Missions Blog for Churches

by, Paul W. Taylor

In Protestant circles we are familiar with the story of the Antioch Church and how that great church sent out Paul and Barnabas as missionaries going to the west of Antioch as far as Europe. We’re quick to credit these early missionary efforts with enabling the gospel to reach Europe and ultimately North and South America. There is, however, a significant movement of the gospel eastward that is relatively unknown to most Protestant church members.

Dr. John M.L. Young, who served in Japan under Mission to the World’s predecessor, World Presbyterian Missions, has written a scholarly book on the missionary movement to the East. It is fascinating to read about these committed missionaries who carried the gospel 6,000 miles by foot as they went to China and beyond. Churches and seminaries were developed all across what we know today as Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China. More than 100 missionaries were sent into China from the year A.D. 636 onward for the next 150 years. These mission efforts brought the Good News to Japan as early as A.D. 603. Relics from these early efforts have been found in Java (Indonesia), Sri Lanka, Japan, and extensively in the countries mentioned above. It is estimated that, due to these massive missionary efforts, the number of believers east of Jerusalem was significantly larger than that going westward. (click here to continue reading this article)

by, Brian Deringer

My thoughts are drawn to 1 Corinthians 12, where I can hear the fatigue in Paul’s voice. Paul’s sufferings were even greater than the things that we endure. Nonetheless a ministry in leadership calls us to bear many things. We face tremendous pressures from the logistics of ministry. We make hard decisions regarding people and money. We are often far from home and our loved ones. We are often alone in our ponderings, having no other person who can take from us the responsibilities we are given. Indeed, leadership is physically, emotionally, and spiritually wearing.

If we are not careful, even if we are careful, any one of us can find ourselves vulnerable and tempted.

How then can a human being survive the relentless pressure? (click here to continue reading this article)

by, Keith R. Bucklen

Missions. Contrary to a common man-centered view, it is not primarily about getting people into the kingdom. First and foremost, missions is about the glory of God. The blessing that man receives, both as the beneficiary of salvation and the instrument for the salvation of others, is a secondary (though inseparable) consequence.

Psalm 67 clearly expresses this link between God’s glory in missions and man’s blessing through an agrarian metaphor:

“May God be gracious to us and bless us
and make his face shine upon us,
that your ways may be known on earth,
your salvation among all nations. … (click here to continue reading this article)

In a year of financial woes, missions giving has certainly seen the pinch. Although we don’t track and maintain statistical data on how churches handle missions giving, we certainly have a great deal of anecdotal evidence that the churches who use Faith Promise are the ones who have seen increase in giving during a difficult year. Faith Promise isn’t magic, but it does provide the mechanism through which people can be generous when they are led by the Holy Spirit. And so, many of those which use Faith Promise have not had to make cuts in the past year, and some have actually seen increased giving.

For churches that have an established Faith Promise program, here is a great suggestion from Brett Carl, Missions Pastor at Westminster Reformed PCA in Suffolk, VA. This year they are challenging people in their congregation who have not participated in Faith Promise. The challenge is just $10 a week, for a total of $520 a year. You can see their Faith Promise Card here. I like this idea because it gives a reasonable challenge to first-timers, something they can envision. And when you multiply that $520 by the number of new participants, the impact becomes apparent.

The Dayspring Camp in Fairmont, WV, a ministry of Mission to the World, has launched a new blog. You can follow upcoming happenings at the camp and plan your next trip. I worked a week at this camp this past summer and can say that this is an ideal setup for youth groups (as a former youth pastor myself). If you’re not ready to take the whole group on a plane and across the pond, introduce them to cross-cultural ministry through Dayspring. You’ll work during the day, have a debrief time each evening, along with a corporate worship time together with the other groups there. It allows you to not only provide ministry opportunities for your participants, but gives you the opportunity to minister to them as well. The blog address is http://mtwfairmont.blogspot.com/.

One of the things I have had a great deal of passion for is the use of video and media to communicate. For better or worse, we live in a media age. Video allows the viewer to not only hear, but see and experience much of the story in a way that a lone speaker or storyteller could accomplish. So we’re beginning to catch up in gathering and even producing some videos to communicate the message of what God is doing around the world. Take a look…

• Ethiopia – the HIV/AIDS ministry led by Andy & Bev Warren; this is a newly produced video with many updates on the ministry
• Below is a series of short videos by a volunteer filmmaker for a number of MTW sites (this filmmaker was Matthew Blick of Cellar Media…a special thanks to him for this labor of love that will certainly produce much fruit!):
  • Berlin
  • Bulgaria
  • Scotland
  • Slovakia
  • Dayspring – Fairmont, WV
• India – this was on the MTW site so you may have already seen it

Mission to the World is number 377 on The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s top 400 list. The map this link points to is the only free resource you can see from this work. A subscription is otherwise required. Still, it is something of interest and something for which I thank God, that MTW has been able to be such a vehicle for His use for His kingdom.