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JJ Farmer
My name is JJ Farmer* and I grew up as the son of a Baptist missions minister. The investment of my parents and many others from my church have helped form me into someone who was ...view moreMy name is JJ Farmer* and I grew up as the son of a Baptist missions minister. The investment of my parents and many others from my church have helped form me into someone who was willing to give up a very promising career as an Architect in order to become one of those “weirdo missionaries” in obedience to the calling of our Lord Jesus. For 12 years now, my wife and I have served with the International Mission Board, SBC. We arrived in East Asia with little more than zealous ignorance and a firm faith that God would save the millions of people for whom we went to minister. Upon arrival, we found that 8 out of 10 people had never heard the gospel before, and in our isolation and state of desperate dependence on God and His ways, He taught us many lessons that proved to be invaluable in our service to the King of all kings. We eventually learned the language and culture while working to plant local churches and we did so all while developing resources to help local brothers and sisters not only grow in their faith, but quickly be able to effectively disciple and train others to do the same! God moved in mighty ways and during our service in East Asia He transformed both of us into entirely different creatures in Him. God also worked through us and our national brothers and sisters to help millions hear the gospel, see over 45,000 people come to faith, plant nearly 700 new churches and see over 2,000 new leaders raised up in service to our Lord!!!
In the beginning we were just two people, working in the power of the Holy Spirit, who were attempting to give a two-million-person target population a chance to become disciples of Jesus. Over time we became a small team of people targeting nearly thirty-five million!!! As time went on, we better learned how to partner with local churches and work to empower them as they partnered with us, teaching us vital lessons on everything from bold evangelism to reproducible discipleship to effective leadership development to mass church planting and ultimately to sustainable cross-cultural missions.
During the majority of our time in Asia, I have also worked toward earning my Masters of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In addition to being able to see first hand how my formal theological education was able to impact my day-to-day ministry, I was also able to see God at work first hand in East Asia. In addition to all of this, after a decade of infertility, God also blessed me and my wife with “3 sprouts” while in Asia and have had the honor of seeing Him at work in their lives as well as in my marriage. My kiddos have been blessed to spend the majority of their lives in Asia as a part of my family’s ministry and they have become an integral part of His mighty work in which He has called us.
*Name changed for security reasons.view less
Books by JJ Farmer
Thirty Conversations with a Missionary: Helping Churches Operate Like One