The Missions Show

It’s our 100th episode! Listen all the way through the episode for details on how to win our podcast anniversary giveaway.

In honor of the occasion, we brought back a favorite friend of the show—Zane Pratt, vice president for global training for the IMB—for a heavy-hitting conversation about why our theology must absolutely, unapologetically shape our missiology.

In this interview, we tackle the honor and shame paradigm, the nature of faithful contextualization, the role of systematic and historical theology, and why our theology must ultimately bring us to our knees in devotion and worship.

For twenty years, he served as an IMB church planter and regional leader in Central Asia. From 2011–13, Zane was dean of the Billy Graham School at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he currently serves as associate professor of Christian missions. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University, a master’s degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and is a Ph.D. candidate at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the coauthor of Introduction to Global Missions and a contributor to Theology and Practice of Mission. Listen to Zane’s talk at CROSS 2019, hear our preview interview with Zane on disciple-making movements, and follow him on Twitter.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.

The current flood of issues relating to sexuality isn’t just a challenge for pastors in the West, but for missionaries abroad—especially those serving in Asia, where gender fluidity has been accepted into the cultural assumptions of certain countries for some time. How can Christians approach the issues of homosexuality, transgenderism, and more with gospel-centered, missionary mindsets? Dr. Christopher Yuan weighs in.

Yuan has taught the Bible at Moody Bible Institute for over ten years and his speaking ministry on faith and sexuality has reached five continents. He speaks at conferences, on college campuses, and in churches. He has co-authored with his mother their memoir, Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God, A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope. Christopher graduated from Moody Bible Institute in 2005, Wheaton College Graduate School in 2007 with a Master of Arts in Biblical Exegesis and received his doctorate of ministry in 2014 from Bethel Seminary. Dr. Yuan’s newest book is Holy Sexuality and the Gospel: Sex, Desire, and Relationships Shaped by God’s Grand Story.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.

When pastors, missionaries, and others in ministry fail to actively abide in Christ, that’s when pragmatism becomes most tempting—and most dangerous. How can missionaries remain rooted?

ABWE President Paul Davis stops by the studio this week to share what most burdens him for the missionaries he’s met across the world over the last year, and how remaining weak and dependent upon the Lord reorients our ministry. Listen to this week’s episode for these and other lessons from the field.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.

Missions always comes with risk, and nothing is guaranteed—especially in hostile, unreached contexts. What should missionaries do when they get kicked off the field? How should they adjust their own expectations when God closes ministry doors?

In this episode, John Klaassen, President of Reaching and Teaching, shares his own powerful story and how he has drawn strength from grasping the sovereignty of God. Born in Colombia, Dr. Klaassen has 18 years of cross-cultural experience overseas in Europe and North Africa, and a further 9 years of experience teaching at Boyce College and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he will continue to teach in the field of missions and global studies. John lives with his wife, Shari, in the city of Louisville where they actively serve amongst Iraqi refugees through their church, Highview Baptist.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.

Why are there so few men in missions? Does the cultural mandate conflict with the Great Commission? And how has the overall downgrade of teaching on biblical manhood in evangelicalism adversely affected the cross-cultural witness of the Christian family unit? Michael Foster joins this week to address these questions and offer insights on the cultural mandate in Genesis, the biblical view of the household, and why so many young men suffer from “failure to launch.”

Michael is a director of It’s Good to Be a Man and co-host of the podcast by the same name. is a serial-entrepreneur who has been in bi-vocational ministry the better part of his adult life. God has blessed him with a beautiful wife and seven children. He is also an ordained pastor in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). Follow Michael on Twitter.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.

Between 1-2 million people have been taking to the streets in Hong Kong—even singing Christian hymns—in peaceful protest over a new extradition law representing China’s continued aim to tighten its fist and squelch political and religious liberties in the semi-autonomous region. What can believers learn from this complex situation?

In this special episode, Alex Kocman and Scott Dunford—a former missionary in Asia—discuss the situation on the ground, the history, and implications for believers seeking to boldly engage the surrounding culture both on the mission field and at home.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.

If missionaries are to carry the gospel across cultural and national lines, it’s critical that they have a thoroughly biblical theology of race and ethnicity. And while much of modern progressive, secular culture repudiates anything remotely “racist,” Dr. Charles Ware explains why that wasn’t always the case. Secularism and Darwinism lie near the root of much contemporary racist ideology in the West, and only the biblical worldview offers a sound diagnosis of the sin of partiality and its gospel cure.

This week, Scott Dunford and Alex Kocman unpack this deep and profound topic with Dr. Ware, president emeritus of Crossroads Bible College and coauthor of One Race, One Blood with Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis. Charles also serves on the board of ABWE and with other organizations including ABHE (Association for Biblical Higher Education), Anchorsaway, and the Biblical Counseling Coalition. He is a sought-after speaker on racial reconciliation, counseling, and other topics relating to biblical worldview.

You don’t want to miss this hard-hitting episode on the plague of racism and the answers only Christ can provide.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.

Do we really grasp the urgency of taking the gospel to those who have never heard? And if the task of making disciples among the unreached is so urgent, why shouldn’t we employ every pragmatic means at our disposal to finish the task? Brooks Buser weighs in this week and discusses pioneer missions, disciple-making movements, church planting movements, and other important missiological issues from a mobilizer’s perspective.

Brooks and Nina Buser planted a church among the Yembiyembi people in Papua New Guinea. In 2016, they returned to San Diego. Both Brooks and Nina participate in the teaching at Radius International as well as leading and traveling to spread the word about the necessity of training.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.

Increasingly, Millennials and young people are redefining “long-term” missions. At the same time, fewer are willing to raise missionary support. Is recruiting marketplace missionaries—many of whom are short-term tentmakers—a sustainable solution? And if so, how do we get the word out to professionals that the Great Commission isn’t just for full-time religious workers?

This week we go back and forth with Mark Silvers, Director of Mobilization for Crossworld, on the pros and cons of using marketplace missionaries alongside long-term church planters. Mark Silvers served with Crossworld in the Philippines for 10 years and joined the home office staff in 2009. Mark’s driving passion is the goal of reaching the 2.9 billion people in the world today with no access to the gospel.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.

For New Testament students, fewer topics are more frequently studied and debated than the relationship between faith and works in the book of James and the letters of Paul. The question “how are we justified?” isn’t just a question asked in churches and seminaries—it’s also a vital question that relates to how we do missions. Could it be that Paul and James emphasize different truths, not because of doctrinal differences, but because they’re thinking like missionaries and contextualizing for their audience?

In this interview, Chris Bruno (Ph.D., Wheaton) returns to discuss his latest book, Paul Vs. James: What We've Been Missing in the Faith and Works Debate (Moody, 2019). Chris serves as assistant professor of New Testament and Greek at Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis. He previously taught Bible and theology at Cedarville University and Northland International University and served as a pastor at Harbor Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. Chris and his wife, Katie, have four sons. Follow Chris on Twitter and listen to our previous episode with him on biblical theology.

Remember to share, rate, leave a review, and subscribe. Together we can bridge the gap between the worlds of theology and missions.

Want to ask a question for a future episode? Email [email protected].

This show is powered by ABWE International and the Global Gospel Fund.