Missions Catalyst 03.23.05 – Resource Reviews

In This Issue: Kids, Orality, Global Tensions, and More

  • WEB SITE: Internet Evangelism for Kids
  • EVENT: Month of Training in South Africa for Mobilizers
  • CONFERENCE: Making Disciples of Oral Learners
  • BOOK: Why the Rest Hates the West
  • BOOK: Seafarers! A Strategic Missionary Vision

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.

WEB SITE: Internet Evangelism for Kids

From: Mary Anne Pirie, Wonderzone – February 16, 2005

A Missions Catalyst reader writes, “Thanks for your informative article on Internet ministries [see the February 16, 2005 News Feature]. I’m wondering whether you know about Wonderzone, which is the international children’s Bible correspondence program on-line. Every day ‘TrailGuides’ check lessons, pray for kids, answer questions, give advice, and above all … point kids to Jesus! In the summer we get about 400 kids per day. In the winter, it’s about 100. We hope to build this number higher after the promotion we plan for at our international staff conference in May.”

The Wonderzone is a place where children can come to find out more about God’s Word and how it applies to their lives, as well as play games, have their opinions heard, and interact with specially trained adults who will help them from God’s Word in a personal yet non-threatening way. All TrailGuides are carefully screened before they are allowed to participate.

Mary Anne (also known as TrailGuide ‘Rusty’) works with Child Evangelism Fellowship. Take a look at this web site (or ask a child you know to do so) and say a prayer for Mary Anne as she and her TrailGuides reach out to win kids all over the Internet!

EVENT: Month of Training in South Africa for Mobilizers

From: Piet Steyn, Kingfisher Mobilising Centre – March 10, 2005

Place: Cape Town, South Africa.

Date: October 31 to November 30, 2005.

Registration deadline: June 15, 2005.

Registration fee: 100 US dollars per person (some assistance available).

Kingfisher Mobilising Centre (KMC) offers this international training to give participants the basic knowledge and skills that will enable them to mobilise congregations or faith communities effectively to be the light of the world. KMC will also assist candidates in planning their future mobilising ministry in their countries of origin.

For more information, see International Training or send an e-mail.

CONFERENCE: Making Disciples of Oral Learners

From: International Orality Network

Did you know that 70% of the world’s population cannot read, or prefer to communicate orally? For 200 years in the Western church, missions strategies and materials have been produced by literates for literates. Today, 2.5 billion people can only receive information orally; another 1.5 billion get over 95% of their information orally.

The International Orality Network (ION) was formed in February when the Oral Bible Network and the Lausanne Task Force on Orality joined forces. Dr. Avery Willis is Executive Director. A group of 15 task forces have been established to help the Church worldwide deal with this exploding, highly strategic sector of ministry. The network serves churches, denominations, mission agencies, and individuals committed to effective communication of the Good News to all people.

The ION is planning now for a working conference entitled, “A Story for the Nations, Making Disciples of Oral Learners.” This conference will be the largest forum for the rapidly emerging field of ministry to oral communicators. Ministry leaders, field practitioners, educators, pastors, and interested lay people are invited. The conference will include workshops on the background of storytelling, worldview considerations, the role of media, using music and drama to present the Bible, and many more topics.

When: September 13-15, 2005.
Where: Anaheim, California, USA.
Register on-line at International Orality Network, or e-mail Tom Meiner.
Register by April 15, 2005 for a $50 discount.

Editor’s note: Thanks to Bill Sunderland at Power of Connecting for letting us know about this conference.

BOOK: Why the Rest Hates the West

From: David Mays, ACMC (Advancing Churches in Missions Commitment)

Why the Rest Hates the West – Understanding the Roots of Global Rage, by Meic Pearse

“Historian Meic Pearse unpacks the deep divides between the West and the rest of the world. He shows how many of the underlying assumptions of Western civilization directly oppose and contradict the cultural and religious values of significant people groups. Those in the Third World, Pearse says, ‘have the sensation that everything they hold dear and sacred is being rolled over by an economic and cultural juggernaut that doesn’t even know it’s doing it … and wouldn’t understand why what it’s destroying is important or of value.'” (from the back cover)

While others have suggested the hatred is because of economic injustice or political positions or religion, Pearse says it is because of culture, specifically the Western “anti-culture” and “anti-values.” “Non-Westerners are becoming understandably anxious about the future of their cultural space, which they feel is being intolerably threatened by aliens – that is, by us. And to the non-West our culture appears not as a culture at all, but as an anti-culture. Our values appear not as an alternative to traditional values but as a negation of them – as anti-values, in fact” (p. 28).

The book is really about worldview. Much of it is clear and compelling. A few parts are more academic. There is quite a bit that could be very enlightening and helpful for Christians.

Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2004, 188 pages. Order here.

Full review here.

Further reading
Samuel Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, Simon & Schuster, 1998
Vinoth Ramachandra, Faiths in Conflict, IVP, 1999;
Bernard Lewis, What Went Wrong, Oxford University Press, 2002.

Editor’s note: I cringe when I hear fellow Christians ask, plaintively, “Why do Muslims hate us so much?” It seems the wrong question. I have tried to persuade my friends that most Muslims do not hate Christians, Americans, or the West – as so many of us know from personal experience. Yet the division of which Pearse writes is quite real. Reading Mays’ review motivates me to reconsider picking up a book I had passed by. MS

BOOK: Seafarers! A Strategic Missionary Vision

From: Martin Otto, Seafarers Ministry Hamburg – January 14, 2005

Martin Otto’s book, Seafarers! A Strategic Missionary Vision details a ministry vision described in our November 2004 News Feature, Seafarers Start Living Churches on the Oceans. The book is available in the US from STL, Inc., 866.732.6657 (706.544.5827 outside the US and Canada); in the UK from Piquant; or from Amazon.com.

Questions? Problems? Submissions? Contact publisher/managing editor Marti Smith.

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