The Missionary Review

Christians of all ages recognize the heartbeat of God to take the Gospel to the nations and wrestle with the implications of the Great Commission in their own lives. The Missionary Call explores the biblical, historical, and practical aspects of discerning and fulfilling God's call to serve as a missionary. Pointing the reader to Scripture, lessons from missionary heroes, and his own practical and academic experience, Dr. Sills guides the reader to discern the personal applications of the missionary call.

What am I, a chief investment officer of one of the country’s largest investment managers, doing hailing down strangers at night on the streets of New York City? “Are you Catholic?” my friends and I ask. “Would you like a rosary? Would you like to go to confession here tonight?” “Are you kidding?” responds one man. “Been there, done that!” says another. “God, no!” chimes in a fast-walking atheist. “You Catholics are all pedophiles!” yells one angry woman. Another hands us a bag of dog poop. Sixty-year-old Michael even has advice: “Why don’t you evangelize out in the Middle East, where they need you?” “We’re needed here,” we respond. “This city needs Jesus, too. It needs His love.” * Some nights the tide turns in the Lord’s favor. A young woman approaches us, decked out in showy attire. “Are you guys really Catholic? I didn’t think there were any Catholics left! Can I have a purple rosary?” “Sure! Where are you going? We have lots to talk about.” “I’ve got to run! I’m a stripper. But I’m going to pray with this rosary.” * At times, the neighborhood even begins rooting for us. Strangers call out: “Way to go!” “Your courage is inspiring!” We’re in our groove now, engaging strangers with joy—and seeing some of them later in church. On the rough streets of the City, working shoulder-to-shoulder with Christ, we’re no longer alone; we feel God’s grace. You will, too, as you read the dozens of riveting – and often funny – stories in these pages, about ordinary Catholics from the financial sector evangelizing their wary New York neighbors. Indeed, so fascinating are their experiences, you may be tempted one day to join them.

One of President Obama's Favorite Books of the Year | A New York Times Notable Book | One of the Wall Street Journal Ten Best Books of the Year "Missionaries is a courageous book: It doesn’t shy away, as so much fiction does, from the real world.” —Juan Gabriel Vásquez, The New York Times Book Review “A sweeping, interconnected novel of ideas in the tradition of Joseph Conrad and Norman Mailer . . . By taking a long view of the ‘rational insanity’ of global warfare, Missionaries brilliantly fills one of the largest gaps in contemporary literature.” —The Wall Street Journal The debut novel from the National Book Award-winning author of Redeployment A group of Colombian soldiers prepares to raid a drug lord's safe house on the Venezuelan border. They're watching him with an American-made drone, about to strike using military tactics taught to them by U.S. soldiers who honed their skills to lethal perfection in Iraq. In Missionaries, Phil Klay examines the globalization of violence through the interlocking stories of four characters and the conflicts that define their lives. For Mason, a U.S. Army Special Forces medic, and Lisette, a foreign correspondent, America's long post-9/11 wars in the Middle East exerted a terrible draw that neither is able to shake. Where can such a person go next? All roads lead to Colombia, where the US has partnered with local government to keep predatory narco gangs at bay. Mason, now a liaison to the Colombian military, is ready for the good war, and Lisette is more than ready to cover it. Juan Pablo, a Colombian officer, must juggle managing the Americans' presence and navigating a viper's nest of factions bidding for power. Meanwhile, Abel, a lieutenant in a local militia, has lost almost everything in the seemingly endless carnage of his home province, where the lines between drug cartels, militias, and the state are semi-permeable. Drawing on six years of research in America and Colombia into the effects of the modern way of war on regular people, Klay has written a novel of extraordinary suspense infused with geopolitical sophistication and storytelling instincts that are second to none. Missionaries is a window not only into modern war, but into the individual lives that go on long after the drones have left the skies.

David Eller is an American missionary in Venezuela, married to missionary nurse, Christie. Together they rescue homeless children in Caracas. But for David, that isn't enough. The supply of homeless children is endless because of massive poverty and the oppressive policies of the Venezuelan government, led by the Hugo Chavez- like Armando Guzman. In a moment of anger, David publicly rails against the government, unaware that someone dangerous might be listening- a revolutionary looking for recruits. David falls into an unimaginable nightmare of espionage, ending in a desperate, life-or-death gamble to flee the country with his wife and son, with all the resources of a corrupt dictatorship at their heels.

A world-claiming theology of the church draws on ancient and modern thoughts. The author focuses on how the church can grow to become in reality "God's missionary people."

At this critical point in the history of World Missions, it is imperative for us to take a step back from “business as usual” in our work around the globe and reevaluate the strategies and methods we are implementing. What is working? What isn’t? If we’re honest, there may be more not working than we would care to admit. In this book, written in the early 1900s, Roland Allen invites us to look at the missionary work of the Apostle Paul with fresh eyes and an igniting perspective that is strikingly relevant to the greatest challenges we are facing today in modern missions. He offers a well of insight from the methodology of Paul that will focus and unite us as we draw nearer than ever before to our goal of fulfilling the Great Commission and reaching the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.