Book Review: Debtor Unashamed – The Road to Mission is A Two-Way Street

DEBTOR UNASHAMED: The Road to Mission Is A Two-Way Street written by Arden Almquist focuses on getting the most out of cross-cultural ministry. It teaches about not only giving but receiving from the people we encounter in cross-cultural ministries. This book review was written by Hank Griffith of South Suburban Evangelical Free Church in Apple Valley, Minnesota. This would be a great book for those preparing for cross-cultural ministry, especially those in Africa.

If there is one book that I wish had existed and that I had read before Donna and I went to Congo as missionaries in the mid-1970s, it might be this short insightful 135-page work. I would describe the author, Dr. L. Arden Almquist (1921-2002) as a physician, pastor, missionary administrator, poet, and philosopher. Because most of Almquist’s stories come primarily from less than 200 miles from where Donna and I served in northern Congo, his insights make real sense to me. No, I don’t agree with every perspective expressed by Evangelical Covenant missionary Almquist, but what a sensitive, caring, and intelligent human being he was!

Would I have made some of the same mistakes as a missionary had I read this book before going to Congo? Yes, probably, because maturity doesn’t come from reading a book, but I think I would have been better prepared for cross-cultural life and ministry, and maybe, just maybe, I would have felt a bit more convicted at the time about some of the dumb and insensitive things I said and did during those years.

CONTINUE READING…

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