In This Issue: Healing the Wounds of Trauma
- ARTICLES – Lead Your Church to Active and Creative Engagement
- EVENT – International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
- BOOK – Healing the Wounds of Trauma
- VIDEO – Every Knee Shall Bow
- MAGAZINE – EMQ and EMQonline
- BOOK – Faith That Endures
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.
ARTICLES – Lead Your Church to Active and Creative Engagement
From: Initiative360 [link removed]
Have you seen our ministry’s quarterly publication, “Mobilizer” Magazine? It looks very nice, includes many helpful articles, and costs us a lot of money to produce and distribute. But for you, my friends, a special deal: Go on-line and read the articles for free! Do take a look.
This issue features articles about strategic missions leadership.
– Steve Harling shares several principles that will make a difference between missions being a major thrust of a church, as opposed to one of many ministries vying for funds, leaders, and widespread involvement.
– Steve Hoke raises (and addresses) the question: How can we ensure that our missions committees are well-led and functioning optimally?
– Joni Hawks shares creative ways her church in Kansas keeps missions a big part of the life of their church through missions promotion events that are enjoyable, educational, and worth attending.
– Margie Marsh shares four ideas and resources for giving children a bird’s eye view of missions.
– Joe Steinitz shares how a church composed of internationals in the Washington, D.C. area engages in intentional outreach.
Read these articles and more here. [link removed; files available on request.]
International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
From: Open Doors
What: International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church
When: Sunday, November 12, 2006
Last year thousands of churches internationally joined in prayer for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. Will your church or small group be a part of this powerful prayer event this year?
Free IDOP materials, including a powerful DVD presentation, a free book on prayer, bulletin inserts, and more can be sent to your church or home. Order your kit by October 26, 2006 and receive it in time for IDOP Sunday, November 12, or call (toll-free in the U.S.) 888.5.BIBLE.5 after October 26 to arrange a rush delivery.
Additional materials can be downloaded here.
BOOK – Healing the Wounds of Trauma
“Healing the Wounds of Trauma: How the Church Can Help”
By Margaret Hill, Harriet Hill, Richard Bagge, and Pat Miersma
What can church leaders do for members of their congregations who have been traumatized by crime, natural disaster, or war? What if they themselves and their whole community have been through that kind of trauma together?
This slim volume includes simple stories and illustrations, discussion questions, and helpful activities, all developed and tested in the field. Lessons cover caring for the caregiver, taking your pain to the cross, as well as raising and addressing these questions: If God loves us, why do we suffer? How can the wounds of our hearts be healed? What happens when someone is grieving? How can we help children who have experienced bad things? How can we help women who have been raped? How can a church minister in the midst of AIDS? How can we forgive others? How can we live as Christians in the midst of conflict?
This book was written by four members of Wycliffe Bible Translators as a workbook for trauma healing seminars offered to African leaders. Because people can best understand and experience healing in their own heart language, it was written for easy translation into other languages. To date, seminar participants have translated it into more than 45 languages in Africa and beyond.
Nairobi, Kenya: Paulines Publications Africa, 2004 (Revised 2005), 120 pages. Price: US$10.99 plus shipping from Amazon.com. You can contact the publisher by e-mail or on the web.
VIDEO – Every Knee Shall Bow
From: Web Evangelism Bulletin – October 2006 (i)
PhotoMission offers a free, five-minute downloadable video, “Every Knee Shall Bow.” With worldwide pictures, appropriate Bible verses, and music, but no voice-over, it offers an ideal keynote introduction to the urgency of the mission mandate, and can be used in any mission-advocacy or church meeting. The video is available in a range of resolutions. PhotoMission is happy for it to be redistributed on, for example, mission promotion CDs and DVDs. Find it here.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Read the rest of this issue and subscribe to the twice-monthly Web Evangelism Bulletin here.
MAGAZINE – EMQ and EMQonline
From: Evangelical Missions Quarterly
Evangelical Missions Quarterly (EMQ) is the premier evangelical missions journal, providing practical information for individuals and organizations committed to missions. EMQonline offers all the content found in the print edition, including:
– Articles written by veteran missionaries and experts in fields pertinent to missions
– Book reviews by experts in the mission field
– Editorials on topics relevant to world missions today
– Feedback from readers concerning topics addressed in past EMQ editions
Plus, current missions news and events not found on other web sites, and more than 40 years of archived EMQ articles!
Individual EMQonline subscriptions are US$13.95 per year (for four issues). Special bulk subscriptions go as low as US$9.95 per year. To order EMQonline, EMQ in print, or both, call 630.752.7158 or go to EMIS (Evangelism and Missions Information Service, the publishing division of the Billy Graham Center).
EDITOR’S NOTE: Just can’t get enough missiology? You might enjoy another quarterly journal, Global Missiology.
BOOK – Faith That Endures
From: WorldChristian.com
“Faith That Endures: The Essential Guide to the Persecuted Church”
By Ronald Boyd-MacMillan, Open Doors International
An authoritative guide to understanding, assisting, and learning from persecuted Christians around the world today. Published in partnership with Open Doors USA.
In many underprivileged countries, the church is under constant persecution. Christians everywhere have heard the stories and seen the newscasts. But there are too many who still don’t understand. What does persecution really look like up close? And what can we learn from the faithful endurance persecuted Christians so boldly embody?
Ronald Boyd-MacMillan is writer-at-large for Open Doors International. He has produced the most compelling and comprehensive look at Christian persecution today. With real-life stories, he educates readers on the many levels of church persecution, highlights testimonies that have never before been published, and shows what we all can do to remember, reflect, and respond.
Compassionate and provocative, “Faith That Endures” gives readers a path of connection to their persecuted brothers and sisters in a new and vital way, even as it enlightens and encourages us in our local churches and brings us closer to God.
Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA: Baker/Revell, 2006, 364 pages. US$11.99 plus shipping from WorldChristian.com.
Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.