Missionaries know that in order to reach people with the gospel, they must be willing and able to speak their language. This applies to reaching and equipping the upcoming generation as well. […]
If you want to discover how you can serve God with the business experience He’s given you, the Missions in Business Weekend is just for you.
Who Should Attend:
• Business owners
• Business executives
• Retired businesspeople
• Entrepreneurs
• Spouses (special program)
• Young businesspeople who desire to be mentored
Missions in Business Weekend
August 19-22
The Cove
Billy Graham Conference Center
Asheville, NC
MTW is featuring the work in Thailand at General Assembly this year. If you’re planning to be in Nashville, come by the MTW booth and pickup your Thailand gift to discover more about what God is doing in this part of Asia.
Here is a video put together by Team Thailand that tells a bit of the story:
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.
The following is an article by Burt Boykin, pastor of Community PCA in Moody, AL. I asked Burt to write this article after recognizing a number of people out of his church who were going to the mission field. What I noticed was that these folks were the very leaders in Burt’s church. One was his associate pastor (his only associate pastor). So I felt like Burt could not only encourage us, but that he was a worthy example. Burt is a pastor’s pastor. Enjoy.
by, Burt Boykin
If you’re reading this article you’re surely one of those pro-mission folks who already has an above-average interest in and commitment to missions. I do too, I guess. But let’s admit that sometimes this missions deal gets just a little out of hand. Let me explain.
As a church we’re always glad to send some money to missionaries and even do it regularly. Most of us are even willing to support missions with our personal finances. And surely we pray for missionaries. In addition to sending money and praying, we frequently go on mission trips ourselves, taking a handful of folks to various spots around the world to get a taste of what the Lord is doing. And to put the icing on the cake of our self-righteousness, we even promote the idea of people considering missions as a calling. Sometimes we see our people seriously consider that call, occasionally pursue it, and once in a while actually end up on the mission field. There are always certain people we’d love to see go on the mission field, whom we approach and urge to consider missions, and whom we’re even willing to help support when they go. All of this is good and surely helps give our churches a more mission-minded look and feel. But, when your very best folks start lining up to leave the church, that’s when you start to wonder if this stuff isn’t getting out of hand! We’re just not one of those large churches that can afford to lose our leaders, our best people, our tithers! When we lose a “significant” family, it’s rather significant. (continue reading this article)
MTW missionary to Japan, Michael Oh, was the featured missions speaker at the February 2009 Bethlehem Pastors Conference (home of Desiring God Ministries). His sermon title was, Missions as Fasting: The Forsaking of Things Present for the Global Exaltation of Christ. Last month I finally had the chance to listen to the sermon on a road trip to West Virginia. Immediately upon its ending I called my wife saying, “You’ve got to listen to this!” It encouraged and challenged me in so many issues that we are facing.
In the sermon, Oh gives a cursory definition of fasting, then focuses on how missions involves “doing without” on many levels. One exhortation that sticks with me was his question, “Do I simply want to go to school and study hard so I can get a good job and work hard, so my kids can go to school and study hard so they can get a good job and work hard, so that their children…?”
He also confronts the notion (which I agree is incorrect) that “we’re all missionaries.” The great commission is to all of us, but we are not all called out and sent to minister cross-culturally, giving up our home and stability, depending on the support of others, and subjecting ourselves and our families to the risks and challenges in another country. There is a unique calling of “missionary.”
There are also some great challenges to consider, personally. I could go on, but you’ll be glad if you just read it, listen to it, or watch it yourself.
Tomorrow at 7 pm, at the Orlando Marriott, is the start of the Going Global Conference, entitled, “Mobilizing for Missions.” Plenary speakers include R.C. Sproul, Elliott Greene, Carl Ellis, and others. The conference is sponsored by the Going Global Network, which is aimed at equipping leaders in the African American church. It is a free conference, but registration is requested. Visit www.goingglobalconf.com for more information and to register.
Reading Jerram Barrs’ book The Heart of Evangelism has been like a breath of fresh air for me, for a few reasons. The first is that evangelism has been so much a part of my life since my early days in the Jesus Movement. So I consider tools and perspectives that feed and equip the Church for that task to be gifts. Secondly, the book is rooted deeply in a Reformed and covenantal view of Scripture and the world—something I never had (or at least didn’t understand) in those early years. And thirdly, I love what Barrs writes in the first sentence of his introduction: “This is more than 30 years of reflection on what the New Testament teaches us about evangelism; and it is the fruit of more than 30 years of desiring to practice in some poor way what I have learned from that study.” It’s this kind of personal insight that makes this book sing.
There is an emphasis on the Spirit in this book that scratches an itch many of us have in our work around the globe. There has been a tendency to either ignore or minimize the Spirit’s work in many aspects of our ministries, mostly I believe in reaction to the extremes witnessed in parts of the charismatic and Pentecostal streams of the Church…continue reading this article from InVision.
Right now my church is basking in the afterglow of several short-term mission trips. And well it should! What a privilege to be a co-laborer (with the Lord and His servants) in the ministry of the gospel cross-culturally; and what a joy to imagine that God has used us for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom. He has conferred on us a lofty position, to be sure.
But what about short-term missions? Is a week or two in a foreign country really worth it? The cost is substantial, especially when one compares the expenditures necessary to translocate a group of Americans to another country (in our case, another continent) with what that money could produce locally. Just think of the indigenous workforce who could accomplish the same tasks at a fraction of the cost …continue reading this article from InVision.
“So, whether you eat or drink, or(A) whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” 1 Corinthians 10:31
One way to drink to the glory of God could be drinking better coffee. No, really! A friend of mine who is a church planter in the Atlanta-area, mentioned that they switched coffee they use for their fellowship time. He told me that not only is it good coffee, it’s for a good cause. The coffee is grown and harvested in Rwanda, by Rwandans. And there’s a missional connection. I’ll let you read their website to find out more about that: http://www.landof1000hills.com/
I’d love to see a PCA church begin something like this with an MTW work. A couple of years ago, MTW gave away coffee cups with small bags of coffee from our work in Ethiopia. The coffee was roasted and bagged by ladies who this ministry was reaching out to, who had been widowed by AIDS. The work allowed them to provide for themselves and their children. It’d be great to see some connection like that expanded. It would certainly create a meaninful partnership between US churches and the ministry in the country where the coffee is purchased from. Imagine each Sunday, a tasty reminder of missions for your people to sip on!
The following is part of a report from MTW’s Coordinator, Dr. Paul Kooistra. In it he describes the need for both US missionaries and partnerships with national leaders. MTW has seen a real growth in the number of national partners. This is truly exciting to think about, and I look forward to seeing more PCA members go to equip even more national partners. Indeed, theological training and ministry equipping are some of the strongest offerings the PCA has to the Church beyond our borders.
I am often asked why MTW does not work with nationals. The answer to the question is that we do work with nationals. In fact, we work with a lot of nationals. The number of our national partners now exceeds the number of long-term missionaries.
Some who ask this question are actually asking why we don’t work exclusively with nationals. To many it seems much more efficient and more economical.
As I have indicated above, MTW does not in any way diminish the importance of working with nationals. From the beginning of the Church, nationals have played a vital leadership role. Paul, during his first missionary journey, appointed local leaders in Iconium, Lystra and Derbe. Throughout church history the translation of the Bible into the vernacular was of primary importance.
On the other hand, we see that one church reached out to another church and to the masses held captive in the darkness of their own sin. It is not possible to reach out only with money. If we don’t give ourselves, we have missed the very essence of the gospel. The incarnation of God argues for an incarnational response.
We actually have some places in the world where nationals ask us to come, wanting no monetary help, but only the encouragement and connectivity with the Church in the United States. They recognize that their church is richer spiritually for its interaction with our Church.
What is now needed is for our Church to realize that we are richer for our interaction with other churches around the world. Paul reminds us that the body of Christ is made up of many parts. Usually, we only interpret this truth in relationship to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We need to see that this also relates to the different parts of the Church around the world. We need each other, and that is one reason we respond to the Great Commission.
Pray for MTW and our missionaries as we deal with the weak dollar and the financial crisis within the U.S. We will be monitoring the budget very closely. I pray we will be able to deal with this matter by being very careful. - Paul Kooistra
