Best Missions Books for Missionaries

I am blessed to be a part of Vision Baptist Church and Vision Baptist Missions. They always have had constant involvement in my life and ministry. I have learned so much from my pastor Austin Gardner and director Jeff Bush. One thing that I greatly admire about them is that they are always continuing to learn and grow. They are also always continually pushing me to grow as well. One of the ways to do that is to read books that will help you grow and learn. 

 

I want to share some of the best books on missions for each stage of the journey. I did not include biographies in this list and only have books that deal with missionary strategy and methods as well as culture shock and other things that missionaries will deal with on the mission field. Maybe you are someone interested in missions. These books will help you learn more about each step on the missionary journey. Perhaps you are a missionary. These books will allow you to broaden your perspective and possibly help you with some of the things that you are dealing with in your life currently. I am now in the language learning/culture adaptation stage. So I am focused on this area, but I have read books from all the different stages, and then have been a help to me. 

 

Disclaimer – I can’t entirely agree with everything in these books. However, I think each of these books will allow you to understand better different manners of working on the mission field and broaden your perspective. 

 

Sending 

Pioneer Sender – Written by Pastor Trent Cornwell, this book is excellent for someone who does not feel called to the mission field. It will show you how you can be involved in missions through helping and sending others to the mission field! 

 

 

Support Raising 

Deputation Manual – Written by my Pastor Austin Gardner, this is the best book on raising support through the process of deputation. It will give you a very clear explanation of what you must do to raise your support and get to the mission field. 

 

The God Ask – This book is mainly focused on raising support from individuals instead of churches. I don’t have experience with this method of support raising, but it has some excellent ideas and explanations of how to raise support from individuals. 

 

Language and Culture

Lamp Book – This is the language learning Bible. It will show you how to learn any language from merely talking with the people. It shows that language learning is social, and anyone can learn another language. 

 

The Ugly American – This book is a little bit different than the rest. It has several short stories about people who had to adapt to the culture. Some did well, and some did horribly. There are many things to learn about cultural adaptation from this book. 

 

Culture Shock – This book gives a clear breakdown of all the pressures that will be added to your life when you move to another country and culture. It shows you that culture shock is real and might be the reason you are bothered by the smallest things in your new culture. 

 

Cross-Cultural Servanthood – This book shows that many times when we are in a different culture, we must serve differently. What would be an act of service or kind gesture in our culture might be offensive in the new culture. 

 

Have We No Rights? – The book shows that the majority of the time, we deal with culture shock because we are fighting for our rights. We think that we deserve certain things, and we get upset when we don’t meet our expectations. 

 

On Being a Missionary – This book is a complete handbook on many things that you will deal with as a missionary. 

 

Psychology of Missionary Adjustment – This book goes through the different stages of culture shock and becoming adjusted to your new culture. 

 

 

 

Strategy

Missionary Methods: St Paul’s or Ours? – This is a fascinating book that looks at the example of Paul, what methods he used as a missionary, and how we can use them. 

 

The Indigenous Church – This book talks about the indigenous principle and that our goal should be to start Self-Governing, Self-Supporting, and Self-Propagating churches. 

 

Mentoring For Missions – This book looks at the example of Jesus and that Jesus mentored his disciples by being with them and teaching them on the job. It shows how we can do this in our ministries as well. 

 

Ministering Cross-Culturally – As the name suggests, this book talks about how to minister to others in another culture. 

 

 

 

 

Theology 

A Biblical Theology of Missions – This book goes through the Bible and shows that missions are in every part. Missions are God’s heartbeat, and this book will look at almost all the verses about missions in the Bible. 

 

History 

From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya – This book gives an overview of the history of missions, from Jesus until today. It has a summary of almost all the leading missionaries throughout time. It is a wonderful resource to find about the history of missions and to meet some of the most influential missionaries in history.

 

Furlough 

Manual for Missionaries on Furlough – I have not read this book and cannot find a digital format, so I probably won’t read it until we are back on furlough. However, it is the only book that I could find on missionary furloughs, and I thought I would share it so at least you could be aware there is a book on furlough. 

 

Many of these books are older, and so one or two of them are very pricy. However, most of them are relatively reasonably priced, and there are several for $0.99 on Kindle. There are also some others that you can find the pdf for free online if you do some searching. 

 

I hope these books are a help to you, and I would love to learn about some more good books on missions if you have any recommendations!