Missions Catalyst 11.11.09 – Practical Mobilization

In This Issue: Seven Best Ideas, Subversive Mobilization, and More

• FEATURE: Seven Best Mobilization Ideas for Fall 2009
• SUBVERSIVE MOBILIZATION: Stop Yer Whinin’!
• MISSION EVENTS – Recently Added to Our Calendar

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!

Practical Mobilization, by Shane Bennett, is published monthly.

FEATURE: Seven Best Mobilization Ideas for Fall 2009

Let me guess: You’re reading this as a distraction from work you should be doing on your church’s annual missions emphasis. I don’t know why, but it seems that most of us (at least in North America) choose early November to focus on missions.

I, for one, am happy for the attention. I think the world deserves it. I’m also happy for occasional speaking engagements in this time that help me get Christmas presents for my kids! Those speaking engagements also give me a chance to see cool stuff that global zealots are rolling out across the country.

Here are some you may want to consider using. I’ll ask for your additions at the end. (Just to be clear: If you’ve left the whole “missions conference” thing behind like your eighth-grade boyfriend, you can still use these ideas. In fact, you’ll likely deploy them in even more effective ways.)

1. Passport to Prizes

A church in northern Indiana solved a problem as old as missions conferences: We invite agencies to set up displays. We invite our congregation to visit the displays. But many of them don’t, and the agency personnel end up lonely. Solution? Well, strategically placed donuts, of course. But also mock passports with questions inside that only can be answered by visiting the displays. Passports that are completed correctly are entered to win a prize. In this case it was a donation to your agency of choice, although an iPod full of John Piper sermons wouldn’t be bad either!

2. Walk across the Room/Planet

A church near Baltimore has blown the lid off the normal one- or two-week missions emphasis timeframe. They are taking two months this fall to focus on life beyond the walls of the church. Beginning with the Bill Hybels book Just Walk Across the Room, they challenged the congregation to connect with people locally. Then they expanded the sphere and are devoting several Sundays to following Jesus into other cultures.

3. Global Sabbatical

When your pastor has regained consciousness after your request for a two-month mission focus, float this idea out to him: “What about a sabbatical that consisted of you spending four months traveling the planet with your wife, seeing firsthand the global work of God?” A pastor in the Northwest did just that. He applied for and was awarded a Lily Foundation Clergy Renewal Program grant. This grant enabled him and his wife to travel to several locations internationally, learn what God is up to, and be refreshed in their vision. (This will also speak to your pastor: The grant included funds to cover interim pulpit supply in the pastor’s absence!)

4. From Baby Steps to Big Leaps

One church had a simple but potent flyer in their weekly program. It listed opportunities to step into other cultures beginning with things as easy as, say, reading National Geographic, but progressing to eating ethnic food, connecting with international students and refugees, and actually journeying overseas. (I swiped this and expect a version contextualized to my church will show up in our program before long!)

5. Sticker Shock

In a similar vein, a church celebrating their 25th anniversary is putting a sticker on their program each week for 25 weeks that features a way the members can connect in service with the church and the world. One example is preparing Thanksgiving meals at a local homeless shelter.

6. Not for the Faint of Heart

Here’s the last in the “ways to offer options to respond” series: Asbury Seminary published a devotional for the under-appreciated Christian season of Kingdomtide calledAlready! Not Yet?

Their list of ways to live out the Kingdom of God include some easy ones, but I’ve been stunned by ones like#52: “If you’ve got an extra room in your home open it up to a refugee living in America. You can find such a person in need through organizations like World Relief. Or maybe you can offer it to a family that just lost their house to foreclosure.”

7. Videos that Stir Hearts and Challenge Minds

Here are two videos that have really connected with people this fall. It will take you 15 valuable minutes to watch both. It will be worth it though. In fact, if you watch them both and are not moved, I’ll buy you a milkshake!

A Thousand Questions. Thank you, Willow Creek!

A Land Called Paradise. Thank you, Kareem Salama and MAS Media Foundation.

What have you seen this fall that really rocks the mobilization world? Can you take a minute and tell the rest of us? Feel free to email them to me or even better comment on the Missions Catalyst forum.

Subversive Mobilization: Stop Yer Whinin’!

I don’t know about you, but if I’m not careful I can descend into a super-duper, dark, and deep whine-fest. We live in an absolutely amazing time on a planet God has designed with jaw-dropping beauty. Yet, it seems like a ridiculously high percentage of our conversations (blogs, sermons, calls to Mom, Facebook statuses, ad nauseam) consist of whining, complaining, or generally describing how other people, places, or things just aren’t what we wish them to be.

And let’s face it: Mobilizers can be some of the whiniest complainers in town. “Our pastor is just not into missions.” “I can’t get any money into the missions budget.” “Nobody in my church will pray for the world.” “I had to fly internationally on a US airline.” (OK, so that’s a totally valid complaint!) Do any of these sound familiar?

I’m preparing a sermon on gratitude. One of the action points will consist of asking people to take up a challenge to go 21 days without complaining. Tall order, eh? This idea comes from an interesting little book called A Complaint Free World. The book advised wearing a silicon wristband (ala Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong bracelets) and whenever you hear yourself complain, switch it to the other wrist.

That simple. You complain, you switch wrists. And you aim for 21 days straight with no switching!*

How is this subversive? If we replace half of our complaining with words of gratitude, I think three things could happen:
1. People will be more inclined to listen to us.
2. They’ll invite their friends to hear what we have to say.
3. They’ll rally to our vision and increasingly join in what God is up to in the world.

So this doesn’t seem entirely mercenary, let me point out two additional benefits of replacing complaining with gratitude:
1. It’s better for you. You will feel better. You’ll likely be healthier, and you will be more like Jesus.
2. God will be honored. If we’ve been redeemed, it’s right and good to live in hope and thank the redeemer.

* Here’s how to get a free wrist band to use in this experiment:

1. Forward this Missions Catalyst article or the whole edition to three friends you think would benefit from it.
2. Tell me you did this and send me your address.
3. I’ll drop a band in the mail to you.

MISSION EVENTS – Recently Added to Our Calendar

January 20-23 – Tentmakers International Asian Congress (Hyderabad, India). Hosted by the India Missions Association.

February 28 to March 3 and March 4-7 – Women of the Harvest Retreats (Cape Coast, Ghana). For North American missionary women serving in West Africa. Register by December 21! Future retreats are planned for July 2010 in Colorado Springs, CO and October 2010 somewhere in India.

Questions, comments, submissions? Contact managing editor and publisher Marti Smith.