REFLECTIONS ON WORLD MISSION

BY SCOTT CALLAHAM & WILL BROOKS

A PAPER PRESENTED FOR

WM760 CS14

January 31, 2021

 Reading World Mission1 was a great first book for this course because it set so many of

the foundational elements for missions in a rich biblical-theological context. While there were

portions of the book that were left a little too high in the theological clouds, there were many

places where the book landed and challenged me in how I conceive of my present ministry here

in Battambang and the future ministry to which the Lord may be calling me. The most

significant parts of the book for me can be summed up under the following headings: the costs

and benefits of working in an interdenominational missions organization, the need for formal

theological education on the mission field, specifically with regard to teaching the biblical

languages, and the need for holy living as an essential mark of a Christian. I will address each of

these issues in turn.

In his chapter on the place of baptism in missions,2 Scott Callaham, a baptist, argues not

so much for a baptist view of baptism, though he does do that, but rather, pleads with

missionaries, asking them to look beyond “transdenominational cooperation”3 that uncritically

accepts a method of baptism without actually thinking through what the New Testament teaches

about baptism. Callaham uses the example of the English word “baptism,” which is not a

translation of the Greek βαπτίζω but only a transliteration of it. When the word is merely

transliterated without being translated, the meaning of the word (plunge, immerse, dip, wash,

Callahamn’s given meanings) is lost and the practice continues on in whatever form best fits the

context of those doing the baptizing. This practice therefore allows “churches…to shape the

1
Scott N. Callaham and Will Brooks, World Mission: Theology, Strategy, and Current Issues (Bellingham, WA:
Lexham Press, 2019).
2
Scott Callaham, “Baptism as Integral Component of World Mission Strategy,” in World Mission: Theology,
Strategy, and Current Issues, ed. Callaham, Scott N. and Will Brooks (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019) 149 –
175.
3
Callaham, Baptism, 154

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meaning of the newly minted word for baptism to fit their existing traditions rather than critically

assess whether their traditions actually cohere with the meaning of the word in the Bible.”4

I wholeheartedly agree with Callaham’s overall argument, a plea for fidelity to the

properly understood biblical text even if it means running the risk of disagreement or even

disunity. If two friends, a Baptist and a Presbyterian, want to plant a church together, eventually

they will have to think through the recipients of baptism (infants/those making a confession) and

the mode (sprinkling/immersion). Due to the nature of dunking or sprinkling, adults or infants, a

“both/and” approach that “just wants to see people get saved,”5 will necessarily commit either

one or the other or both men to compromise on what they believe God has revealed in his word

about baptism, thus rendering a both/and approach virtually impossible. It would be better for

these men to be united in believing that they need to honor God’s word first, and because they’re

in fundamental unity on that point, decide that they should not pastor a church together. In this

scenario, the men are only in “disunity” if their difference in belief divides their relationship. In

my experience, this “both/and” approach that seems to elevate people “getting saved,” comes at

the cost of sacrificing commitment to God’s word in other places. Certainly not every issue that

could be raised is equally important, but since baptism is one of the means by which the Great

Commission is accomplished, the goal of the fulfillment of the Great Commission does not

justify sacrificing fidelity to the means of it.

In many ways, the sort of thinking that Callaham is reacting against in this chapter is the

kind of organization or movement that Youth With A Mission (hereafter, YWAM) is proud to

be. That is, YWAM is intentionally interdenominational, and while there are Baptists and

Presbyterians among our ranks, YWAM does not hold to one particular view of baptism over

4
Ibid., 154.
5

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another. Rather, YWAM is happy to affirm either practice (depending on who’s doing the

talking) so long as people are coming to faith in the Lord Jesus. In my experience, the details of

who should get baptized and how are either assumed from one’s tradition or considered as

secondary content that gets subordinated as a means to an end. However, since baptism is one of

is central to the Great Commission, the details of baptism are chock-full of meaning. Romans 6

and Colossians 2, especially in connection with Genesis 17, sets a rich feast of importance before

believers, and to shrug off the baptismal details and implications as secondary or unimportant is

simply to leave too much bacon and beer on the table, and I’m just not that kind of guy.

This brings me back to the discussion of the costs and benefits of working in YWAM as

an intentionally interdenominational missions movement. Over the last 16 years, I have

benefited in many ways from YWAM’s commitment to working in cross-cultural teams, a highly

international focus, empower young leaders, to foster growth in theological understanding, and

even in the selection of women (I met my wife in YWAM)! I simply would not be who I am or

where I am were it not for YWAM. However, as I have progressed in my thinking, I feel as if

YWAM leaves too much on the theological table. One practical way that this chapter has landed

for me is that it has been a sort of “confirmation,” for how the Lord may be leading me out of

YWAM and into a more confessionally robust place of work. I simply want to be in a place of

work where the organization tries to take as seriously as possible the details of such things as

baptism, ecclesiology, and other details that, while not first-tier issues, are certainly important.

Since I have spent most of my working life in YWAM, my denominational experience is limited,

only having gone through elder training at a PCA church in Manhattan back in 2012.6 I do not

imagine that the grass is greener on the other side and that a denominational commitment is the

6
I had a trip planned to Cambodia during the months that elder training was conducted and was unable to complete
the training required to become an elder.

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ultimate answer, but the robustness of belief that I’ve seen in the PCA, OPC, SBC and others,

shows me that there is something more out there than a relatively bland commitment to agree on

the “big picture.” As my wife and I have talked, we are considering moving from Cambodia at

the end of 2023, where Lord willing, I will be able to enter into a Ph.D. program somewhere in

order to further hone my skill in biblical studies, so that I can teach others, as best as possible,

how to study the Bible, especially the Hebrew Old Testament.

Next, Callaham has an additional chapter in the book entitled Language and World

Mission,7 where he calls for missionaries to become proficient in not only the language of their

“host-nation,” but also in the three biblical languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, since the

missionary’s primary message is God’s self-revelation given in and through all that Scripture

contains. That is, when the missionary is making God known, no biblical stone should be left

unturned since all of it communicates that which is necessary to believe about God and live a

wise and righteous life before him. There was about as much in this chapter as I agreed with that

I disagreed with (like the need for missionaries to be proficient in Aramaic!). I will begin with

my points of disagreement and finish with my agreements.

First, while I wholeheartedly affirm the full-throated appeal for the entirety of the Bible

to be the single foundation for all of what a missionary says, Callaham implies that “training on

vision casting” and “leadership”8 principles should take something like a “second-tier” level of

priority. In my 16 years in YWAM, I’ve spent the bulk of the last 15 of them doing little else but

teaching book by book through the whole Bible. I can think of no greater profession than to

open the Scriptures to eager students and help them to see Christ, in whom are hidden all the

treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2.3), whether that be from explaining the Great Baby

7
Scott Callaham, “Language and World Mission,” in World Mission: Theology, Strategy, and Current Issues, ed.
Callaham, Scott N. and Will Brooks (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019) 207 - 238.
8
Callaham, Language, 212.

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Race of Genesis 30, the unexpected nature of Ehud, that great left-handed deliverer of Israel, or

Isaiah’s multilayered Servant Songs. Having said all that, my years of teaching have shown me

that if we nail the theology of the text but fail to show its implications on vision casting,

leadership, family roles, and other worldview forming issues, then we have failed to properly

teach the text. We’ve given good theology, but we’ll send our hearers and readers off to other

places to learn how to develop their leadership skills and personal vision.

In my context, 97% of the people in Cambodia not only do not know the stories I’ve

listed above (what percentage of Americans do?), but they also have such a warped view of

issues like saving and spending money, family planning, and even human anatomy, that to limit

the missionary’s work to only the teaching of the Bible would necessarily limit the kind of

discipleship that would be accomplished here. Again, I am not saying that such stories should

not be taught, but I am saying that unless the most practical applications are exegetically drawn

from the text and given to the hearer, then the Bible teacher has failed. After all, in Acts 15,

James is able to work from Amos 9.11 – 15, an incredibly obscure OT passage, in order to put to

rest one of the most theologically pressing and most practical matters the church ever had to deal

with up to that point, the inclusion of Gentiles into the church. James was able to interpret Amos

9.11 – 15 in a richly theological manner and apply it to an incredibly practical question the

church sought to answer. Therefore, proper hermeneutical methodology and interpretation are

central to the missionary task, but they absolutely require the teacher to explain with explicit

specificity how each story and passage has practical implications on one’s day-to-day life, and

how it is meant to shape how one thinks and lives.

Secondly, Callaham lays out the considerable amount of time that it will take for a

missionary to explain all the ins and outs of the gospel message. Callaham borrows the

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following definition of the gospel from Michael Bird, “The gospel is the announcement that

God’s kingdom has come in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord and

Messiah, in fulfillment of Israel’s Scriptures. The gospel evokes faith, repentance, and

discipleship; its accompanying effects include salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit.”9

Callaham is certainly right when he says that each phrase in this definition will require its own

carefully worded contextual explanation in order for the whole of the definition to be understood.

However, I simply cannot agree with the fact that each missionary should be able to explain each

of these phrases and all of their highly contextualized meanings. Who is sufficient for such

things? To assume that every missionary should have this skill set seems to misunderstand the

nature of spiritual gifts, and simply put, not everyone is a teacher. Having said that, every

missionary, because of their commitment to the Bible before their job, should commit

themselves to being able to explain on an introductory level each of the phrases in Callaham’s

borrowed definition above. Having dealt with those two bigger disagreements, I’ll move on to

what I did agree with.

Callaham’s section entitled The Language of the Community10 was one of the best parts

of the whole book, and I found myself agreeing with pretty much all of it. Part of my work in

Battambang is helping to oversee our new foreign staff to ensure that they are moving along in

their Khmer language study. Callaham comedically notes the utter discomfort and

embarrassment that many endure early on as they work through the early stages of language

study. I’ve personally seen the missionaries who, according to Callaham, “ruefully pray for a

latter-day gift of tongues,” and I couldn’t have been more pleased to read Callaham’s advice that

the missionary should stop praying for such a thing and rather accept with humility the way that

9
Ibid., 213.
10
Ibid., 227 – 230.

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God is leading him or her into a greater dependency on the Holy Spirit for endurance in every

aspect of their lives, especially in learning a new and very foreign language. Learning a new

language is an act of love performed by the missionary, and such an act of love “commits a

missionary to stoop below the barest level of intelligibility in the host culture” which will

“[express] the missionary’s sacrificial love for a people well before coherent verbal articulation

of love is possible.” Furthermore, “through the constantly effacing and error-laden process of

learning a new language in daily living, missionaries incarnate love for a host-nation’s people

and tangibly cast their lot with them…True humility and dependence manifest the work of the

Spirit on the missionary soul.”11

Practically, I have already begun sharing this with some of our key leaders so that this

kind of thinking flows from our top leadership “down” to the newer staff members and those

who are still struggling through the tough stages of language acquisition.

In Callaham’s section entitled The Language of the Message,12 he calls on missionaries to

develop a nearly academic understanding of Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic. While I voiced my

disagreements with this approach for all missionaries above, I am in complete agreement with

the fact that Cambodia (and other places throughout SE Asia) are in great need for well-trained

Bible teachers who can operate at a high level in the biblical languages.13 Callaham states

simply, “biblical interpretation…provides the basis for all Christian ministry.”14 If one can

affirm this, then one should be able to affirm that at least some should take on the worthy

challenge of becoming proficient in the biblical languages. Callaham addresses the example that

a missionary may find two different translations of the same verse, let’s say in the ESV and the

11
Ibid., 227 – 229.
12
Ibid., 215 – 223.
13
While I feel that the Lord may be calling me away from YWAM and into a time of formal training, I do hope that
my later work will allow me to remain in the mission field in some way.
14
Callaham, Language, 219.

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NIV. In such a situation, the untrained missionary may resort to a commentary, but if the

difference in translation results from the grammar of the Greek text and how it ought to be

translated or how, at times, the translation of a given verse is more accurately the translation of

an interpretation of a verse, then the missionary “must select a preferred interpretation in an ad

hoc manner, perhaps arbitrarily favoring one’s favorite English Bible translation or choosing a

reading reflected in several translations”15 (emphases mine). What’s worse is that in a teaching

context, there may be a significant discrepancy between the English translation and the host

nation’s translation. Callaham rightly notes, “if the missionary can only appeal to the accuracy

of English Bible translations, such an act invests English with a level of authority English neither

deserves nor can sustain.”16 I personally encountered this specific situation in November when

teaching through Romans 9, I realized that the Khmer Bible did not have the parenthetical phrase

of 9.11, “…in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but

because of him who calls…”. To make matters worse, while the standard 1954 version of the

Khmer Bible (Old Version, KOV) dropped the phrase, the 2016 version of the Khmer Bible

includes it, but no explanation is given as to why the KOV doesn’t have it. When people asked

the question, live and publicly, I had nothing to say other than I didn’t know, but I was forced to

continue on with that part of Romans 9 forming the crux of my argument about election on the

one passage that is nowhere to be found in the most common Khmer Bible. To be frank, the

Cambodians in the room had no reason to believe me and I had no way of showing them why my

Bible had it and theirs didn’t. While this situation probably deals more closely with textual

criticism rather than proficiency in the languages, it is illustrative of Callaham’s overall

15
Callaham, Language, 220.
16
Ibid., 220.

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argument that neither the English nor Khmer translations were ever meant to be the standards by

which all other translations are judged.

Finally, in their chapter on theological education in missions, 17 the authors argue that

theological education is necessary if the missionary organization wants to truly support the

mission of God past the first generation of that organization, even if such work is not fast and not

easily reproducible. Authors Sunny Tan and Will Brooks write, “Formal theological education

such as seminary training is not only necessary but critical to the long-term health of the church.

Not only does this type of training produce indigenous pastors and missionaries with strong

exegetical and theological skills, but it also produces indigenous scholar-teachers, who are able

to continue the work of training future leaders long after the missionary has moved on.” This was

probably the most impacting and practical chapter for me. A litany of quotes should help to

communicate the point. “The missionary’s goal is to teach local teachers so that they produce

their own theologically sound content” (182). “When considering the missiological task and the

planting of a healthy church…missionaries should not merely seek what is easy or what can be

accomplished quickly. Speed should not be the driving concern in missiology” (183). “Quality

theological education equips pastors and church leaders with a deep understanding of the

overarching message of the Bible and enables them to recognize the false claims of heretical

movements” (189). The aim in providing formal theological training for “locals”18 is wise living

in a fallen world. “The objective of the academy…would be to enable men and women to

become wise. Wisdom is a helpful point of reference because it incorporates the development of

knowledge and understanding as well as the formation of character. Wise people are mature in

both their understanding and their behavior” (200).

17
Sunny Tan, Will Brooks, Theological Education as Integral Component of World Mission Strategy, 177 – 204.
18
The constant “outside-in” approach of this book is perhaps its greatest flaw. Hopefully the authors assume those
reading this book will be going into previously unreached people groups, but the outside-in approach certainly
creates the idea that unless Western missionaries come, churches will seldom be planted in Asia.

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 The idea that theological education is a necessary element for sustaining the church was a

powerfully compelling point for me. The motto and vision of YWAM Battambang is “One

Nation in One Generation.” The idea behind this is that just like South Korea was able to see

such a massive transformation in the church in such a short time after the Korean war, becoming

one of the greatest missionary-sending countries worldwide, we believe that God can work the

same miracle in Cambodia. We believe wholeheartedly that this is something God has called us

to and we are giving everything we have to see this happen. There have been multiple times

over my eight years here where I have questioned whether or not I could really give my life to

such a major vision; the country is 97-98% Buddhist, after all, and the remaining 2 – 3%

includes Christians, Muslims, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses. We certainly have our work

cut out for us! As I read this chapter, however, I began prayerfully considering that, perhaps, our

vision, grand as it is, may be too small. The authors of this chapter are totally fine to recognize

that in the early days of church planting and ministry, formal theological education will not and

should not be the goal. Rather, modeling strong Christian living and sound biblical interpretation

will be the primary means of education. However, missionaries should always seek out the

highest level of training for national believers and should minister in such a way that results in

national leaders being empowered to “teach and preach in the power of the Holy Spirit, such that

the word of God will burn with the Spirit’s fire.”19

I can hardly think of a greater calling than that which is described in this chapter. Where

all of this lands specifically for me is in two major projects that I have begun as a result of

reading this chapter. First, as I briefly mentioned above, I will begin working on working with a

small team of Cambodian guys to publish what I believe will be the first systematic theological

works by Cambodians. As far as I know, there is one ministry in Phnom Penh that has been
19
Tan, Brooks, Theological Education, 179.

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active in translating solid theological resources into Khmer. However, the materials they are

translating (Gospel Coalition pamphlets, books by John Piper, D.A. Carson, Mark Dever, etc.)

are not well suited for the Cambodian context and generally fall into one theological camp.20

The books that are written by Cambodians, while having their well-deserved space, are generally

more topical. This creates a serious gap for formal theological books in Khmer. Presently, I am

working on outlining what topics we will need to include for a series of theological books that

will be prepared. Given my “relative” ease with the Khmer language, my role will primarily be

to teach the content to our team and facilitate the brainstorming sessions for how we would want

to package everything into a series 30 – 50 page books for Cambodian Christians. Admittedly,

this is not exactly accomplishing formal theological training, but this is a first step of what will

hopefully evolve into a fruitful ministry that God will bless and result in Cambodians teaching

and preaching in the Spirit’s power throughout this country.

In addition to a book project, I have also begun, as a result of reading the chapter on

theological education, making a plan for how to start teaching Old Testament Hebrew in Khmer.

To be honest, this will be a relatively long-term project, but again, I’m trying to do as much

towards it now as I can. I am working on my MAOT, the bulk of which is centered around

Greek and Hebrew exegesis, and, Lord willing, I plan to pursue a Ph.D. in some aspect of the

Hebrew Bible. For me to effectively teach Hebrew, I will need at least a few more years of

experience with the language. For now, I have gone through all of what was covered in my

Hebrew 1 course with Dr. Petter and have begun working out rough translations for all the

foundational grammatical bits of Hebrew (propretonic reduction, pronominal suffix,

compensatory lengthening, etc.). The real challenge that I foresee in this project is the fact that

Hebrew is so much more grammar heavy than Khmer. In Khmer, for example, you don’t
20
The guy heading up the project is a recent graduate from John MacArthur’s Master’s Seminary.

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conjugate any verbs, instead, you can either add a future or past tense word to the verb if you

want to, or the tense of the verb can simply be implied in the context of a sentence. This is a far

cry from Hebrew’s seven verbal stems and six conjugations and constantly shifting

morphological features. Therefore, the first challenge will be creating significant Khmer

terminology in order to even approach a Cambodian beginning to learn Hebrew. I am by no

means a man of precision and I’m probably not even the best guy to undertake this kind of a

project but as far as I know, there’s no one else doing it in this country, and if I need to be the

guy to put my hand to the plow for a few years to get the work going, I’m more than happy to

play my part.

Finally, the authors only make the point in passing, but that one of the most important

tools of theological training is to model Christian living. As a result of my desire to study and

teach and open the Scriptures for people, I have sacrificed the pedagogical act of living well in

view of those the Lord has given me to lead. If I’m not able to incorporate this aspect of ministry

into my life, I will neither be able to follow Paul in calling on young men and women to “be

imitators of me as I am of Christ,” (1 Cor. 11.1) nor tell them that they “have followed my

teaching, my conduct…my patience, my love, my steadfastness.” (2 Tim. 3.10). In the passage

from 2 Timothy 3, Paul seems just as insistent that Timothy should have learned nearly as much

from Paul’s life (3.10 – 11) as he should be learning from the Bible (3.14 – 17).

If I may summarize, it is my sole desire to give myself to the Spirit empowered study of

God’s Word as the chief means given to know God and how he is making the world new. My

desire to honor God’s word as much as possible may lead me away from YWAM at some point,

but I will always be thankful for all that I was able to learn and experience in my years in

YWAM. I believe that the Lord is calling me into some form of formal theological training in a

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confessional and denominational context and I pray that this kind of training would not need to

sever my love for missions, especially in the Majority World. I need to continue honing my

skills in Hebrew and Greek, practicing these things, immersing myself in them, so that, as a

Christlike example, others will see my progress (1 Tim. 4.15), and want to follow along the path

of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Php. 3.14).

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Bibliography

Callaham, Scott N. and Will Brooks, World Mission: Theology, Strategy, and Current Issues.

Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2019.

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