Gospel.com Blog

The latest issue of Lausanne World Pulse is online! The focus of this issue is the “Global South,” and the unique shape that missions and evangelism work has taken there. There are over a dozen articles to check out, but here are a few you might start with:

• A Theology of Evangelism in the Global South—how have local evangelists in Africa, Asia, and South America gone about the task of missions in the midst of exceedingly diverse cultures and often-turbulent social situations?
• A Mission Voice from Latin America—something amazing is happening in the Protestant church in Latin America, and it ought to get the global church thinking freshly about poverty, evangelism, and missionary work.
• The Paradigm is Changing—on the challenge and importance of Bible translation in the southern continents.
• Where is the Church in Europe Going?—is the Christian church in Europe alive and well? Here are three possible futures for evangelicalism in Europe.

As always, the LWP is a great source of information and insight into contemporary global missions, so if missions or the Global South in particular interest you, stop by and take a look!

Interested in ministry to the Muslim world? Before Christians can witness effectively to their Muslim neighbors, they need to understand Islamic beliefs and culture.

We’ve mentioned Arab World Ministries before—they’re a Christian ministry focused on sharing the Gospel with Muslims and educating believers about Islam. As part of that mission, they’re running a training program this May called the Summer Institute on Islam in Philadelphia. SIIP 2008 is a training course designed to help Christians better understand the theology and worldview of Islam, in order to be more effective ambassadors of Christ to Muslims. The SIIP 2008 website lists the following objectives for the course:

• Understand the major cross-cultural, theological, and spiritual challenges westerners face when relating to Muslims.
• Know how to respond accurately and respectfully to the assumptions behind Muslim objections to Biblical Christianity.
• Be able to compare and contrast the Islamic faith with Biblical Christianity.
• Know how to respond to Muslims in love by speaking into their framework of understanding.
• Understand the world-view and ethos of Islam.

The deadline for course registration and fees is coming up soon (May 15), so if it’s something that interests you, head over to the SIIP 2008 site and get started on the registration process!

Much of the culture and theology of modern Christianity has been shaped heavily by Western culture over the last centuries. That might seem quite natural to Western Christians—but does the “Westernization” of Christianity hinder efforts to share the Gospel message with non-Western cultures?

That’s the central question asked in the March issue of Lausanne World Pulse. The issue kicks off with an introduction to the topic, and continues with a thorough analysis of what “Westernization” means for Christianity, and why it’s so critically important that we break away from this trend.

There’s much more in the issue as well—articles cover topics ranging from cross-cultural missions in Africa to why “productivity” is not a good measure of mission work. The entire issue is available for free reading online, so if you’ve got an interest in current trends in missionary work, stop by and take a look!

Sometimes we needn’t look too far into the past to glimpse amazing faith, and in some respects being able to see the successes and failures of what happened in the recent past can do wonders for our understanding of the present.

Take, for example, Billy Graham, who is a man that needs no introduction in Christian–and many non-Christian–circles. He has tirelessly preached the good news of Jesus Christ to countless millions of people throughout his life. His legacy is one to be admired not because of some empire he built, but because he is a man that took up Jesus’ offer to take up his cross and follow him daily.

Here’s a sermon from 1955 at the All-Scotland Crusade.

And if you’re ever in Wheaton, IL check out the Billy Graham Center Museum. They have an overview of the history of missions and of Billy Graham’s life that will force you to think deeply about evangelism and missions.

Also, from the Christian History Institute we have a bunch of stories of missionaries and Christians from throughout the 20th century. You can find a list of them here.

And here are a few select ones:

Marianna Slocum

Corrie Ten Boom

Ecumenical Church in India

J. Edwin Orr

Mission Network News has some great news to share. One of Wycliff’s translators just finished a translation of the New Testament in the language of the Kagayenen language.

This is notable because this marks the first time:

An African-American woman has completed a New Testament translation.

An African-American has completed a NT translation with Wycliffe Bible Translators.

An African-American has completed a NT translation since the early 1900s.

But most notably this is also the first time the Kagayenen people can read about Jesus in their own language. Just imagine how much this priviledge has meant to you. Imagine not having the bible, and the joy of not only getting to read about it, but read abut it in your native tongue.

Here’s more from the article:
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People that center their lives around the purposeful living of Christianity can be frightening.

Frightening because their lives demand us to consider our own, which is a scary thing to do. Too often we just let our ‘full-time ministry professionals’ handle all the ‘living out’ of our faith, but part of the Good news of Jesus is that we all get to play a role. We’re all high priests because of Jesus.

Yes, you who work in Quality Assurance, Software Development, or Cancer Research. You who are Stay-at-home-Moms and Dad. You Salespeople, Project Mangers and Welders. And even you students. All of you are an integral part of the body of Christ.

The spectacular thing, in my opinion, about Jesus is the fact that we’re offered a place in His plan. Regardless of what the world would have us believe, there is a place for the screwed-up kid in the kingdom of God. And it is a high position.

Fact of the matter is, we’re all called to serve as Christians. The question is just in what capacity?

More importantly sometimes, does it mean leaving the country? Absolutely not!

If you’re ready to jump in, let me offer a few suggestions you might look in to, all within the United States:

Just ask someone in your church where they need help. If your church doesn’t need volunteers (by the way: they do) find the next closest church, they’ll need help.

christianvolunteering.org is a searchable database of ministry opportunities in your area. It’s a great way to get connected with what’s already happening in or around your city.

For college students there’s always camp counseling, which could prove to be one of the better experiences of your life. Search CCCA’s database of job openings. Or there’s the Center for Student Missions. They specialize in urban missions in the US.

Have a bible degree? Or are you a pastor? Village Mission is always looking for pastors to reach out to rural America.

Or you can always do evangelism on the internet. Internet Evangelism Day is a ministry devoted to helping you reach out to people either through your church’s web site or individually.

What do you think of when you hear the word “missions”? Most Americans probably conjure up a mental image of intrepid evangelists traveling far overseas to distant lands, there to live and work with unfamiliar cultures.

While there’s some truth in that stereotype, a lot of missionary work actually goes on right amid unreached people groups right here in North America. Two ministries in the Gospel.com community, in fact, are dedicated to bringing the Gospel message to Native North Americans.

The first is Indian Life Ministries, which reaches out to Native North American (First Nations, Aboriginal, Indian, and other) people in the United States and Canada. Important to their style of outreach is contextualizing the Gospel message—telling the story of Jesus in a way that is understandable and culturally relevant to Native listeners. Indian Life publishes a bi-monthly newspaper addressing issues of interest to Native communities and the growing Church there. (For good examples of their storytelling ministry style, see their retellings of the Gospel story and the Wise Men story.) They also run a prison correspondence ministry; you can read about (and support) their projects at ILM website.

Another ministry that works with Native North Americans is Northern Canada Evangelical Mission (NCEM), an organization that aims to create disciples and establish churches within Canada’s indigenous communities. Among other things, NCEM runs the Tribal Trails television program (which you can watch online), a Bible training school, and summer camps for young people. If your heart is leading you to get involved, they also have summer missions opportunities during which you and a partner will live and work for five weeks in a reserve or Native community.

So if you feel prompted to get involved with missions but can’t travel overseas, there are plenty of missions opportunities in North America where your support, prayers, and participation would be welcome!

Are you familiar with the Lausanne Movement? It’s an evangelistic coalition born over 30 years ago at a vast international gathering of thousands of Christian evangelists and visionaries. The result of that meeting was the Lausanne Covenant, a document that has shaped Christian mission work ever since.

It’s been decades since the Lausanne Movement sprang into existence, but it continues to guide and focus conversations about missions and evangelism. And this January, Lausanne Chairman Doug Birdsall started up Towards 2010, a blog at which he’ll be discussing missions, leadership, and theology. In particular, the blog will be talking about issues related to the planned Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, set for 2010 in Cape Town, South Africa. The blog’s just begun, but if missions is a topic you’re interested in, this one should be well worth adding to your feed reader.

Christ commanded Christians to go out into the world and make disciples of all nations. It’s an inspiring thought, but have you ever thought about the sheer numbers involved in bringing the Gospel to the entire world’s population? Is the Great Commission an impossible task?

In a short but interesting essay over at Uplook Ministries, Jabe Nicholson crunches the numbers and concludes that the Great Commission isn’t as unrealistic an undertaking as you might think. (And of course, regardless of how the numbers work out, it’s worth remembering that when God is involved, words like “impossible” have a way of losing their punch.)

Yesterday we linked to a broad list of missions organizations here at Gospel.com. Today we’ll take a closer look at a ministry that’s going about missions work in a unique way: Fellowship International Mission.

FIM is out to bring the Gospel to every corner of the world, and with missionaries at work all over the globe, they’re obviously serious about that calling. The FIM family prides itself in flexibility (responding quickly to mission opportunities with a minimum of red tape and bureaucracy) and accountability (they model their missionary work after the example set by the Christian church in the New Testament).

Their website has plenty of information about their ongoing missions projects and how you can get involved. But for a more personal look at the ministry, you might also check the FIM Director’s Blog, where FIM’s General Director Steve Wilt and his staff blog about the issues and opportunities facing FIM and mission organizations in general. And if you use Facebook, FIM has a presence there as well—stop over and see the official Fellowship International Missions Facebook page.

(If you’re interested in missions blogging, the only other missions director we know of who blogs is Brian Weschler of Village Missions, who blogs about his ministry’s work with rural churches across America. That’s another ministry worth looking into, especially if you have a heart for rural missions.)