Missions Blog for Churches

Anyone who has ever ministered in a context where their native tongue is not spoken knows the challenges of teaching or preaching through an interpreter. It can be frustrating or at least challenging just to maintain focus. Momentum is difficult to gain. But there are steps to prepare both for you as a speaker as well as for the one who will interpret your words. Dennis Bills, PCA pastor in Winifrede, WV, has written a helpful article on this very subject.

Click here to view the article about speaking with an interpreter.

Pastor Bills’ desire is that this material be used to serve people going short or long term. He is also open to your feedback. You can find contact information and more about him on his personal website here.

A pastor recently contacted me for some book suggestions as his church prepared for their annual missions conference. I thought it might be helpful to put some of the links here as well. Know that this is not an endorsement of every book on these sites, or even the ministries themselves. But these are certainly tools that can be used in any evangelical context, and a Reformed worldview can certainly be expressed through them.

I think stories are particularly compelling, and connect with many people who will never really take interest in theories. There are a few on our “books” page (which you can find here):

Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot, Elisabeth Elliot
A Chance to Die: The Life and Legacy of Amy Carmichael, Elisabeth Elliot
Through Gates of Splendor, Elisabeth Elliot
C.T. Studd, Norman Grubb
Bruchko, Bruce Olson
Peace Child, Don Richardson
The Spiritual Secret of Hudson Taylor, Howard Taylor

Another good list is Mongergism’s Book page.

As far as children’s materials, that has been an ongoing need we see in the PCA. There are some folks beginning to develop materials that we know of, but we’d like to find more so we can collect and share with others. There is probably a lot more out there, may not formally prepared, but good stuff and we just aren’t aware of it. As far as books for children:

Amy Carmichael
Corrie Ten Boom
John Patton
Tales of Persia: Missionary Stories from Islamic Iran
Jim Elliot Story – this is actually a DVD; 30 minutes, animated
The Girls and Boys Who Made History series books also have missionary stories in them

Grace & Truth has quite a list of stories and biographies for children on their site. Although not distinctly Reformed, I think there are many useful titles here. I haven’t read/reviewed them personally, but I think you can get a feel for the material from the website.

Another site that is not Reformed, but is evangelical, is Child Evangelism Fellowship. They offer a handful of missionary stories for use in a SS or other class. You can find them online here.

The Internet is an invaluable tool when it comes to research. It still amazes me how vast the resource pond is, and even more so, how expansive Christ’s Kingdom really is. I have been adding links on the right-hand column of this blog under the section “Missions” that will aid you in learning more about what is and has gone on around the world in terms of Kingdom expansion.

I’d like to add a few more helpful sites and highlight them here. First is the Global Mapping International’s mission research websites list.  If you’re preparing a sermon on missions or Christ’s Kingdom or putting together a prayer guide for your missions conference, some of these links will help you find that critical data you want to educate your people about.  GMI is behind Operation World which many in the PCA are familiar with and use for prayer and education. If you haven’t ever seen the book Operation World, check out the website and get a copy of the book.

Another invaluable research website is Gordon Conwell’s Center for the Study of Global Christianity. In particular, you can find directories of missions organizations and news about missions. But pay special attention to the extensive data as well as helpful graphics here.  Also note the resources page here.

The World Christian Database is connected to Gordon Conwell and you can find the link on their site, but I’m mentioning it separately. Here you can learn about data for evangelization, persecution, Bible translation as well as general social data such as education, infrastructure, and health.

Have you collected research sites or are there books you’d recommend? If so, please share them with us.