The Mind of a Missionary includes a wonderful balance of teaching, scripture, and examples—the perfect pick-me-up for a tempted-to-grow-weary missionary!

The Mind of a Missionary by David Joannes is a future missions classic.

David’s story-telling in The Mind of a Missionary is a feast of verbal delights as he transports you into the minds and hearts of some of the most profound risk-takers for the sake of spreading the Gospel message!

David Joannes does story-telling as well as anyone in his genre. Prepare to become more educated, to have your pulse ratcheted up in spots, and you might have to grab a hanky, too.

The Mind of a Missionary is a landmark book that crashes into your heart and mind, leaving a marked path in its wake. You should not read this book unless you are willing to be confronted with the gospel and challenged in how you live out your faith.

I believe The Mind of a Missionary by David Joannes will help you find your place in the greatest movement in history.

In The Mind of a Missionary, Joannes brings a helpful, new perspective on timeless lessons from missionary legends. You’ll be inspired and encouraged.

David is a masterful storyteller and a practical guide, and The Mind of a Missionary is a must-read for anyone who wants to last long and finish strong in their missional calling. 

If you want to stir up more passion for the Great Commission and unreached people, and seeing the glory of God proclaimed to the ends of the earth, get this book!

Anything written by David Joannes is a worthy read. In The Mind of a Missionary, he exposes the need for more missionary grit and plunges the depths of past missionary mindsets to pull out gems for this generation to learn from. 

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Charles Spurgeon once said, “You’re either a missionary or an imposter.” To be a Christ-follower means joining Jesus on his mission to redeem humanity. But missional living is easier said than done in a culture drifting toward post-Christian secularism. More than ever, we need a dose of Jesus’ missionary ethos to fill our minds with gospel passion. This Spirit-infused, mind-transforming download begins with The Mind of a Missionary.

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 & Elisabeth 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.

You’ll find that God uses ordinary, run-of-the-mill folks to extend his glory into the earthly setting.

Author David Joannes draws upon history, psychology, life experience, and powerful storytelling to reshape your perception of God’s unique plan for your life. He says, “If you really want to thrive on mission, you must allow God to redefine your definition of the normal Christian life.”

That’s the message of The Mind of a Missionary—which Nik Ripken, author of The Insanity of God and The Insanity of Obedience, calls “A future missions classic.”

Every citizen in God’s kingdom is significant, and you have a unique role in his Great Commission mandate. The Mind of a Missionary will unlock your passion for faith-sharing, help you put on the mind of Christ, and experience what the mind of a missionary is all about.

If you really want to thrive on mission, you must allow God to redefine your definition of the normal Christian life.

David Joannes, The Mind of a Missionary

ENDORSEMENTS & REVIEWS

David Joannes shapes this book through various lives who have followed Jesus from the streets of their birth to the ends of the globe. The Mind of a Missionary is filled with the truth and grace of the Great Commission command. Here, crucifixion and resurrection meet in the lives of real people and families who have determined to carry their cross to faraway places. Joannes reminds us that the rolled-away stone—the power of the resurrection—can become all peoples’ eternal possession and reality.

In The Mind of a Missionary, David Joannes takes us on a virtual adventure spanning centuries and continents with his latest book. His story-telling is a feast of verbal delights as he transports you into the minds and hearts of some of the most profound risk-takers for the sake of spreading the Gospel message!

The Mind of a Missionary is a timely reminder that if we don’t learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. Joannes brings a helpful, new perspective on timeless lessons from missionary legends. You’ll be inspired and encouraged.

In the contemporary Church, there’s little difference between having a fleeting ‘burden for missions’ and starry-eyed wanderlust. The call for long-term missionaries willing to lay aside their lives for the cause of Christ found in past generations is mysteriously absent today. The missions enterprise is taking on the flavor of a microwave culture aimed at scratching our consumeristic itch. David Joannes exposes the need for more missionary grit; he plunges the depths of past missionary mindsets to pull out gems for this generation to learn from. Anything written by David Joannes is a worthy read. I commend The Mind of a Missionary to anyone interested in cross-cultural ministry—or ministry in general.

The Mind of a Missionary is a compelling read. This book is a must for anyone who wants to last long and finish strong in their missional calling. As much as David is a masterful storyteller, he is also a practical guide. He lays out both the triumphant highs and challenging lows of life on the mission field, while always pointing to Jesus as the enabling Source and eternal Hope. Anyone who reads this book will surely be encouraged and better equipped to fulfill the Heavenly call on their life!

It’s been said that when it comes to missions, followers of Christ have three options: Go, send or disobey. If you are a goer, read this book. If you are a sender, read this book. If you are disobedient, read this book. I believe The Mind of a Missionary by David Joannes will help you find your place in the greatest movement in history.
Did you know missions has a backstory? Whatever you may think of the term: “missionary,” The Mind of a Missionary tells the missions story, and David Joannes does story-telling as well as anyone in his genre. Detailing the scenarios of unlikely human vessels, he reaches backward and probes inward, using research to bring to life the callings of God’s trail-blazers. Many famous names are featured, and there are others you may not have heard of, and some who bridge into the modern era, names like Jim Elliott and the Ecuador Five, Hudson Taylor, Jackie Pullinger, Don Richardson, The Cambridge Seven, Nik Ripken, William Carey, Amy Carmichael. You will learn what occurred in the minds of these individuals who dreamed big for God, why their lives mattered then, and matter today. He organizes the material into four sections: Motivations, Expectations, Risks, and Rewards. Prepare to become more educated, to have your pulse ratcheted up in spots, and you might have to grab a hanky, too. The coverage of stories creates a similar impact to taking a “Perspectives” course at a school or church, and yet, in my opinion, his treatment is a far more integrated presentation about missions and its unique challenges. It is my hope and prayer that this work becomes standard text in Christian schools and churches everywhere. It is that good!

With a combination of heroic stories, lessons from history, and modern developments in neurobiology, The Mind of a Missionary will change the way you think and live. The storytelling is intimate and compelling, and the insights so profound that I found myself longing to just sit with it—one phrase, one story, one convicting thought at a time. This is book will come crashing into your heart and mind, leaving a marked path in its wake. Let me suggest that you should not read this book unless you are willing to be confronted with the gospel and challenged in how you live out your faith in the context of the lost people around you and the unreached peoples around the world. The Mind of a Missionary is truly a landmark book. By God’s grace, this book will have far-reaching implications. It will prepare and equip a new generation to enter the field with courageous hearts and the right motives. And further still, it will provide, like streams in the desert, the encouragement needed to sustain those battle-weary ones who have already served long-term in fields far from home.

The Mind of a Missionary by David Joannes includes a wonderful balance of teaching, scripture, and examples—both contemporary and from church history. It’s the perfect pick-me-up for a tempted-to-grow-weary missionary!
In The Mind of a Missionary, David challenges all of us to live with a fervent and sacrificial love for people and a fire for God’s purposes. If you want to stir up more passion for the Great Commission and unreached people, and seeing the glory of God proclaimed to the ends of the earth, get this book!

Only by a cross does the world truly change and the only way to the cross is by nonconformity.

David Joannes, The Mind of a Missionary

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God beckons believers to follow him into the darkness that his light might shine through them, illuminating the atmosphere with his glory.

David Joannes, The Mind of a Missionary

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MEET THE AUTHOR

David is the Founder/CEO of Within Reach Global and the author of The Space Between Memories (2016), The Mind of a Missionary (2018), and Gospel Privilege (2021). He has been involved in cross-cultural missionary work for over 20 years. David graduated from the Teen Mania Ministries internship in 1996 and moved to China in 1997. In 2008, David and his wife founded Within Reach Global Inc., a non-profit Christian mission organization focused on reaching unreached people groups in the 10/40 Window. He now oversees a growing number of foreign and indigenous missionary staff at Within Reach Global, headquartered in Chiang Mai, Thailand. David is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and proficient in Tagalog and Thai. David lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand, with his wife and two daughters.