Book recommendations for Missions

People know that I read a lot, and sometimes they ask me if I have book recommendations for missions. Perhaps it’s a subject that interests you, or you want to help inspire others.

The best book I ever read on missions (in my personal opinion) was John York’s “Missions in the Age of the Spirit.” I had the good fortune of sitting through a seminar with him as he taught this book to us, and it really illuminated my reading of Scripture. He believes that the mandate of the God’s redemption for ALL nations is evident from the Old Testament even before the arrival of Jesus Christ, or the outpouring of Pentecost. Of course, as a Pentecostal, he emphasizes that as being a major part of revealing redemption to the Gentiles, but it was God’s heart all along. It’s used as a textbook for missions classes, so it may be a little dry for some, but it’s certainly intriguing as he interprets all of Scripture through the lens of cross-cultural missions.

If you want a great prayer guide, you can’t do better than “Operation World” (it’s constantly being updated, so there are a LOT of editions of this). It’s amazing to learn about every country of the world, not just with demographic information, but with it’s information on the significant spiritual needs of that particular nation. It’s a great way to develop a habit of informed and strategic prayer for the world.

I’ll give separate recommendations for more specific subjects (like Islam, for example), but for general “missions work” these are two good ways to start.

Feel free to comment if you have a book on missions that specifically touched you. Perhaps I'll get some books on my own "to be read" list from your experiences!