Are you working on a sermon or message on missions? Quotations from missionary leaders like William Carey and Hudson Taylor have served as battle cries for the Christian missions movement. World evangelism has advanced with inspiration provided by missionary slogans like these. Slogans often keep our hearts on fire for the world.
“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply” — Hudson Taylor
“The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed” — Hudson Taylor
“Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God” — William Carey, who is called the father of modern missions
“The spirit of Christ is the spirit of missions. The nearer we get to Him, the more intensely missionary we become.” — Henry Martyn
“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 1950’s trying to reach the Auca [Waodoni] Indians of Ecuador
“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
“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
“Can’t you do just a little bit more?” — J.G. Morrison pleading with Nazarenes in the 1930’s Great Depression to support their missionaries
“Lost people matter to God, and so they must matter to us.” — Keith Wright
“The Bible is not the basis of missions; missions is the basis of the Bible” — Ralph Winter
“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
“No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once.” — Oswald J. Smith
“This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls on the earth!” — Keith Green
“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
“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
“If God calls you to be a missionary, don’t stoop to be a king” — Jordan Groom
“World missions was on God’s mind from the beginning.” — Dave Davidson
“Let my heart be broken with the things that break God’s heart” — Bob Pierce, World Vision founder
“No reserves. No retreats. No regrets” — William Borden gave up the Borden fortune to be a missionary, but died en route to the field.
“The reason some folks don’t believe in missions is that the brand of religion they have isn’t worth propagating.” — unknown
“I have seen, at different times, the smoke of a thousand villages – villages whose people are without Christ, without God, and without hope in the world.” – Robert Moffat
“While vast continents are shrouded in darkness…the burden of proof lies upon you to show that the circumstances in which God has placed you were meant by God to keep you out of the foreign mission field.” – Ion Keith-Falconer
“I wasn’t God’s first choice for what I’ve done for China…I don’t know who it was…It must have been a man…a well-educated man. I don’t know what happened. Perhaps he died. Perhaps he wasn’t willing…and God looked down…and saw Gladys Aylward…And God said – “Well, she’s willing.” – Gladys Aylward
“Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees.” – J. Hudson Taylor
“The man…looking at him with a smile that only half concealed his contempt, inquired, “Now Mr. Morrison do you really expect that you will make an impression on the idolatry of the Chinese Empire?” “No sir,” said Morrison, “but I expect that God will.” – Robert Morrison
“Here am I. Send me.” – Isaiah
“And 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
“Jehovah Witnesses don’t believe in hell and neither do most Christians” – Leonard Ravenhill
“Had I cared for the comments of people, I should never have been a missionary.” – C.T. Studd
“Young man, sit down: when God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid or mine.” – said to a young William Carey
“Oh, that I had a thousand lives, and a thousand bodies! All of them should be devoted to no other employment but to preach Christ to these degraded, despised, yet beloved mortals.”
– Robert Moffat
“We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.”
– John Stott
“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” – Jim Elliot
“A tiny group of 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
“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 Zinzindorf
“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.” – J. Hudson Taylor
“He must increase, but I must decrease.” – John the Baptist
“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
“The greatest missionary is the Bible in the mother tongue. It needs no furlough and is never considered a foreigner.” – William Cameron Townsend
“Prepare for the worst, expect the best, and take what comes.” – Robert E. Speer
“The saddest thing one meets is a nominal Christian. I had not seen it in Japan where missions is younger. The church here is a “field full of wheat and tares.” – Amy Carmichael
“I used to think that prayer should have the first place and teaching the second. I now feel it would be truer to give prayer the first, second and third places and teaching the fourth.”
– James O. Fraser
“It is just as proper, maybe even more so, to say Christ’s global cause has a Church as to say Christ’s Church has a global cause.” – David Bryant
“If you are sick, fast and pray; if the language is hard to learn, fast and pray; if the people will not hear you, fast and pray, if you have nothing to eat, fast and pray.” – Frederick Franson
“What are we here for, to have a good time with Christians or to save sinners?” – Malla Moe
“I tell you, brethren, if mercies and if judgments do not convert you, God has no other arrows in His quiver.” – Robert Murray M’Cheyne
“It’s amazing what can be accomplished if you don’t worry about who gets the credit.”
– Clarence W. Jones
“Two distinguishing marks of the early church were: 1) Poverty 2) Power.” – T. J. Bach
“Do not think me mad. It is not to make money that I believe a Christian should live. The noblest thing a man can do is, just humbly to receive, and then go amongst others and give.”
– David Livingstone
“I pray that no missionary will ever be as lonely as I have been.” – Lottie Moon
“All my friends are but one, but He is all sufficient.” – William Carey
“How little chance the Holy Ghost has nowadays. The churches and missionary societies have so bound him in red tape that they practically ask Him to sit in a corner while they do the work themselves.” – C.T. Studd
“I have always believed that the Good Samaritan went across the road to the wounded man just because he wanted to.” – Wilfred Thomason Grenfell
“The more obstacles you have, the more opportunities there are for God to do something.”
– Clarence W. Jones
“Expect great things from God. Attempt great thing for God.” – William Carey
“God’s part is to put forth power; our part is to put forth faith.” – Andrew A. Bonar
“All the resources of the Godhead are at our disposal!” – Jonathan Goforth
“The Indian is making an amazing discovery, namely that Christianity and Jesus are not the same – that they may have Jesus without the system that has been built up around Him in the West.” – E. Stanley Jones
“This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” – Jesus
“All roads lead to the judgment seat of Christ.” – Keith Green
“Christians don’t tell lies they just go to church and sing them” – A.W. Tozer
“I will lay my bones by the Ganges that India might know there is one who cares.” – Alexander Duff
“Today Christians spend more money on dog food then missions” – Leonard Ravenhill
“It will not do to say that you have no special call to go to China. With these facts before you and with the command of the Lord Jesus to go and preach the gospel to every creature, you need rather to ascertain whether you have a special call to stay at home.” – J. Hudson Taylor
“We talk of the second coming, half the world has never heard of the first.” – Oswald J. Smith
“God cannot lead you on the basis of facts that you do not know.” – David Bryant
“And thus I aspire to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named so that I would not build on another man’s foundation.” – Paul
“Why do we insist on building the largest and most impressive structures in our city when people on the other side of town are hungry, jobless and worshipping in storefronts?”
– K.P. Yohannan
“If every Christian is already considered a missionary, then all can stay put where they are, and nobody needs to get up and go anywhere to preach the gospel. But if our only concern is to witness where we are, how will people in unevangelized areas ever hear the gospel? The present uneven distribution of Christians and opportunities to hear the gospel of Christ will continue on unchanged.” – C. Gordon Olson
“I spent twenty years of my life trying to recruit people out of local churches and into missions structures so that they could be involved in fulfilling God’s global mission. Now I have another idea. Let’s take God’s global mission and put it right in the middle of the local church!”
– George Miley
“Oh dear, I couldn’t say that my church is alive and I wouldn’t want to call it dead. I guess it’s just walking in its sleep!” – Church member
“When he landed in 1848 there were no Christians here; when he left in 1872 there were no heathen.” – said of John Geddie
“At the moment I put the bread and wine into those dark hands, once stained with the blood of cannibalism, now stretched out to receive and partake the emblems and seals of the Redeemer’s love, I had a foretaste of the joy of glory that well nigh broke my heart to pieces. I shall never taste a deeper bliss, till I gaze on the glorified face of Jesus himself.”- John G. Paton
“Save others, snatching them out of the fire.” – Jude
“The evangelization of the world in this generation.” – Student Volunteer Movement Motto
“Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring” – Jesus
“Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” – John Piper
“His authority on earth allows us to dare to go to all the nations. His authority in heaven gives us our only hope of success. And His presence with us leaves us no other choice.” – John Stott
“Today five out of six non-Christians in our world have no hope unless missionaries come to them and plant the church among them.” – David Bryant
“Tell the students to give up their small ambitions and come eastward to preach the gospel of Christ.” – Francis Xavier
“We who have Christ’s eternal life need to throw away our own lives.” – George Verwer
“Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell, I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of Hell.” – C.T. Studd
“When I get to China, I will have no claim on any one for anything. My claim will be alone in God and I must learn before I leave England to move men through God by prayer alone”
– J. Hudson Taylor
“God has huge plans for the world today! He is not content to merely establish a handful of struggling churches among each tongue, tribe and nation. Even now He is preparing and empowering His Church to carry the seeds of revival to the uttermost ends of the earth.”
– David Smithers
“Answering a student’s question, ‘Will the heathen who have not heard the Gospel be saved?’ thus, ‘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.'” – C.H. Spurgeon.