#90: Is the Commission Still Great?

1024 576 David Joannes

Steve Richardson has served as President of Pioneers-USA since 1999 and is the author of Is the Commission Still Great?: 8 Myths About Missions & What They Mean for the Church.

Steve was raised in Indonesia, where his parents planted churches in a jungle tribe. He witnessed the impact of the gospel on their war-like society, a story documented in his father’s missionary classic, Peace Child. Steve and his wife, Arlene, also spent eleven years planting churches among an unreached people group in Southeast Asia. (Learn more about Don Richardson in The Mind of a Missionary.)

Is the Commission Still Great? dismantles the myths that obscure God’s beautiful plan to make disciples of all nations. Misperceptions discourage God’s people from joyfully participating with Him in reaching the world. Yet, deepening our understanding of the call to missions restores perspective and motivates us to participate in God’s grand design.

Here are the 8 myths highlighted in the book:

1: Missions Is Peripheral
2: Western Missionaries Are Obsolete
3: Everything We Do Is Missions
4: Missions Competes against Everything Else
5: Missions Is Now Short Term
6: Missionaries Are Holy, Rare, and Strange
7: Missions Is Harmful 8: Missions Is Failing

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On #MissionsPulse episode 90, @davidjoannes interviews Steve Richardson, President of @pioneersusa and author of Is The Commission Still Great? @MoodyPublishers and part of the Peace Child (Don Richardson) legacy.

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Purchase Missions Pulse host David Joannes’ books, The Space Between Memories (2016), The Mind of a Missionary (2018), and Gospel Privilege (2020). These books will stir you to know God’s heart and join his mission. 

The Space Between Memories highlights the last two decades of David Joannes’ missionary travels. From the hullabaloo of Manila to the jam-packed city streets of Kunming to the rural villages of Southwest China, this part memoir, part travelogue shows God’s hand at work among the most unassuming of misfits. It is a testament that if only we would answer his call, his glory can be found, even in the space between memories.

“Moment by moment, story by story, The Space Between Memories is a captivating journey of the victories and trials of life as a missionary in China.” — HEIDI BAKER, Co-Founder of Iris Global

Download a FREE CHAPTER at www.thespacebetweenmemories.com

In The Mind of a Missionary, David Joannes draws upon history, psychology, life experience, and powerful storytelling to reshape your perception of God’s unique plan for your life. Each chapter of this book highlights missionary heroes—historical and modern-day Christians—who challenge us to join God’s redemptive mission. You’ll be inspired by the lives of Jim & Elizabeth Elliot, C. T. Studd, Nikolaus Zinzendorf, Robert Moffat, Jackie Pullinger, David Eubank, Nik & Ruth Ripken, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, Don Richardson, and Heidi Baker.

“A future missions classic.” — NIK RIPKEN, author of The Insanity of God

Download a FREE CHAPTER at www.themindofamissionary.com

In Gospel Privilege, David Joannes shows that Jesus’ life-altering, culture-shaping, world-changing grace message brings unearned spiritual benefits for this life and the life to come. This book is a clarion call for the gospel- privileged to stand in advocacy for and in solidarity with the gospel- deprived; to step beyond our borders, even when it’s risky or uncomfortable, and share the rich privilege of knowing Christ.

“We must not hoard the message we have given to share with those who have not heard. It is our mandate. It is our mission. It is our sacred privilege. Such is the essence of Gospel Privilege by David Joannes.” — THOM S. RAINER, Founder and CEO of Church Answers and former President of LifeWay Christian Resources

Download a FREE CHAPTER at www.gospelprivilege.com