In This Issue: Reformation, Re-entry, and Bible Study
- Book – Reformation in Foreign Missions
- Books – Re-entry, The Re-entry Team, and The Art of Coming Home
- Two Children’s Bibles Impart Vision for the World
- Ideas for Presenting Missions in Print
- Bible Study: God’s Heart for the Nations
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.
BOOK: Reformation in Foreign Missions
From: David Mays, ACMC – October 13, 2005
EDITOR’S NOTE: We don’t endorse this book, but want our readers to be aware of current issues. The November-December 2005 edition of Mission Frontiers responds (critically) to Bob Finley’s ideas. Read more and decide for yourself.
Reformation in Foreign Missions
By Bob Finley
Bob Finley served as a missionary from 1948 to 1953 in China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and India. Returning to the U.S., he founded International Students, Inc. to reach international students and Christian Aid Mission to send financial assistance to overseas missions organizations.
The purpose of the book is to reveal “some things amiss in our thinking about the whole concept of ‘foreign missions.'” Sending missionaries to other cultures, according to Finley, is a misguided, counterproductive church tradition that is not supported by Scripture (p. 9).
Finley calls for international missions to be done exclusively in two ways: reaching internationals among us and supporting indigenous missions abroad. “Our role should be limited to reaching people while they are away from home, then getting behind them with financial support when they go home to spread the faith among their own people” (p. 147).
[According to Finley] we shouldn’t send missionaries to other cultures because:
– They generally hinder rather than help the cause of Christ (p. 7).
– It is simply a nineteenth-century church tradition (pp. 9, 47, 161).
– The ways we conduct it often deny the most basic principles of biblical Christianity (p. 9).
Longwood, Florida: Xulon Press, 2005, 268 pages.
BOOKS: Re-entry, The Re-entry Team, and The Art of Coming Home
[Adapted from the Missions Catalyst Question and Answer Forum]
“We have been back two years now. We returned to the UK for schooling. I didn’t particularly want to go but we knew it was the right time,” writes Guy, after more than ten years on the field. “There is very little written about returning, only one book I know of. It’s certainly not easy; everyone I met has had difficult experiences similar to ours.”
Most missionaries struggle with re-entry, and these struggles cannot necessarily be avoided. However, there are two popular books on the topic:
Re-Entry – Making the Transition from Missions to Life at Home, by Peter Jordan. This book is not only for the long-termers, but it includes helpful materials for those returning from short-term mission trips as well. It is available from YWAM Publishing.
The Re-entry Team – Caring For Your Returning Missionaries, by Neal Pirolo (who also wrote the excellent work Serving as Senders and a new book, I Think God Wants Me to Be a Missionary). Neal Pirolo’s books are all available from his ministry, Emmaus Road International.
Must be a small world: Peter Jordan, author of the first book, says about the second: “The Re-entry Team is a ‘must read’ for church leaders and laymen alike. Its practical wisdom and touchingly true-to-life stories will, without condemnation, assist the church in receiving back the ones they have sent out. The results? Healthy returnees will make enormous contributions to body life at home, the church will be blessed and built up, and world missions will go forward.”
On the secular side, read The Art of Coming Home, by Craig Sorti (also the author of The Art of Crossing Cultures).
A denser volume that deals with these topics and many others and belongs on every mission pastor’s shelf is Doing Member Care Well: Perspectives and Practices from around the World, edited by Kelly O’Donnell and published by William Carey Library.
EDITOR’S NOTE: The April 2005 issue of Evangelical Missions Quarterly contains some helpful articles on re-entry and others about the experience of furlough. For general insight on this topic, see our friend Mark’s words of advice in our Missions Catalyst Question and Answer Forum.
Two Children’s Bibles Impart Vision for the World
From: Nancy Tichy, Mission Frontiers – November-December 2005
A one-volume children’s study Bible containing the New King James Version and so much more came on the market in July. Planet Word Bible features significant contributions from Wycliffe Bible Translators and a roster of other mission enthusiasts. Each book of the Bible is introduced with a missions perspective. Principles from the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course are woven throughout, along with 50 life sketches of missionary heroes and personal accounts from kids around the world. This sturdy volume ends with 26 full-color pages packed with world facts. Planet Word Bible may be purchased from the publisher, Nelson Bibles.
This fall, Authentic Press has published the CEV (Contemporary English Version) Global Bible for Children. Created to give children a global perspective and broaden their horizons beyond their own culture and country, this volume has more than 300 photographs from seven continents and 50 countries. Global Bible for Children accurately reflects the ethnic diversity of the world and uses a translation children will be able to read for themselves and understand. This Bible is available at The Global Bible.
Planet Word is a true study Bible and is probably most suitable for grades four through six and middle-school students. Global Bible, while offering vivid color photography and excellent introductions to many countries, does not have a missions teaching focus. Yet the controlled vocabulary makes it more readable for younger children and excellent in a context teaching English as a second language.
These two Bibles complement one another and provide superb tools for teachers and children who want to develop godly action from a global viewpoint. I recommend both volumes for every Christian school and home, and for use in church programs as well. They stand tall next to Windows on the World (the youth version of Operation World) and will prepare kids for Outside the Lines, the exciting curriculum due on the market next summer from Caleb Project … [which] will offer a version of Perspectives on the World Christian Movement to children from kindergarten through eighth grade.
For a one-page listing of children’s mission books, videos, and curricula published in 2005, contact me.
Ideas for Presenting Missions in Print
From: DualReach – Synergy Newsletter – June 2005
This edition of the Synergy Newsletter features an article about First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, California, describing how they use creative print media to grab attention for missions at their church.
The Tool Package features samples of attractive, informative brochures, posters, newsletters, magnets, etc. introducing churches’ missions programs and challenging readers to get involved. Download one or all of these pieces and use them as a springboard to create your own global outreach literature.
Great Ideas offers a collection of practical suggestions to consider as you use print media to share with your congregation the excitement of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. Jump-start some fresh approaches by downloading these ideas.
Synergy Newsletter is published by DualReach in order to help thousands of local churches to exponentially increase their strategic involvement and effectiveness in world evangelization. DualReach provides resources, training, and consulting to churches and mission agencies. For more information or to subscribe to the newsletter, visit DualReach.
BIBLE STUDY: God’s Heart for the Nations
From: World Evangelical Alliance
God’s Heart for the Nations
By Dean S. Wiebracht
The greatest missions book is the Bible. Are you ready to find out why?
God’s Heart for the Nations is a series of 24 Bible studies on missions. Its purpose is to assist the reader to develop biblical convictions on missions. With its story-telling approach and Asian illustrations, it is particularly aimed at Christians in the nonwestern world.
It answers questions like:
– What is the mission of the Church?
– How do the nations fit into God’s program of redemption?
– Do we have the right to evangelize those of other religions?
The 1.8 Mb file can be downloaded for free from WEA Resources. The site is committed to assisting evangelical Christians around the globe to distribute quality materials in many languages – including free, downloadable, evangelical books, articles, periodicals, and training resources.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This book is not to be confused with another Bible study with the same title by Jeff Lewis (and offered by Caleb Project). This book, published by OMF Literature, was written in the Philippines and its first audience is Filipinos. Dean Wiebracht has been a missionary in the Philippines since 1983 and serves on the faculty of the International School of Theology – Asia.
Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.