The 3rd Lausanne Congress is only one year away, and throughout the year leading to that meeting in Cape Town, Christianity Today has partnered with Lausanne in The Global Conversation, exploring what Christian mission looks like around the world today. In the featured article, Christopher Wright outlines the mission of Lausanne and evangelicals around the [...]
Archive for the ‘Mission(s)’ Category
15 Sep
When Helping Hurts (7): Short-term missions
If you have been tracking with these posts so far, you will probably guess some of the ways in which short-term missions (STM) can hurt rather than help the poor. Throughout chapter 7 of When Helping Hurts, Fikker and Corbett identify several ways in which STM can hurt rather than help:
When resting on a belief [...]
9 Sep
Conversation at the eye doctor
Today I had an eye exam. The eye doctor that my entire (Myers) family goes to is somewhat amused by my family’s escapades around the world. He greeted me with, “So, what foreign adventures are you up to now?”
He actually asked great questions about our time in Mexico. He was obviously trying to form the [...]
2 Sep
Plight-Based Versus Potential-Based Ministry
Having worked among indigenous Mexicans for a year with Armonía, Stephanie and I have been reflecting a lot more about the Christians’ relationships with and ministry among indigenous people here in the US. In one of the books that I am reading–Whiteman’s Gospel, by Craig Stephen Smith–I have found some wonderful insights into the history [...]
17 Aug
Bringing Children to Christ
The August issue of Harper’s magazine has a fascinating article entitled “Like I was Jesus: how to bring a nine-year-old to Christ,” written by Rachel Aviv. The article explores the work of a worldwide organization called Child Evangelism Fellowship, based in Waterbury, Missouri. Through her own experience of this ministry and the stories that she [...]
27 Jul
Missions is Relationships
It is exciting to see relationships being formed between the American team and the Mexicans involved in the work of Armonía. When groups arrive, they usually soon realize that no matter what they came to do, the most important and lasting effect of their visit are the relationships that are formed and the bridges built [...]
10 Jul
False Dichotomies in Mission
Christopher Wright never seems to be short on biblical insight, such as these great insights on false dichotomies in mission from his posts at Koinonia:
Individual from the cosmic and corporate
Believing from living
Evangelism from discipleship
Word from deed
Evangelism from ecclesiology
8 Jul
Taking a Stand on Missional
The EPC, Evangelical Presbyterian Church, just adopted a missional statement at their General Assembly. Here it is in full (or you can access it on their website here):
A missional church grasps that God is a missionary God and that “it is not so much that God has a mission for His church in the world, [...]
2 Jul
Darfur and Next Door
We have emphasized on this blog that missions is not just what the church does in foreign lands, but the act of bringing the whole gospel to the whole person in the whole world, even to your next door neighbors. Recently, Relevant ran a great article entitled Why I Don’t Care about Darfur, which asked [...]
17 Jun
Evangelism as Provoking and Responding to Questions
During our last 10 months with Armonía in Mexico, we have been wrestling with the meaning of evangelism and its place in the overall Christian mission. We have emphasized on this blog over and over again that we must proclaim and demonstrate the gospel, so evangelism in this sense as a central place in our [...]
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