Missions Catalyst is a free, almost-weekly email digest designed to inspire and equip Christians worldwide for global ministry. We’ve been curating and creating mission mobilization content for 25+ years.
Is the Great Commission realistic today? (and other compelling questions)
- World: How Do We Get the Gospel to 3 Billion People?
- Is the Great Commission Realistic in Our Modern Times?
- USA: How Will Current Events Affect International Student Ministry?
- Mozambique: Terror Attacks Continue, Adding Layers of Challenge for Ministry
- Somalia: Former Addict Driven from Home for Accepting Christ
- Ireland: Quiet Revival May Be Happening There, Too
World: How Do We Get the Gospel to 3 Billion People?
Source: Alliance for the Unreached
On June 8, 2025, we invite you to stand with us on the International Day for the Unreached, a day to raise awareness, pray, and take action so that every person on Earth has the opportunity to hear the gospel.
With 3 billion people still waiting to hear the gospel, the Alliance for the Unreached provides free, practical resources to equip you for global missions, right where you are.
Explore resources. Some of the resources they mention in their promotions have been hard to find on their website. We will keep looking and may highlight a few later.
World: Is the Great Commission Realistic in Our Modern Times?
Source: The Christian Post, June 1, 2025
Has the final directive of Jesus become undoable? This commandment was given by Jesus in a context far different from ours. The modern world is now characterized by progressive ideals, by emphases on scientific knowledge, and by lifestyles far advanced from antiquity. So, how could this command now be fulfilled by his followers?
I believe Christian discipleship remains a fulfilling component of human existence, and learning about Jesus isn’t anachronistic. If you are truly in Christ, you know assuredly what I’m talking about.
Nevertheless, our cultural context cannot be ignored as we seek to make disciples. Historically, Western thought and culture have gone from being developed by Christian faith, to being intellectually enriched by it, and to now believing it’s useless. In a world of scientific advancement, it’s now [considered] uncultured to be associated with a 2,000-year-old teaching.
Read the whole article and another that argues, even after 2,000 years, Jesus is as relevant as ever.
The tensions are not the same all over. A new infographic compares Christian demographics from A.D. 325 and 2025—1,700 years later (Center for the Study of Global Christianity). Once again, the Church is more global than Western.
And on that note: In April, 1,600 people from 25 countries gathered in Panama for the 2025 COMIBAM Conference. One theme of the event was the truth that the Great Commission remains a timely, urgent, and global calling (Evangelical Focus).
USA: How Will Current Events Affect International Student Ministry?
Source: Justin Long’s Weekly Roundup, May 30, 2025
Two political trends are slamming into American universities, and ministries to international students will feel the shock.
The first is the geopolitics of China and the USA. Chinese students, in particular, are being targeted for visa revocation. The second is the political dustup between the administration and “elite” universities over DEI, campus speech, and the like.
International students may, as a result, be sent home (or elsewhere). The implication for missiological strategies in the USA: for a long time, there has been a strategy of “reaching the nations [that] are coming here.”
It is now perhaps time for international student ministry’s turn to feel what refugee ministry already did. This trend will also affect many Christian colleges that likewise rely on international students as a significant portion of their revenue stream. All of this might be reversed in another three years—given current patterns, it might reverse in another three months. But I wouldn’t count on it. I suspect that people who have student visas are living on borrowed time, and many may end up moving to universities in other countries.
Read the rest of this commentary.
Note that an annual event for people who work with international students takes place this week (June 5-7), and it’s all online (Association of Christians Ministering Among Internationals).
Mozambique: Terror Attacks Continue, Adding Layers of Challenge for Ministry
Source: Mission Network News, May 20, 2025
Reports of insurgency continue in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province, despite the government’s efforts to quell it.
A string of attacks starting on March 31 and leading into April displaced 15,000 people, according to one report. For some people, it was their third or fourth displacement.
“Paolo,” a partner with MegaVoice, explains that the insurgency started small in 2017 after the discovery of massive natural gas reserves. It has now become a seven-year-old conflict that has killed more than 4,000 people and displaced 800,000.
“Anyone in front of them, they were killing. They were burning house[s],” Paolo says. “[It] was not necessarily a religion conflict. [It] was because there’s a financial possibility in the region. But definitely these affect a lot of the [religious] work, especially because many missionaries moved from there because of security issues.”
But MegaVoice’s local partners have stayed. Paolo says these people are essential for distributing audio Bibles.
The full story explains the receptivity the ministry has found for audio Bibles in the local language.
The deaths and displacement are the tip of the iceberg, it seems. The United Nations has reported that nearly 5.2 million people in Mozambique need assistance due to a “triple crisis” stemming from “armed conflict, recurring extreme weather events, and months of post-electoral unrest” (quoted by multiple sources).
News about human suffering is never hard to find, is it? ReliefWeb reports that thousands of children in Myanmar’s earthquake zone face a new school year without schools.
Somalia: Former Addict Driven from Home for Accepting Christ
Source: Morningstar News, May 27, 2025
Muslim parents in southern Somalia were overjoyed to see their missing 20-year-old son, a drug addict, return home free of substance abuse this month.
When they discovered that his transformation sprang from putting his faith in Christ, however, they drove him from their home in Hararoba, near Afmadow in Lower Juba Region, on May 19.
The young man had come to Christ on April 20 after an underground Somali pastor shared the gospel with him.
Serving the Hidden Church in Somalia. It describes a network of safe houses set up to shelter believers in similar situations (International Christian Concern).
INcontext recently published an infographic about how to pray for Somalia. The nation seems marked by deepening instability.
Ireland: “Quiet Revival” May Be Happening There, Too
Source: Christian Today, May 30, 2025
The “quiet revival” in Britain, especially among younger men, may well be occurring in the Republic of Ireland as well, with new research suggesting increasingly favorable attitudes towards Christianity in the country, albeit with a fair amount of suspicion towards the Roman Catholic Church.
A poll of 1,000 people commissioned by The Iona Institute and conducted by Amarach Research found that Gen Z (18-24 years old) is more open to faith than Millennials (25-34 years old). A majority of people in Ireland (61%) described themselves as religious or spiritual in some way. The vast majority of the Irish population still identifies as Roman Catholic. However, only about 16% said they attend Mass regularly.
Half said their attitude towards Christianity was positive, compared to only 28% who said the same about the Catholic Church. Nonetheless, one in five (21%) had a negative attitude towards Christianity, while over a quarter (29%) were ambivalent.
Also from Christian Today, read Ireland Sees Rise in New Age Weddings.
Data: When You Center a Map on a Specific Country
Source: Engaging Data
Like to play with maps? Maybe you could use a tool to help you create graphics that put a place in its global context. This one is pretty simple, but it lets you make maps from the perspective of any country in the world. You can pick from five map projections and copy a link or download an image to use as you like.
Go to the site and make a map or explore other data visualizations.
For additional fresh perspectives, see 28 Spectacular Aerial Views of Earth That Defy Expectations (DeMilked).
New Books: Mission Fiction, Starting Movements, and the Story of the Church in China
Novel: Taking You Under My Skin
In the foothills of northwest Laos, an unreached tribal group lives unaware of the gospel—until an American army medic is captured and brought to their village. Set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, this story imagines a mountain tribe’s encounter with Jesus and how it transforms their lives forever.
Learn more or buy the book (William Carey Publishing). You can also watch an interview with the author, Marv Newell, on the same page.
Strategy: What Actually Starts Movements?
The latest book from Dr. Emanuel Prinz draws from research on 147 movements worldwide to explore what sparks and fuels disciple-making movements and breakthroughs, with a focus on the traits and practices of catalytic leadership (and how you can grow in them). Lots of supporting data and practical takeaways for seeing the kingdom of God advance.
Learn more or buy the book (100 Movements Publishing) or get a taste by poking around the author’s website, Catalytic Leadership.
History: Fujian, The Blessed Province
By the 1920s, Fujian was home to more Christians than any other province of China, including key leaders John Sung, Watchman Nee, and Leland Wang. See how the church in Fujian has impacted millions of people in China and throughout Southeast Asia. This is ninth in Paul Hattaway’s province-by-province series about the church in China.
Learn more or buy the book (Asia Harvest) or read excerpts in the ministry’s latest newsletter.
Resource Roundup: Making Mission Trips Better
Sources: Various
The Heart of Short-Term Missions for Long-Term Impact
In the first of several episodes on the topic, Rob Magwood interviews pastor Clint Archer about how to make short-term trips as fruitful as possible (Global Missions Podcast).
Deepen Discipleship Through Short-Term Misisons
Magwood and others also recommend the GoJournal, a reflection tool you may want to use with your short-term teams.
Mission Trip Donations Made Easy
MissionLinked provides a simple, secure way to link people together while raising funds for a short-term mission team or a project (MissionWorks).
Mission Trip Quick Audit
An objective tool can help assess how your mission trip program measures up to best practices and identify areas to strengthen: Short Term Mission Trip Quick Audit (MissionExcellence).
Why Your Short-Term Mission Trip Wasn’t Enough
For many in Gen Z, short-term mission trips are a rite of passage. Something shifts. But all too often it doesn’t last (Radical Living).