byFaith – PCA Headlines MTW on TwitterJoe Novenson and Paul Kooistra will be the plenary speakers at the upcoming PCA Global Missions Conference, November 5-7, in Chattanooga, TN. Joe recently sat down with MTW’s Global Support Ministries International Director, Brian Deringer, and shared about his heart for missions and raising up the next generation. This is the first of four previews from that time.
There are a couple of deadlines I want to remind/inform you of. The first is for the PCA Global Missions Conference, November 5-7, 2010, in Chattanooga, TN. The early-bird registration deadline is July 30th. So if you haven’t registered yet, visit www.mtw.org to do so or to find out more.
Also, MTW’s Disaster Response Training fills up quickly. There are a limited number of slots, so if this is something you’ve been interested in pursuing, now is the time to register. Click here to find out more.
The 2010 PCA Global Missions Conference is scheduled for November 5-7, 2010 in Chattanooga, TN. Join fellow believers from across the PCA in Chattanooga this November in a joyous celebration of hope hosted together by Mission to the World and Covenant College. Hear about the work of Christ in church planting, mercy ministry, medical outreach, student internships, arts in missions, and much more. Personally connect with others in the PCA as well as in the global church. Learn more about partnerships. Be challenged by ministry updates. Prayerfully explore your role and that of your church. Encourage others. Most of all, join in the worship of Christ—The Hope of Nations!
Plenary speakers include Paul Kooistra and Joe Novenson. Dozens of workshops on various subjects pertaining to missions will be held. This is a highly encouraging and practical three days. Plan on being there! If you can’t be sure your church’s missions committee is sending representation. Click here to find out more and sign up.
This is a great article in ByFaith about Plains PCA in Zachary, LA. Read the entire article here.
Robert J. Tamasy
“From little acorns big oak trees grow,” the saying goes. Over the past couple of decades, a small church near Baton Rouge, La., has been faithfully growing missional “oak trees” that have taken root and are ministering across the United States and around the world.
Nestled in a community of 13,000 people in Zachary, La., The Plains has just under 400 members, with about 260 people attending worship services on a typical Sunday. Founded in 1832, the congregation had seen only five of its members directly engaged in missions work over its first 140 years. Since the mid-1990s, however, it has sent more than a dozen men and women to seminary and on to vocational ministry roles across the United States and around the world.
Today, The Plains members are planting churches in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chicago, Ill., and Eugene, Ore., and its international reach extends from Taiwan to Peru. In addition, since 1982 hundreds of its young people have participated in dozens of short-term mission trips to Jamaica, Mexico, Belize, Haiti, Ukraine, Scotland, Portugal, and France. (Click here to continue reading this article)
I recently received a request from a missions chair for some movie recommendations to show at a missions conference. I realized in compiling what I had and finding a few more through reviews online that my list isn’t that extensive. I know there has to be some more good movies that have a missions message, so please suggest any that you know of and give me your take on it.
Okay, disclaimer time: I haven’t watched all of these. In fact, the only one I’ve seen in the past year is Hawaii. It is slow at times and very “classic” so don’t expect teens or kids to hang in there. Plus it’s LONG. The End of the Spear is probably your best bet to hold the attention of teens and up. All the links are to Amazon so you can read more descriptions there and find out how people reviewed it.
Some recent conversations with leaders in churches has me thinking about getting started in missions. I’ve expressed in other articles how I don’t believe missions should be just like other ministries of the church (and Richard Pratt did it much better at the 2007 Global Missions Conference). Rather, every ministry in the church should embrace our God-given mission. But missions often functions as a ministry (a committee, meetings, events, etc…), and rightly so for practical purposes. So how does a church get the ball rolling when it comes to engaging in what God is doing around the world? Here are some ideas, in no particular order, of things you could do to get started. (Of course, I would highly recommend you contact your church resourcing representative at MTW for suggestions to develop a more developed strategy!)
Have a missions emphasis Sunday. Invite a missionary. Have a guest speaker. Show a video clip. Focus for one day of worship on what God is doing around the world and how are to be a part of that. MTW’s Church Resourcing department can help you with this.
No other step will make the impact on your congregation as that of sending a short term team on a missions trip. Specifically, the participants’ lives will be changed and the ripple effect throughout your congregation will be significant. Consider visiting a missionary you support or would like to support. Or consider a Vision Trip to get to know other ministries. Contact MTW’s 2-week department for help with this process at 2wk@mtw.org.
Give the partnership share for each member of your church. It is currently around $25 per person, annually. It is probably the least exciting way to connect to missions. There’s no face on a prayer card, no thank you note from a missionary, and no push pin to stick in the map on the missions bulletin board. But this support makes a big impact, and so few churches in the PCA participate in this way. For MTW, the partnership share (also known as “the askings”) represents the amount of money missionaries raise to cover their home office support. Participating in the partnership share enables missionaries to raise less support and get to the field faster. It’s a great place for churches to start.
Begin supporting a missionary. Start in your own church or presbytery. Find people that are like-minded and have a similar philosophy of ministry. This will allow you to develop a deeper, more mutually-meaningful relationship, in the future.
Send a group to the PCA’s Global Missions Conference (Nov 5-7, 2010). This event is held every three years. Join fellow believers from across the PCA in a joyous celebration of hope. Hear about the work of Christ in church planting, mercy ministry, medical outreach, student internships, arts in missions, and much more. Personally connect with others in the PCA as well as in the global church. Learn more about partnerships. Be challenged by ministry updates. Prayerfully explore your role and that of your church.
Send your pastor (and if he’s married, his wife) to visit and encourage your missionaries. Missions is often hard, lonely work. Your church can be a huge blessing in this way. And the impact of your pastor’s time there will be felt when he returns.
Have a missions movie night. Pop some corn. Grab the Milk Duds. Whether it’s a modern movie like Beyond the Gates of Splendor or a classic like Hawaii (which demonstrates many things not to do!), movies can stir peoples’ hearts and generate meaningful discussion.
Have your Sunday School class go through a study like The Gracious Commission or read through a book like Let the Nations Be Glad, When Helping Hurts, or God: The Real Superpower.
Communicate with missionaries. Often, communication is one-way between missionaries and churches. The church expects the missionary to communicate their ministry to them, but rarely think about sharing their news and ministry updates with their missionaries.
We are getting very excited about the upcoming “Preparing for a Career in Medicine and Missions” Conference. As details fall into place, it is apparent what an exciting time this will be for students that come and for the providers they will be able to work with.
We have two wonderful clinic opportunities set up where students will be able to see doctors, dentists, nurse practitioners and other medical professionals at work to care for needs in our own backyard. Students will have the opportunity to work at Good Samaritan Clinic in downtown Atlanta or Good News Clinics in Gainesville, Georgia. Both are leading clinics for the underserved population and will provide exceptional experience in seeing day to day clinic function and the Gospel in action.
We also have some wonderful speakers lined up!
Drs. Ted and Sharon Kuhn will be joining us for the entire weekend and will be speaking and available to talk with students during free time and meals. They will also be working as providers during our clinic experience – so students will have the opportunity to work alongside them.
Drs. Ted & Sharon Kuhn
Dr. Walter “Ted” Kuhn is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Medical College of Georgia where he is Co-Director of International Medicine in MCG’s Center for Operational Medicine. He sub-specializes in Tropical Medicine and Travel Medicine.
Dr. Sharon Kuhn is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia and also specializes in Tropical Medicine and Travel Medicine.
Drs. Ted and Sharon Kuhn serve as Co-Directors of the Medical Department at Mission to the World. They seved as career medical missionaries in South Asia before joining the faculty at MCG and as staff at MTW.
The missing piece is YOU! The early registration deadline and opportunity to receive a $50 discount in overall conference cost is March 31st – so register today! We also have a limited number of needs based scholarships – so if cost is a factor, please be in touch with us as soon as possible!
We in the medical department are happy to answer any questions that you have or help you as you consider your next step in medicine and missions – so please contact us!
We look forward to seeing you May 31 – June 3.
For more information, contact:
Hope Williams
MTW Medical Recruiter
678.823.0004, ext. 2551
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.
When churches endeavor to begin Faith Promise, they often do not have members who have their own stories of how God grew their faith. So one of the requests I have heard regularly is to have some Faith Promise testimonies that churches could share with their members to both instruct and encourage their people. If you have such a story that you are willing to share, would you send it to us? We will only use first names (and you can change those if you want), and the city and state you are from. This would be a great help to your PCA brothers and sisters across the country. Send these to cr@mtw.org.
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.