The Swiss missionary-theologian, Emil Brunner, likened the church's involvement in missions to the relationship that exist between fire and burning: "The church exists by mission as fire exists by burning." In other words: No burning, no fire. No missions, no church.

James Montgomery Boyce in his preface to his book Here We Stand says this: So what is wrong with evangelicals? The answer is that we have become worldly. We have abandoned the truths of the Bible and the historic theology of the church which expresses those truths, and we are trying to do the work of God by means of the world's theology, the world's methods and agenda instead.