Missions Catalyst 12.19.12 – Resource Reviews

In This Issue: Western Christians in Global Mission

International ornaments

  • Bible Reading Plans
  • BOOK: Western Christians in Global Mission
  • EVENT: To Send or Not to Send
  • ARTICLE: Reaching International Students – the Church’s Job
  • EVENTS: Missions Catalyst 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!

Dear readers,

Just a few more resources we wanted to share with you before wrapping things up for Christmas. Several of these grapple with what it means to work together as believers from many nations and serving in different ministries. Aren’t you glad we’re on the same team?

All of us Missions Catalyst wish you and your families peace and joy at Christmas time. See you next year.

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publisher | managing editor

Bible Reading Plans

Source: Ed Stetzer

Do you, your family, or a group from your church hope to read the Bible all the way through in 2013? Researcher Ed Stetzer offers a list of tools and strategies that can help.

» See Read through the Bible in 2013 – Some Options for Your Church. (Or speed things up with the Bible in 90 Days!)

borthwick coverBOOK: Western Christians in Global Mission

Reviewed by Greg Fritz, Anda Leadership

Western Christians in Global Mission: What’s the Role of the North American Church? by Paul Borthwick. IVP Books, 2012. 224 pages.

A lifelong study of global mission positions Paul Borthwick well to address question many of us are asking. We realize the world has changed. Missions is no longer “the West to the rest,” but “from everywhere to everywhere.” North Americans still control the lion’s share of the finances, and many of the best training and educational resources are found in the West. However, the Majority World often surpasses the West in zeal for the Lord, passion for ministry, expectancy, and sacrificial faith. What, then, is the role of the North American Church in global missions today?

Borthwick wisely resists the temptation to offer simplistic answers. Several times he responds to the excellent questions he raises with, “It depends.” He offers lists of things to be considered, but he does not answer the large questions directly. We need to prayerfully approach each issue and each context with the intent to discover the appropriate response.

Although Borthwick calls for a sensitive and flexible response to the question of North Americans’ role, he is uncompromising in the values he believes should frame those responses. He urges us not to water down our commitment to the evangelical reading of the Bible. He calls us to a posture of humility. He asks us to find purposeful reciprocity as we relate to sisters and brothers in other parts of the world. He challenges us to move beyond generosity to sacrifice. He asks us to revise our definitions of partnership to mean something closer to the true meaning of the word. And, finally, he exhorts us to listen, really listen, to our non-Western brothers and sisters.

» Learn more or purchase the paperback for US$10.95 from Amazon (or elsewhere); Kindle edition is US$9.60. Get it on special from the Urbana bookstore for US$5.00 (December 27 to January 1 only).

» Readers might be interested in another new book on related issues, Jean Johnson’s We Are Not the Hero: A Missionary’s Guide to Sharing Christ, Not a Culture of Dependency.

EVENT: To Send or Not to Send

Source: Sixteen:Fifteen and Avant Ministries

Here’s another item for our American readers. Two ministries are teaming up to present a free webinar exploring the question, “Should the local Church in America still be sending missionaries to the ends of the earth?”

“One full-time national worker costs a fraction of what it costs to send an American missionary family overseas. But what about the thousands of people groups around the world where there are no ‘nationals,’ no witnessing churches? Nearly 2 billion souls live among people groups where there is no evangelizing church movement, often no witness of Christ at all…”

“To Send or Not to Send” is scheduled for 12pm MDT, January 24.

» Learn more or register to attend.

ARTICLE: Reaching International Students – Why It’s the Church’s Job

Source: Catalyst Services

“It is amazing that many churches focus large amounts of time and money to penetrate closed countries around the world,” writes Ellen Livingood, editor of Catalyst Postings, “yet they fail to take advantage of the barrier-free opportunities they have to reach the future leaders and influencers of those very same countries during the time they are living next door.”

“The book of Acts reveals God’s two-pronged missions methodology: he both sent witnesses (example, Paul and Barnabas) to where the church did not exist, and he sent unreached people to where the church already was (example, the international crowd at Pentecost). Church history demonstrates God’s ongoing commitment to both approaches.”

The recent edition of Catalyst Postings describes nine strategic reasons the Church should engage international students, provides practical ideas and resources, and raises questions for church and agency leaders to consider.

» Download the article PDF. We’d also encourage you to subscribe to Catalyst Postings or view past editions.

EVENTS: Missions Catalyst Calendar

Source: Missions Catalyst Calendar

Watch for an email at the beginning of next month with a listing of the 2013 mission-related events on our calendar (so far). There’s still time to suggest events that should be included.

» Tell us about a mission event.

Marti WadeMarti Wade is a writer, speaker, and project manager for the Church Partnerships Team at Pioneers. As a mission mobilizer, she has also trained and sent out many short-term teams to do relationship-based research to serve among the world’s least-reached peoples.

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 and her husband Chris live in Oregon.

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