"Out of the Comfort Zone" by George Verwer

I just skimmed a book about missions strategy by George Verwer called "Out of the Comfort Zone". It's a 152-page treatise on how to approach missions in a grace-based way. Written in 2000 - it's a pretty modern and on-target book.
Chapter 1 he talks about having a "grace-awakened approach to mission". He heavily quotes Swindoll's book on the topic. It's a good way to start out in thinking about mission.

Chapter 2 he speaks about witness - saying that "there is a 'being' and a 'doing' side to witnessing. Like so many things that people are arguing about in the church today, it isn't a case of 'either/or', but a case of 'both'." (p.21)

Chapter 3 is about being a missions leader. He speaks to the need for balance in leadership; for example = the balance between faith and common sense, the balance between discipline and liberty, the balance between authority and fellowship, the balance of life and doctrine, the balance between being decisive and firm while also gentle and broken, and also the balancing of the many priorities in the life of the leader (i.e. work and rest, family and time with God, etc..), lastly he reminds us to have a balanced view of God.
He also sets out 6 practices that the missions-leader needs to keep up on: 1. Keeping a Vision 2. Sensitivity and Understanding 3. People of Prayer 4. Encouragers of others 5. Committed to high standards in Communication 6. Readers
This chapter really spoke to me as a leader. I think it's quite good.

Chapter 4 is about being a missions mobilizer. He speaks to how to get informed and take ownership for world evangelism.

Chapter 5, called "Future Missionaries - From Where?" is dedicated to some of the controversies in the world of missions; such as western vs. indigenous missionaries, funding, insensitivity, redeployment, etc..
He believes that there should be Western missionaries in certain areas and indigenous missionaries in others. He believes in redeployment and in paying missionaries for missionary work (instead of having tent-makers). In fact, he belives it's poor stewardship to have a missionary doing a menial job that a non-Christian could be doing when they could be using their time to spread the gospel.
Verwer may be confident about a missions strategy; but he's also grace-based and warns against getting too "extreme" on this topic. As an example, he says that Brazil (which he predicts will be sending missionaries around the world by 2025) is a place that doesn't need Westerners; but suggests that if someone is having success there, that they stay - following the principle of spiritual expediency.

Chapter 6 is about funding - I'll be honest, I just skimmed over this chapter. But in the chapter before, I know he talks about the stewardship principle and the fact that a preacher/evangelist is worthy of a wage.

And the last chapter is called "Acts 13 Breakthrough" - he outlines what exactly he thinks needs to be done in missions in this new millinium. He includes numbers that are very informative and makes a plea for 200,000 new missionaries.

All in all, I think it was an excellent book. Great about missions, great about leadership and evangelism too.

A Gospel Primer for Christians part 2

"Preaching the gospel to myself each day nourishes within me a holy brazenness to believe what God says, enjoy what He offers, and do what He commands." (p. 52)

The first section of this book is a 55 page argument for why it would be beneficial to preach the gospel to ourselves daily. He also means that we say the truth of salvation in our prayers, thereby "putting on the armor of God" by our prayers. He also means that we meditate on certain aspects of the gospel. The argument is very sound and scriptural; I personally thought it went on a bit long. But, it was all good.

I liked the second section a lot. It was just sort of a list of statements and verses for us to meditate on concerning our salvation. For example, here's one: "I am completely unable to save myself or even to make one iota of a contribution to my own salvation." Then, it will give a verse to go along with that thought: Romans 5:6 "We were helpless."

The third section is a poem about the gospel. That's not for everyone, but I think it can be nice to read.

The final section is a story/example demonstrating what it's like to be a fallen/prideful human and how realizing the gospel can help us.

I think the book is pretty good; although I liked the second section the best; and it was kind of too short for me. I think it is a great launching board for getting started on a fantastic spiritual discipline: speaking out gospel truths in our prayer times. I think what would be fabulous would be to make my own section 2 list of truths and verses that was longer and have it to read through periodically.

A Gospel Primer for Christians by Milton Vincent

I started reading this book today as it was recommended to me by Nancy Baker. I guess it's an argument for how beneficial it can be to preach the gospel to oursleves daily. Also, it serves as a tool to help one down the road in this spiritual discipline. The thought is, as we preach the gospel to ourselves - it will not only color how we see things in life; but also keep important salvation truths near the front of our minds where they may slip out more in our dealings with non-Christians we encounter.
The idea seems to make perfect sense to me; in fact it may be a revelation. But, I'll write more on the whole book later when I finish it. Although, I've often noted that the gospel get preached to Christians over and over in the NT - and that there must be a great benefit to thinking about those truths a LOT! ;)
For now, though, I will say this little list has me thinking a lot. It's a list found at the end of his first chapter - and it's his own little list of what we in Xenos call the MOG (means of growth). But, his list is a bit lengthier than ours:
He calls them "Habits of grace"
- Bible meditation (Acts 20:32; Col 3:16)
- Faith (Heb. 4:2)
- Prayer (Heb. 4:16)
- Fellowship with the saints (Eph. 4:32)
- Humility (James 4:6)
- Generosity (2 Cor 9:8-14)
- Obedience (Titus 2:11-12)
- Forgiveness (Ephesians 4:32)
- Worship (Ephesians 1:6)
- Evangelism (2 Cor. 5:18-20)

It was interesting to me just to think about the MOG in a different way, and wonder what list I would come up with if I looked at the Bible and tried to find out - how is one supposed to move forward with God once forgiven?