What can the Puritans teach us about missions?

This week, Alex is joined by Stephen Yuille, director of Puritan Publishing at Reformation Heritage Books, to explore who the Puritans really were and why they still matter for missions today. Yuille challenges common cultural caricatures of Puritanism, explaining that the Puritans were not merely dour moralists but a vibrant movement of pastors and theologians marked by a deep, heartfelt devotion to Christ that went beyond intellectual assent.

The conversation traces how this Christ-centered theology fueled a genuine evangelistic and missionary impulse. Although the Puritans lived before what we now call “modern missions,” they were deeply concerned with the spread of the gospel, both within nominally Christian societies and among unreached peoples as the world began to open through exploration.

Key Topics Covered

Who the Puritans were—and why modern stereotypes about them are misleading
The relationship between Reformation theology and evangelistic zeal
How Puritan theology influenced William Carey and later global missions
The centrality of Christ’s glory as the motivation for missions

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Why the Puritans Matter to Modern Missions With Stephen Yuille