A friend wrote today to ask what books about missions I would recommend to his church for a missions event. I have arranged some of my favorites, old and new, in a few categories below and linked them to Amazon. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but it is a great place to start! Please feel free include your favorites in the comments below as I am always looking for something to read!
Introductions to Missions
- Let the Nations be Glad by Piper
- Missions: How the Local Church Goes Global by Johnson (forward by David Platt)
- Cross: Unrivaled Christ, Unstoppable Gospel, Unreached People, and Unending Joy by Piper, Mbewe, Platt, DeYoung, et al.
- Something Must Change: A Call to Make Your Life Count in a World of Urgent Need by Platt
Evangelism
- Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus by Stiles (and I still love his older text called Speaking of Jesus.
- The Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Dever
- God is the Gospel by Piper
- What is the Gospel? by Gilbert and Carson
World Religions, Culture, and Worldview
- One or Two: Seeing a World of Difference by Peter Jones
- The Universe Next Door by James Sire
- Engaging with Muslims by John Klaassen
- One Blood: Parting Words to the Church on Race and Love by Perkins
Church History
- In the Year of Our Lord: Reflections on 20 Centuries of Church History by Ferguson
- From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya by Tucker
- Pages from Church History by Nichols
- The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History by Curtis, Lang, and Petersen
Missionary Biographies
- Pig in a Taxi and Other African Adventures by Crocker.
- We Died before We Came Here by Foreman
- William Borden of Yale by Taylor
- A Passion for the Impossible by Rockness
- In the Presence of My Enemies by Burnham
- For the Glory: the Untold and Inspiring story of Eric Liddell by Duncan Hamilton (review here)
- More about biographies here
Many things Short-Term Missions can be found here.
Children’s Resources
- The Church History ABC’s by Nichols and Bustard (also check out Reformation ABC’s)
- Christian Heroes Series of 45+ biographies. Compelling stories for young readers (7-14ish)
- All of the books by Patricia St. John: Treasure of the Snow, Tanglewood Secret, Star of Light. . .
- Window on the World: An Operation Resource.
- More on Kids and missions here, here, and here.
Lisa LaGeorge 
Two different books on Gladys Aylward. Can’t remember the titles and the books( lent out and never returned). What inspired me was her determination to follow God’s will in her life despite everyone and everything that was against it, and the fact that God chose her, only a simple cleaning woman, not a seminary-trained missionary.
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Gladys Aylward—The Little Woman. Yes, indeed!!
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