M. David Sills
THE MISSIONARY CALL
Reviewed by Rev. Cory Wilson, M Div, Ph.D. student (RTS Jackson)
Published, Review & Preview, in the July 2009 issue of the multi-lingual online journal www.GlobalMissiology.org
The
discernment of God’s will for one’s life is one of the most common difficulties
nearly every follower of Christ struggles with at some point throughout their
journey. In The Missionary Call, M.
David Sills offers his expertise to Christians as they seek to discern God’s
leading, particularly in regards to service as a missionary. Sills is qualified
to offer guidance in this area as he has guided his own family in discerning
the “missionary call.” This call has lead Sills to serve as church planter and
professor in Ecuador to his current position as the A.P. and Faye Stone Professor of Christian
Missions and Cultural Anthropology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Louisville, KY.
The
best asset to Sills book is that it has little to no contemporary counterpart.
Pastors, missionaries, professors, etc., regularly speak of a call to missions
yet rarely define what is meant by that. As Sills laments, “In the journey to
discern whether God has placed a missionary call on our lives, we often
encounter a maze of paths to follow. Conflicting opinions and exhortations
often leave us with more questions than answers” (16-17). Sills seeks to
provide a guide through the conflicting maze by seeing “what God’s Word teaches
about the missionary call,” examining “biblical and historical examples of
God’s call,” and learning “ how to bring this knowledge to bear on personal
experience” (17). He accomplishes
his goal through a three-part division of the book. The first addresses, “What
is the Missionary Call?” Part two focuses on “Understanding the Missionary
Call,” while the final part deals with “Fulfilling the Missionary Call.”
The first two parts of the
book are the most helpful, as they deal with issues that few other resources
do. They provide a solid guide for the believer seeking to discern God’s will,
while at the same time leaving adequate room for the unique role of the Holy
Spirit in each believer’s life. The final section proves to be a good summation
or introduction to a variety of mission field issues and past mission figures.
For the reader who is pressed for time, the final chapter provides an excellent
summary and review of the previous chapters and covers all of Sills’ major
points and exhortations.
In
addition to the aforementioned asset, The Missionary Call has two additional major strongpoints. The first is its readability and
practicality. Sills carefully avoids unnecessary academic jargon and any
surface-level three-step formula that reduces the Spirit’s leading to a
checklist. The result is a product that is easily accessible to the
non-seminary-trained Christian in the church pew who may be wrestling with
discerning God’s call in his/her life. The care in which Sills takes with the
flow of the book leads the reader to easily imagine himself relaxed in Sills’
office receiving wise counsel on seeking God’s leading. It is biblically
grounded and practically applicable. This is not to suggest that Sills work
would be unbeneficial to the highly trained seminarian or professor, for it
would be. Difficulty discerning God’s leading knows no educational boundaries.
The book’s practicality goes beyond those that are seeking to be missionaries.
It is a beneficial read for every pastor, missions mobilizer, or anyone else
who has the possibility of being in a situation where they would be providing
counsel for someone struggling with discerning God’s leading in regard to
missions. In fact, the author’s opening chapters which deal with calling prove
to be beneficial for discerning God’s vocational call for any specialization,
not just missions.
Sills’
exploration into the diverse ways in which the missionary call is fulfilled is
an additional strongpoint. The author seeks to eliminate unnecessary guilt that
some may struggle with if their missionary call does not lead them to a remote
village for the rest of their lives. He writes, “The ways in which you may
fulfill [the missionary call] will vary throughout your life” (97). He goes on
to add concerning the missionary call, “It does not revert to something else
when a two-year missions stint is completed; rather it morphs into another
expression of the call” (100). Sills points out that one of the results of
globalization is that some missionary calls can be and are fulfilled while
continuing to live in the United States. A helpful distinction the author
offers to clear confusion through times of transition for missionaries is
distinguishing between God’s call and God’s guidance. Sills argues that the
call is irrevocable, though God will likely guide you through a variety of
different expressions of the missionary call.
The
most glaring weakness in The Missionary Call is the failure to clearly
define or set forth what is a missionary. The “call” aspect is dealt with in
detail, but little attention is given to defining “missionary”. Sills offers a
definition of a missionary in the glossary as “an individual who crosses
cultural and/or linguistic barriers for the purpose of making disciples” (209).
However, he is not as limited in his definition in the opening chapter when he
writes, “We all have a role to play in international missions. That means we
all have a missionary call of some sort” (30). Does the biblical mandate to
play a role (going or sending) in international missions mean that each has a
missionary call? Does the sender need a missionary call? If so, does existence
of that missionary call make that person a missionary? The exploration of these
questions and the diversity of views on what exactly constitutes a missionary
would strengthen what is already a needed, useful, and beneficial read.