The Gospel Commission
Recovering God’s Strategy for Making Disciples
About
Many churches in America today want to be powerful, relevant, and influential in personal and social transformation. But whose kingdom are we building? God's? Or our own? A plethora of programs for outreach, discipleship, and spiritual disciplines are available at any bookstore and on countless websites. Yet what we need most is a renewed understanding of and commitment to the Great Commission. We assume that we already know the nature of this commission and the appropriate methods of carrying it out.
But Michael Horton contends that it too often becomes our mission instead of God's. At a time when churches are zealously engaged in writing up mission statements and strategic plans, he argues that we must ask ourselves anew whether we are ambassadors, following the script we've been given, or building our own kingdoms with our own blueprint.
Pastors, church leaders, and readers of Horton's Christless Christianity and The Gospel-Driven Life will value this frank and hopeful exploration of the Great Commission as a call to understanding and good practice.
Endorsements
"Mike Horton has written the best book I've ever read on the Great Commission. Mike demonstrates in delectably deep and down-to-earth ways that no matter how hard we try or how 'radical' we get, any engine smaller than the gospel that we depend on for power to do what God has called us to do--most importantly, the Great Commission--will conk out."--Tullian Tchividjian, senior pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church; author, Surprised by Grace: God's Relentless Pursuit of Rebels
"A rigorous yet accessible exegesis of both the Great Commission and contemporary Western culture. Today's evangelicals all too often retreat from mission in light of social pressures or rush forward with a faulty missionary enterprise that is untethered from theology, unconcerned with discipleship, and obsessed with quantifiable results. Against this backdrop, Horton calls us to recover a biblical understanding of mission and restore its centrality in the life of the church. The Gospel Commission is filled with both penetrating analysis and pastoral guidance, and I recommend it enthusiastically."--Doug Birdsall, chair, Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization
"Writing from the perspective of one who for more than fifty years has been involved in helping people in Africa know God through Bible study and acts of mercy, this book on missions by Michael Horton is the most comprehensive, helpful, and encouraging I have ever read. All mission sending agencies and their long and short-term missionaries should read it. It will be required reading for Rafiki's missionaries and should be read by anyone who wants to participate in Christ's great commission."--Rosemary Jensen, founder and president, Rafiki Foundation, Inc.
The Author
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Michael Horton
Michael Horton (PhD, University of Coventry and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford) is J. Gresham Machen Professor of Systematic Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California. He hosts The White Horse Inn radio broadcast and is editor-in-chief of Modern...
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