In This Issue: One family’s adventures in business and mission
- BOOK: One Family’s Adventures in Business and Mission
- BOOKS: Free Biographies to Download
- RESOURCES: Through the Lens of Honor and Shame
- VIDEOS: Collection of 50 Short Videos
- BOOK: People Raising, New Edition
- EVENTS: Upcoming Missions Events
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 share it freely!
BOOK: One Family’s Adventures in Business and Mission
Source: BottomLine Media, Pioneers
Threads: One Family’s Unlikely Adventure in Business, Mission, and Church Planting, by Arlene Richardson. BottomLine Media, 2012, 232 pages.
Threads tells the story of Steve and Arlene Richardson, with a focus on their journey to Southeast Asia as newlyweds and how they saw God at work when they got there.
The Richardsons and their teammates were often overwhelmed with the economic needs of their new neighbors as well as the spiritual strongholds that held them in the grip of religious tradition. How could they even begin to help?
The unexpected answer came in the form of a cardboard box of quilts from North Carolina and a tiny village woman who became a treasured member of the family and showed herself to be a gifted businesswoman. Dewi and Arlene launched a venture that brought Muslim and Christian employees under one roof, designing and creating quilts.
Richardson is a winsome speaker and writer, and Threads is an engaging and easy-to-read missionary biography. It also offers a look behind the scenes at how business development can impact the spiritual and material lives of those it serves.
>> Learn more or purchase from Pioneers for US$12.99, or get a copy of the Kindle edition for US$6.99.
>> Readers might also be interested in other BottomLine publications, including autobiographies Thirty Years among South Seas Cannibals and Pursuit of a Thirsty Fool.
BOOKS: Free Biographies to Download
Source: Desiring God
Pastor and author John Piper regularly takes on the role of a historian, and the results are educational and inspiring. Readers might enjoy the biographies of ministers, missionaries, and other saints that make up his series, “The Swans Are Not Silent.”
While these are available in paper or Kindle editions, PDF versions can be downloaded for free.
1. The Legacy of Sovereign Joy: God’s Triumphant Grace in the Lives of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin
>> While we’re thinking historically, consider that 2012 marks the hundredth anniversary of Roland Allen’s watershed book, Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours? Read it this year!
RESOURCES: Through the Lens of Honor and Shame
Source: Werner Mischke
Werner Mischke of Mission ONE has been working on some useful (and free) tools to help those of us raised with a gospel focused more on right and wrong or innocence and guilt. He helps us learn to appreciate and communicate in terms of honor and shame.
Ministry teams might find it helpful to download and discuss Honor & Shame in Cross-Cultural Relationships: Understanding Five Basic Culture Scales. This 30-page article will help you understand five basic culture scales through the cultural lens of honor and shame. It also gives practical suggestions for healthy cross-cultural relationships and partnerships.
See also a four-page Bible study on honor and shame and a soon-to-be-released tract telling of the story of the prodigal son and designed to be used in honor-and-shame-based cultures.
A 45-minute video presentation on these topics which Mischke gave at a recent conference also ties this together. See Big Shame or Big Honor? Exploring the Dynamics of Honor and Shame in Cross-Cultural Partnership.
>> See the full list of honor-and-shame resources.
VIDEOS: Collection of 50 Short Videos
Source: Asia Harvest
Want a video for your next mission conference, class, or prayer meeting? You might find what you want at Asia Harvest. In a recent website overhaul they collected and posted more than 50 short videos about world missions, people groups of Asia, and persecuted Christians.
>> View the videos.
BOOK: People Raising, New Edition
Source: Moody Publishers
People Raising: A Practical Guide to Raising Funds, by William P. Dillon. Moody Press, 2012. 240 pages.
The vision of too many potential missionaries and church planters is squashed by the fear and perceived burden of raising the funds needed to support the work. A long-time ministry leader and fund-raising trainer, Bill Dillon has gathered stories, tools, and best practices to help workers quickly reach their fund-raising goals.
People Raising covers the basics of developing a philosophy of and correct attitude toward fund-raising, then focuses on the necessary practical skills and techniques. It strikes a healthy balance between the principles and the nuts and bolts.
People Raising was first published 20 years ago. This new edition has been significantly updated and expanded to reflect new approaches to communication, e.g., social media. It also includes helpful material addressing common fears and explaining the role of a fund-raising coach.
>> Learn more or purchase the book for US$12.59 from People Raising. A Kindle edition is also available. The People Raising website also includes a blog, newsletter signup, and helpful tips anyone can use without buying the book.
>> Other helpful titles on this topic include Betty Barnett’s book Friend Raising; Steve Shadrach’s Viewpoints: Fresh Perspectives on Personal Support Raising; and Myles Wilson’s Funding the Family Business (new 2011 edition).
EVENTS: Upcoming Missions Events
Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar
August 06 to 14 – RETREAT: MK/TCK Re-Entry Retreat (Gaston, SC, USA). Retreat designed for teens transitioning to college from missionary families.
August 12 to 18 – CLASS: Perspectives One-week Intensive (Pittsburgh, PA, USA). Alternative to the regular semester class. Curriculum workshop (coordinator training) to be held following the class.
August 20 to September 14 – CLASS: EthnoArts (Oxford, England, UK). Four weeks of training for communicating God’s message in various cultures through the arts.
August 30 to September 01 – CONFERENCE: The Call 2012 (Auckland, New Zealand). Investigate the call to God’s mission in New Zealand and beyond. Hosted by Laidlaw College and a collective of mission-minded ministries.
September 03 to December 02 – CLASS: Encountering the World of Islam (online). Twelve-week course will help you discover God’s heart for Muslims.
September 06 to 08 – CONFERENCE: Missions Fest South Africa (Pretoria, South Africa). Free, community-based missions conference in the Missions Fest tradition.
September 12 to 13 – SEMINAR: Personal Support Raising Boot Camp (Albany, NY, USA). From Support Raising Solutions.
September 17 to 20 – CONFERENCE: Annual Conference for Oral Communicators (Estes Park, CO, USA). Organized by the International Orality Network.
September 19 to 20 – CONFERENCE: International Society for Frontier Missiology Annual Meeting (Chicago, IL, USA). Theme: “Still an Exotic? Reassessing Contextualization after a Century.” ISFM will also hold special sessions during the North America Mission Leaders Conference.
September 20 to 22 – CONFERENCE: North America Mission Leaders Conference (Chicago, IL, USA). Sponsored by Missio Nexus. Theme: “Recalibrate: Adjusting Missionary Methods to Today’s Realities.”
September 30 to October 20 – EVENT: 21 Days for Global Harvest (international). Join SVM2 in praying for spiritual awakening and global harvest.
>> View the whole calendar and/or let us know about events. We’ve begun compiling a list of events for 2013 and could use your help!
Marti Wade is a writer, speaker, and project manager for the Church Partnerships Team at Pioneers. Since the mid-90s she has also helped prepare cultural research teams to explore unreached communities and mobilize efforts to serve them.
Marti has managed and published Missions Catalyst since 2004 and is the author of Through Her Eyes, a book about the lives of women serving cross-culturally in the Muslim world. She married Chris Wade in May 2012.