In This Issue: Take Some Tips from George Verwer
- Grab a Pulpit and Hold Forth
- The 2006 Short-Term Mission Challenge: the Domestic Unreached
- Caleb Project Mobilization T-shirts
Missions Catalyst is a free, weekly electronic digest of mission news and resources designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. Use it to fuel your prayers, find tips and opportunities, and stay in touch with how God is building his kingdom all over the world. Please forward it freely!
Practical Mobilization by Shane Bennett is published once a month.
Grab a Pulpit and Hold Forth
Paul admonishes in Romans 12, verses five to eight: “We are all parts of his one body, and each of us has different work to do … God has given each of us the ability to do certain things well … If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching. If your gift is to encourage others, do it!” (New Living Translation)
George Verwer, mobilizer extraordinaire and the picture that comes to my mind when I think of the apostle Paul, challenges us mobilizers to get out and speak in the coming year. As a speaker for Caleb Project, this is a good word for me. He’s basically saying, “Go, do what you’re made to do.” You might not feel like speaking to groups is what God has made you for. If so, take comfort and direction from Paul in the verses above to do what you’re great at. But unless you’re convinced the kingdom will be set back if you strap on a lapel mike, read, digest, and implement George’s recommendations below. If you’re willing, write and let me hear about your coolest speaking engagement booked in the coming months. I’ll pass some along to encourage the rest of us.
Getting Open Doors and Meetings
From: George Verwer, MMN December Letter – November 30, 2005
A vital part of missions mobilisation involves speaking at meetings in which we declare the biblical principles, present the facts, and call for action. All of us should be trying to increase our communication skills, but we also need to take the initiative in getting the invitations to speak. If you have this gift to share and speak, as a man or woman, then don’t be found just sitting, especially on Sunday, just thinking about it.
Things you can do to get open doors and meetings:
1. Let people know what you have done and what is on your heart. Let them know that you are available, even for a brief testimony.
2. Win friends who in turn can pray and open doors. This means getting out there where you can meet people. Follow up on meetings with e-mails, letters, and phone calls.
3. Take a real interest in what the church or group is doing. Try to take in their vision and ministry and communicate your oneness with them and desire to help. When the door opens (sometimes you have to push it), let them know of your desire to share your message or a message of their choice in their church or group.
4. Go out of your way to be involved in prayer meetings. We all need more time together in prayer. Praying together often leads to other relationships and opportunities.
5. Be sure you have literature and audio-visual materials with you at all times to pass on to potential partners and co-workers. Many wonderful leaders who are shakers and movers don’t have a great vision for the more unreached peoples, especially the Muslims. Anything you can do to change this will make a huge difference. Most leaders give their time and effort for their own church or ministry. Rather than criticize, it’s better to show them how global missions can be a vital part of what they are doing and commend them on what they are already doing, however small it seems.
6. Ask God for a sense of urgency. Deal ruthlessly with any laziness, fear, or lack of discipline. Learn new ways to redeem the time so that you have more time to do what you know needs to be done.
7. Learn more about releasing workers and finance through prayer and action. It will be a battle all the way, so don’t get discouraged.
Standing with you,
George Verwer
Chairman, Missions Mobilisation Network
The 2006 Short-Term Mission Challenge: the Domestic Unreached
Here’s the call: Is anyone involved in developing, launching, or leading a short-term mission project from 10 days to three months long that meets both of these criteria:
1. It’s domestic – you can take a bus to get there and it doesn’t matter if you don’t have a passport.
2. It’s focused on an unreached people group – the ministry objectives involve people among whom the Church has yet to gain a foothold.
Here’s the reasoning: People often get vision for what they’ve seen and touched. How can we take advantage of that dynamic for the cause of the under-evangelized? Marti Smith, premier mobilizer, Caleb Project staff member, and editor of Missions Catalyst e-Magazine, recently mused, “… since so many American Christians have a heart for whatever they experience mission-wise and wherever they go first (for example, working with orphans in Mexico), we ought to send more of our Christian teens to 10/40 Window countries on student exchanges. Then they might come back with the heart for Arabs, Persians, Turks, Chinese minorities, Indonesians, etc. Then, just like returning military, or even more so, God might move on their hearts to go back or partner with others for ministry purposes.”
Indeed. But try convincing Mom and Dad that a 10-day, $3500 short-term trip to Mogadishu is a good idea! It’s not going to happen. At least not enough. But a bus trip to Minneapolis or London to do worthwhile work among Somalis might just work. So it seems to me that domestic, unreached short-term experiences might be a key piece of the Great Commission puzzle.
• If you’re a long-term worker who’d like to see more workers share your passion for your people, this could be a good way to contribute to that. You’d have to take a long view, but let’s do. Let’s work to raise up a generation of missions-interested people, whose interest is focused where the Church has yet to grow significantly.
• If you’re an advocate for a particular people, maybe you’ve already thought this through for your focus group.
• If you’re the person who sets the course for your church’s short-term program, think about how you might direct teams to domestic, unreached situations. Perhaps you’re working among an immigrant group in a long-term capacity, say, Sikhs in Vancouver. Can you help the rest of us consider how short-term teams could bless your focus group, while at the same time build long-term vision among team members?
If any of this strikes a chord, please take a minute to write with your thoughts, ideas, or cautions. I’m hoping for five solid options for domestic, unreached short-term experiences that we can put into action this coming summer. Send your thoughts to me. I’ll compile and present our collective wisdom in the January edition of Practical Mobilization.
Caleb Project Mobilization T-shirts
From: John Battenfield, Caleb Project [link removed]
Each of Caleb Project’s new mobilization T-shirts tells part of God’s story in reaching the nations. Take the opportunity to spread the message in your everyday life. Five designs with these themes: Blessed to Be a Blessing (Genesis 12:2); Panta ta Ethne (All the Nations – Matthew 28:19); Worship (Revelation 5:9); Every Tribe, Language, People, and Nation (Revelation 7:9); and the 10/40 Window. Price: US$12.99 plus shipping and handling.
Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.