Review: Vision for Missions:
Vision for Missions: by Tom Wells
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’m not sure how I acquired this book. I believe it was given to me at some point. It sat on my shelf amidst other volumes until one day when it piqued my interest. Little did I know when I pulled it from its resting place that it would prove to be an epochal book in my life.
It was one of those books that seemed to appear at just the right time. I was only a few years into the ministry. I was like a little boy with a new set of Legos. I had the important blocks but they were in a jumble. I was wrestling with them, moving them around, turning them over, and trying to put them together cohesively to build something sensible and useful.
I was fully persuaded of God’s absolute sovereignty and supremacy in all things, but this book revealed an inconsistency and prompted an articulation of God centeredness in all things. What does that look like in the realm of missions? What should be our chief aim and motivation in missions? Before reading this book, I would have answered: Our chief aim and motivation in missions is the salvation of the nations.
That answer is not right and Tom Wells helped me see that in this book. God is always first. He is sovereign and supreme. So our first aim and motivation in missions is to declare His glory among the nations.
This crucial truth profoundly impacted my life and ministry. The pieces were there, but they weren’t fit together quite right. Looking back at my sermon log, I see that after reading this book I preached messages like “Declaring God’s Glory” from Psalm 96:1-3 and “God’s Commitment to His Own Glory” from Isaiah 42:8. I owe a debt here and I am grateful. I want God centeredness to saturate every aspect of life for me.
I highly recommend this book to you and hope you will consider well the primary message it contains.
