In This Issue: Devos for Short-termers, New Networks, and News Sources
- BOOKS – Devotional Series for Short-term Missionaries
- WEB SITE – Helping House Churches Do Missions
- NETWORK – New Global Partnership “Next Generation Initiative”
- EVENTS – New on the Missions Catalyst Calendar
- NEWS SOURCES – Our Top Ten Picks for Missions News
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!
Resource Reviews, edited by Marti Smith, are published once a month.
Dear Readers,
Please join us in welcoming 30 new subscribers who come to us in response to an invitation from PIONEERS. Of course, two of the Missions Catalyst staff have been members of the PIONEERS staff since 2007, so we’re part of the same tribe!
Missions Catalyst is intended to cross organizational, denominational, and national lines, though. We would love to see others promote it and see it as a useful tool for their constituencies. Would a group you’re part of be interested in Missions Catalyst? We’d be happy to send simple promotional tools to help get the word out.
Yours,
Marti
BOOKS – Mission Trip Devotional Series
Source: Standard Publishing
Adult Mission Trip Devotions and Journals: Called, Challenged, Changed, by Lena Wood. Cincinnati, Ohio, USA: Standard Publishing, 2008.
Every year millions of Christians participate in short-term mission projects: feeling called to go, challenged by what they experience, and returning home changed. Each pocket-sized, hardcover, 176-page volume in this new series developed for such an audience includes 15 daily devotions and space for journaling.
Called is for those preparing to go, Challenged is for their use during the trip, and Changed is designed to help short-term missionaries debrief and reflect on what God has taught them. The books retail for US$9.99 each, or $19.99 for the set of three.
Editor’s note: I found this series well written and designed; very readable and engaging. It appears to be modeled on a similar series written for teens by the staff of Christ in Youth and also available from Standard Publishing.
See also: The large collection of resources for short-term mission teams and leaders available from the STEM bookstore.
WEB SITE – Helping House Churches Do Missions
Source: House2Harvest Network
House2Harvest is a web-based network established to serve the thousands of simple churches (house churches, emerging churches, post-modern churches, and the like).
This network is designed to help these churches and missions ministries connect with one another to provide training, consultation, and resources to facilitate mobilization, deployment, and engagement to the unreached, as well as wisely engaging in ministry to widows and orphans and the poorest of the poor.
Explore or join the network through the web site. You can also send an email.
Editor’s note: Want to help populate this? It seems a good opportunity for mission-agency types to serve a segment of the church that is harder to connect with than the mega-churches and denominations are.
See also: This article we recommended back in June: Who’s A Better Missionary? The House Church Touching Neighborhoods Globally.
NETWORK – New Global Partnership, ‘Next Generation Initiative’
Source: visionSynergy and PowerofConnecting
It is Biblically based and clearly demonstrated in the field that strategic, practical partnerships, networks, and other alliances powerfully accelerate world evangelism and strengthen the Church.
But will the next generation ministry leaders build on their inclination toward community, personal connections, and a desire to work together? Can they be empowered to even greater, more effective Kingdom collaboration if given the practical hands-on, how-to skills that will turn Jesus’ prayers in John 17 into reality in fresh, powerful ways?
An international coalition of educators, ministries, schools, and existing networks is joining hands with visionSynergy in an initiative simply known as Next Generation, Working Together.
They are looking for team members to help build the initiative and develop appropriate training and materials for it. Read more here.
See also: PowerofConnecting’s Partnership eNewsletter. This monthly publication includes information about all kinds of ministry networks and global partnerships. It includes a calendar of events, helpful resources, and encouraging stories. Great stuff.
EVENTS – New on the Missions Catalyst Calendar
Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar
January 22 to 25 – ServantPrep Seminar (Juarez, Mexico). Two-and-a-half day seminar is designed to equip short-term mission leaders; offered several times a year. For more info contact Ray Howard.
March 10 to 12 – MissionExpo (Downey, CA, USA). Los Angeles regional missions conference; free to the whole family. Theme: the persecuted church. Speakers from Operation Mobilization, Voice of the Martyrs, Open Doors, and Sat-7.
March 26 to 28 – ServantPrep Seminar (Fort Worth, TX, USA). Two-and-a-half day seminar is designed to equip short-term mission leaders; offered several times a year. For more info contact Ray Howard.
April 8 to 13 – Mission-net 2009 (Odenberg, Germany). Organizers expect more than 6000 young people from across Europe.
June 6 to 7 – World Weekend of Prayer for Children at Risk (International). Last year God enabled more than 4 million people in 100 countries to pray for the needs of the children at risk in the world.
NEWS SOURCES – Our Top Ten Picks for Missions News
Source: Pat Noble and Marti Smith, Missions Catalyst
Want to keep up with what’s going on in world missions? Here are ten of the missions news sources we recommend:
- Missions Catalyst News Briefs – The news digest from Missions Catalyst; focused on missions-related stories. Stories are all previously published material from a variety of sources. Comes out twice a month. Web and email, no RSS feed.
- ASSIST News – A wide variety of national (US) and international stories on Christian (not just missions) topics. Written by a string of experienced journalists, published daily, and sent to media outlets around the world. Web and RSS feed.
- Lausanne World Pulse – Original in-depth news, information, and analysis on missions and evangelism topics, typically written by ministry leaders. Also includes news briefs from other sources. Published monthly. Web, email, and RSS feed.
- The Christian Post – Original and republished news on Christian (not just missions) topics from America and much of the world. Far reaching and constantly updated. Web and RSS feed.
- Mission Network News – Short original and republished news stories on missions topics; written primarily for broadcast. Connects readers directly to these ministries and ways they can help. Web, email, podcast, and RSS feed.
- World Christian Ministries – Original stories focused on reporting on and encouraging support for indigenous (non-Western) mission efforts. Published several times a month on email and web.
- International Mission Board – Generally excellent material, focused exclusively on Southern Baptist missions. Multiple sites, approaches, and publications on the web, in print, and by email. See also BP News.
- Joel News – Inspiring stories about the advance of God’s kingdom on six continents; produced in multiple languages, and based in Europe. Some original material, other stories previously published. Annual donation required. Primarily distributed by email; headlines only on web and RSS feed.
- Operation Mobilization Headlines – Original and encouraging stories from OM’s work worldwide. Weekly news bulletin published for members and friends of OM. Email only.
- World Venture – A monthly glimpse of what God is doing in and through the missionaries of one agency; a good model, too. Web and RSS feed.
This isn’t an exhaustive list – for example, it does not include the religious liberty news sources, region-specific sources, and secular sources we also read. But these are all good places to start. Have fun reading!
What would you put on your top ten list? Let us know.
Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.