Inspiring world missions slogans, mottos, and quotes
"Some are trapped in boxes of pea-sized Christianity, full of myths about missions
that rob them of incentive to care about the unreached" --David Bryant in In the
Gap
Powerful World Christian sayings: Famous quotes about Christian
missions
"From everywhere to everyone." -- Samuel Escobar
Do you need a reason for being involved in global mission? Do you need inspiration, ideas,
or a rallying cry for a sermon or message on world missions? Are you involved in teaching or
learning about global outreach? Would you like to sense the burden and hear the cry of a
cross-cultural missionary's heart? Need some wall plaques or banners with mottos for a Faith
Promise event? Do you need a slogan for a special missions Sunday? Quotations from
missionary giants like William Carey and Hudson Taylor have served to inspire passion for and
involvement in the Christian global missionary movement.
Why missions? World evangelism has advanced under the banner of inspiring missionary
slogans, mottos and quotes like these on this page:
Note: The quotes appear in alphabetical order according to the author's last
name.
"A church that is not a missionary church is contradicting itself and quenching the
Spirit." – Lausanne Covenant
"Missionary zeal does not grow out of intellectual beliefs, nor out
of theological arguments, but out of love" — Roland
Allen
"'Not called!' did you say?
'Not heard the call,' I think you should say.
Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin.
Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for
help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house
and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in
the face — whose mercy you have professed to obey — and tell Him whether you
will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the
world. — William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army
"If the Church is 'in Christ,' she is involved in mission. Her whole existence then has a
missionary character. Her conduct, as well as her words, will convince the unbelievers and put
their ignorance and stupidity to silence." — David Bosch
"If ten men are carrying a log — nine of them on the little end and one at the
heavy end — and you want to help, which end will you lift on?" — William
Borden, missionary candidate as he reflected on the numbers of Christian workers in the U.S. as
compared to those among unreached peoples in China
"We are debtors to every man to give him the gospel in the same measure in which we
have received it" — P.F. Bresee, founder of the Church of the Nazarene
(Engage magazine article)
When James Calvert went out as a missionary to the cannibals of the Fiji Islands, the ship
captain tried to turn him back, saying, "You will lose your life and the lives of those with
you if you go among such savages." To that, Calvert replied, "We died before we
came here."
"Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God" — William Carey, who is called the father of modern missions [
more info ]
"To know the will of God, we need an open Bible and an open map." —
William Carey, pioneer missionary to India
"Is not the commission of our Lord still binding upon us? Can we not do more than now
we are doing?" — William Carey
"You can give without loving. But you cannot love without giving." — Amy
Carmichael, missionary to India
"If you found a cure for cancer, wouldn't it be inconceivable to hide it from the rest of
mankind? How much more inconceivable to keep silent the cure from the eternal wages of
death." — Dave Davidson
"World missions was on God's mind from the beginning." — Dave
Davidson
"In our lifetime, wouldn't it be sad if we spent more time washing dishes or swatting flies
or mowing the yard or watching television than praying for world missions?" — Dave
Davidson
"Love is the root of missions; sacrifice is the fruit of missions" — Roderick
Davis
"We can reach our world, if we will. The greatest lack today is not people or funds. The
greatest need is prayer." — Wesley Duewel, head of OMS International
"In no other way can the believer become as fully involved with God's work, especially
the work of world evangelism, as in intercessory prayer." —
Dick Eastman, president of Every Home for Christ (formerly World Literature Crusade)
"People who don't believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the
beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took Him at His word and went
East, West, North and South." — J. Howard Edington
"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose"
— Jim Elliot, missionary martyr who lost his life in the late 1950s trying to reach the
Waorani (Auca) Indians of Ecuador
"A congregation that is not deeply and earnestly involved in the worldwide proclamation
of the gospel does not understand the nature of salvation." — Ted Engstrom, World
Vision (Engage magazine article)
"As long as there are millions destitute of the Word of God and knowledge of Jesus
Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote time and energy to those who have both."
— J. L. Ewen
"I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it
out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light" — John Keith Falconer
"It is not in our choice to spread the gospel or not. It is our death if we do not."
— Peter Taylor Forsyth
"I thought it reasonable that I should seek the work where the work was the most
abundant and the workers fewest." — Scottish missionary James Gilmour on why he
went to Mongolia
"This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls on the
earth!" — Keith Green
"If God calls you to be a missionary, don't stoop to be a king" — Jordan
Grooms (variations of this also credited to G. K. Chesterson, Thomas Carlyle, and Charles
Haddon Spurgeon)
"If you take missions out of the Bible, you won't have anything left but the covers"
— Nina Gunter, missions mobilizer (Engage
magazine article)
"The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time" — Carl F. H. Henry
(Engage magazine article)
"Since God is a missionary God, God's people are a missionary people." —
Eddy Ho ( Engage magazine article)
"God was the first-ever missionary when in Genesis 3:8 he went out in search of two
sinners who had rebelled against Him in order to bring them back into fellowship with
Him." -- Eddy Ho
"'Go ye' is as much a part of Christ's Gospel as 'Come unto Me.' You are not even a
Christian until you have honestly faced your responsibility in regard to the carrying of the Gospel
to the ends of the earth." — J. Stuart Holden
"I believe that in each generation God has called enough men and women to evangelize
all the yet unreached tribes of the earth. It is not God who does not call. It is man who will not
respond!" — Isobel Kuhn, missionary to China and Thailand [
A story from China ]
"If God's love is for anybody anywhere, it's for everybody
everywhere." — Edward Lawlor, Nazarene General
Superintendent (Engage magazine article)
"If a commission by an earthly king is considered an honor, how can a commission by a
Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?" — David Livingstone
"Sympathy is no substitute for action." — David Livingstone, missionary to
Africa
"The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more
intensely missionary we become." — Henry
Martyn, missionary to India and Persia (Engage
magazine article)
"The will of God — nothing less, nothing more, nothing else." — F. E.
Marsh (also attributed to Bobby Richardson)
"In the vast plain to the north, I have sometimes seen, in the
morning sun, the smoke of a thousand villages where no missionary has ever been" —
Robert Moffat, who inspired David Livingstone
"If the Great Commission is true, our plans are not too big; they are too small."
— Pat Morley
"Can't you do just a little bit more?" — J.G. Morrison pleading with
Nazarenes in the 1930s Great Depression to support their missionaries
"It is possible for the most obscure person in a church, with a heart
right toward God, to exercise as much power for the evangelization of the world as it is for those
who stand in the most prominent positions." — John R.
Mott
"God is a God of missions. He wills missions. He commands missions. He demands
missions. He made missions possible through His Son. He made missions actual in sending the
Holy Spirit." — George W. Peters
"Let my heart be broken with the things that break God's heart" — Bob
Pierce, World Vision founder (Engage magazine article)
"If missions languish, it is because the whole life of godliness is feeble. The command to
go everywhere and preach to everybody is not obeyed until the will is lost by self-surrender in the
will of God. Living, praying, giving and going will always be found together." —
Arthur T. Pierson
"Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of
God's delight in being God." — John Piper
"To belong to Jesus is to embrace the nations with Him." — John Piper
"God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful
worshipers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an
inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us
bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest
for worldly comforts and join His global purpose." — John Piper
"Go, send, or disobey." — John Piper
"All the money needed to send and support an army of self-sacrificing, joy-spreading
ambassadors is already in the church." — John Piper
"What's your dream and to what corner of the missions world will it take you?"
— Eleanor Roat, missions mobilizer
"The command has been to 'go,' but we have stayed — in body, gifts,
prayer, and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth ... but
99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland." — Robert Savage,
Latin American Mission
"People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as
missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives ... and when the bubble has
burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted."
— Nate Saint, missionary martyr [ devotional
thoughts ]
"Our God of Grace often gives us a second chance, but there is no second chance to
harvest a ripe crop." — Kurt von Schleicher [ Apple
pickers' parable ]
"Never pity missionaries; envy them. They are where the real action is — where
life and death, sin and grace, Heaven and Hell converge." — Robert C. Shannon
"Prayer is the mighty engine that is to move the missionary work." — A.B.
Simpson
"To stay here and disobey God — I can't afford to take the
consequence. I would rather go and obey God than stay here and know that I disobeyed."
— Amanda Berry Smith
"No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not
heard it once." — Oswald J. Smith
"Any church that is not seriously involved in helping fulfill the Great Commission has
forfeited its biblical right to exist." — Oswald J. Smith
"The mission of the church is missions" — Oswald J. Smith
"We talk of the Second Coming. Half the world has never heard of the first."
— Oswald J. Smith
"There is nothing in the world or the Church — except the church's disobedience
— to render the evangelization of the world in this generation an impossibility."
— Robert Speer, leader in Student Volunteer
Movement
"Someone asked Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be
saved? It is more a question with me whether we — who have the Gospel and fail
to give it to those who have not — can be saved." — Charles Spurgeon
"The mark of a great church is not its seating capacity, but its sending capacity."
— Mike Stachura
"The concern for world evangelization is not something tacked on to a man's personal
Christianity, which he may take or leave as he chooses. It is rooted in the character of the God
who has come to us in Christ Jesus. Thus, it can never be the province of a few enthusiasts, a
sideline or, a specialty of those who happen to have a bent that way. It is the distinctive mark of
being a Christian." — James S. Stewart
"We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global
God." — John Stott
"Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to
run a rescue mission within a yard of hell." — C.T.
Studd, world-class athlete who founded a missionary organization and was himself a
missionary
"If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice
can be too great for me to make for Him." — C.T. Studd
"Christ wants not nibblers of the possible, but grabbers of the impossible." —
C.T. Studd
"The evangelization of the world waits not on the readiness of God but on the obedience
of Christians." -- Bill M. Sullivan
"God's work done in God's way will never lack God's supply" — Hudson
Taylor
"God isn't looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him"
— Hudson Taylor
"The Great Commission1 is not an
option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed" — Hudson Taylor (
Engage magazine article )
"If I had 1,000 lives, I'd give them all for China" — Hudson Taylor [
A story from China ]
"God uses men who are weak and feeble enough to lean on him." — Hudson
Taylor, missionary to China
"The Church must send, or the Church will end." —
Mendell Taylor, church historian (Engage magazine article)
"The man or woman at home who prays often has as much to do with the effectiveness of
the missionary on the field, and consequently with the results of his or her labors, as the
missionary." — R. A. Torrey, Congregational evangelist and pastor
"The Bible is not the basis of missions; missions is the basis of the Bible" —
Ralph Winter, missiologist (Engage magazine article)
On the importance of mission education: "God cannot lead you on the basis of
information you do not have" — Ralph Winter, missiologist
"Lost people matter to God, and so they must matter to us." — Keith Wright
(Engage magazine article)
"The reason some folks don't believe in missions is that the brand of religion they have
isn't worth propagating." — unknown
"Only as the church fulfills her missionary obligation does she justify her existence."
— Unknown
"The true greatness of any church in not how many it seats but how many it
sends!" — Unknown
"Missions is not the 'ministry of choice' for a few hyperactive Christians in the church.
Missions is the purpose of the church." — Unknown
"The average pastor views his church as a local church with a missions program; while
he ought to realize that if he is in fact pastoring a church, it is to be a global church with a
missions purpose." — Unknown
"The best remedy for a sick church is to put it on a missionary diet." —
Unknown
"Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the
gospel of Christ." — Francis Xavier, missionary to
India, the Philippines, and Japan
"Believers who have the gospel keep mumbling it over and over to themselves.
Meanwhile, millions who have never heard it once fall into the flames of eternal hell without
ever hearing the salvation story." — K.P. Yohannan, founder of Gospel for Asia Bible
Society
"I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field, and the field is the
world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls
for Christ." — Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf
"The history of missions is the history of answered prayer." — Samuel
Zwemer, missionary to Muslims
"Do these quotes not put the weight of the world's salvation on your heart? No, not
one of us will be able to reach all ends of the earth. However, many of us can." -- Karen Allore,
children's pastor
-- compiled by Howard Culbertson,
1Who was the first to use the phrase Great Commission? It
may have been Dutch missionary Justinian von Welz (1621-1688). Nearly 200 years later, Hudson
Taylor really popularized the use of the phrase "Great Commission" to describe
Matthew 28:19-20.
Refletion questions
What are some reasons and motivations given in these quotes for engaging in world
missions?
Which of these quotes might today challenge and inspire Christians to action?
Which of these quotes best emphasize the responsibility and urgency of sharing the gospel
with the unreached?
Whatw do these quotes have to say about the need for personal sacrifice, prayer, and
obedience in fulfilling the Great Commission?
What does God's Word say about missions?
Christ's Great Commission in
Matthew 28 is just the tip of the iceberg. The Bible is chock-full of
missionary material!
" Our goal: Depopulate hell. Our strategy: Go to the four corners of the Earth and
raise as many churches as possible so to give all the nations the opportunity to hear the
Gospel message." -- Veronica Roesly, Nazarene Bible College Student
