God's Great Missionaries

by Gary Krause

Author Gary Krause shares biblical and contemporary examples of sharing one's faith. What are you doing to meet other's needs? Can we Adventists get beyond ourselves to make a genuine difference in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0816322694
• ISBN13: 9780816322695
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: Pacific Press Publishing Association
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Thinking mission

So much is written about evangelism and mission these days that it's refreshing to take these many discussions back to the source. Beginning with the stories of Jesus, the early church and other assorted Bible characters, God's Great Missionaries takes a fresh and credible look at what it means to be part of the mission of God in the world today. Born to missionary parents, first-time author Gary Krause is now a director of mission for the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide. He brings this extensive experience of church mission activities around the world to his reading of familiar Bible stories. God's Great Missionaries is the companion book to a series of Bible-study guides and, in just a couple of places, the book slips and shows its Bible-study-guide origins, taking angles that do not strictly fit with the Bible-story sources or the flow of the book. But on the whole, the book gains strength from its solid Bible-study foundations. The Bible stories are treated with respect and depth, at its best when focused on the practical ministries of Jesus and Paul. At the same time, this is not merely a head-in-the-book Bible study--indeed the subject matters demands it not be. A book on engaging meaningfully with the world must itself engage with the realities of that world. God's Great Missionaries is poignantly aware of the need for God and the hope He offers to our world--a world that simply can't save itself--but also for the need for the message and presentation of the gospel to be adapted to language and obvious needs of the people with whom it is being shared. Krause draws on stories of mission from around the world, Adventist mission history and personal experience, as well as citing contemporary events, voices and trends, to demonstrate that gaining a hearing for a message is as much about listening and responding as it is about preaching. Easy reading but significant thinking, God's Great Missionaries' vision is active, global, inclusive, faithful, urgent and transformative. The book passionately challenges the church to think bigger in imagining how God can use us as His people to build His kingdom in our world: "We need to tear down those church doors and rip them off their hinges." And it must also challenge us individually as to the role we play in our lives, churches and communities.

A Little Subversion

In his first book, Gary Krause, Director of Global Mission, writes to infuse the Christian church with just the right amount of dispassionate analysis and passionate countermeasures. He's at his best recalling personal stories of travels all over the planet and pushing theoretical envelopes in godly ways--providing contemporary, specific examples for timeless concepts. "Christianity isn't a political party." "A starving person's first priority won't be a lecture on Daniel." "An atheist investment banker in New York City won't suddenly believe in God if we read her twenty Bible proof texts." Krause is a master of contextualization. He quotes from Bono and from Muggeridge, from Flannery O'Connor and Kanye West. Through it all, Jesus shines brighter, fairer, the cynosure of love and peace. The writing is punchy and pithy. Walls are demolished. Fresh air streams in. A broken world receives hope. I do think a better title might have been used, perhaps Dying for a Change: The Church Today and a Fresh Vision of Mission. In sum, this book deserves a read. Treat yourself.