Discovering Missions Book Review

          Discovering Missions  

By Charles R. Gailey & Howard Culbertson

 

Do we claim to believe in God? He’s a missionary God. You tell me you’re committed  to Christ? He’s a missionary Christ. Are you filled with the Holy Spirit? He’s a  missionary Spirit. Do you belong to the church? It’s a missionary society. And do you  hope to go to heaven when you die? It’s a heaven into which the fruits of world  missions have been and will be gathered. – John R. Stott 

The church exists by missions as a fire exists by burning. – Emil Brunner 

To continue with the seedbed metaphor, missions is more than a few plants – even  robust ones – scattered among other good things in Scripture. Missions is the soil of  Scripture in which everything else is rooted. The inescapable conclusion is that if  Christians are going to call themselves “people of the Book,” they must be gripped  by that Book’s passion for global mission. — Discovering Missions by Charles R.  Gaily & Howard Culbertson pg. 13 

I believe that in each generation God has called enough men and women to  evangelize all the yet unreached peoples of the earth… everywhere I go, I constantly  meet with men and women who say to me, “When I was young, I wanted to be a  missionary, but I got married instead” or “My parents dissuaded me” or some such  thing. No, it is not God who does not call. It is persons who will not respond. –  Isabell Kuhn, missionary to the Lisu of Thailand and China 

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

If you take missions out of the Bible, there’s little left but the covers. – Nina Gunter 1

To most of us the number of “a hundred and fifty-three,” which was the number of  fish caught in the net along the shores of Galilee after the resurrection (John  21:4-14), seems incredibly trifling. We might be inclined to wonder why the writer had  any interest in giving the number. When, however, we realize that in ancient times the  number 153 was given as the total number of all the tribes and nations of the earth, it  is no wonder that the earthly church interpreted this passage as the assurance of  success in fulfilling the Great Commission to bear the Good News to all men  everywhere. – Eugene Nida, linguist and Bible translator.

I never made a sacrifice. We are not to talk of “sacrifice” when we remember the  great sacrifice that He made, who left His Father’s throne on high to give Himself for  us. – David Livingstone 

William Carey, trying to persuade his colleagues about the need for world  evangelism, said, “See what the Moravians have done! Can we not follow their  example, and in obedience to our heavenly Master, go out into the world and preach  the Gospel to the heathen?” — Discovering Missions by Charles R. Gaily & Howard  Culbertson pg. 47 

One of the British missionaries following William Carry’s example was Robert  Morrison, who in 1807 went to China as the country’s first Protestant missionary.  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.” — Discovering Missions by Charles R. Gaily &  Howard Culbertson pg. 48 

Stories of African-American missionaries do not get told very often. Adoniram and  Ann Judson, who went to India in 1812, are often credited with being the first  American Protestant missionaries. In reality, the title of “First Protestant missionary  from the New World” may belong to John Marrant, a “free black” from New York City  who in 1770 began preaching to Native Americans in Canada. Marrant went on to  take the gospel to four tribal groups: Cherokee, Creek, Catawar, and Housaw. Or, if  the title of “first American missionary” needs to be reserved for someone who  actually boarded a ship, then it might be claimed by George Liele, a freed slave who  went to Jamaica in 1783 to start a Baptist church. In 1790, former slave Prince  Williams went from the U.S. to the Bahamas to plant Baptist churches. That work  has borne so much long-term fruit that today the Baptist are the largest  denominational group in the Bahamas. All three of these —Liele, Marrant, and  Williams – were planting churches cross-culturally before the Judsons ever left New  England. — Discovering Missions by Charles R. Gaily & Howard Culbertson pg. 82 

Culture is what makes people think of us as us and them as them. – Bob Sjogren 

Samuel Zwemer, missionary to the Muslim world, spoke approvingly of missionaries  who had so “wedded their hearts” to the places where they served that when they  returned to their countries of origin, they felt homesick for the mission field they  served in. That feeling, said Zwemer, was inverted homesickness. — Discovering  Missions by Charles R. Gaily & Howard Culbertson pg. 102 

There’s nothing I would not do, there’s no place I would not go for the sake of Christ.  – Esther Winans 

Let my heart get broken with the things that break God‘s heart. – Bob Pierce 

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

People who feel they are already committed to enough things around a church will  tune out appeals to become burdened for world evangelism. Congregations full of  this kind of people will likely not be zealous for world evangelism until believers shed  the notion that the church is a salad bar of activities and emphases in which  involvement in global mission outreach is just one more option like singing in the  Christmas musical or helping with a weekly children’s ministry. — Discovering  Missions by Charles R. Gaily & Howard Culbertson 

The church must send or the church will end. – Mendell Taylor, church historian God cannot lead you on the basis of facts that you do not know. – Ralph winter 

Promote world evangelism in the following four ways: 

  1. By educating people about what is happening in missions, about God‘s heart  for all peoples, and about the task yet to be done.  
  2. By mobilizing prayer support for world evangelization.  
  3. By challenging children, youth, and adults to learn about and embrace the  global mission of the church to the point of offering themselves for missionary  service.  
  4. By raising funds for the world mission enterprise.  

— Discovering Missions by Charles R. Gaily & Howard Culbertson pg. 180  

The real problem of foreign missions, then, is the home churches, and without the  pastor it cannot be solved…. The multitudes of the distant nations cannot come to  speak for themselves, even were they’re conscious of their needs. Nor can the  missionary do so. The missionary visitor may arouse temporary interest. But it is the  missionary pastor who makes church a missionary power the year through. – John R.  Mott — Discovering Missions by Charles R. Gaily & Howard Culbertson pg. 187 

Because the essence of the gospel – the Good News – is such that it must be shared  with all people everywhere, missions cannot be left to a few missionary-minded  people. Because global missions is on the heart of the triune God, it must be on the  heart of the local church. — Discovering Missions by Charles R. Gaily & Howard  Culbertson pg. 191 



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