Missions Catalyst 12.23.09 – Resource Reviews

In This Issue: The Untold Story of Global Christianity, Changing Face of Missions, and More

  • CONVERSATION: Can One Be a Muslim and a Follower of Jesus?
  • VLOG/BOOK: Learning @ the Speed of Life
  • BOOK: Kingdom without Borders – The Untold Story of Global Christianity
  • WEBSITES: Prayer Resources

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.

Dear Readers,

Merry Christmas to you and your families. In this special season we at Missions Catalyst echo Paul’s words to the churches: grace and peace to you in Christ Jesus!

It’s been a pleasure to serve you throughout 2009! And thanks to those who have made end-of-the-year gifts to support our ministry. We appreciate it.

Grateful for you,

Marti Smith | managing editor and publisher

CONVERSATION: Can One Be a Muslim and a Follower of Jesus?

Source: The Lausanne Movement

Christianity Today and The Lausanne Movement are hosting a Global Conversation inviting thoughtful Christians to engage critical issues relating to world evangelization in order to better equip the Church in taking the gospel to world.

A conversation about Muslim-background believers was launched in December, with the basic outlines laid out in the article Muslim Followers of Jesus? by Yale University scholar Joseph Cumming.

Thoughtful responses are offered by selected writers: Martin Accad (“away with sterile debates!”), John Azumah (“the main question is identity”), Mazhar Mallouhi (“a Muslim follower of Jesus”), John Travis (“God is doing something new”), and Phil Parshall (“the Bible is our guide”).

Want to join the conversation? “Your voice is needed,” says Lausanne. “As iron sharpens iron, and as there is wisdom in the counsel of many, we trust the Lord will use the global discussion to spur us on – not only to further dialogue, but to strategy and action so that all may hear the good news of Jesus Christ.”

Other Global Conversation topics have been launched under the titles Poverty, Prosperity, and the Gospel and Whole Gospel, Whole Church, Whole World.

Conversations on nine more key issues facing the church will be launched in months to come. You can follow along through websites set up by Lausanne and Christianity Today or on Facebook, Twitter, RSS feed, and more.

>> Editor’s note: Global Conversations seem designed with novices in mind as well as veterans. Start with the key article on each topic, then invest as much time and energy as you like to go deeper.

VLOG/BOOK: Learning @ the Speed of Life

Source: The Mission Exchange

While You Were Micro-Sleeping: Fresh Insights on the Changing Face of North American Missions, by Steve Moore. Stone Mountain, GA: The Mission Exchange, 2009. 68 pages.

In September 2008 the US-based mission association The Mission Exchange (formerly EFMA) launched a free, monthly resource, a video blog (vlog) called Learning @ the Speed of Life.

Vlog posts are written and delivered by TME president and CEO, Steve Moore. Each post (about 20 minutes long) includes 6-12 minutes of material focused on a key issue relating to the changing face of missions. Topics have included innovation, competition, loyalty, partnership, movements, and fruitfulness.

“To remain relevant and effective,” says Steve, “leaders need to constantly be asking two fundamental questions: What’s happening now? And what’s happening next?”

Transcripts from 13 of the 16 vlogs produced to date have been compiled into a book. While You Were Micro-Sleeping (the title of the first vlog) includes additional resources and thoughtful questions for group discussions. You can still watch the original vlogs online for free.

>> Purchase this book for US$7.95 per copy including shipping to a US address or $54.95 for a team pack (10 copies).

>> Editor’s note: The majority of TME’s constituents are Americans associated with international mission agencies and organizations, but local church and denominational leaders are included as well. Does this material speak to non-Americans? Watch vlogs and judge for yourself.

BOOK: Kingdom without Borders – The Untold Story of Global Christianity

Source: InterVarsity Press

Kingdom without Borders: The Untold Story of Global Christianity, by Miriam Adeney. Madison, WI: InterVarsity Press, 2009. 295 pages.

The publisher’s website describes this volume well:

“The twenty-first century has opened with a rapidly changing map of Christianity. While its influence is waning in some of its traditional Western strongholds, it is growing at a phenomenal pace in the global South. And yet this story has largely eluded the corporate news brokers of the West. Layered as it is with countless personal and corporate stories of remarkable faith and witness, it nevertheless lies ghostlike behind the newsprint and webpages of our print media, outside the camera’s vision on the network evening news.

“Miriam Adeney has lived, traveled and ministered widely. She has walked with Christians in and from the far reaches of the globe. As she pulls back the veil on real Christians – their faith, their hardships, their triumphs and, yes, their failures – an inspiring and challenging story of a kingdom that knows no borders takes shape.

“This is a book that coaxes us out of our comfortable lives. It beckons us to expand our vision and experience of the possibilities and promise of a faith that continues to shape lives, communities and nations.”

>> Purchase for US$14.40 from IVP. You can also view the table of contents, read a 17-page excerpt, and find endorsements and more information on this site.

>> Editor’s note: This book is packed with quotable, well-told, and well-documented stories (past and present) from Christians all over the world. So there’s something for everyone, but it’s not a quick read.

WEBSITES: Prayer Resources

Source: Pray! and Ethne

Pray! magazine has been out of print for six months now, but its publisher NavPress has kept editor (now “Prayer Resources Director”) Cynthia Bezek busy finding new ways to encourage people like us in our passion for Jesus through prayer.

One of these is Deeper: Experiencing Prayer as Relationship, a retreat she will facilitate January 15-17 and August 27-29 in Colorado Springs, CO, USA.

Another is a blog which includes personal reflections as well as prayer news, resources, ideas, and trends. Check out, for example, Cynthia’s excellent, annotated list of books on prayer that have impacted her life.

You can subscribe to the Pray! and PrayKids! electronic newsletters, and each month the site will offer a free download to encourage you in your prayer life. Currently it’s a collection of previously published articles on prayer that heals the wounded.

Might some of these resources not only deepen your own prayer life, but be useful as you mobilize, disciple, or minister to others in your own culture or another?

Meanwhile, Liz Atleta, with Ethne, writes from South Africa. She offers us a good report from the recent Ethne09 gathering in Colombia, South America, and a challenge:

“As we know, more than one in four people globally remain without reasonable access to the gospel … Our starting point and foundation must be prayer! We encourage you to consider how you can be part of mobilizing more and more believers to pray effectively and fervently for the remaining 6,000+ unreached peoples.”

Visit www.gcni.org/pray40 for tools which can help, in addition to the websites of Ethne’s partner ministries which include:

www.joshuaproject.net/ethne.php
www.global-prayer-digest.org
www.prayerguard.net/ethne
www.etnopedia.org

MISSION EVENTS

January 22 to 23 – Short-Term Missions Team Leader Training (Atlanta, GA, USA). Provided by Delta Ministries.

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