# Church Centered Missions Generated by Yoast SEO v28.1, this is an llms.txt file, meant for consumption by LLMs. ## Pages - [About](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/about/) - [Newsletter Subscribe](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/newsletter-subscribe/) - [Home](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/) - [Books](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/books/) - [Podcasts](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/podcasts/) ## Posts - [Why Missionaries Need to Know the Trinity](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/2026/07/why-missionaries-need-to-know-the-trinity/) - [Faithful, Not Formulaic: A Call for Wise Evangelism](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/2026/07/faithful-not-formulaic-a-call-for-wise-evangelism/) - [William Carey: The Father of Church\-Centered Missions](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/2026/07/william-carey-the-father-of-church-centered-missions/) - [There Are Worse Things Than Going Home](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/2026/05/there-are-worse-things-than-going-home/) - [Pastor, You Know More than You Think about the Missionary Task](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/2026/04/pastor-you-know-more-than-you-think-about-the-missionary-task/) ## Books - [The Path to Being a Missionary](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/book/the-path-to-being-a-missionary/): Every year, sincere believers step forward with a longing to take the gospel to the nations\. Their zeal is a good gift, but zeal alone is not a qualification\. The church has long known that desire must be tested—that the one who aspires to a good work must also be proven fit for it\. That is why we ask you to slow down\. Before you fill out an application or book a flight, sit with the harder questions\. Do those who know you best see in you the character, the convictions, and the competencies that missionary service demands? Has your local church affirmed what you sense in your own heart? This book will not tell you whether you feel called\. It will help you and your church discern whether you are qualified—and that, we are convinced, is the better place to begin\. - [Prioritizing the Church in Missions](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/book/prioritizing-the-church-in-missions/): Modern missions has a church problem\. Not a shortage of passion or personnel, but a creeping conviction that the church is optional—a helpful structure when present, an acceptable casualty when inconvenient\. Parachurch ministries multiply, movement\-driven strategies proliferate, and theological minimalism spreads, all under the banner of urgency\. Folmar and Logsdon do not dispute the urgency\. They dispute the conclusion\. Bad ecclesiology, they argue, does not accelerate the mission; it undermines it, leaving behind communities of believers with no anchor, no accountability, and no capacity to send the next generation of missionaries\. Working from Scripture and from hard\-won experience in Muslim\-majority contexts, the authors trace a single argument across six chapters: the church is the origin of missions, the means of missions, and the goal of missions\. Healthy churches plant healthy churches\. Missionaries who are not sent by churches and accountable to them are not more free—they are more fragile\. And the gospel preserved in a thriving local congregation long after a missionary has left is not a secondary outcome of the work\. It is the work\. - [Persecution in Missions](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/book/persecution-in-missions/): The missionary who arrives on the field unprepared for suffering is not just personally vulnerable—he is pastorally dangerous\. When hardship comes, and it will, a theology built on excitement and optimism will collapse, taking with it the young believers who were watching to see how a follower of Jesus handles pain\. Rhodes writes as one who has stood with new converts attacked for their faith, and his concern is not to valorize their suffering or romanticize their courage, but to ground them—and their missionary partners—in what Scripture actually teaches about why God allows persecution and what he is doing through it\. The biblical picture is neither naive nor grim\. Suffering is an evil to be avoided where possible and endured with joy where not\. It is the path of the New Exodus, the mark of those who belong to a kingdom not yet fully come\. Rhodes works through the practical implications with the mind of a theologian and the instincts of a pastor: when to flee and when to stand firm, how to disciple believers living under sustained pressure, and how to resist the twin errors of downplaying persecution and making it a badge of honor\. This is the book missionaries and sending churches needed before they ever got on the plane\. - [Should I Be a Missionary?](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/book/should-i-be-a-missionary/): Ramona grew up in a town with a church building on every corner\. Gospel\-preaching churches seemed as easy to find as drive\-thru restaurants\. You might never pull in to order anything, but it was there if you wanted it\. It had never occurred to her that the rest of the world might be different until she went on a church\-sponsored mission trip to east Asia\. During that trip, Ramona found herself surrounded by a level of spiritual poverty that she'd never seen before, and her perspective began to change\. One evening she looked down on a busy street from the balcony of her hotel\. Contemplating the masses of people below, she found herself thinking, "There isn't a single gospel\-preaching church in this city\. Who is going to tell these people about Jesus? Maybe I should consider coming back to help establish a church\. Maybe \. \. \. I should be a missionary?" Do you have a similar story? Are you asking that same question? Or maybe someone who knows you gave you this booklet because they think you should be asking that question\. Whatever the case, I hope to give you some Bible\-based wisdom to help you along your way\. And wherever you find yourself, I hope to help you get on with serving Jesus wherever you are and whatever your role in his church\. So let's get to it: Should you be a missionary? Frankly, it depends\. - [How Can I Support International Missions?](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/book/how-can-i-support-international-missions/): Global missions can feel distant—a calling for the exceptional few who uproot their lives and cross oceans\. But Scripture tells a different story\. The missionary on the field depends on a web of faithful people behind him: those who pray with consistency, give with generosity, study his context with genuine interest, and share the gospel with the neighbor next door\. Collins argues that the local church member is not a spectator to the Great Commission but a participant in it, and that participation does not require a passport\. This compact booklet walks through nine practical ways any Christian can invest in international missions without leaving home\. It is the kind of resource a pastor can hand to a new believer after a Sunday service, or a small group can work through together in a single sitting\. Brief and direct, it does not overwhelm—it clarifies\. And in clarifying, it reminds readers that the spread of the gospel to the ends of the earth has always depended on ordinary people doing ordinary things with extraordinary faithfulness\. ## Episodes - [On A Path to Being a Missionary](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/episode/on-a-path-to-being-a-missionary/) - [On John Paton](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/episode/on-john-paton/) - [On Missions Work in Bangkok, with Matt Tyler and Daniel Davison](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/episode/on-missions-work-in-bangkok-with-matt-tyler-and-daniel-davison/): \Ryan and Mack talk with Matt Tyler and Daniel Davison about missions work in Bangkok, the need for healthy churches, and gospel opportunities in Thailand\.   Resources Mentioned Bangkok City Baptist Church Systematic Theology, Vol\. 1 by Stephen J\. Wellum Great Commission Council \(GCC\) Articles\ - [On Contextualization and the Bible](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/episode/on-contextualization-and-the-bible/): \Ryan and Mack talk with Elliot Clark and Caleb Greggsen about the complexities of contextualization in missions—how to faithfully communicate the gospel across cultures with clarity, humility, and cultural sensitivity\.   Topics Discussed \[00:00\] What Is Contextualization? Definitions and biblical foundations for cross\-cultural communication\. \[02:00\] Guidelines for Faithful Contextualization Clarity over conformity, and why everyone \[…\]\ - [On Healthy Indigenous Churches](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/episode/on-healthy-indigenous-churches/): \In this episode of Missions Talk, Ryan, Mack, and TJ explore the marks of a healthy indigenous church, highlighting key practices like regular gatherings and faithful preaching, while addressing the challenges missionaries face in establishing churches that are both biblically sound and culturally rooted\.\ ## Videos - [Pastoring 60 Nationalities in the Middle East with John Folmar](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/video/pastoring-60-nationalities-in-the-middle-east-with-john-folmar/) - [Why ecclesiology must come before missiology](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/video/why-ecclesiology-must-come-before-missiology/) - [Why the Mission Field Needs Theologians, Not Just Evangelists with Matt Bennett](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/video/not-just-evangelists-with-matt-bennett/) - [Rethinking Missions by Language: Brooks Buser on the Four Lanes](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/video/rethinking-missions-by-language-brooks-buser-on-the-four-lanes/) - [We need healthy churches everywhere\. Introducing Church Centered Missions](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/video/we-need-healthy-churches/) ## Categories - [Uncategorized](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/category/uncategorized/) ## Optional - [Sitemap index](https://churchcenteredmissions.org/sitemap_index.xml)