Stories & Blog
Bold Challenge to Rethink Modern Missions
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It’s an often-quoted command: “Go therefore and make disciples….” But are some marginalized from the commission?
Consider this: Millions of potential disciple-makers in our churches remain sidelined because of their profession, while two-thirds of the world’s population lives in places closed to religious workers. “You can pay and pray,” they’ve been told, “but kindly leave missions to the professionals.”
“To keep on doing things the way we’ve always done them when the world and its people have so drastically changed is both naïve and arrogant,” writes Dale Losch, president of Crossworld and author of A Better Way: Make Disciples Wherever Life Happens (Crossworld, 2012). The church must rethink missions in the 21stcentury in light of the changing world, Losch says. “The world is not closed to us if we are willing to change our means of engagement.”
Take a look at the first century model. How did the first century church spread the gospel outside Jerusalem? Not by the apostles, but by everyone except the apostles (Acts 1:8, 4). The original missionary movement was carried out by ordinary believers, and so should it be today. Biblically trained ministry workers will always be needed, but it’s time to integrate biblically trained marketplace workers as well — businessmen, farmers, teachers, doctors, engineers and every other profession of Christ-followers eager to use their skills to accomplish God's Great Commission.
Losch calls readers back to Jesus’ way: unleash the explosive power of real disciple-making and the untapped potential of all believers and all professions. Offer life as it was meant to be — life to the full — by multiplying disciple-makers in the world’s least-reached marketplaces.
Christian leaders are hailing A Better Way as “a mission classic” and “a must-read for everyone serious about the Great Commission.”
Consider this: Millions of potential disciple-makers in our churches remain sidelined because of their profession, while two-thirds of the world’s population lives in places closed to religious workers. “You can pay and pray,” they’ve been told, “but kindly leave missions to the professionals.”
“To keep on doing things the way we’ve always done them when the world and its people have so drastically changed is both naïve and arrogant,” writes Dale Losch, president of Crossworld and author of A Better Way: Make Disciples Wherever Life Happens (Crossworld, 2012). The church must rethink missions in the 21stcentury in light of the changing world, Losch says. “The world is not closed to us if we are willing to change our means of engagement.”
Take a look at the first century model. How did the first century church spread the gospel outside Jerusalem? Not by the apostles, but by everyone except the apostles (Acts 1:8, 4). The original missionary movement was carried out by ordinary believers, and so should it be today. Biblically trained ministry workers will always be needed, but it’s time to integrate biblically trained marketplace workers as well — businessmen, farmers, teachers, doctors, engineers and every other profession of Christ-followers eager to use their skills to accomplish God's Great Commission.
Losch calls readers back to Jesus’ way: unleash the explosive power of real disciple-making and the untapped potential of all believers and all professions. Offer life as it was meant to be — life to the full — by multiplying disciple-makers in the world’s least-reached marketplaces.
- Evangelist and author Luis Palau says, “Pick up this book, dig in, and use it to learn how you can truly become an active participant in God’s Great Commission.”
- Missio Nexus President Steve Moore says, “Dale Losch is describing a paradigm-shifting reorientation of how we do mission.”