"Why should anyone hear the gospel twice before everyone has heard it once? - Oswald J. Smith

 

"If God calls you to be a missionary, don't stoop to be a king!" -  Jordan Grooms (variations of this also credited to G. K. Chesterson, Thomas Carlyle and Charles Haddon Spurgeon)

 

“Some wish to stay within the sound of church or chapel bell. I'd rather run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.” - C.T. Studd

 

“Missions is not applied anthropology, comparative religion or sociology. It is storming the gates of hell. It is a power confrontation—hand-to-hand combat with Satan and his demons.” - KP Yohannan

 

“When those who have received God's forgiveness have the opportunity to give the message to millions, but don't—that's injustice.” - Jossy Chacko

 

"In the Great Commission as it is found in Matthew, the phrase 'make disciples of all ethne (peoples)' does not let us off the hook once we have a church in every country-God wants a strong church within every people!" - Ralph D. Winter

 

"In all candor and to our continuing shame, let us admit that the world's perishing unreached peoples are very seldom mentioned or thought about in almost all churches." - Phil Bogosian

 

"There is enough evangelism taking place today to reach the world dozens of times. Unfortunately, most of it is happening among people who have already heard the Gospel." - KP Yohannan

 

“The Great Commission given to the church in Matthew 28:19 says: 'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age.' Jesus did not say, 'Stay therefore, around your neighborhood, inviting people to church, building ever-bigger buildings and programs.'” - Dave Kahle

 

“If God was behind the Great Commission, shouldn't it be the most successful enterprise in the world? If preaching the gospel was the whole purpose of our existence as Christians...shouldn't we see everyone rushing to get involved?” - Jossy Chacko

 

"The single most important hindrance to world evangelization right now is the lack of total involvement by the Body of Christ." - KP Yohannan

 

"There is a disturbing trend within many missions-conscious churches today. Although they still desire to fulfill the Great Commission, the focus has shifted inward. Rather than answer the question, 'How will the lost be reached?' they now ask themselves, 'How can we reach them?" It is a small but alarming change, for suddenly the emphasis is on 'what works best for us' rather than 'what will most effectively reach them." - KP Yohannan

 

“It concerns the accountability of Christian leaders, managers, and executives both to the churches themselves and also, ultimately far more important, to the world's long-suffering populations. Disturbingly rash promises that Christians had now pledged to bring concrete benefit to the entire world by the Millennial deadline had been proclaimed, only to be seen 10 years later as broken promises. Yet nobody has begun apologizing, let alone admitting liability. Any secular national or multinational enterprise—bank, government, university, industry, transnational—recording such a spectacular failure to achieve its own trumpeted goals would have been mercilessly exposed by the media and then closed down by investors or shareholders or governments or parliaments or other watch-dogs long ago. With the golden opportunity of that Decade thus catastrophically squandered, the new Millennium from AD 2001 onwards would appear to demand the replacement of leadership by a new generation of younger Great Commission Christians not afraid to augment their expertise in visual navigating with reliance on instrumentation in the multitudinous ever-present areas of poor information visibility and even of information ignorance.” - David B. Barrett

 

“We must base our mission policies on supporting whoever is doing the work of the Gospel, not on who is going overseas from our circle of friends.” - KP Yohannan

 

“the quality and success of missionaries should not be determined by how long they stayed on the field, but by how briefly they stayed, and how strategic they were in developing national leaders and sustainable infrastructure.” - Jossy Chacko

 

"More missionaries are now sent from non-Western churches than from the traditional mission-sending bases in the West." - Ralph D. Winter and Bruce A. Koch

 

"There was a time when Western missionaries needed to go into these countries where the Gospel was not preached. But now a new era has begun, and it is important that we officially acknowledge this. God has raised up indigenous leaders who are more capable than outsiders to finish the job." - KP Yohannan

 

“With the explosion of the church in the Southern Hemisphere, we must ask, does the church of the Lord Jesus Christ still need the western, denominational career missionary? Since this model of service is 200 years old, have we not come to a stage where we need to ask 'How does God want us to serve the church in the present context?'” - Paul R. Gupta and Sherwood G. Lingenfelter

 

“While there may still be a significant place for the well trained, western, cross-cultural church planter, the growing edge of mission today is strategic parnership, coming alongside the national church and mission task force, and working together to reach the unreached.” - Paul R. Gupta and Sherwood G. Lingenfelter

 

“While most middle-class families would not hesitate to spend four hundred dollars a month on a car payment, two or three hundred dollars on credit card purchases, and another two or three hundred on cell phone, cable television and internet, access, they do not comprehend that they could fully support seven Indian missionaries or trainers of trainers with those same dollars. The opportunity and challenge for the western church is to invest in the equipping of leaders in India, Africa, and the poorest nations of Asia. The opportunity is vast, and the needs are critical. The Lord is waiting for the rich to partner with the poor to make disciples of the nations.” - Sherwood G. Lingenfelter

 

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