The Missions Show

You’ve probably heard that Muslims are coming to Christ throughout the Islamic world in record numbers, many of them prompted by dreams and visions. Perhaps you’ve also heard of related disciple-making movements and church-planting movements that report exponential multiplication of converts and fledgling churches. But what’s the real story behind these stats, and are these explosive growth movements really healthy and biblical? Zane Pratt joins us today to answer.

Zane Pratt was elected as the IMB’s vice president for global training in November 2014. For 20 years, he served as an IMB church planter and regional leader in Central Asia. From 2011-13, Pratt was dean of the Billy Graham School at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he 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 co-author of Introduction to Global Missions and a contributor to Theology and Practice of Mission. You can follow him on Twitter at @ZanePratt.

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

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

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What is a biblical definition “social justice” and how does it relate to the gospel? What bearing does the recent conversation about racial reconciliation—and the resulting controversy—have for missionaries ministering to disparate and people groups and ethnicities? How can the church do a better job of addressing social justice and racial issues without proposing leftist or statist solutions? We dive into all of these challenging questions this week with Collin Hansen of The Gospel Coalition.

Collin Hansen serves as editorial director for The Gospel Coalition. He is the author of several books, including Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey With the New Calvinists and A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories That Stretch and Stir (with John Woodbridge). He earned an MDiv at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and an undergraduate degree in journalism and history from Northwestern University. He edited Our Secular Age: Ten Years of Reading and Applying Charles Taylor and The New City Catechism Devotional, among other books. He and his wife belong to Redeemer Community Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and he serves on the advisory board of Beeson Divinity School.

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

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Should churches aim to be multiethnic, or should we stick to the homogenous unit principle inherited from missiologists? In today’s episode, Brian (last name withheld), a former IMB missionary to the Middle East and current missions pastor focusing on diaspora ministries, shares why the answer isn’t as simple as it seems—and how globalism is making cultural boundaries fuzzier than ever.

The church world is ablaze with conversation about multiethnic churches, racial reconciliation, and the social implications of believers’ fundamental unity in Christ. Meanwhile, expats and refugees from across the world are moving into North American cities in droves, but linguistic and cultural barriers prevent most churches from effectively engaging migrants.

Brian is a missions pastor for Wilcrest Baptist Church, a dynamic church in Houston—one of the U.S.’s most diverse cities. In our interview, he also shares how in the process of trying to engage expats in Houston, their church “accidentally” became an effective missions sending church in the process.

If you have been stumped by recent debates over the ethnic makeup of our churches, this episode will help you think in biblical categories—both in terms of our gospel unity, and the imperative to take the gospel into subgroups that wouldn’t otherwise hear the good news.

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

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How can Christians understand individuals connected with the LGBT movement a mission field—full of people made in the image of God, in need of the gospel? ABWE North America missionary Jim Childs shares his story to help answer.

Jim is helping spearhead Every Ethne’s iniative to help churches in the U.S. reach across cultures without crossing borders, which includes reaching into the North American LGBT subculture. Jim was saved from an early age but spent decades in a homosexual lifestyle until the Lord brought him out through tragic circumstances and unexpected hospitality from believers. Today, he serves as an associate pastor with 360 Church and ministers to those facing same-sex attraction with Breakthough.

If you’ve been blessed by hearing Jim’s testimony, we encourage you to prayerfully support his budding ministry with ABWE.

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

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Pastors and missionaries are supposed to be sharing the gospel, but inwardly, many believe that they’re justified by their own performance. In this episode, Jared C. Wilson—a “failed church planter” who “once made a mess of his marriage” (his words, not ours!) whose rediscovery of gospel-centeredness transformed his life and ministry—shares why missionaries need to be preaching the gospel to themselves. Jared’s gospel emphasis is woven through all his books (including his most recent publication, Supernatural Power for Everyday People) with unique relevance for ministry workers facing burnout and forgetting their identity in Christ.

Later in the show we also tackle some of the issues with the seeker-sensitive/attractional church model and why church growth strategies end up having an adverse effect on a church’s ability to send cross-cultural workers overseas.

Jared C. Wilson is the Director of Content Strategy for Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Managing Editor of For The Church (and host of the FTC Podcast), and Director of The Pastoral Training Center at Liberty Baptist Church in Kansas City, MO.

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

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

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India is home to more unreached people groups, women and children in the sex industry, impoverished families, and idols then anywhere else on the planet. What impact could a few missionaries possibly have, and how does the hope of the gospel encourage them in the midst of such massive physical need? How are they balancing the priorities of social justice with their evangelistic mandate? Today, two ABWE workers join us to discuss the incredible doors God has opened for them in South Asia, and how the local church is filling a spiritual need that no NGO or sex trafficking rescue operation alone can address.

We’re enormously grateful for the chance to spread this expert content. Would you help us by sharing the episode, rating, leaving a review in your favorite listening platform, and subscribing? Together we can influence more gospel-centered theological teachers, writers, translators, and pastors to use their gifts where they’re most needed among the unreached.

Click here to see the ABWE history video we referenced towards the end of the episode.

Interested in supporting this couple’s work? To help us protect their identity, please email [email protected]. You can also learn more about ABWE’s partnership arm, GAP, on their public site, LiveGlobal.

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Starting gospel conversations—whether at home or overseas—is difficult in our distracted, technology-addicted world. Is returning to a practice of holistic, biblical hospitality part of the solution to strengthen our evangelism? Jeff Dalrymple, former president of Baptist Haiti Mission and president and founder of The Hospitality Project, helps us answer that question and explains why we struggle so much to let our neighbors into our homes. You can follow Jeff on Twitter at @JeffDalrymple.

In the episode, Jeff recommended a variety of resources on biblical hospitality. In case you missed it, those books were:

Listeners: We need your help! If you’ve enjoyed listening to the podcast, you can help us bridge the divide between the gospel-centered theology movement and the world of missions. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, or whatever listening platform you prefer. Also, don’t forget to share this episode and follow us to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Finally, please send your ideas or questions to [email protected].

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Ministry burnout is real. On the mission field, the pressures are vastly multiplied. Cultural shock, marital strain, poor team dynamics, and temptation all threaten missionaries’ spiritual, mental, and emotional health. Better, more proactive member care is the answer. But how? Brad Winkler, ABWE’s director leading member care and prefield ministries, joins us to explain.

As a pastor for 17 years, Brad helped members of his congregation discover their call to missions and now he is doing the same thing on a broader scale. In addition to training our missionaries in fundraising and building prayer partners, Brad also coaches churches through the process of sending and sustaining their missionaries on the mission field.

Brad also recommends the following resources for missionaries, pastors, and everyday believers seeking to provide better pastoral care for cross-cultural workers:

If you want to reach Brad, we invite you to email him.

We’re enormously grateful for the chance to spread this expert content. Would you help us by sharing the episode, rating, leaving a review in your favorite listening platform, and subscribing? Together we can influence more gospel-centered people to use their gifts where they’re most needed among the unreached.

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

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How do you handle the pressures of growing up hearing “don’t waste your life,” and what lessons can missionary kids and pastors’ kids take away? Barnabas Piper joins us this week as we wander to and fro to discuss those topics along with cultivating a curiosity with other cultures, parenting with an eye towards missions, and avoiding ministry cynicism by grounding our identity in Christ.

Barnabas is a writer, author, speaker, co-host of The Happy Rant Podcast, and Marketing Manager for B&H Academic. He has written for numerous print and online publications. Most recently, he published The Curious Christian: How Discovering Wonder Enriches Every Part of Life. He now lives in the Nashville area and can be followed on Twitter via @BarnabasPiper.

We’re enormously grateful for the chance to spread this expert content. Would you help us by sharing the episode, rating, leaving a review in your favorite listening platform, and subscribing? Together we can influence more gospel-centered people to use their gifts where they’re most needed among the unreached.

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

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There’s a theological famine across the majority world. How can we fix that? Are translated English resources the solution? How can we encourage more theological educators to serve overseas? And why does the chasm between the gospel-centered, big-God theology movement and the missions world seem so large?

On April 12th, 2018 at Together for the Gospel in Louisville, Kentucky, ABWE and Baptist Haiti Mission co-hosted an expert panel to answer those questions and more. In this episode you’ll hear IMB Vice President Zane Pratt, David Sills (at the time, president of Reaching and Teaching; now former), Scott Dunford of ABWE, Rick Denham of 9Marks, Darren Carlson of Training Leaders International, and Bill Walsh of The Gospel Coalition share their burdens and solutions.

We’re enormously grateful for the chance to spread this expert content. Would you help us by sharing the episode, rating, leaving a review in your favorite listening platform, and subscribing? Together we can influence more gospel-centered theological teachers, writers, translators, and pastors to use their gifts where they’re most needed among the unreached.

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

Powered by ABWE International.