Expect Great Things. Attempt Great Things.

May 6, 2020

Sermons can have a powerful individual effect. It is under the hearing of these sermons that people are saved, instructed, and grow in their faith. People will leave the church building saying, “It’s like he was preaching to just me” or “ I needed to hear that today.” However, some sermons go beyond personal effect. Some have the power to move a denomination and, in turn, leave a lasting change in the world.

This is precisely what happened to the Particular Baptist denomination of England when Andrew Fuller and William Carey delivered two powerful sermons to their local association in the early 1790s. God used these two sermons, and these two men, to change the course of history and usher in what we now call the modern-missions movement.

Adoniram Judson's First Missionary Test

October 30, 2019

What does someone need before being sent out by the church to serve in cross-cultural missions? Certainly, one should have a clear profession of faith and give some evidence of fruitfulness in evangelism and discipleship. One should have a sense of calling for the work, both subjectively and objectively. There will need to be a team of financial and spiritual supporters. Anything else?

Here’s something that often gets overlooked: Ecclesiology! Before being sent out, they should have a biblical, convictional understanding of the church. This was a lesson that Adoniram Judson learned the hard way.

Patrick of Ireland: Prepared to Proclaim

March 17, 2018

The life of Patrick exemplifies what the Apostle Paul describes in 2 Corinthians, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows” (2 Cor 1:3-5, CSB). The Lord used the sufferings Patrick endured to draw him to faith in Christ, and it was these same sufferings that the Lord used to prepare Patrick to proclaim the glories of his grace.

Lesslie Newbigin on the Mission of the Triune God

March 15, 2018

Lesslie Newbigin was a missionary, theologian, author, and pastor. He was an endearing man with a gregarious personality. Newbigin loved to tell jokes, “Did you hear the one about John Baillie and Karl Barth?” his friend Rev. Dan Beeby recalled. He also had an adventurous spirit. When Newbigin left the mission field, he made his return journey with wife Helen from Madurai to Bromely (through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey) toting only two suitcases and a rucksack, hitchhiking and bussing their way from south-central India to southeast London. One of Newbigin’s greatest contributions was his Trinitarian perspective on the mission of God.

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