Looking to Missionary Greats for Clues
I’m quite the history buff, and I especially love reading biographies about early missionary leaders. If you’ve been keeping up with me on Twitter or Facebook, you know that I’ve been posting many of these quotes as part of my daily routine. I feel like God has put on my heart a simple message for all followers of Jesus today: The Great Commission is a command, given by Jesus, to be followed by all Christians. No exceptions. So, it behooves us to know what the Great Commission is and what it means to follow the command.
Looking over a few of the quotes from missionary pioneers, it seems like they too knew that this command was to be obeyed by all. Something has gotten lost between when these men and women so boldly sacrificed everything for the sake of the Gospel, taking the message of our Lord and Savior to all around the world.
This blog post is meant to be short. I’d ask you to read the following quotes, pray about your own perspective about missions, and ask God if your attitude toward the Great Commission needs adjustment.
“Is not the commission of our Lord still binding upon us? Can we not do more than now we are doing?” — William Carey
“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed” — Hudson Taylor
“‘Go ye’ is as much a part of Christ’s Gospel as ‘Come unto Me.’ You are not even a Christian until you have honestly faced your responsibility in regard to the carrying of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.” — J. Stuart Holden
“God is a God of missions. He wills missions. He commands missions. He demands missions. He made missions possible through His Son. He made missions actual in sending the Holy Spirit.” — George W. Peters
“Missions is not the ‘ministry of choice’ for a few hyperactive Christians in the church. Missions is the purpose of the church.” — Unknown
“The true measure of success for a church is not how many people it seats, but how many people it sends.” – Unknown
Of course, there are many additional quotes from the ‘heroes’ of missionary movements past. The Great Commission, which I detail in a 5 part series starting here, is a command to be followed by all Christians. Dear reader, what would it take for your life to exude the kind of zeal we find in these quotes? I believe our lives should exude this kind of zeal, for the lost, for the Great Commission commands of our Lord and Savior. As P.F. Bresee, the founder of the Church of the Nazarene is quoted as saying, “We are debtors to every man to give him the gospel in the same measure in which we have received it.”