Sermon: Go to the Nations, Pt 2

Go to the Nations: Priorities and Responsibilities in Missions Selected Scriptures June 17, 2018 When I was in college I got a job working for a lumber supply company. I worked in the showroom selling things like plumbing and electrical parts, cabinets, and paint. To say that I was ignorant about the building business when […]

What is missions?

“What is missions?” seems a simple question to answer. But it is not. Because so many are now using missions with a variety of emphases — the social gospel as missions, social justice as missions, outreach as missions, and missional ministry — we want to articulate what we mean by missions. When we use the […]

Sermon: Go to the Nations

Go to the Nations: the What and Why of Missions Selected Scriptures June 10, 2018 I started studying for this sermon series almost 13 years ago. A man who was involved in a kind of mission ministry that we already were a part of in a part of the world where we were already supporting […]

Slain in the Shadow of the Almighty – from Desiring God

John Piper writes this morning: On January 8, 1956 — sixty years ago today — Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Peter Flemming, and Roger Youderian were speared to death on a sandbar called “Palm Beach” in the Curaray River of Ecuador. They were trying to reach the Huaorani Indians for the first time in […]

Sermon: Hospitality, truth, love, and missions, Pt. 2

Hospitality, Truth, Love, and Missions, Pt. 2 3 John 7-14 October 5, 2014 Years ago, when then-speaker of the house Sam Rayburn discovered he had terminal cancer, he shocked everyone when he announced that he was going back to his small hometown of Bonham, Texas. He was often asked, “They have the finest facilities in […]

Sermon: Hospitality, truth, love, and missions

Hospitality, Truth, Love, and Missions, Pt. 1 3 John 1-6 September 21, 2014 One thing we speak of frequently at GBC is the shape of our church ministry: what will we do and how will we do it? There are so many competing ideas of what a church is and how it should function that […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: You may have made a resolution this week about your Bible reading for this year. Here is some good counsel for “How to read the whole Bible in 2014” (including a variety of Bible reading plans) by Justin Taylor. I’ve also posted several plans for our church here. […]

When children die while serving the Lord

How do you respond when your child precedes you in death? And what do you say when they die in a vicious act of martyrdom. The father of John Stam give an example when he wrote a letter after his son and daughter-in-law were martyred in China in 1934. Our dear children, John Stam and […]

A testimony of God’s grace in suffering

Steve Saint, the son of Nate Saint, one of the men martyred by the Auca Indians in the 1950s, recently suffered partial paralysis in an accident at his ministry. He gives a testimony to the grace of God and calls others to the missionary endeavor from his hospital bed: He has previously talked and written […]

Thinking about…death

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been slowly making my way through Nancy Guthrie’s O Love That Will Not Let Me Go: Facing Death with Courageous Confidence in God. I’ve been encouraged by the biblical thinking of godly men about death. This morning I read this from John Eaves, a believer who was diagnosed […]

The missionary question

Take five minutes to think about “the missionary question” — where are there people groups who don’t have any Christians among them or a functioning church to do the work of evangelism? How many are there? [HT: Take Your Vitamin Z; Challies]

William Carey – expect great things from God

William Carey was the man who not only uttered the statement “expect great things from God, attempt great things for God,” but also with his life guided by that principle, launched much of what we know as the modern missions movement. (Interestingly, the sermon in which that statement was made is not in print anywhere, […]

Grab bag

Found around the internet in the past week — C. J. Mahaney blogs about “The Pastor and Personal Criticism.” But it’s not just pastors who need to understand the role of criticism in their lives (to produce wisdom and maturity). We can all benefit from the criticism we receive: If we could mature in wisdom […]

What are the odds?

I received this from our missionary in France. The conclusion might be a little surprising.

Sunday Leftovers (6/27/10)

Okay, I didn’t preach on Sunday, but appreciating what Jack said about missions and evangelism, these two statements came to mind in the past couple of days (one is an expansion of a quote he gave in his message): All of the early Christians were missionaries. They did not leave the evangelistic task either to […]