Table of contents
Introduction Chapter 1: Teaching Them: The Great Omission of the Great Commission
Chapter 2: Missionaries Training Nationals: How Much is Enough?
Chapter 3: The Bare Minimum: What Must We Teach?
Chapter 4: Missionaries and Nationals: Who Should Teach?
Chapter 5: Learning from Paul: Missiological Methods of the Apostle to the Gentiles
Chapter 6: Search Versus Harvest Theology: Reaching or Teaching?
Chapter 7: Techniques and Tools: The Greater Good, CPMs, and What Only God Can Do
Chapter 8: Equipping Disciples: Theological Education and the Missionary Task
Chapter 9: Primary Oral Learners: How Shall They Hear?
Chapter 10: Critical Contextualization: The Balance Between Too Far and Not Far Enough
Conclusion
What others are saying
“This book is long overdue. I welcome its arrival. I pray for its implementation.”
- Daniel L. Akin
President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
“All mission-minded believers should read this book. All missionaries should put its principles into practice. All instructors should read and teach it.”
- David J. Hesselgrave, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus of Mission, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
“This book must be read by any serious person committed to the Great Commission.”
-R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Ph.D.
President, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
A note to the reader
"Missionaries are my heroes, godly men and women working as hard as anyone at home, but doing so in other languages, suffering homesickness, culture shock, and unstable governments, leaving the comforts of home to live amidst persecution, tropical diseases, and violence, compelled by the love of Christ and His missionary call. Missionaries follow the Lord’s calling on their lives, faithfully employing their unique gifts in the places where He calls them to serve. They increasingly must devise creative access to the countries closing their doors to missionaries every year, balancing ethical concerns with gospel need. I am thankful for mission agencies and missionaries who are aggressively engaging unreached, unengaged, and uncontacted people groups that are often in the most gospel-hostile parts of the world. I am equally thankful for mission agencies and missionaries continuing to disciple, teach, and minister in other fields. Almost everyone agrees that both reaching and teaching are biblical and essential aspects of Christian missions, and to some extent, that each is underway around the world in a host of diverse ministries. But there is much that is not being done and the result is tragic.
While I want to encourage those reaching the unreached to continue that vital work, I also want to exhort us all to do more than just reach—much more. Jesus commissioned us to teach everything He has commanded. A biblically balanced missiology includes searching, reaching, harvesting, church planting, discipling and teaching. The Lord Jesus, the missionary Paul, and biblical commands exhort us to reach and win the lost, disciple them, and teach teachers among them.
What is the biblical balance in the missionary task? Turn the page, and let’s begin."
- M. David Sills, D.Miss., Ph.D.