Keith Falconer

“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.” – John Stott

“Our God of Grace often gives us a second chance, but there is no second chance to harvest a ripe crop.” – Kurt von Schleicher

“Sympathy is no substitute for action.” – David Livingstone

“God’s part is to put forth power; our part is to put forth faith.” – Andrew A. Bonar

“There is nothing in the world or the Church, except the church’s disobedience, to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility. – Robert Speer, leader in Student Volunteer

“How often do we attempt work for God to the limit of our incompetency rather than to the limit of God’s omnipotency.” – J. Hudson Taylor

Some wish to live within the sound of church and chapel bell. I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell. Charles Thomas Studd (1862-1931)
 
Charles Malik, Lebanese ambassador to the United Nations, asked in a speech: “What has been the greatest American contribution to the rest of the world? Has it been money? Has it been food? Has it been medical skill? Has it been military might? Has it been industrial know how?” Then he answered, “The greatest thing to come out of America has been the American missionary effort: the quiet, selfless men and women who have left the comfort and security of their homeland to bring the gospel of Christianity to less favored nations. – James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 358.

How can anyone be a follower of Karl Marx and not believe in world revolution?  How can anyone be a protégé of Martin Luther King and not believe in civil rights?  In like manner, how can anyone be a follower of Jesus Christ and not believe in Christian missions? – J Herbert Kane  

“There is nothing in the world or the Church, except the church’s disobedience, to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility.” – Robert Speer, leader in Student Volunteer Movement

“If God calls you to be a missionary, don’t stoop to be a king” – (variations of this credited to G. K. Chesterson, Jordan Groom, Thomas Carlyle and Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

“World missions was on God’s mind from the beginning.” – Dave Davidson

“Let my heart be broken with the things that break God’s heart” – Bob Pierce

“No reserves. No retreats. No regrets” – William Borden

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back. “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages, he cried. To that, Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.”

“Since missionaries represent and serve the King of Kings, they deserve the best preparation possible for His service.” – Lyman Reed

“The command has been to “go”, but we have stayed – in body, gifts, prayer and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth… but 99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland.” – Robert Savage

“The man… looking at him with a smile that only half concealed his contempt, inquired, “Now Mr. Morrison do you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the Chinese Empire?” “No sir,” said Morrison, “but I expect that God will.” – Robert Morrison

“Jehovah Witnesses don’t believe in hell and neither do most Christians” – Leonard Ravenhill

“Had I cared for the comments of people, I should never have been a missionary.” – C.T. Studd

“Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live. The noblest thing a man can do is, just humbly to receive, and then go amongst others and give.” – David Livingstone

“If every Christian is already considered a missionary, then all can stay put where they are, and nobody needs to get up and go anywhere to preach the gospel. But if our only concern is to witness where we are, how will people in un-evangelized areas ever hear the gospel? The present uneven distribution of Christians and opportunities to hear the gospel of Christ will continue on unchanged.” – C. Gordon Olson

“God has huge plans for the world today! He is not content to merely establish a handful of struggling churches among each tongue, tribe and nation. Even now He is preparing and empowering His Church to carry the seeds of revival to the uttermost ends of the earth.” – David Smithers

Twenty year-old John R. Mott walked in late to the meeting at Cornell while J.K. Studd was quoting, “Young man, are you seeking great things for yourself? Seek them not! Seek first the Kingdom of God!” He couldn’t sleep all night. He finally got up and had the courage to meet with Studd. He later said that the meeting with Studd was the “decisive hour of his life”. He went on to become the greatest missions mobilizer in world history.

“There is something wonderfully misleading, full of hallucination and delusion in this business of missionary calls. With many of us it is not a missionary call at all that we are looking for; it is a shove. There are a great many of us who would never hear a call if it came.” – Robert Speer

“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God; first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.” – J. Hudson Taylor

“The greatest tragedy to befall a person is to have sight but lack vision.” – Helen Keller

“The 3.5 billion unreached people on earth would form a single file line that would stretch around the equator 25 times! Can you picture 25 lines of Christ-less people, trampling endlessly toward hell? Let that vision stay with you day and night.” – Larry Stockstill

“God does not have to come and tell me what I must do for Him, He brings me into a relationship with Himself where I hear His call and understand what He wants me to do, and I do it out of sheer love to Him… When people say they have had a call to foreign service, or to any particular sphere of work, they mean that their relationship to God has enabled them to realize what they can do for God.” – Oswald Chambers

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and un-prayed for.” – Charles Spurgeon

Jim Elliot writing to a friend, said:
“Christ needs some young fellows to sell out of Him and recklessly toss their lives into His work.  It seems like you ought to be one of them.”
Consider these calls:

“Consider the call from the Throne above – go ye”
“Consider the call from round about – come over and help us”
“Consider the call from below – send Lazarus to my brothers that they not
come to this place.”

“Impelled by these voices, I dare not let the Quichuas perish”

Go all out for God; and He will go all out for you!” – Jonathan Goforth

“The Spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions, and the nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” – Henry Martyn

This is not only our best shot at the global harvest; it’s our only shot.  When it comes to your target and the direction of the your life’s influence, aim well.

“Wherever you are, be all there.” – Jim Elliott

This is about Jonathan Goforth…
A young couple was bidding farewell to their home church as they were about to leave for an African field known as “The White Man’s Grave.”  The husband said, “My wife and I have a strange dread in going.  We feel much as if we were going down into a pit.  We are willing to take the risk and to go if you, our home church, will promise to hold the ropes.”  One and all promised.  Less than two years passed when the wife and the little one God had given them succumbed to the dreaded fever.  Soon the husband realized his days, too, were numbered.  Not waiting to send word home of his coming, he started back at once and arrived at the hour of the Wednesday prayer meeting.  He slipped in unnoticed, taking a back seat.  At the close of the meeting he went forward.  An awe came over the people, for death was written on his face.  He said:
“I am your missionary.  My wife and child are buried in Africa and I have come home to die.  This evening I listened anxiously as you prayed, for some mention of your missionary, to see if you were keeping your promise, but in vain!  You prayed for everything connected with yourselves and your home church, but you forgot your missionary.  I see now why I am a failure as a missionary.  It is because you failed to hold the ropes!”

A church that does not recognize the primacy of missions deprives herself of the most intimate relationship with her Lord, fails to identify herself with the primary purpose of God, robs her membership of the deepest experiences of the Holy Spirit, and denies the world the greatest blessings the Lord in grace has provided.  She ceases to be truly Christian. – George W. Peters

The primacy of missions is written in large letters across the pages of the whole Bible.  All the apostles gave themselves to missions, and only the sword could cut short their path to the uttermost part of the earth. – George W. Peters

The primary qualification for a missionary is not love for souls, as we so often hear, but love for Christ. – Vance Havner

“An hireling does not naturally love the sheep, for they are not his own.  He must first love the Shepherd, and then He will love what the Shepherd loves.” – Dr. Clarence Sexton

“Christ’s call is to feed the hungry, not the full; to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; not to call the scoffers, but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches, and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers and artistic musical performances, but to raise living churches of souls among the destitute, to capture men from the devil’s clutches and snatch them from the very jaws of hell, to enlist and train them for Jesus, and make them into an Almighty Army of God.” – C. T. Studd

“Let us be satisfied with nothing less then leaving the deepest mark in our generation.” – John R Mott

“Oh, that I had a thousand lives, and a thousand bodies! All of them should be devoted to no other employment but to preach Christ to these degraded, despised, yet beloved mortals.” – Robert Moffat

“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” – C.T. Studd

“It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at
home.” – J. Hudson Taylor

“I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light” – John Keith Falconer

“I have but one passion – it is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ.” – Count Zinzindorf

“There is a price to be paid for anything more than just mediocrity.” – John Pearson

“While vast continents are shrouded in darkness… the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by God to keep you out of the foreign mission field.” – Ion Keith-Falconer

“If your not going to live for God, then take down your sign and quit misleading traffic!” – Adam Tanner

“The more obstacles you have, the more opportunities there are for God to do something.” – Clarence W. Jones

“The effective mentor strives to help a man or woman discover what they can be in Christ and then holds them accountable to become that person.” – Howard Hendricks

“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.” – J. Hudson Taylor

“The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner.” William Cameron Townsend

“Prepare for the worst, expect the best, and take what comes.” Robert E. Speer

Don’t try to prove to God how great you are. Just prove how available you are. – Anonymous

Christ is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. We are not only to renounce evil, but to manifest the truth. We tell people the world is vain; let our lives manifest that it is so. We tell them that our home is above and that all these things are transitory. Does our dwelling look like it? O to live consistent lives! – Hudson Taylor

“If you would rise to greatness, you must work while others amuse themselves.” Winston Churchill

“Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees.” – J. Hudson Taylor

“I wasn’t God’s first choice for what I’ve done for China…I don’t know who it was…It must have been a man…a well-educated man. I don’t know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn’t willing…and God looked down…and saw Gladys Aylward…And God said – “Well, she’s willing.” – Gladys Aylward

“The world has yet to see what God will do through one man fully surrendered to Him.” Moody’s response was, “By the grace of God I will be that man.” – DL Moody

“Father make me a crisis man. Bring those I contact to decision. Let me not be a milepost on a single road; make me a fork, that men must turn one way or another on facing Christ in me” – Jim Elliot

“We can reach our world, if we will. The greatest lack today is not people or funds. The greatest need is prayer.” Wesley Duewel

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing others; it is the only means. – Albert Einstein

“The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is a “field full of wheat and tares.” – Amy Carmichael

Society and culture have scared us so much that we have taken and hidden the Gospel in our churches. – W. Austin Gardner

“God provides the men and women needed for each generation”. – Mildred Cable

“The character of the worker decides the quality of the work.” – Jim Elliot

“All the resources of the Godhead are at our disposal!” – Jonathan Goforth

“Americans are especially vulnerable to an appeal that says, ‘Give us your dollars, but not your sons and daughters.’ If we do that, missionary vision will die within a generation, and the dollars will also eventually stop.” – Roger Hedlund

“I will lay my bones by the Ganges that India might know there is one who cares.” – Alexander Duff

“We talk of the second coming, half the world has never heard of the first.” – Oswald J. Smith

“Jesus commended the widow not for giving away so much, but for keeping so little.” – Ed Owens, Chicago fund manager

“When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians here; when he left in 1872 there were no heathen.” – said of John Geddie

“Let my heart be broken with the things that break God’s heart.” – Bob Pierce

“Lost people matter to God, and so they must matter to us.” – Keith Wright

“One of the greatest missing teachings in the American church today is the reminder to men and women that nothing we have belongs to us.” – Gordon MacDonald, American pastor and teacher

The mission of the church is missions.” – Unknown

“Love is the root of missions, sacrifice is the fruit of missions.” – Roderick Davis

“Essentially, the church has many responsibilities but only one mission, and that is the evangelization and discipling of all nations.” – Daniel Bacon

There are more than 5 million fundamental Baptist Christians in America today.  The 5 million Fundamental Baptist Christians support fewer than 5,000 foreign missionaries, which it takes 1,000 Fundamental Baptist to get 1 missionary on the field. – Don Sisk

“Oh, that I might be a flaming fire in the service of the Lord. Here I am, Lord, send me; send me to the ends of the earth…send me from all that is called earthly comfort; send me even to death itself if it be but in Thy service and to promote Thy Kingdom.” – David Brainerd

“If the Church is ‘in Christ,’ she is involved in mission. Her whole existence then has a missionary character. Her conduct as well as her words will convince the unbelievers and put their ignorance and stupidity to silence.” – David Bosch

“Missions is not the ‘ministry of choice’ for a few hyperactive Christians in the church. Missions is the purpose of the church.” – Unknown

“When people are not stunned by the greatness of God, how can they be sent with the ringing message, ‘Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods!’?” – John Piper

“I am immortal until God’s work for me to do is done. The Lord reigns.” – Henry Martyn (Missionary to the Muslims of Persia and India)

“Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist.” – Oswald J. Smith

“Grant that I may experience the power of Thy Word before I deliver it.” – Christmas Evans

Blessed is the leader who seeks the best for those he serves. – Unknown

“Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist.” – Oswald J. Smith

“Mission is ultimately not a human response to human need. The Church’s involvement in mission is its privileged participation in the actions of the triune God.” – Tim Dearborn

“He who is not liberal with what he has, does but deceive himself when he thinks he would be liberal if he had more.” – William S. Plumer

“I will place no value on anything I have or possess except in relation to the Kingdom of Christ. If anything I have will advance that Kingdom, it shall be given or kept whichever will best promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes, both for time and eternity.” – David Livingstone

“A man may die leaving upwards of a million, without taking any of it upwards.” – William Fetler

“Give according to your income lest God make your income according to your giving.” – Peter Marshall

“The church which ceases to be evangelistic will soon cease to be evangelical.” – Alexander Duff

The church is asleep. Armchairs and sofas and the comforts of life seem more important than the millions of perishing souls.” – J. Hudson Taylor.

“If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?” – David Livingstone

“What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Spirit can use – men of prayer, mighty in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but man – men of prayer.” – E.M. Bounds

“The best remedy for a sick church is to put it on a missionary diet.” – Unknown

 “God had an only Son and He made Him a missionary.” – David Livingstone

“Untold millions are still untold.” – Unknown

“Not how much of my money will I give to God, but, how much of God’s money will I keep for myself?” – Unknown

“The church that does not evangelize will fossilize.” – Oswald J. Smith

“If you don’t put in practice Acts 1:8; you may soon receive Acts 8:1.” – Unknown

“To accept Christ is to enlist under a missionary banner. It is quite impossible to be ‘in Christ’ and not participate in Christ’s mission in the world.” – Dr. James S. Stewart

During an especially trying time in the work of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor wrote to his wife, “We have twenty-five cents—and all the promises of God!” Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, W. Wiersbe, p. 242

“The church can vote on its purpose statement; but it cannot vote on its purpose.” – Unknown

When Elisabeth Elliot was asked what advice she would give to newly appointed missionaries, she replied, “I would say to them, ‘Take up your cross daily, and follow Him.’”

The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. — Tertullian

Can it be that in our preoccupation with the good life, we have missed the church-growth principle of suffering woven all through the New Testament? — Robert Coleman

You all will forgive me, I trust. I have been primarily concerned with our little corner of the world when I should have been concerned with the world around the corner. — Pastor Gass (speaking to his congregation)

A Christian “is not obedient unless he is doing all in his power to send the Gospel to the heathen world.” — A. B. Simpson

If you had really believed in what you tell us is the Christian message, you would have been here long ago. — response of a man in China

Christians who think they should never suffer forget that God allowed John the Baptist to be beheaded, Stephen to be stoned, and his son to be hung on a cross as a love gift to the world. — Elisabeth Elliot

The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity. — Mike Stachura

As I traveled around and saw whole nations of people where there were only 50 or 100 believers in the whole country, what I saw was it’s either God’s will for it to be this way (and we know that’s not true) or it’s somebody else’s fault. — Green

A church that neglects mission will—sooner or later—die out. — Jan A. B. Jongeneel

If you want to be like Jesus, you must have a heart for the whole world — Warren

No local church can afford to go without the encouragement and nourishment that will come to it by sending away its best people. — David Penman

The Church must send or the church will end. — Mendell Taylor

“The Bible in its totality ascribes only one intention to God: to save mankind.” — Georg F. Vicedom

Missions is not just the PROGRAM of the church; it is the whole PURPOSE of the New Testament church. — Whitlock

“To know the will of God, we need an open Bible and an open map.” — William Carey (pioneer missionary to India)

“The history of missions is the history of answered prayer.” — Samuel Zwemer

Missions is the heart of the believer being joined together with the heart of God for a common cause. — Whitlock

“The single most important area of your life and ministry will be in the realm of attitudes.” — Lyman Reed.

To be anti-mission is anti-Christian — Dan Truax

Brethren, if the new enlisted missionaries do not come from our churches, where will they come from? — Whitlock

“Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist.” — Oswald J. Smith

“The more any church or congregation interests itself in the heathen, the more it will be blessed and prospered at home.” — missionary John Patton

Get involved in God’s business and God will take care of your business — Whitlock

“The reason some folks don’t believe in missions is that the brand of religion they have isn’t worth propagating.” — unknown

“The will of God — nothing less, nothing more, nothing else.” — F. E. Marsh

“If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are too small.” — Pat Morley

The Great Commission is a mandate to witness, and it is a mandate to witness universally —Harry R. Boer

Do not let human objectives, satanic oppressions, or emotional depression stop you from obeying God! — Whitlock

“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply” — Hudson Taylor

“One has to make mistakes in order to learn from his mistakes” — Lyman Reed

“If you take missions out of the Bible, you won’t have anything left but the covers” — Gunter

“What’s your dream and to what corner of the missions world will it take you?” — Eleanor Roat

“No reserves. No retreats. No regrets” — William Borden

“No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once.” — Oswald J. Smith

“Lost people matter to God, and so they must matter to us.” — Wright

God loves with a great love the man whose heart is bursting with a passion for the impossible — William Booth

You do not test the resources of God till you try the impossible — F.B. Myer

The Christian life is from beginning to end a life of faith; so also is the missionary task. — Peters

It is tragic that the Great Commission has been more debated than it has been obeyed in church history. — Peters

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

“The more you give, the more comes back to you, because God is the greatest giver in the universe, and He won’t let you outgive Him. Go ahead and try. See what happens.” — Randy Alcorn

To accept Christ is to enlist under a missionary banner

From a survey of 882 missionaries, 82% of were on the mission field because of a personal contact with a missionary. The church that neglects to have missionaries does a great disservice of eternal dimensions to its people.

“I believe that in each generation God has called’ enough men and women to evangelize all the yet unreached tribes of the earth…. It is not God who does not call. It is man who will not respond!” — Isobel Kuhn, missionary to China and Thailand

“God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him.” — Hudson Taylor

“Do you know that the greatest thing a church can do for itself is to send it’s Pastor to one of the foreign mission fields of earth? He will come back a new man; for no one can see the need with his own eyes and ever be the same again.” — Oswald J. Smith

“If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?” — David Livingstone

The Bible is not the basis of missions; missions is the basis of the Bible. — Ralph Winter

You can be surrendered and not committed, but you cannot be committed without being totally surrendered. — Whitlock

“Here am I, send me; send me to the ends of the earth; send me to the rough, the savage pagans of the wilderness; send me from all that is called comfort on earth; send me even to death itself, if it be but in Thy service, and to promote Thy kingdom.” – David Brainerd

Every Christian must fit into God’s plan or miss life‘s meaning. — by Norman Lewis

Prayer needs no passport, visa or work permit. There is no such thing as a ‘closed country’ as far as prayer is concerned…much of the history of missions could be written in terms of God moving in response to persistent prayer.— Gaukroger

The church exists by missions like fire exists by burning. — Brunner

Mission is the very lifeblood of the church. As the body cannot survive without blood, so the church cannot survive without mission. Mission is the force that gives the body of Christ vibrancy, purpose, and direction. When the church neglects its role as Godʼs agent for mission, it is actually neglecting its own lifeblood. — Rheene

Love is the root of missions; sacrifice is the fruit of missions — Roderick Davis

In no other way can the believer become as fully involved with God’s work, especially the work of world evangelism, as in intercessory prayer. – Eastman

Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is—where life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge. — Robert Shannon

Only as the church fulfills her missionary obligation does she justify her existence. — Unknown

As long as there are millions destitute of the Word of God and knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote time and energy to those who have both. — Ewen

People who don’t believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took Him at His word and went East, West, North and South. — Edington

Our God of Grace often gives us a second chance, but there is no second chance to harvest a ripe crop. — Schleicher

Let my heart be broken with the things that break God’s heart — Pierce

If we choose to call every Christian a missionary, then we will need to create a new term for the Christian who is specially called, gifted, and commissioned for cross-cultural mission. — Strauss

“I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ.” — David Brainerd

Someone asked, ʻWill the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved?’ It is more a question with me whether we—who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not—can be saved. — Charles Spurgeon

In our lifetime wouldn’t it be sad if we spent more time washing dishes or swatting flies or mowing the yard or watching television than praying for world missions. — Dave Davidson

Did you think that the missionary path was all glory? Than you have not read of God’s greatest Messenger to earth, who sat and wept over Jerusalem, crying out, ʻI would…but ye would not.ʼ — Isobel Kuhn

Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world. — Howard Snyder

When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship captain tried to turn him back. “You will lose your life and the lives of those with you if you go among such savages, he cried. To that, Calvert replied, “We died before we came here.”

“Here I am, Lord, send me; send me to the ends of the earth; send me to the rough, the savage pagans of the wilderness; send me from all that is called comfort in earth, or earthly comfort: send me to death itself, if it be but in Thy service and to promote Thy kingdom.” — Frances Xavier

“If I had not felt certain that every additional trial was ordered by infinite love and mercy, I could not have survived my accumulated suffering.” — Adoniram Judson

“Cannot the love of Christ carry the missionary where the slave trade carries the trader?” — David Livingston

“Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men there, Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to make the Man of Sorrows the Man of Joy by the conversion to him of many.”
– J. Hudson Taylor.

“The greatest tragedy to befall a person is to have sight but lack vision.” — Helen Keller

“There is something wonderfully misleading, full of hallucination and delusion in this business of missionary calls. With many of us it is not a missionary call at all that we are looking for; it is a shove. There are a great many of us who would never hear a call if it came.” — Robert Speer

“I have found that there are three stages in every great work of God; first, it is impossible, then it is difficult, then it is done.” — Hudson Taylor

“We who have Christ’s eternal life need to throw away our own lives.” — George Verwer

“God has huge plans for the world today! He is not content to merely establish a handful of struggling churches among each tongue, tribe and nation. Even now He is preparing and empowering His Church to carry the seeds of revival to the uttermost ends of the earth.” —  Smithers

“Today five out of six non-Christians in our world have no hope unless missionaries come to them and plant the church among them.” — David Bryant

“Why do we insist on building the largest and most impressive structures in our city when people on the other side of town are hungry, jobless and worshipping in storefronts?” — Yohannan

“The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is a ‘field full of wheat and tares.ʼ ” — Amy Carmichael

“I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third places and teaching the fourth.” — Fraser

“It is just as proper, maybe even more so, to say Christ’s global cause has a Church as to say Christ’s Church has a global cause.” — Bryant

“If you are sick, fast and pray; if the language is hard to learn, fast and pray; if the people will not hear you, fast and pray, if you have nothing to eat, fast and pray.” — Franson

“What are we here for, to have a good time with Christians or to save sinners?” — Moe

“It’s amazing what can be accomplished if you don’t worry about who gets the credit.” — Clarence W. Jones

“Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live. The noblest thing a man can do is, just humbly to receive, and then go amongst others and give.” — David Livingstone

“The evangelization of the world in this generation.” — Student Volunteer Movement Motto

“His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice.” — John Stott

“It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home.” – J. Hudson Taylor

“We talk of the second coming, half the world has never heard of the first.” — Oswald J. Smith

“God cannot lead you on the basis of facts that you do not know.” — David Bryant

Christians don’t tell lies, they just go to church and sing them. — A.W. Tozer

All roads lead to the judgment seat of Christ. — Green

Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of heaven on earth. . . God does nothing but in answer to prayer. — John Wesley

When God wants us to die to ourselves, He always touches a tender spot.

Good leaders must first become good servants. — Greenleaf

It is high time the ideal of success should be replaced with the ideal of service. ― Albert Einstein

Prepare for the worst, expect the best, and take what comes. — Robert Speer

“A sacrifice isn’t a sacrifice unless It’s a sacrifice.” — Unknown

I can plod; I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe everything. — William Carey

All the resources of the Godhead are at our disposal! — Jonathan Goforth

God’s part is to put forth power; our part is to put forth faith. — Andrew Bonar

All my friends are but one, but He is all sufficient. — William Carey

“He must increase, but I must decrease.” — John the Baptist

“Young man, sit down: when God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid or mine.” — said to a young William Carey (who, thankfully, did not listen)

God might have sent angels to evangelize the world. But he did not. He might have broadcast the message from heaven. But he did not. He might have utilized a heavenly TV. But he did not. God chose to send men, men saved from sin, to win other sinners. — Norman Lewis

I do not believe any local congregation, no matter what its situation, can afford to deprive itself of the encouragement and nourishment that comes by sending missionaries and reading about missionaries beyond their church walls. — David Penman

“Here am I. Send me.” — Isaiah

A tiny group of believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves. Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without ever hearing the salvation story. — Yohannan

If you want to find someone that is alive to the glory of God and is passionately pursuing God’s mission purposes, then find someone that is centered on Christ and passionate about exalting Him. — Spitters & Ellison

Missions is NOT just a program of the church, it is the whole purpose of the NT church.

Our goal in contextualization is not to make the Gospel relevant but to communicate the relevance of the gospel — James F. Engel

Missions should not be one of the many ministries in the church or something we mention once a year, missions should be the heartbeat of the church. We want to get the Gospel out to the world.

We must not let race, religion, region, riches, relatives, or recreation stop us from going forth with the message of hope and deliverance. — Whitlock

The Bible is a missionary book.

“Infighting among personnel is more devilish, desperate, and devastating than anything from the outside.” Clarence W. Jones

Christ has many fans but few followers — Nate Wilkerson (in book Christ is Life)

A common shortcoming of Christians in the United States is that they consume the full loaf of gospel bread at home while sending only bits and crumbs abroad. — Norm Lewis

“If I had 1,000 lives, I’d give them all for China” — Hudson Taylor

“Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has forfeited its biblical right to exist.” — Oswald J. Smith

If the Lord was counting on you and your giving, would the first soul every hear of Christ, and would the first missionary ever have been sent? All believers are debtors to the sinner for the gospel’s sake. Let us give by going or give that others may go. — Whitlock

When an owner of the ship on which Morrison was traveling found out why Morrison was going to China, he asked, “Now, Mr. Morrison, do you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the Chinese Empire?”  “No, sir,” replied Morrison, “but I expect God will.”

If your Christianity doesn’t work at home, it doesn’t work. Don’t export it.  — Howard Hendricks

Let my heart be broken with the things that break God’s heart. — Pierce

If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are too small.  — Pat Morley

The whole history of missions is a record of the achieving power of believing prayer. — William Remfry Hunt, missionary to China

The Great Commission is your Commission — Warren

Read and watch the news with Great Commission eyes — Warren

It was Moffat’s report of seeing “the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been” that inspired David Livingstone to go to Africa in 1840.

Shift from local thinking to global thinking — Warren

“There is a needs-be for us to give ourselves for the life of the world. An easy, non-self-denying life will never be one of power. Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing.” – Hudson Taylor

Missions did not start with a denomination, a movement, a convention, a fellowship, or even in the thinking or heart of man. But, it started in the heart of God Almighty. — Whitlock

We are not sent forth as missionaries merely for friendship purposes or to demonstrate the oneness of Christians…. we are sent forth primarily to share with the world the great benefits of Christianity — Peters

May our mission definitions be driven not by our personal interests, prejudices, and preferences, but by the passions and purpose of the God of all nations. — Lewis

“Missions isn’t an addendum that was stapled onto normal Christianity. It’s at the heart of Christianity because it’s at the heart of God Himself. God is the Great Missionary of the Scriptures.” — Chris Anderson

“No matter where you go or what you do as a missionary you will need training in order to survive and to serve well.” — Lyman Reed

“A lack of generosity refuses to acknowledge that your assets are not really yours, but God’s.” T.K.

Is there anything in our lives that is competing for God’s attention and His affection? Is there anything that is clouding our vision of Him? By the grace of God and the aid of the Holy Spirit, it must be removed so we can see the Lord as He really is. — Spitters & Ellison

If every Christian is already considered a missionary, then all can stay put where they are, and nobody needs to get up and go anywhere to preach the gospel. But if our only concern is to witness where we are, how will people in unevangelized areas ever hear the gospel? The present uneven distribution of Christians and opportunities to hear the gospel of Christ will continue on unchanged.— C. Gordon Olson

“Missionary training is as much about character as it is about content.” — Lyman Reed

God never called us to send others in our place. He called us to go! — Robertson McQuilkin

“Here is a tragic fact: Only about 1 out of a 100 ‘missionary decisions’ results in actual career mission service. Why? Mainly because parents, friends, even pastors rarely encourage anyone to follow through on that kind of a decision. But what if that number could double to two out of a hundred? The effect would be explosive!” — Ralph Winter

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