Missions Blog for Churches

“I don’t need much. I simply want to be someplace where I can serve. If I am working with the poor then I might want to live in their neighborhood, or if I’m working with students, could I have a national for a roommate?” This perspective expresses the heart of many who are looking at missions today. They want to live in the home of a national, or with a national roommate. They might see themselves living in a village, embracing the same lifestyle and facing the same challenges as the people living there. They are at a unique crossroads of personal freedom and have a strong desire to minister in challenging situations, such as living among the poor. They are ready to embrace life on the edge.

MTW’s new EDGE program will allow participants who desire a stripped-down missions experience to live more closely with those to whom them minister. Featuring lower support costs and hands-on ministry experience, EDGE is a two-year missions experience that will be offered in addition to current intern, short-term, and career missionary tracks.

However, EDGE will not be for everyone. We believe this ministry path will be most attractive to those in their 20s, just graduated from college, or singles who are free to travel and take risks. It may also fit for newly-married couples without kids, or even couples whose kids have moved out (provided the circumstances are right and they have a tolerance for risk). If someone is looking for hands-on experience and a service-oriented ministry, then this could be for them. A caution is that more than any of our other programs, EDGE will take participants to the extreme in terms of personal sacrifice. This is not to say that the opportunity to sacrifice is not present in other programs; in fact, on the surface it doesn’t look much different from our intern level of support. The difference is that this is a two-year endeavor, a lifestyle. It is embracing subsistence living over a long period of time as a means to connect. Click here to continue reading this article…

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

Click here for more information and to download a registration form.

From MTW’s bi-monthly e-newsletter InVision:

“Reaching the nations and the next generation.” That’s the mission of Global Youth and Family Ministry (GYFM), led by MTW missionaries Eric and Rebecca Larsen. GYFM provides support and care for MTW missionaries and their children—often referred to as Third Culture Kids—and ongoing training for those seeking to influence global youth culture. Following is an interview with GYFM director Eric Larsen.

Your path to youth ministry is personal. Can you talk about your own experience as a Third Culture Kid (TCK)?

I was a military brat, missionary kid, and PCA pastor’s kid. And by eighth grade, I was on my 12th move, eighth school, and third continent.

I had a really difficult transition from Australia to the U.S. after graduating from high school and moving to Covenant College. I remember sealing up my Australian belongings in a box and shoving it in the back of my closet; I stopped reading letters from my Australian friends; I changed my accent. I remember thinking, “I can’t continue to straddle multiple worlds when others can’t do that with me.” Click here to continue reading this article…

I met Dr. Tennent while attending a world missions conference at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (when he taught there). This was the first time I was exposed to much of the academic assessment of these missiological trends and much of the history surrounding them. I have used a map he shared with us with many churches, as it visually represents what is happening. We live in an exciting time!

The Translatability of the Christian Gospel
by Timothy Tennent

The following is excerpted from remarks made by Dr. Timothy Tennent, president of Asbury Theological Seminary, at the school’s Fall 2009 Convocation.

In April of 1739 John Wesley was preaching in an upstairs room in London. About halfway into his sermon the supporting post that held up the floor of the room collapsed under the sheer weight of the number of people who had gathered to hear Wesley. Wesley remarked in his journal that the supporting post fell with a great noise. The floor sank, but it didn’t cave in and, to Wesley’s own amazement, everyone settled back down and he was able to finish preaching.

What do we do when it seems like the very floor under our feet is giving way? Many of the traditional props and supports which have long given stability to the world of theological education have fallen away with a great crash—what are we to do? How do we live in a time of disequilibrium, uncertainty, and change? Never in history has the Church undergone such dramatic growth and change so quickly. When William Carey went to India in 1793, 99 percent of all Christians in the world were white and lived in the Western world. Today, the vast majority of Christians live outside the Western world. We are witnessing multiple centers of Christian vibrancy, even as we see the Western world re-emerging as the world’s fastest growing mission field and the home of the most gospel-resistant people groups in the world. In contrast, all of the most gospel-receptive people groups in the world are found in either India or China. We live in an upside down world.

The support post upon which was written: “you are the center of the ecclesiastical universe,” has collapsed and we have to regain our footing in this new world we inhabit and think afresh about what this means for theological education in North America. None of these developments were predicted 50 years ago. Today, as I survey the landscape of ecclesiology and theological education in the Western world it is clear that we are living in a time of unprecedented crisis. This is not to be overly negative or alarmist, for I am reminded of the great Dutch missiologist, Hendrick Kraemer (1888-1965), who famously commented that “the church is always in a state of crisis; its greatest shortcoming is that it is only occasionally aware of it.”

The floor is creaking beneath our feet. What does this mean for Western Christians in the 21st century?
Click here to continue reading this article…

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

by Tim Keller

The two great new realities for world mission are globalization and urbanization. A 2002 article in The Economist said that in 1950, New York was the only world city with a population of over 10 million people. Today there are over 20 such cities, 12 of which have arrived in the last two decades, with many more to come. All of these new megacities are developing in what used to be called the Third World. Why?

In the 18th century, a combination of population growth and technology brought rural Europe to its “carrying capacity,” creating a surplus population, and in every family some left countryside and small towns to make a living elsewhere. As a result there were 150 years of urbanization in which the great cities of Europe swelled to be the largest in the world. Many experts now believe this is beginning to happen in Africa, Asia, and to a lesser extent in Latin America, where the cities are literally exploding with new immigrants from the villages and rural areas. If urban-rural population in the southern hemisphere stabilizes at 75 percent to 25 percent, as it did in Europe and North America, then over the next few decades we will see over half a billion people move into the cities of Africa and Asia alone—the equivalent of one new Bangkok (8 million people) being created every two months. (Click here to continue reading this article)

by, Basil Grafas

I used to pastor a small, rural church in another denomination. There was a lot I liked about the work. We had people come to Christ and lives were changed. I learned the value of repentance and the value of community. On the other hand, we were a highly autonomous congregation that had little if anything to do with any other church, foreign or domestic. That bothered me. And it started getting under my skin when I started preaching through the book of Revelation.

To be honest, I really did not want to do it. Any book that Calvin refused to write a commentary about is too much book for me. It was just that several people in the congregation told me that they would never ever read it, since it had all of those strange images and codes involved. Well, I got angry. The Hal Lindseys and Tim LaHayes had convinced us that the book was all about obscure references to the future and therefore was of little value now. But I had to see for myself. And what I found was not what I expected. I found a book written to church people about the church going through tough times.

Revelation is, if you can get over the confusing word-pictures, a very clear book that is meant to exhort and encourage the church to remain a faithful witness to a world that wishes to hate and persecute it. In other words, it is the ultimately missional book. It is about suffering, despised churches caught in the vise formed by Rome and recalcitrant Judaism, being exhorted to remain faithful (chapters 2-3). We are introduced to martyrs who want to know how long they have to keep this up (chapter 6). Then we find out that these people are not scattered rarities in the church—they are the norm. They are actually part of an army of faithful witnesses who herald the lordship of the Lamb over the world (chapter 7).   (Click here to continue reading this article)

by, Bill Goodman

There is a growing body of literature related to the changing face of the worldwide church. This is due to the fact that more Christians now live in what is commonly referred to as the Majority World (comprised of South America, Africa, and Asia) than in the U.S. and Europe. Timothy C. Tennet’s book, Theology in the Context of World Christianity: How the Global Church Is Influencing How We Think About and Discuss Theology, is a welcome addition to this body of literature. Tennet is professor of world missions at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and visiting professor at Luther W. New Jr. Theological College in Dehra Dun, India. He has taught in India for 20 years and has lived in Europe for three years.

Tennet’s purpose is to pose a timely question: What can we in the West learn from our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world, particularly in the area of theology?  Theological reflection is accompanying the advance of the church into new regions. Tennet affirms the point made earlier by Philip Jenkins that the theology of the Majority World, as well as morality, is generally more conservative than what is found in many circles in the West. (Click here to continue reading this review)

Here is a great new tool for you to consider using to help your church see “the world around them.” The North America People Group Project has recently been launched (click here to view it). This site allows you to discover, from census data, the varying ethnicities, races, and languages represented around you. I would not only recommend you sharing this with your congregation (to take advantage of individually) but would also challenge churches to do some homework on this site and develop print media for their congregations. This would increase awareness of how God is bringing many nations to us, and would challenge people to consider how to engage our new neighbors. It would be particularly useful to do something like this during a missions conference or missions emphasis time. Take time to try this tool out and then share your experience and/or ideas here by posting a comment.

Click graphic for full-size view

This graphic represents the shift of the “center of gravity” of the Church. In other words, at the given points on the map for the respective time in history, that was the center of the Church. If you stood at that point, there would have been equal representation of Christians on each side of you.

As the graphic indicates, a shift began southward around 1900, and then eastward around 1970. This is important, especially for Americans to understand, and particularly in light of how we think about the global church and our mission.