During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, God used young, unmarried men powerfully on the mission field — many of whom were deeply shaped by the life and writings of David Brainerd. Among them were Robert Morrison, the great missionary to China; Henry Martyn, who first translated the Bible into Persian (Farsi); and William Chalmers Burns, a man known for powerful preaching as a missionary in China.
Today, the picture is somewhat different. In my thirteen years overseas, the single male missionary proved the rarest of sights. On short-term teams, they came in droves, but for the long term, they were few and far between. They appeared more often in support ministries — as airplane pilots, schoolteachers, or accountants — than as frontline church planters.
What has changed over the last couple of centuries? Let me offer three reasons for why I think young, unmarried men rarely make it to the front edges of gospel advance, along with three remedies that might help get them there.
Reason 1: Distraction diminishes the soul.
When our family returned from Papua New Guinea to San Diego, our son promptly joined the high school water-polo team. Water sports are big in southern California, and the workouts and practices were wild to watch. (Treading water with a full five-gallon jug over your head for fifteen to thirty minutes is no joke.) But it astounded me that these athletes, so sharply focused in the pool, became so sluggishly immersed in their phones once out. TikTok called, Snapchat beckoned, and a host of other apps demanded their attention when not immersed in the water.
Distraction has become so common that it’s strange to see someone younger than thirty not on his phone during downtime. Distraction eats at the soul of the Christian, especially the young Christian. Pornography thrives in idle minds. Goals that could be achieved get pushed off or dropped. The sands of time slide away in the warm glow of small screens. The allure of entertainment rivets young minds to the present, keeping them from dreaming about how their lives might be of service in the great history of gospel advance.
Reason 2: Family is king.
One of the unspoken idols among some Christians today is the family. Don’t get me wrong: I am a huge proponent of godly families and parents who raise up young men and women to glorify God by enjoying him forever. But the common error of glorifying the gift and not the Giver has captured many in our day. Whatever might possibly harm our children, even if it is for the glory of the King, is too often ruled out before even considered as an option. Every true follower of Christ loves the idea of the nations being reached with the gospel — as long as it’s not our own sons sent to do it.
I have the privilege of running a missionary training school that has equipped over four hundred frontline church planters. In many ways, these young people are the cream of the crop. Many have left homes, promising careers, and the comforts of their own culture for the sake of the Great Commission. For many, the chief obstacle they face is Christian parents. The hope of handing the family business to the next generation, enjoying Christmases together for years to come, and having a host of other good things trump the call to the nations. So, parents subtly tilt the table to keep those dangerous ideas down and to put forward a more palatable future.
Reason 3: No warriors needed.
One of the lamentable aspects of Western culture is that there are no rites of passage for boys to become men. The closest thing we have is getting a driver’s license or turning eighteen, hardly accomplishments of great significance.
When my family moved in among the YembiYembi people, we discovered that a boy becomes a man when he kills a wild boar at night with a spear by himself. Until he fulfills this rite, he will forever be a boy, not able to marry and not able to enter the house of men (a clubhouse of sorts where men exchange food and stories). When a boy returns from his first kill, he is carried into the village on the shoulders of his family to shouts of praise — praise to him for the kill and to his family for having raised a man. The underlying message: We have grown stronger as a tribe. We have another man. We have another warrior for our people.
Many young Christian men are disillusioned about what their purpose is. Yes, they love their God and want to serve him, but there are no castles to storm, wars to fight, or enemies to be conquered — at least, none that they know of. When life is reduced to the best college option, the most gratifying job I can do while still making decent money, or pursuing favorite hobbies, it’s no wonder that a man made in the image of God grows listless and unattuned to the things of eternity.
So, what is to be done? How do we counteract this stew of distraction, overprotection, and male malaise? Let me suggest three antidotes.
Remedy 1: Go all in.
I dislike the company of Christians who don’t cheer hard at sporting events, who stifle their laughter at a good joke, and who generally operate at half-speed. We, of all people, should press in on life and seize it by the neck no matter what God gives us. We don’t belong to the timid tribe that shrinks back and is destroyed but to those who believe and are saved (Hebrews 10:39). Our hope is in the world to come, and so we press into this life, knowing that this is not where our home or treasure is.
Young men who have a vision for the world to come live differently. They walk surer, smile more, read better, enjoy church more deeply. They have more time for those who need them; they worry less about looks and more about heart; they are all in on whatever they are doing. If there is one thing I would wish for every young man, it is that he would have a Christ-follower in his life he respects, one who presses him to go hard after what he knows to be good and true.
Young Christian man, become known as someone who runs hard at life, especially at the things of eternity. This will bode well for you in ventures foreign and domestic. Most importantly, you will stand with no shame on that great day.
Remedy 2: Read great stories; attempt great stories.
The older I get, the more I am convinced that the most powerful weapon for giving young people a heart for missions is biography. Read books such as The Autobiography of John G. Paton, A Chance to Die, God Planted Five Seeds, Lords of the Earth, To the Golden Shore, and The Diary of David Brainerd. If parents and pastors would read and recommend missionary biographies to young men, how many might catch a heart for missions?
And note this about missionary biographies: The good ones don’t gloss over the warts of the missionary, and they highlight the grace of God in each season. Young Christian men who read these stories can see themselves in them and can aspire to great things — not because of who they are now, or even who they may become, but because our unchanging God will be with them, just as he was with Adoniram Judson, Nate Saint, and George Liele. Common men, ordinary men, young men can do incredible things when they trust an all-powerful God. In the words of William Carey, expect great things; attempt great things!
Remedy 3: Find what’s worth dying for.
Finding something worth living for is somewhat easy; finding something worth dying for is much harder. When I was old enough to understand, my father told me the story of my grandfather enlisting in the U.S. Navy on December 8, 1941. The prospects of living through the next four years were dim for him, but the call to arms was so stirring that men en masse enlisted in the military. So powerful was the call to arms that some men who were found unfit to enlist committed suicide.
Young Christian man, a war is raging for the eternal souls of men. The front where this war is fought most ferociously often lies in other lands and other languages. The world was liberated from the Nazis in my grandfather’s time; the war for liberation from sin, Satan, and hell still rages on. Entire language groups know nothing of God’s grace in the person of Jesus Christ.
The God of the ages summons you to this fight. Your life is a vapor. What will you do with the days you have been given? Come fight for the King — not with guns but with words. By teaching the word of God, strongholds that have existed for centuries are pulled down, worldviews that trap men in pain and death are destroyed, and freedom is granted to the captives. But you find the desire for this fight only when you are willing to lay down your life for something great, something lasting, someone worth dying for.
Heed the call of J.C. Ryle: “Young men of the present day, you are wanted for God. . . . A wide field of usefulness is open before you, if you are only willing to enter upon it. The harvest is great, but the laborers are few (Luke 10:2). Be zealous of good works. Come, come to the cause of the Lord against the mighty” (Thoughts for Young Men, 73).
Young man, give up small dreams and come fight for the cause of the King. You will never regret it.
