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When Missions Shapes the Mission: You and Your Church Can Reach the World
"Why are more churches not engaged in practical, substantial ways of taking the gospel to the nations?"
When Missions Shape the Mission unpacks a statistical study of traditionally evangelical churches that reveals their anemic level of commitment to the biblical mandate of making Christ known around the world. Veteran pastor David Horner makes the data easy to understand, challenging other pastors to radically assign their best leadership and resources to missions as he looks at where the church is today, how it got there, and where we must go from
"Let's dream a godly dream. What if you committed to step up and lead your church in the pursuit of becoming a mission-focused church? Then, what if you invited ten of your pastor friends to join you in the effort—and each of them did the same? What would happen to the available missions force beginning right here in the West?"
When Missions Shape the Mission unpacks a statistical study of traditionally evangelical churches that reveals their anemic level of commitment to the biblical mandate of making Christ known around the world. Veteran pastor David Horner makes the data easy to understand, challenging other pastors to radically assign their best leadership and resources to missions as he looks at where the church is today, how it got there, and where we must go from
"Let's dream a godly dream. What if you committed to step up and lead your church in the pursuit of becoming a mission-focused church? Then, what if you invited ten of your pastor friends to join you in the effort—and each of them did the same? What would happen to the available missions force beginning right here in the West?"
280 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 2, 2011
9 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
January 19, 2026
Read half of this book in a deer stand while it was snowing. Kind of baller ngl. When I first started reading I really disliked this book. The way this guys uses statistics is crazy. He’ll have a singular page with over ten stats about the church and fails to explain what these stats mean. The reason I gave this book 4 stars is because I cried twice while reading this. I realized what Horner was doing and why he was writing this book in the first place. If my church established practices like these, then I would be on the mission field right now. This book gave me a deep burden to make missions more of a priority in whatever church I pastor in the future.
January 21, 2020
I’ve read several “missions” books and this may be my favorite. Written by a local church pastor directed more toward those in the local church, Horner is engaging and challenges the reader to further missions commitment. I loved the breakdown of the book where we are, where we want to be, how to get there. His extensive research is evident in what history has shown in missions and in what good missions churches are doing today. I highly recommend this book to all pastors, seminary students, or preparing missionaries.
June 17, 2021
There are many great points in this book, which is targeted for church pastors and missions leaders. He includes a lot of ideas in the book, starting with how many churches don't do missions well to why they should do better and how they can do better. I think it's a bit too much for one book. If I was reading it years ago it would have just fueled my dissatisfaction with church pastors who don't get it, but I am in a very different place now. I have a pastor that does get it and has delegated the task of implementing the church vision to reach the world to a team. So instead I got some ideas for our new team in implementing our strategy. What was fun was seeing our church listed as one of the churches surveyed, when under the precious pastor who also understands missions well.
February 15, 2025
I've read a lot of books on missiology recently, but this will likely be the one I reference the most in ministry. Horner does a stellar job with the theological foundation the very center of God’s plan to reach the nations. Far from the narrow, local “missions” that some churches limit their efforts toward, Horner suggests a strategic and comprehensive plan to reach the uttermost parts of the earth that do not have access to the life-saving power of the gospel. When we (the church) think of "missions," we should think of crossing a culture, learning a language, and bringing the gospel to a place where it cannot be easily accessed. 1st time read. 4/5.
March 18, 2021
A Pastor who has a missionary heart
We have a missionary God who has called His Bride— the church to go where His name is not famous or to support those who do go. For all once you are saved, then you are sent. Very practical book on instilling a missions heartbeat in the local church.
We have a missionary God who has called His Bride— the church to go where His name is not famous or to support those who do go. For all once you are saved, then you are sent. Very practical book on instilling a missions heartbeat in the local church.
December 25, 2017
Decent piece on missions with lots of practical advice for pastors and other ministry leaders. Unfortunately, the editors did a poor job and the book is riddled with typos and grammatical errors. Aside from the many errors, the book is a pretty decent work.
October 28, 2018
Inspiring
This book gave a lot of great data that really makes one question the American Church’s commitment to the Great Commission. But most importantly it offers a myriad of ideas for how to make one’s church more mission minded, ideas for both large and small churches.
This book gave a lot of great data that really makes one question the American Church’s commitment to the Great Commission. But most importantly it offers a myriad of ideas for how to make one’s church more mission minded, ideas for both large and small churches.
July 8, 2024
This book is SUPER niche and is basically a case study into how churches approach missions. It is very well researched and super practical. The first half was 2-3 stars for me, but the second half was great. Very worth reading on!
January 9, 2019
“We have a local address but a global understanding of who we are and why we exist.”
Great resource for anyone who wants to influence his church for focused and fruitful missions outreach.
Great resource for anyone who wants to influence his church for focused and fruitful missions outreach.
April 8, 2013
“Facts are stubborn things,” John Adams once famously quipped. “[A]nd whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” It takes courage to be brutally honest with facts, and nowhere is this truer than when it comes to the subject of missions in the United States of America, particularly within our tribe, the Southern Baptist Convention.
In the first section — “Where We Are” — Horner lays out some of the stats within the SBC. Perhaps the most troubling is that less than 20 cents of every dollar given to SBC churches ultimately goes to missions overseas; and 80% of SBC churches never send a missionary from their own church.
One helpful section is Horner’s treatment of the Great Commission mandate. He takes to task the popular notion that the aorist participle “go” should be translated as “as you go make disciples.” Citing the scholarly work of Andreas Kostenberger and Roy Ciampa, Horner demonstrates that the imperative (“make disciples”) gives the participle an imperatival force, meaning that there is still biblical warrant for emphasizing the going into the nations in fulfillment of Matthew 28.
Some books quickly jump into the practicalities of mission work without thoroughly grounding the discussion in God’s redemptive plan. Horner excels at this point by making clear that God’s heart has always been for the nation, even all the way in Genesis 12 with the call of Abraham. From the outset God initiated a plan by which he would reach the nations, coming to fruition in the New Testament as God’s full purposes are clearly set forth in progressive revelation — or as Paul states, Christ came in the “fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4), signaling that both Jews and Greeks would be justified on the basis of faith.
One would think if church’s imbibed this clear biblical teaching, it would trickle down powerfully into the church culture. But as Horner indicates, there are perennial obstacles to having such a “kingdom-focused” ministry. In chapter five he lists several of them: 1) inward-focuses churches; 2) a trend toward isolationism among nations; 3) the magnitude of the task; 4) compromise of conviction about the message and the masses; and 5) general spiritual apathy. I agree with Horner in that the pastor in uniquely positioned to set the tone of missions-priority within the life of the church. Later on he details some practical ways such as assigning clear leadership responsibility for missions (i.e., have someone devoted to the effort), emphasizing missions from the pulpit/preaching, using both budget and non-budget funding for missions, emphasizing both long-term and short-term trips. Moreover, we need to change These are indeed great steps that should provide fodder for conversation and implementation as we seek to honor the Lord in making his name great among the nations.
With brutal honesty and pastoral sensitivity, Horner forces us — those who call ourselves Southern Baptist — to look at the “stubborn facts” and change course appropriately. We engage not in missions out of guilt or sentimental feelings, but out of a desire to see God praised. Such a grounding for the work of missions is an “unending source of motivation, inspiration, and consistency in making the name of Jesus Christ known to everyone everywhere!” (90).
In the first section — “Where We Are” — Horner lays out some of the stats within the SBC. Perhaps the most troubling is that less than 20 cents of every dollar given to SBC churches ultimately goes to missions overseas; and 80% of SBC churches never send a missionary from their own church.
One helpful section is Horner’s treatment of the Great Commission mandate. He takes to task the popular notion that the aorist participle “go” should be translated as “as you go make disciples.” Citing the scholarly work of Andreas Kostenberger and Roy Ciampa, Horner demonstrates that the imperative (“make disciples”) gives the participle an imperatival force, meaning that there is still biblical warrant for emphasizing the going into the nations in fulfillment of Matthew 28.
Some books quickly jump into the practicalities of mission work without thoroughly grounding the discussion in God’s redemptive plan. Horner excels at this point by making clear that God’s heart has always been for the nation, even all the way in Genesis 12 with the call of Abraham. From the outset God initiated a plan by which he would reach the nations, coming to fruition in the New Testament as God’s full purposes are clearly set forth in progressive revelation — or as Paul states, Christ came in the “fullness of time” (Gal. 4:4), signaling that both Jews and Greeks would be justified on the basis of faith.
One would think if church’s imbibed this clear biblical teaching, it would trickle down powerfully into the church culture. But as Horner indicates, there are perennial obstacles to having such a “kingdom-focused” ministry. In chapter five he lists several of them: 1) inward-focuses churches; 2) a trend toward isolationism among nations; 3) the magnitude of the task; 4) compromise of conviction about the message and the masses; and 5) general spiritual apathy. I agree with Horner in that the pastor in uniquely positioned to set the tone of missions-priority within the life of the church. Later on he details some practical ways such as assigning clear leadership responsibility for missions (i.e., have someone devoted to the effort), emphasizing missions from the pulpit/preaching, using both budget and non-budget funding for missions, emphasizing both long-term and short-term trips. Moreover, we need to change These are indeed great steps that should provide fodder for conversation and implementation as we seek to honor the Lord in making his name great among the nations.
With brutal honesty and pastoral sensitivity, Horner forces us — those who call ourselves Southern Baptist — to look at the “stubborn facts” and change course appropriately. We engage not in missions out of guilt or sentimental feelings, but out of a desire to see God praised. Such a grounding for the work of missions is an “unending source of motivation, inspiration, and consistency in making the name of Jesus Christ known to everyone everywhere!” (90).
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September 7, 2016The author’s purpose in writing this book is to assist pastors and churches as they dare to make a major step of faith to take the Gospel to the nations as well as to the neighborhood. I think overall Horner achieved his goal of trying to communicate the importance of churches having a global vision of reaching the world with the love of Christ. After reading the book you will be forced to take a serious look at the missions efforts of your church! He is writing from a lot of years of experience as a pastor and as one who has been and continues to be involved with missions work and missionaries serving overseas!
The book is very well written and easy to read; it is also a good balance of facts, statistics and stories. However, it’s not just a fact book, Mr. Horner has given a lot of how to helps and good examples of how other churches involved in overseas missions are doing it. I like that there was a heavy emphasis on depending on the power of Holy Spirit in doing missions work.
He also talked a lot about the importance of going to a few places overtime and partnering with indigenous pastors in those places. That to me alone was worth the reading of the book. There are many “missionary tourists” that are more interested in filling their passports with visa stamps than they are in telling the nations about Jesus! Going to a few places repeatedly cements your passions for the people and their needs and also builds relationships, which in my opinion is one of the most important, if not the most important ingredient in the success of overseas missions work!
There are two things that he talked about that were so good I wish he had given them a chapter each. That is the issues of doing a laser focused missions work in a particular place and with a specific people group. The other one is the issue to partnering with solid and reputable indigenous people who are in country long term to do missions. After all the best missionaries in a given culture is a godly well trained person from that culture.
I would totally recommend the book to pastors and church leaders especially those involved directly in missions and are looking for a good motivation to revamp their missions efforts. If you are too busy a pastor and have no time to read the whole book, Chapter 9 on Catching the Vision is worth your time. Over all it is a good book I would recommend it to mostly American pastors/churches and select foreign pastors who can contextualize the principles in the book to their own needs. It is a book written by an American pastor for American church/pastoral audience.
The book is very well written and easy to read; it is also a good balance of facts, statistics and stories. However, it’s not just a fact book, Mr. Horner has given a lot of how to helps and good examples of how other churches involved in overseas missions are doing it. I like that there was a heavy emphasis on depending on the power of Holy Spirit in doing missions work.
He also talked a lot about the importance of going to a few places overtime and partnering with indigenous pastors in those places. That to me alone was worth the reading of the book. There are many “missionary tourists” that are more interested in filling their passports with visa stamps than they are in telling the nations about Jesus! Going to a few places repeatedly cements your passions for the people and their needs and also builds relationships, which in my opinion is one of the most important, if not the most important ingredient in the success of overseas missions work!
There are two things that he talked about that were so good I wish he had given them a chapter each. That is the issues of doing a laser focused missions work in a particular place and with a specific people group. The other one is the issue to partnering with solid and reputable indigenous people who are in country long term to do missions. After all the best missionaries in a given culture is a godly well trained person from that culture.
I would totally recommend the book to pastors and church leaders especially those involved directly in missions and are looking for a good motivation to revamp their missions efforts. If you are too busy a pastor and have no time to read the whole book, Chapter 9 on Catching the Vision is worth your time. Over all it is a good book I would recommend it to mostly American pastors/churches and select foreign pastors who can contextualize the principles in the book to their own needs. It is a book written by an American pastor for American church/pastoral audience.
February 1, 2014
Ok, so you know that World Missions is one of the highest priorities of the Church, and you have the Great Commission memorized and/or tattooed on your arm (don't do that). Now what? What does this actually look like for your church? That is what this book attempts to cover.
This isn't a missions rah-rah book (even though it is). This book is focused on how to get your church committed to missions and effectively communicating the importance of missions to the people in the pews. I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it. I would let you borrow my copy, but I left it at the Food Court.
This isn't a missions rah-rah book (even though it is). This book is focused on how to get your church committed to missions and effectively communicating the importance of missions to the people in the pews. I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it. I would let you borrow my copy, but I left it at the Food Court.
November 30, 2015
Horner's book is a good, solid book for those from more traditional churches who are looking for a guide to strengthen their churches mission's focus. Horner does a very good job of taking the reader from the theoretical and theological to the practical. As a former Missions pastor and Justice pastor of two mega-churches, I found the book to be solid - but nothing new. If you are looking for innovative ideas for missions foci in your church, there if very little new here. However, if you are from a fairly traditional church that is looking to increase their missions focus, this is a great book for you.
December 7, 2018
Not too idealistic or utilitarian, but biblical, enthusiastic, and practical. Written for pastors and ministry leaders, openly a southern baptist perspective.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews