Review

Reaching and Teaching: A Call to Great Commission Obedience

M. David Sills

Chicago: Moody
Publishers / 2010

Reviewed by Rev. Cory
Wilson, PhD ABD

Published in Global
Missiology, Review & Preview, October 2010, www.globalmissiology.org

Ralph
Winter’s 1974 presentation at the Lausanne Conference drastically changed
the focus of mission strategy from political nation states to people groups.
This transfer of emphasis eventual lead to the current stress upon
“unreached people groups” that is currently held by the majority of
mission agencies. The identification of unreached people groups in turn has
lead to the focus upon engaging and reaching all the people groups of the world
as quickly as possible. In Reaching and
Teaching: A Call to Great Commission Obedience, M. David Sills seeks to
call attention to the most glaring weakness in the prevailing mission strategy
of the day – a failure to teach all that Jesus has commanded. Sills is
qualified to offer guidance in this area as he has served as a church planter
and professor in Ecuador. He is currently the A.P. and Faye Stone Professor of Christian Missions
and Cultural Anthropology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in
Louisville, KY and president of Reaching and Teaching International Ministries.

The
book is unique in that is goes against the majority trends of the day. It is
not a restatement of the status quo. Sills specifically seeks to address the
trend of “reaching” people groups and then abandoning the
responsibility of the Great Commission and 2 Timothy 2:2 to theological train
and equip pastors and future teachers. He laments that current, “trendy,
creative methods,” has lead to many missionaries quickly leaving a people
group once that group has heard the gospel (12). He writes further that,
“Discipleship, leadership training, and pastoral preparation are
unfortunately relegated to a lower level of ministry that is not really
considered missions” (12). In light of these trends, Sills goal is
“suggest correctives” to strengthen the current condition present
within missionary activity (13).

Throughout
the book Sills’ corrective suggestions focus on two biblical texts
– Matthew 28:19-20 and 2 Timothy 2:2. The author points out that
according to Jesus; the Great Commission is fulfilled by “teaching them
to observe all that [Jesus] commanded.” Sills writes, “Jesus did
not say, ‘Go therefore and get decisions from people, then gather them
into groups called churches,’ . . . . It is the command to teach that I
want us to consider as we begin to understand the task of international
missions” (18). He argues that the primary focus by mission agencies upon
simply reaching the unreached people groups as quickly as possible with the
gospel has led to a neglect of “theological education, pastoral training,
and leadership development” (18). The addiction to speed has caused
mission agencies to withhold, “human and financial resources for
theological education in order to speed the work of exponential church growth
among the nationals and to avoid all forms of dependency” (29).  The result is churches will pastors with
little to no theological training that makes them ill-equipped for dealing with
syncretism and false teachings according to Sills.

The
author uses the 2 Timothy passage to argue to case for an extended missionary
presence among people groups. He stresses the importance of Paul’s words
as a necessary missionary goal to train leaders who can in turn train others. In
answering the question of how long a missionary should stay among a people
Sills writes, “The bare minimum that missionaries should teach must
result in trained leadership in the national church that is able interpret the
Word of God (2 Timothy 2:15), understand basic Christian doctrine (1 Timothy
4:6), and teach them to others (1 Timothy 3:2)” (64). It is important to
note that Sills emphasis on training pertains to theological and leadership
training, not just church planting training that is present among many agencies. In the
call for revamping theological education, Sills is not arguing that Western
style seminaries be established. Instead he writes, “Insisting on the
necessity of theological education around the world does not naively presume
that everyone learns the same way but reminds us that our responsibility is to
train believers to interpret and apply the Bible in ways that are faithful to
sound theology and sensitive to the culture” (165). For Sills, the strategy of some
current methodologies of simply leaving leaders with a Bible and the Holy
Spirit is not sufficient to warrant faithfulness to the biblical commands of
Matthew 28:19-20 and 2 Timothy 2:2.

Those
looking for a step-by-step “how-to-do-it” chapter of how to
implement stronger theological training on the mission field will look in vain.
This is partly because each context must be addressed on a case by case
situation, as Sills recognizes. His chapters on “Equipping
Disciples” and “Critical Contextualization” are helpful
beginnings, but the missionary is still left with the difficult task of
fleshing about how to best train and equip his leaders theologically within the
context he/she serves.

One weakness of the book
is that it fails to give serious consideration to a necessary step that
precedes the proper theological training of the nations – the theological
training of the missionaries taking the gospel to the nations. The unfortunate
reality is that missionaries are not known for their theological abilities.
This reality is worsened by the fact that in an effort to reach the unreached
as quickly as possible many mission agencies have greatly minimized the
importance of theologically trained missionaries. Too often passionate hearts
are the only requirement for missionary service. In my own experience serving
in West Africa, only a very small percentage of the mission force had received
seminary degrees. The majority had no seminary training or just 20-30 hours of
seminary. However, the bulk of classes for those with 20-30 hours of credit
centered on missions and evangelism training and not necessarily theological
education. The reality is the missionary cannot teach what he/she does not
know. Before theological training of the nations can take place, the
theological training of missionaries must be given more serious consideration.

This weakness does not
diminish the reality of the nearsightedness of the current prevailing missions
methodologies that Sills highlights. For this reason, Reaching and
Teaching
serves as a beneficial resource to church, particular to mission strategists,
missionaries, and pastors. For the reader short on time Sills’ chapter on
“Search Versus Harvest Theology: Reaching or Teaching?” gets to the
core of what he is arguing. Of particular help in this chapter, especially to
younger missionaries who assume what is has always been, is the author’s
brief history of the development of the concept of “unreached” and
“reached” people groups. Even if one does not agree with all that
Sills writes, his biblical case for the increased importance of theological
education in the place of missions strategy is not easily refuted and should be
given serious consideration by all missions practitioners.