This new volume in the award-winning Encountering Mission series is for current and future missionaries. It provides practical guidance regarding getting ready for the mission field and the realities of life on the field. The authors are well qualified to write such a manual, each having served as a missionary for more than twenty years and each having taught missions in seminary. The authors begin by examining the contemporary context for missions, including the recognition that the world's mission fields are in constant and often rapid change. They then discuss aspects of preparing oneself for the mission field, beginning with home-front preparations and moving to on-the-field preparations. The final section deals with practical issues and challenges of missionary life.
It costs a lot to train, send out, support and care for people in cross-cultural ministry; however, the costs are immeasurable when these workers don't learn the language and culture well, fail to be effective and return home in trouble spiritually and emotionally. Mission Smart addresses serious gaps in the mission mobilization process and offers fresh solutions for seeing less missionary attrition. Mission Smart is for overseas ministry candidates, church leaders, and mission agency staff. The goal is to send the right people who know their callings, can thrive overseas and be effective in cross-cultural ministry.
The Last Missionary is a bicycle adventure story set in remote districts in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Bob Walters travels with a team of Congolese colleagues discovering the state of the villages run over by the Pan-African war that devastated the region’s people through the terror of rape and the killing of millions. Along the way, Bob offers the reader a number of short tutorials and reflections on missiology, the study of mission systems. He ponders patronage and cargo cults, and asks the question, “Is Jesus the answer?” But this is not an answer book, it is a book in search of better questions. The Last Missionary is a challenge to both evangelicals and progressives in the church, missionaries and mission volunteers, and even non-religious aid workers.
This hands-on workbook has been designed for two kinds of people: those who have a deep desire to serve God overseas and those who want to help them. It has not been designed to persuade people to become missionaries. Rather, it assumes an initial interest—an early indication or drive somewhere inside that God may have more for you than you previously thought. It is aimed at two primary readers: college/university students and young career persons, as well as committed older adults facing the challenge of an early retirement or career change. The information this workbook presents will also help churches, campus groups, schools, missionary training centers, and agencies to think and pray through short-term and longterm plans with those responding to God's call.
'Mission is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate.' John Piper's contemporary classic draws on key biblical texts to demonstrate that worship is the ultimate goal of the church and that proper worship fuels missionary outreach. Piper offers a biblical defence of God's supremacy in all things, providing a sound theological foundation for missions. He examines whether Jesus is the only way to salvation and issues a passionate plea for God-centredness in the missionary enterprise, seeking to define the scope of the task and the means for reaching 'all nations'. Let the Nations Be Glad! is a trusted resource for missionaries, pastors, church leaders, youth workers, seminary students, and all who want to connect their labours to God's global purposes. This third edition has been revised and expanded throughout and includes new material on the 'prosperity gospel'.
The field is ready to harvest, and to reap the rewards of your labor you need the right tools. David Covey's 8-step door approach and golden questions will orient missionaries toward fruitful finding, concrete committing, and meaningful member relations. Leave mediocre missionary work far behind as you discover skills specific to the conversion process and develop into a highly effective missionary.
Missions specialist Paul Borthwick brings an urgent report on how the Western church can best continue in global mission. Providing current analysis of the state of the world and Majority World opinion, Borthwick offers concrete advice for Western churches who want to avoid the pitfalls of colonialism.
“The reason you love Jamie (or are about to) is because she says exactly what the rest of us are thinking, but we’re too afraid to upset the apple cart. She is a voice for the outlier, and we’re famished for what she has to say.” --Jen Hatmaker, New York Times bestselling author of Of Mess and Moxie and For the Love Wildly popular blogger "Jamie the Very Worst Missionary" delivers a searing, offbeat, often hilarious memoir of spiritual disintegration and re-formation. As a quirky Jewish kid and promiscuous punkass teen, Jamie Wright never imagines becoming a Christian, let alone a Christian missionary. She is barely an adult when the trials of motherhood and marriage put her on an unexpected collision course with Jesus. After finding her faith at a suburban megachurch, Jamie trades in the easy life on the cul-de-sac for the green fields of Costa Rica. There, along with her family, she earnestly hopes to serve God and change lives. But faced with a yawning culture gap and persistent shortcomings in herself and her fellow workers, she soon loses confidence in the missionary enterprise and falls into a funk of cynicism and despair. Nearly paralyzed by depression, yet still wanting to make a difference, she decides to tell the whole, disenchanted truth: Missionaries suck and our work makes no sense at all! From her sofa in Central America, she launches a renegade blog, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, and against all odds wins a large and passionate following. Which leads her to see that maybe a "bad" missionary--awkward, doubtful, and vocal—is exactly what the world and the throngs of American do-gooders need. The Very Worst Missionary is a disarming, ultimately inspiring spiritual memoir for well-intentioned contrarians everywhere. It will appeal to readers of Nadia Bolz-Weber, Jen Hatmaker, Ann Lamott, Jana Reiss, Mallory Ortberg, and Rachel Held Evans.