Gospel.com Blog

A few days ago, Out of Ur pointed to this video on the prosperity Gospel produced by The Global Conversation, which is a partnership between Christianity Today and the Lausanne Movement. The Global Conversation is a year-long project exploring global Christianity through videos and essays.

The video describes how the export of the distinctly American prosperity Gospel is affecting Africa:

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

One of the goals of contemporary Christianity is to translate the Bible into every possible language. It’s a desire that flows from the Great Commission in which Jesus tells us to go make disciples of all nations. We see Bible translation as a way to ensure that everyone has access to becoming one of Christ’s disciples.

Yesterday, I ran across a fascinating article yesterday that Lausanne Pulse published a few years ago about the history of Bible translation. In the article they mention that the Bible spent the first 1500 years of Christianity in only 35 languages. It wasn’t until the Reformation that Christians started focusing on Bible translation. Yet despite that renewed focus, it took the organization of the Bible Societies in the 1800s for Christians for it to really take off.

The following is a conglomeration of two charts from the Lausanne Pulse article, Bible Translation in a New Millennium:

I don’t have much commentary on this other than to say that it’s just amazing to see how we’ve doubled the number of languages the Bible can be read in in the past seventy years! Yet, even though we’ve made such great progress in the past few hundred years, there are still about 4,000 languages to go.

Unless you’re living on Mars, every day you’re faced with ideas and philosophies—both subtle and obvious—that are contrary to the Christian worldview.

So, how do you maintain a Godly perspective throughout the day?

Ravi Zacharias International Ministries answers the question as it relates to college students in the video below:

Watch other RZIM videos at their video teaching page.

What do you think?

Pastor Eugene Cho of Quest Church out in Seattle has a heart for the impoverished. He cares about them so much that’s he’s giving away his entire 2009 salary.

It’s all part of the kick-off for the site One Day’s Wages, which is devoted to connecting donors with organizations who are actively involved in combating global poverty and injustice. The site frames giving in terms of what you earn in a day, which is about .4% of your salary for the year.

By now, you’ve all heard the statistic that billions of people are living off of less than 2 dollars a day, which—to be honest—is staggering in itself, but really hit home for me after I used ODW’s calculator to determine how much I made in a day. It’s sobering to think that in one week I’ll make more than many people do in an entire year. I absolutely can afford to give up one day’s wages, no matter how tight my budget might feel to me.

You can hear more about One Day’s Wages from Eugene in this introductory video:

The Movement of One Day’s Wages from One Day's Wages on Vimeo.

Last week, floods swept through Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in India, causing massive destruction and leaving thousands homeless. Mission Network News reports that Christian ministries have been stepping up to the plate to help with relief efforts:

The mass flooding in India has so far claimed the lives of over 230 people and has displaced thousands more. The damage has obviously been detrimental enough to label this flood as the worst in the century. But according to several media sources, relief efforts from the Indian government have been inadequate. The unfortunately deficient response has left many victims of the flooding without even basic needs to survive the aftermath of the large scale natural disaster.

A cry for help has unsurprisingly been let out for others to step in and take care of the victims. India Partners quickly stepped in by providing immediate and longer-term assistance.

“Our partners on the ground are going to provide food and blankets, clean water and medicine for survivors,” explains India Partners’ Brent Hample.

Gospel For Asia has a special section on their website about relief efforts in the aftermath of the flooding, which includes some stirring photos of the stricken area and the relief work underway there. Let’s keep the flood survivors and the relief operations in our prayers.

Every year, Muslims around the world celebrate a month of intentional and rigid fasting called Ramadan. From sun up to sun down, they fast from anything considered not of good nature or considered excessive: eating, drinking, smoking, sex, etc. If you’re interested in knowing more, you can read more about Ramadan on wikipedia.

World Christian ministries publishes a prayer guide for Christians to follow along during the month of Ramadan. It attempts to educate Christians about worldwide Islamic culture and gives them ways in which to pray for Muslims.

Mission Network News is distributing the book this year. They recently published an article about the prayer calendar and Ramadan.

Here’s an excerpt:

“It [World Christian's 30-Days Muslim Prayer Guide] literally takes you around the world introducing you to various countries, regions, people groups and even issues that are facing the Islamic culture today,” said Greg Yoder, executive director of MNN.

Yoder believes this guide is one of the best resources available for average Christians to gain information and understanding of the Islamic culture. The booklet is mostly centered around Ramadan.

“World Christian has put together this booklet that will help you pray each day, at the same time Muslims are praying,” said Yoder. “The twist is this: we’re encouraging Christians to pray that many of these Muslims will turn to Christ.”

You can order the book through Mission Network News. Even if you don’t, consider spending some time praying for our Islamic neighbors during Ramadan this year.

Adventures in Missions recently held a photography contest. Its goal: to find pictures that capture “a soul, a moment, a place and a ministry.”

The resulting photos are stunning slices of humanity from around the world. There are pictures of babies and baptisms; prayers and outstretched hands; landscapes and cityscapes; and moments of intense spirituality. The net effect provides a wonderful glimpse into the life of a missionary.

Here’s my favorite photo from the set:

You can see all the winners at the Mission Photo Contest Final Winners blog post or at the Adventures in Missions Flickr site.

For Pastor Chandan, the sentence “if you build it they will come” ended with the phrase “and tear it down.”

His calling was relatively simple: build a church in the tea fields of Sri Lanka to serve the people there. But the reaction he got was rather unexpected. A gang of anti-Christian extremists organized and destroyed his church, damaged his home and even physically attacked him. According to a Gospel for Asia report, the church building was destroyed five times.

But what makes this story really interesting is that some of the same people who antagonized Chandan and his ministry now worship at the church every Sunday.

Few things are as inspiring as a person who overcomes trials and obstacles to do what they know is right. We all know that accomplishing great things often means living through significant pain and tribulation, but the grinding reality of what this missionary endured is still sobering. Stories like his make even the most arduous church-planting experiences here in the West seem simple by comparison.

At the Gospel for Asia site, you can see a slideshow of pictures of Chandan and his church, as well as donate to their cause.

Missionary stories are almost always encouraging. They’re the tales of men and women making intentional choices to challenge themselves, to stretch themselves and to honor God’s calling. Missionaries are a lot who often find life to be difficult, but often find it to be joyful. Few find themselves regretting their decisions.

I personally like reading missionary stories because they remind me that missionaries are real people who have real fears and real successes.

The Beigerts are missionaries with BCM International who were recently featured in the the Spring edition of BCM World. They’re a young couple who have been in Peru just a few short months but have hit the ground running.

Here’s an excerpt from their article, Not My Home:

Still, landing in Peru was again a shock, physically and mentally. We’d flown from Florida where it was 45 degrees Fahrenheit to arrive in Lima at almost midnight to about 80 degrees and humid. We’d left English speakers to be surrounded by thousands of people jabbering what seemed to be the world’s fastest language, Spanish. As we left the airport, I looked at my husband to see his eyes opened wide, looking more lost than I ever thought he could be. As we went to bed in our new home at 1:30 AM, we looked at each other, and said, “What in the world are we getting ourselves into?”

But now that the initial shock has worn off, we are so content to be here. Everyone here has accepted us and made us feel welcome. And we’re excited to begin our new ministry.

My favorite verses recently have been Hebrews 11:13-16 (NIV). The author is speaking of the heroes of faith who died without ever receiving in their lifetime the promises from God. They realized they were “aliens and strangers” here on earth. “If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return” (vs.15). But they were longing for something better—a heavenly homeland. Verse 16 says, “Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”

Read their whole BCM international account here. You can also keep up with the Biegerts over at their regularly updated blog.

Events in Sudan this week have left Darfur relief agencies—including many Christian organizations—worried and uncertain about what the future holds for millions of displaced people in that war-torn region.

Last week, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, Sudan’s president, on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. The Sudanese government responded by expelling numerous aid organizations from Darfur, a move that has many worried about what will now happen to the millions of people who depend on aid brought it via those organizations. A recent Mission Network News article reports on the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, which does work in Darfur and has not (yet) been expelled:

The Sudanese government is having a difficult time filling the gaps left when Sudan expelled 13 aid groups. This was done in response to the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue a warrant for President Omar al-Bashir, charging him with war crimes for the Darfur conflict. [...]

Even though CRWRC is still there, they can’t make up the difference the 13 groups were contributing. Little says many were involved in water and food projects. “If in fact they do have to leave, it will just enhance the suffering and increase the suffering of many, many, many people in Darfur.”

Franklin Graham and the Samaritan’s Purse ministry are heavily involved in relief work in Darfur, and have posted a short article about the crisis. An article in the Guardian discusses the expulsions’ impact, noting that “about 4.7 million people rely on food, medical or water aid in Darfur, including 2.7 million people displaced by fighting. The expelled organisations carry out at least 50 per cent of the work there.”

And in a bleak new development, several aid workers in Sudan have been kidnapped, leading to the withdrawal of the Doctors Without Borders organization from the country.

There’s no doubt it’s a messy and chaotic situation—the politics of the ongoing Darfur crisis are complex and defy easy understanding. (For a brief overview of the situation, see this Q&A about the Darfur conflict from the BBC and the War in Darfur Wikipedia entry.) But it’s a good time for Christians to focus their prayers on the millions of people who eke out tenuous existences in Darfur displacement camps and who will bear the brunt of this recent flurry of political events. If you know of an organization or ministry at work in Darfur, they can almost certainly use your prayers and support.

[Photo shows a Darfur refugee camp in Chad. Taken by Mark Knobil and used under a Creative Commons license.]