Missions By The Book: How Theology and Missions Walk Together by Chad Vegas and Alex Kocman calls on God’s people to a radical commitment to sound theology, and from that theology, derive a solid philosophy of missions ministry. In so doing, they communicate well the heartbeat of Radius International.

The authors, Chad Vegas and Alex Kocman, are both “all in” when it comes to church planting and cross-cultural missions. Chad Vegas and Brad Buser joined hands to create Radius. Radius is a missions organization focused on serious training for cross-cultural missionaries being sent to pioneer mission fields. Chad planted a church in California and leads that ministry.

Alex Kocman serves as a director with ABWE (Association of Baptists for World Evangelism) and has been much involved in missionary mobilization and writing. He also ministers as an elder in Pennsylvania.

Missions By The Book is filled with well-crafted statements of truth and thought-provoking statements:

“There is a crisis in evangelical missions. A great gulf is fixed between the realm of theology and the world of missions…Bad theology leads to bad missions, and bad missions spreads more bad theology (p.2).”

“The central contention of this book is that Christian doctrine and missions methodology must walk together, hand-in-hand. Our ministry tactics always derive from what we really believe. Hence, methods are not a matter of liberty but fall under the express prescriptions of Scripture (p.5).”

“Robust theology begets mission, and mission is impossible without robust theology (p.90).”

“Satan will wage war against our missionaries and those they are reaching. And one of his most effective tools is to cause the missionary to flee or fall, whether through personal impiety, through impatience with the difficulties of the Christian life and ministry, or through deceitful doctrines (p.141).”

True to the book’s title, the authors show how important certain doctrines are in informing our philosophy of missions. It is especially helpful to see how the doctrines of the sufficiency of Scripture and the Trinity relate to the Great Commission. Theologically, these are, in my opinion, the best contributions of this book.

Methodology in missions ministry ought to reflect our theology. Vegas and Koncan provide direction on this as well, drawing on the both the teachings and examples of the apostles.

Missions By The Book is certainly one of the most biblically grounded and accessible books on missions written in recent times. Readers cannot but be encouraged and strengthened towards truth and godliness as they meditate on these pages. You can purchase it through Founders Ministries HERE.