Dr. Michael Reeves joins us again from the UK, filling in this week for John Piper.

Pastor John once wrote about the role of theology and missions.

He wrote this quote,

pastors that aim to send missionaries must give themselves to building sending bases that

breed doctrinally deep people who are not given to emotional dependency on fads,

but know how to feed themselves on Christ-centered truth.

So true, doctrinal depth is essential for sustaining global missions.

So Michael, as a historian, when you look at your history and what ways has this principle

actually played itself out, what examples come to mind of robust theology fueling missions?

I think a classic example would be the life of the French reformer, John Calvin.

He was a Frenchman. He was born and brought up a little bit north of Paris,

but he actually spent most of his adult life as an exile just over the border in Geneva,

which is now Switzerland. And it was an independent city, it wasn't part of France,

and that was important. He couldn't have lived in France safely.

But as a Frenchman, he always kept a heart for the evangelization of France.

And what he did, so Calvin's known for his wonderful theology is preaching his

institutes, for example, which, if I can just mention, people are often scared of his institutes,

and I find again and again, when people dare pick them up and try them, they're always struck

by how warm and compelling and clear and pastoral he is. So a little little recommendation for

the institutes, but apart from the actual theological work, what Calvin did in his time in Geneva,

was he set up a secret network in France with safe houses hiding places so that agents of the

gospel could be slipped across the border from Geneva into France, there to plant new,

...