Review: A Better Way: Making Disciples Wherever Life Happens
Author: Dale Losch
Reviewed by Paul Johnson, D.Min.
Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies
Corban School of Ministry
Dale Losch, veteran missionary and President of the mission agency CrossWorld, believes that there is a better, more effective way to make disciples of all nations. He is concerned that the traditional way of sending missionaries to make disciples of the unreached is not sufficient to accomplish this massive task. Although Losch understands that many believers and churches want to impact the unreached for Christ, he advocates for a better way — the sending of disciple-makers from all professions to reach the lost. Losch calls upon the church and mission enterprise to pursue the dream of seeing disciple-makers from all professions bring God’s love to life in the world’s least-reached marketplaces.[1]
Losch notes that the traditional practice of having a person attend seminary, apply to a mission agency, raise the required financial support, and then become a full-time religious worker, may actually be keeping many legitimate disciple-makers from considering cross-cultural ministry. Losch sees a large, motivated and untapped source of godly men and women who desire to engage the unreached but not through the well-known, standard process followed by most mission agencies. However, Losch believes that the challenges involved in reaching the unreached require that we reexamine and adjust our strategy to more effectively make-disciples and promote church planting.[2] Losch is not suggesting abandoning the old model of sending fully funded, long-term missionaries. Rather, he suggest that a new model be pursued where the whole body of Christ can be engaged in a way that connects with the needs and lives of the lost in the world’s least-reached marketplaces.
Losch defines a disciple as, “one who is learning to live and love like Jesus and helps others to do the same.” In chapters 3-6, Losch argues convincingly that the making of reproducing disciples is the priority of Christ mission. However, by focusing on the product (the church) at the expense of the process (disciple-making) the method and practice of traditional missionaries often complicates and limits the effectiveness of global mission strategies.[3]
Loush also claims that the concept of a unique “call” required for “fulltime ministry” has wrongfully communicated “to 99 percent of Jesus’ followers that there are two classes of Christians – those ‘called to ministry’ and everyone else. He explains how the Western mission enterprise has traditionally limited the disciple-making mandate almost exclusively to full-time religious professionals, while Jesus ‘clear mandate is for all believers to be disciple-makers. This focus on vocational missionaries has sidelined many potential disciple-makers, resulting in the ratio of cross-cultural workers to the total evangelical population of roughly 1:1,000.[4] Losch believes mission efforts must readdress the great challenges of reaching the unreached by mobilizing disciple-making professionals for the world’s least-reached marketplaces.
Compelling examples are given of how professionals are using their experiences and skills in business, tourism, education, community development, etc., to make disciples for Christ in restricted access countries.[5] Losch notes how relationships established through the daily activities of life have great impact. Through their professions, disciple-makers can share their beliefs and engage people in the context of the normal activities of life. Losch believes that the most strategic places for marketplace disciple-makers is in the growing urban areas of the world. Mission agencies that equip disciple makers “in the world’s least-reached urban marketplaces” can bring lasting change in a country through making disciples in influential cities.[6]
Losch is convinced that “if we are to have any hope of discipling the billions of still-to-be-reached people of this world, it will take far more than the full-time ministry model of the past. It will take a host of uniquely gifted and courageous men and women who will rise to the challenge in new ways.”[7] Losch is quick to add that the sending of professionals as disciple-makers to the unreached is in no way an effort to discontinue the traditional practice of sending full-time, supported missionaries. Vocational missionaries are still needed as they partner with professionals to reach the unreached.
A Better Way provides a much-needed challenge to strengthen the Western mission enterprise with a biblical model that mobilizes every believer and their skills, talents and professional training with the disciple-making priority of Jesus. In A Better Way, people from all walks of life and professions can discover a better way to impact and reach the lost, through building real-life relationships through living and working among the unreached.
[1] Dale Losch, A Better Way: Make Disciples Wherever Life Happens (Kansas City, MO: UFM International, Inc. DBA Crossworld, 2012), Preface.
[2] Ibid., 5.
[3] Ibid., 13.
[4] Ibid., 15.
[5] Ibid., 102
[6] Ibid., 91-92.
[7] Ibid., 104
