Category: Resource Reviews

1. ACTIVITY: Global Scavenger Hunt for Kids
2. MAGAZINE: EMQ, The Mobilization Issue
3. BOOK: Voices from the Field
4. BOOKS: On Movements and Missionaries
5. EVENTS: What’s Coming up in August and September

Source: Wycliffe Bible Translators

Kids are home from school, the weather is warm, the outdoors are green, and everything is filled with promise for adventure and fun. But it can also feel a bit overwhelming when you consider the weeks (they might even feel endless) that your kids are out of school, needing to be entertained, engaged, involved, or kept busy with something.

This scavenger hunt should keep your kids busy for a portion of the day while also giving you a chance to teach them something fun and interesting about the world in which we live. So go ahead, send them on a worldwide scavenger hunt—right in your own home!

» Learn about other activities for children from Wycliffe.

» See also Worldviews: A Children’s Introduction to Missions, from Pioneers (which is also the ministry behind Missions Catalyst). Discover any great new resources for children’s missions education? Let us know.

Source: Missio Nexus

The Evangelical Missions Quarterly, which recently became part of Missio Nexus, is in its fifty-fifth year as a professional journal serving the worldwide missions community. If you don’t currently subscribe to EMQ, now may be a good time to sign up.

The latest issue will give you plenty to chew on related to raising up and equipping global missionaries (and global mobilizers). It includes the nine articles listed below and nine book reviews as well as several other features. The magazine is only published electronically now.

1. Mobilization: The Fourth (and Final?) Era of the Modern Mission Movement, by Steve Shadrach
2. The Mobilization Index: Connecting the Global Church to the Unreached, by Jason G.
3. Mobilizing God’s People for God’s Mission, by Steve C. Hawthorne
4. Mobilizing Movements, by Randy G. Mitchell
5. Rites of Passage: Building a Mobilization Team in Your Church, by David J. Wilson
6. ONLY vs. Primary and Secondary: The Key to the Missionary Motivation Problem, by Bob Sjogren
7. Prayer: Our Greatest Task in Mobilization, by Steve Coffee
8. Innovations in Mobilization Collaboration, by Mark Stebbins
9. A Re-Focus on the Local Church: Media Collaboration in the Middle East, by Phill Butler

» Learn more about EMQ and check out the Global Mobilization Network.

» Also see the Launch Survey website, with research for mobilizers on the most significant motivations and obstacles facing aspiring missionaries. Additional material has been added to the site in recent months.

Source: Peregrini Press

Voices from the Field: Conversations with Our Global Family, ed. T.J. MacLeslie. Volume 2 in Field Notes series. Peregrini Press, 143 pages. 2018.

What do “they” say about “us”? Are you sure want to hear? Can we afford not to?

Author T.J. MacLeslie asked dozens of missionaries to interview local friends in their host cultures, asking about their lives and stories of faith as well as their answers to questions like, “If missionaries were going to come to your town, what would you want them to know before arriving?” and “What are some areas of conflict you observe in the foreign community?” Some missionaries were reluctant to ask. Some of their friends were hesitant to speak. But these are conversations we need to have, and the answers were gracious as well as enlightening.

The volume includes the voices of more than 30 respondents from Mexico to Mongolia. You’ll have to read carefully: in order to preserve authenticity, submissions were only lightly edited and cultural differences were not smoothed out or explained away. As you read, be thinking about how local people in your context might answer these questions. Better yet, ask them.

» Purchase the Kindle edition for US$3.99 (introductory pricing). Also available as a paperback from Amazon or with free international shipping from Book Depository.

» Readers might also be interested in Global Humility: Attitudes for Mission by Andy McCullough. We learned about it in a review from OSCAR.

Sources: Various

The Kingdom Unleashed: How Jesus’ 1st-Century Kingdom Values Are Transforming Thousands of Cultures and Awakening His Church, by Jerry Trousdale and Glenn Sunshine. DMM Library, 2018. 400 pages.

This most recent volume in the growing body of literature about disciple-making movements focuses less on telling stories from Africa and Asia, and more on analyzing how long-held practices and paradigms keep those of us in the “Global North” from experiencing the same kind of power.

This is not a simple book. It blends Bible, theology, and church history with the stories of DMM leaders and ordinary people from around the globe to make its case for a new/old way of following Jesus. If DMM is your world (or you want it to be), take some time to work through this book. It may not be the best place for someone to start, though. Readers, what would you suggest?

The Mind of a Missionary: What Global Kingdom Workers Tell Us About Thriving on Mission Today, by David Joannes. Beyond Reach Global, 2018. 332 pages.

This book explores the motivations, expectations, risks, and rewards of a missionary life. In each chapter, the story of one of a dozen mission leaders, old or new, shows us how to thrive on mission today. These missionary “guides” include Jim and Elisabeth Elliot, C.T. Studd, Nikolaus Zinzendorf, Robert Moffat, Jackie Pullinger, David Eubank, Nik and Ruth Ripken, William Carey, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael, Don Richardson, and Heidi Baker.

I haven’t read this book but it looks interesting and well crafted. I intend to pick it up. See the book’s website to learn more.

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

Editor’s Note: Before we leave July, consider making time for researcher Justin Long’s Quarterly Update Webinar exploring events and trends impacting missions to the unreached. It will be offered several times on July 27. Signing up also gives you the access to materials to watch and read at your convenience.

August

August 4-11, ReBoot Re-entry Program (Calgary, AB, Canada). For returning missionary kids, ages 17-20, transitioning to life in Canada.

August 5-10, Check-IT-Out Summer Conference (Charlotte, NC, USA). For IT and software professionals and students on using technology in missions, particularly Bible translation.

August 6-7, Support Raising Bootcamp (Plano, TX, USA). Provided by Support Raising Solutions.

August 10-12, Everywhere to Everywhere (Sioux Falls, SD, USA). Missional training and outreach event.

August 13-17, Cubs to Lions (Edmonton, AB, Canada). Discipleship for Christians with a Muslim background.

August 23, The Role of Church and Mission in Crisis Management (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

August 23-24, Support Raising Bootcamp (Edinburg, TX, USA). In Spanish.

August 31, The State of the Gospel in North America (online). Webinar from the Billy Graham Center.

September

September 3 to January 6, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online).

September 3-16, ORIENT (Joplin, MO, USA). Missionary training.

September 6, A Missionary Pipeline for your Church (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

September 6-8, Multiply: Disciple-making Movements Summit (Wheaton, IL, USA).

September 10-14, Global Member Care Network Conference (Quito, Ecuador).

September 10 to December 9, Encountering the World of Islam (online).

September 13, Spirituality in Cross-Cultural Mission (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

September 13-14, Support Raising Bootcamp (Vancouver, WA, USA). Provided by Support Raising Solutions.

September 3-14, Great Commission Leadership Institute (Chiang Mai, Thailand). Provided by SVM2.

September 17-18, International Orality Network Annual Conference (Orlando, FL, USA). Followed by Simply the Story Orality Training.

September 19-20, Standards Introductory Workshop (Orlando, FL, USA). Presented by Standards of Excellence in Short-term Missions.

September 19-25, Traction (Wilderswil, Switzerland). Renewal conference for men serving cross-culturally.

September 20-22, Missio Nexus Annual Conference (Orlando, FL, USA).

September 21-23, Business as Mission Conference (Philadelphia, PA, USA).

» View the complete calendar. Please let us know about mistakes or omissions. For more details, contact the event organizers.

1. BOOK: Inside the World’s Greatest Revival
2. BOOK: Unpack Your Cross-cultural Experience
3. VIDEOS: Primer on Worldviews, Caught in a Terror Cell
4. BOOKS: Serving God in Today’s Cities … or in a Migrant Crisis
5. EVENTS: What’s Coming up in July and August

Source: Asia Harvest

Most of us have heard about the phenomenal growth of the Church in China over the last century, and we may know that this growth came in the furnace of intense persecution. But how did it all happen?

The China Chronicles series is an ambitious project to document the advance of Christianity in each province of China, decade by decade, from the time the gospel was introduced there to the present day.

Author and friend of the Chinese church Paul Hattaway has spent hundreds of hours interviewing Chinese believers so their stories can be shared and remembered.

Volume One takes us to Shandong Province, home to almost 100 million people. It includes narratives about foreign missionaries (e.g., Lottie Moon) and Chinese movements (the Evangelistic Bands, the Jesus Family), as well as never-before-published testimonies from Chinese church leaders. So inspiring; I loved reading this book.

» Read an excerpt from Shandong: The Revival Province. Purchase from Asia Harvest, Amazon, or elsewhere. The Kindle edition is US$7.19. Also see an interview with Paul Hattaway (Christian Today).

Source: InterVarsity Press

“Cross-cultural encounters leave us with vivid memories, writing seemingly unforgettable stories on our brain with permanant ink.

“But as time progresses, memories and good intentions fade when they aren’t an active part of our life…

“So how do we move the memories from our head to our heart and finally to our feet and hands?”

Cory Trenda’s short book—just 128 pages—packs a punch. As the author admits, research suggests that mission trips, on their own, have virtually no measurable long-term effects on the lives of participants (despite our hopes and promises). What you do after, though, can make a difference.

I particularly liked chapter 6. It explores concrete ways you can learn from the disappointments and discoveries of your trip in order to make your next trip the best one yet.

» Learn more or purchase After the Trip for US$14.00 from Amazon (or elsewhere). Looks like it will be available as an ebook as well. The foreword is by Tim Dearborn, whose classic Short-Term Missions Workbook is scheduled to be revised and republished later this year.

Source: Global Frontiers Missions, Middle East Women’s Leadership Network

Worldview varies from one culture to the next and is one of the biggest obstacles in the presentation and understanding of the gospel. By increasing our understanding of each worldview, we will learn the most effective ways to share the gospel with people from different cultures.

» Watch the seven-minute video, 3D Gospel. It’s based on The 3D Gospel: Ministry in Guilt, Shame, and Fear Cultures by Jayson Georges. Could you use honor-shame resources or GFM 101 videos and teaching to mobilize or train others in your ministry context?

Here’s another video to help us see the world through different eyes. This one’s a drama. Caught in the middle of a terrorist plot in Los Angeles, a young Arab woman grapples with God’s will when she makes a surprising discovery.

» Watch the 10-minute film, Cellular, or its one-minute trailer. For more information or to screen it for a group, contact Middle East Women’s Leadership Network. See their website for more films or to learn about this interesting network.