Missions Catalyst 11.30.11 – Resource Reviews

In This Issue: Stories of Faith and Service

  • VIDEO: Ludmilla, and Other Stories from Deidox
  • BOOK: Stones in the Path, a Novel about Mentoring
  • ARTICLES: Case Studies from Ministries Grappling with Deep Change
  • BOOK: The Future of the Global Church
  • NETWORKS: Community-based Networks of Mission Leaders

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!

Greetings!

Good news! A month ago we asked if our readers could help us pay the bills to keep Missions Catalyst rolling. People responded. Our expenses are now covered through April. Huge thanks! We’re grateful for your encouragement and partnership and looking forward to continuing to serve you in the months to come.

With appreciation,
Marti Smith
Missions Catalyst | publisher and managing editor

P.S.: Remember “Five Ideas to Rock November“? Did you put any of Shane’s ideas into practice? How’d it go?

VIDEO: Ludmilla, and Other Stories from Deidox

The filmmakers at Deidox have released another beautiful and evocative short documentary film. This one tells the story of an elderly Czech woman called by God to be an ambassador for his kingdom by offering prayer, encouragement, and hospitality to those around her; she’s made her home into an embassy of the kingdom of heaven.

“Ludmilla” is just under five minutes long. View the film for free. To download the file and show it in your church or another group setting will cost US$5 to US$20.

Deidox films are designed to document the faith of everyday people. Other short films include:

Deon: The story of a police officer in one of the most dangerous places in the U.S.
Alyssa: A blind teenager shows us what it means to live by faith.
Lindsay: A young teacher demonstrates unconditional love.
Ivey Family: A family is united with their adopted son after the Haiti earthquake.
Li Yang: A personal story of how the gospel is spreading in China.
Pi Chu: The story of a Burmese refugee who finds strength that can only come from God.
Robert: A small-town doctor struggles with the consequences of following his conscience.
Dawn: A look at one of the most overlooked jobs in America … motherhood.
Por: A teenager pursuing her faith in Thailand, a country where most everyone is Buddhist.

>> View or purchase “Ludmilla” and other films from Deidox.

BOOK: Stones in the Path, a Novel about Mentoring

Stones in the Path: A Novel about Mentoring, by Greg Carter. Valparaiso, IN: Turtle River Press, 2011. 231 pages.

About this time last year we published a review of Skills, Knowledge, Character: A Church-Based Approach to Missionary Candidate Preparation. Greg Carter’s workbook is a thoughtful and thorough tool for mentoring future missionaries. Now he has released another book that conveys similar principles, this time through the medium of narrative.

Stones in the Path is a fictional account of a local church working with a young couple who want to be missionaries. The pastor and other leaders from Good Shepherd Community Church are just getting to know Jason and Brie. They have little or no experience with missions. Yet they have a high view of what the local church can and should do to prepare members for growth and service.

Here we see it played out as they disciple and mentor the young couple. The novel explores how the church helps Jason and Brie grow in self-awareness, cultural understanding, interpersonal communication, grace and forgiveness, and other key areas that can be crucial for cross-cultural workers (and the rest of us) who desire to be resilient and fruitful. I would recommend it for anyone interested in mentoring people for ministry, especially in the context of the local church.

>> Purchase this book from Turtle River Press for US$13.00 (including shipping) by PayPal, or send a check to: Turtle River Press, 153 Bedford Court, Valparaiso, IN 46383 (Tel: 219.241.4426). There’s no website for this book, but to help entice you, I got permission to post the introduction.

ARTICLES: Case Studies from Ministries Grappling with Deep Change

Looking at your ministry and wondering how you’ll make it through the rapids of global change? The Mission Exchange collected brief, focused case studies from ministry leaders willing to share their stories and the principles that guided them. Download half a dozen case studies from the Reset Conference website.

In “A Global Kingdom Movement,” R.J. Caswell shares how The Church at Charlotte moved from a mission strategy based on sending missionaries to one investing in collaborative ministry with national partners.

In “Accelerating Bible Translation,” Bob Creson describes how Wycliffe Bible Translators realized its approach to Bible translation was too slow, and what it did to change that.

In “Collaborative Ownership,” Terry Dalrymple, Stan Rowland, and John Payne describe how the ministry of “community health evangelism” might have died but instead found greater impact when the ministry gave it away and fostered a global CHE network.

In “Engaging the Unengaged,” Mike Latsko explains how Frontiers is making the changes needed to focus its ministry on peoples that are not only unreached but also unengaged.

In “Organizational Transformation,” Dan Edds show how Mission to Unreached Peoples has transitioned from recruiting individuals who operate independently to building collaborative teams.

In “Reproducing Church Movement in Japan,” SEND missionaries Joel and Elaine Loewen describe their vision to revive a specific church’s focus on planting new churches.

>> Read all case studies and learn more about the changes with which mission agencies and leaders are grappling.

BOOK: The Future of the Global Church

Source: The Future of the Global Church

The Future of the Global Church, by Patrick Johnstone. Colorado Springs, CO: Biblica, 2011. 256 pages.

From the publisher’s website:

In The Future of the Global Church, Patrick Johnstone of Operation World draws on his fifty years of experience to challenge us with his bold vision of the global Christian church. He weaves together the strands of history, demographics, and religion to present a graphical and textual overview of the past, present, and possible future of the church around the world.

Through a thought-provoking glimpse into likely scenarios humankind may face in the next 40 years, The Future of the Global Church identifies significant trends that are rarely or never addressed by today’s media. Johnstone focuses clearly on the unfinished task of world evangelization, with a special emphasis on the world’s 12,000 people groups – especially those that have had least exposure to the gospel.

>> Learn more or purchase from World Christian for US$27.99 (cheaper than we found it elsewhere) or download the PDF edition from GMI for US$29.99.

Editor’s note: This book just came out and we haven’t seen it for ourselves.

NETWORKS: Community-based Networks of Mission Leaders

Pastors in many cities get together regularly to pray for and encourage one another; networks of church and agency mission leaders are less common. Would something like that be helpful to you? Want to find or start one?

Working from a list compiled by ACMC, I identified a number of these networks currently operating across the U.S. The results are posted on the Missions Catalyst website. If you’re interested, take a look. Let me know if you see things that need to be fixed or added. Thanks!

>> View the list of local networks.

 

Marti Smith

Marti Smith is a writer, speaker, and project manager for the Church Partnerships Team at Pioneers. Since the mid-90s she has helped prepare cultural research teams to explore unreached communities and mobilize efforts to serve them.

Marti manages and publishes Missions Catalyst and is the author of Through Her Eyes, a book about the lives of missionary women in the Muslim world.

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