The Great Omission

Steve Saint

In this powerful call for the inclusion of indigenous believers in the Great Commission, Steve Saint shows how current mission strategies have unwittingly harmed the indigenous church and kept millions of believers from fulfilling their roles in God’s Kingdom — and millions of others from hearing the Good News.

This is a must read for anyone doing short-term missions but, even greater, is the power of this book when applied to church leadership, followers becoming producers, and finding fulfillment in becoming a part of the work instead of the recipient of the work. The Great Omission is full of big life truths that span far beyond the scope of missions.

This book's Disciple Making Purpose

We leverage this book to grow disciples or increase their skills in being servant-driven (Step 12 – doing what needs to be done), kingdom-minded (Step 13 – seeing God’s greater work and their role in it), and sending/going to do God’s work (Step 14) in a healthy way. The Great Omission stresses the points that we will never reach the unreached world if we do it alone, calls disciples to just do their part by multiplying and empowering others, and gives a solid biblical-philosophical framework for missions. We find this work invaluable in removing the last vestiges of self-centeredness moving disciples to accept God’s invitation to do His work His way.

Key Topics or Truths

Missions
Short-term Mission Investments
Empowerment of Indigenous People
Empowerment of Church Members
Kingdom-Mindedness

This Book is Good For...

People who intend to be the answer for other people by meeting every one of their needs. It is also a must-read for every Christian leader.

How We Use this Book to Make Disciples

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This is an easy read and powerful. The disciples will have many “aha” moments about how to spread the Gospel efficiently, the backwards approaches we often take, and the need to invest in people who can share the Gospel in their context. We have disciples read this book over two weeks reviewing each week’s reading using our open review plan. Here is the reading plan our team uses:

  • Week 1 : Chapters 1-5
  • Week 2 : Chapters 6-10 + Epilogue

During our review, we make sure the disciples get, at least, the following truths:

  • We should empower those we reach for Christ to be self-sufficient and reach others for Christ. This is a key teaching for Discipleship Three: we are trying to create skilled disciples that can be released into the world.
  • A vast amount of the world’s population has not heard the Good News. We need to be kingdom-minded and pray for them and actively work to reach them.
  • Our church is in essence a mission and each leader should be raising up, replicating, and preparing people to take their job and live independently leading and serving the church.
  • Jesus came to serve not to be served.
  • Often what we think is helping “people in need” is not at all helping.

We guide disciples to extend the many incredible truths from this small book into the many areas of the disciples’ lives by asking them questions like,

  • “Are you empowering your employees? Does God teach anything about that?”
    He does when Jethro gives Moses a structure for legal decisions.
  • “Before you go reach Guatemala, are you reaching your break room, your street at home, or the people you hang out with?”
    The truth is that we are the most effective to reach the people right next to us. They in turn can reach the people right next to them.
  • One final big truth comes in the form of a question, “Are you taking care of and owning the resources that God has given you or are you waiting on others to manage your Christian life?”

Our open review plan is simple. We let the room speak and talk as a room. Why? As you move closer to the end of Year Three, you should be focused on preparing the disciples to leave the process of discipleship and move to the daily practice of discipleship. You are preparing for release and moving the relationship from a leader to a peer relationship slowly over time. The open review plan works best for this read as we ask the room an open question of “So what did you learn in this week’s reading? Wasn’t it cool?”

Real Life Story

I was teaching a seminary class on missions, specifically short-term missions when I carried in a 100-foot tape measure to illustrate the ineffectiveness of the church’s long-held mission strategies. Using the example from “The Great Omission”, I unrolled the tape all around the students and classroom asking, “How many feet of this tape represents the number of people that we have reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ to date?” After hearing many optimistic guesses, I gave them the answer, “Three inches…” They were as astounded as I was the first time I saw a physical representation of the failure of our current strategies.

Know Issues or Controversies

No known issues

The “home team” of Sustainable Discipleship loves this book because it changed everything about how our church invested in mission work, it challenged and changed our theology of carrying out missions locally, and led us to empower our people to do ministry in the church.

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Steve Saint
Book Details
Pathway Steps: 12, 13, 14
  • Phase: Year 3
  • Book Type: Non-Fiction
  • Flair: Eye Opening, Storytelling
  • Tags: Easy Read
Reading Time
Two Weeks
Start Reading After Week 39
13 Pages per Day
21 Minutes per Day
Related Reads

This book is great anywhere. It is a one-off inspirational, challenging read.