Prioritizing Missions in the Church

Pastors from America and India Share How They Patiently and Faithfully Lead Missions in Their Local Churches

What role should the local church play in the mission to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth? Many Christians view missions work as a task for large churches or parachurch ministries. But God commands all believers in churches of all sizes to protect and proclaim his word. Working together patiently and faithfully, we can reach nations with the gospel.

In this brief guide, pastors Aaron Menikoff from Atlanta, Georgia, and Harshit Singh from Lucknow, India, share their journeys leading missions-centered churches in two different settings. Through their personal stories, they teach Scripture-led methods for fostering missions-minded congregations. Emphasizing the importance of patient training and church planting―in terms of years, not months―Menikoff and Singh help pastors and staff overcome geographic, cultural, and linguistic barriers to passionately start and strengthen churches around the world.

• Biblical: Helps churches understand their God-given responsibility to train and send quality missionaries
• Comprehensive: Examines long-term ways local churches can be missions-centered―through consistent evangelism, expositional preaching, prayer, singing, gathering, and ordinances
• Accessible: Written to guide pastors, staff, and missions-minded Christians in developing a healthy view of missions
• Part of the 9Marks Church-Centered Missions Series

Aaron Menikoff (PhD, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the senior pastor of Mount Vernon Baptist Church, where he has ministered since 2008. He is the author of Character Matters and Politics and Piety. He serves as the adjunct professor of church history at Reformed Theological Seminary, Atlanta, and is a founding board member of the Association of Churches for Missions and Evangelism. He lives in Atlanta with his wife, Deana, and their four children.

Harshit Singh serves as the preaching pastor of Satya Vachan Church in Lucknow, India. He is married to Malini, and they have four children.

Jonathan Leeman (PhD, University of Wales) is the president of 9Marks and cohost of the Pastors Talk podcast. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books and teaches at several seminaries. Jonathan lives with his wife and four daughters in suburban Washington, DC, and serves as an elder at Cheverly Baptist Church.

Brooks Buser (BS, San Diego Christian College) worked as a CFO of a Dutch multinational before he and Nina moved to Papua New Guinea to see a church planted among the Yembiyembi people. Over the thirteen years there, they developed an alphabet for the Yembiyembi language, taught them how to read and write in their own language, translated the Scriptures, and established a New Testament church. Brooks has an honorary PhD in linguistics and Bible translation from San Diego Christian College. He presently serves as the president of Radius International and Missionary.com.

Scott Logsdon (PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is pastor of an English-speaking church in Central Asia, where he resides with his wife. He has more than twenty years of experience in cross-cultural church planting.