Romans 15:20--A Most Worthy & Compelling Ambition: July 2011

The Apostle Paul's great ambition was to preach the Gospel where Christ was not yet known. He was a pioneer frontier missionary intent on preaching the Gospel and planting churches where Christ was unknown and thus not worshiped. What a worthy and compelling goal! This is also my family's aspiration--to go to an unreaced people group in West Africa where Christ is not known and thus not worshiped so as to proclaim the Gospel, disciple new believers, and help them raise up new Christ-worshiping fellowships for God's glory and theirs and our eternal joy.

This is a blog highlighting our pursuit of this most worthy goal as well as an avenue by which to highlight pioneer church planting among the unreached peoples of the world.

Book of The Week--"A Vision of the Possible" by Daniel Sinclaire

"A Vision of the Possible--Pioneer Church Planting in Teams" makes the bold assertion that "Unreached peoples must be the core focus in obeying our Savior's great command." And then the author, Daniel Sinclair, a pioneer church planter who served for 11 years in the Middle East, goes on to prove it. This is a great handbook for those interested in "modern missions" and the challenge of reaching not only unreached people groups but unengaged people groups with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Making the point that "All of Scripture points to the reality of bringing the gospel of Christ to all nations is now the central drama on the human stage", Sinclair spends 14 chapters explaining from a true veteran's perspective what pioneer church planting requires and looks like. He provides those interested in pioneer church planting with a solid methodology, all the while maintaining that the methods and the work of missions are ultimately dependent upon the sovereign activity of God the Holy Spirit.

Missions and The Glory of God

"Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. The glory of God is the ultimate goal of the church—because it's the ultimate goal of God. The final goal of all things is that God might be worshiped with white-hot affection by a redeemed company of countless persons from every tribe and tongue and people and nation (Revelation 5:9; 7:9). Missions exists because worship doesn't. When the kingdom finally comes in glory, missions will cease. Missions is penultimate; worship is ultimate. If we forget this and reverse their roles, the passion and the power for both diminish."
--John Piper

Romans 15:20--A Most Worthy & Compelling Ambition

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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Why I Work With Muslims

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