Source: Beyond
In this thought-provoking video, a cross-cultural worker shares about a wedding he observed while prayer walking. Maybe you can guess where that’s going. But who could you share it with? Less than two minutes long.
Category: Resource Reviews
Events: Conferences, Classes and More Coming up in January
Source: Missions Catalyst Calendar
Here’s what I have so far. What would you add?
January 2-4, CROSS Conference (Louisville, KY, USA). Help this generation make their lives count.
January 5, EXPLORE Gathering (Atlanta, GA, USA). One-day regional mission conference; new this year. Provided by Global Frontier Missions.
January 6 to May 11, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). An additional class launches January 20 and others throughout the year.
January 6 to April 6, Encountering Muslims (online). Classes start several times a year, or you can sign up to do it as a cohort.
January 12-14, Sending Church Elements Cohort (Tempe, AZ, USA). Discover practical strategies that can multiply your church’s sending. A joint project of Upstream Collective and Frontiers.
January 13 to February 8, COMPASS (Palmer Lake, CO, USA). Language and culture acquisition provided by Missionary Training International.
January 17-18, MissionConnexion Northwest (Portland, OR, USA). A free, regional missions conference. Come early for Leadership Connexion or a MissionExcellence workshop on best practices for short-term missions, and sign up in advance for focused tracks focused on short-term missions and missionary care.
January 17-18, Agriculture Missions Summit (Manhattan, KS, USA). Hosted by Pioneer Bible Translators, Team Expansion, and Farming God’s Way.
January 22-26, Vision 5:9 MERGE Conference (Orlando, FL, USA). A gathering for all reaching out to the Muslim diaspora in North America. Organized by a network of organizations and churches. Registration closes December 20, so sign up now.
View the complete calendar. Submissions welcome.
Streaming Lausanne, Taste & See, and Spiritual Formation for People Like Us
Editor’s Note: Lausanne Videos Now Available on Demand
Greetings, readers!
A month ago, I told you I was sulking that I couldn’t be at the Lausanne Global Congress in Korea (though I’m sure I would have been overwhelmed by the experience if I was). Now, though, as promised, Lausanne has posted some 40 videos from plenary sessions which you can download, share, and watch with your group. Here are some of the big topics they covered:
Day 2: The Holy Spirit as the power for mission
Day 3: The whole Church united in mission
Day 4: Learning from and praying for the persecuted Church
Day 5: Mission in the workplace
Day 6: Christlike servanthood, intergenerational mentoring, and more
Day 7: Mission to the ends of the earth
Take a look. Evidently they plan to expand the “Accelerate” collection to include more resources in months to come. Not sure where to start? Consider these videos a Pioneers colleagues said were his favorites:
- Michael Oh on declaring and displaying Christ together
- A female Brazilian leader’s prophetic call that holiness and repentance precedes revival
- Patrick Fung on courage in the midst of persecution
- Two Iranians discussing how persecution is not the end of the story
- A panel with a Ukrainian, a Palestinian, and Congolese discusses reconciliation in times of conflict.
Rather read? Our friend Justin Long has compiled a roundup of links to reflections on Lausanne.
Let’s pray for continued collaboration within the global Church as a result of conversations and connections from this event.
Blessings,
Marti
Prayer Guide: Taste and See
Source: Frontiers USA
Whether breaking an all-day fast at the iftar meal during Ramadan, celebrating a special feast, or gathering as a community around a delicious meal, Muslims across the globe treasure the important role food plays in their lives.
Yet hundreds of millions of Muslims have yet to “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8).
Taste and See: Inviting All Muslim People to Experience the Lord’s Goodness is a 30-day prayer guide filled with familiar foods throughout the Muslim world, encouraging scriptures, and practical ways to pray for the least-reached peoples.
Together, let’s pray that they will hear the Good News, turn to Jesus, and experience his goodness and mercy.
Sign up for the prayer guide, delivered as an email series. Our friend Shane Bennett also shared this guide and included links to some of his favorite recipes from around the Muslim world, a bonus for you.
And speaking of food, consider trying some holiday recipes your newer neighbors may be making. World Relief rounded them up in a collection called Breaking Bread Across Borders: Global Recipes from Refugee Kitchens. No donation or registration required.
Finally, if you’re down to pray: See 15 Days of Prayer for the Hindu World, which you can use any time, but designed to coincide with the fall Hindu festival season which is happening right now. Did you know Halloween and Diwali are on the same day this year?
Video: Compassion Fatigue & Responding to a World In Need
Source: World Relief
Feeling overwhelmed by everything happening in the world? I get that! World Relief, a ministry engaging with some of the world’s worst crises, put together a helpful, thoughtful webinar on dealing with “compassion fatigue.” Good stuff.
Watch and share the hour-long recording or specific segments and find related resources on their website, including 10 Bible verses for when you feel overwhelmed.
Book: Shaped by the Spirit
Shaped by the Spirit: Being Formed into an Outward-Focused People, by Kate Pocklington. SPCK, 2024. 192 pages.
“A while ago I ordered some floating shelves for my kitchen. I found a guy on the internet who had made a hobby into a small business. He takes old, gnarled planks of timber, marked with stories of a past life, and reclaims them. With circular saw and smoothing planes, measures and squares, chisel and level, sandpaper, stain and oil, he takes the old and reshapes it, imagining something other, something new. I love those shelves. Every time I place something on them or take something from them, they bring me joy. Beauty from the old, the ugly, the no longer useful. Recycled, reformed, transformed.
“God has an exceptional way of doing the same thing with us. …He takes each of us—with our own stories, influences, and shaped by our own histories—and, if we let him, he reforms us.”
Maybe, like me, you could use a chance to pull back and explore the things God uses to shape us for his mission in the world (family background, relationships, pain, gifts, culture, and more). This beautifully written and reflective book will help.
Turns out, it’s not all about us.
Learn more or purchase in paperback from Amazon (or elsewhere) for US$14.99. Also available in a Kindle edition.
You might also be interested in a brief article, Rest in God’s Care (Soul Shepherding Institute, via Missio Nexus).
Events: Mission Conferences, Classes, and More in November
Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar
November 1-2, MissionConnexion Southwest (Paradise Valley, AZ, USA). A free regional mission conference held annually.
November 1-3, Innovating our Future in Missions Mobilization (Dallas, TX, USA). Provided by Missio Nexus.
November 1-4, Haven Retreat (Paphos, Cyprus). For kingdom-minded women serving overseas from various nations. Provided by Azmera.
November 3, International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (global). An annual event.
November 4 to March 9, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). New online classes begin throughout the year.
November 6, Proactive, Church-Based Missionary Recruitment and Sending (online). A peer2peer virtual event for church mission leaders, provided by Missio Nexus.
November 7, Bible Translation and the Next Generation (online). Webinar provided by Wycliffe Bible Translators.
November 7-9, Global Missions Health Conference (Louisville, KY, USA and online). An annual event; the largest healthcare missions conference in the world.
November 8-9, Northwest Arkansas for the Nations (Fayetteville, AK, USA). An annual regional mission event.
November 8-11, Field Security Seminar (Union Mills, NC, USA). Provided by Crisis Consulting International.
November 9, On Mission (Spring Lake, MI, USA). A Great Lakes regional global conference. Explore how the North American Church is resourcing and responding to the global church.
November 10, Virtual Prayer Gathering: Call to Prayer (online). Provided by Missio Nexus; a monthly event.
November 11-13, Support Raising Bootcamp (Capetown, South Africa). Provided by Via Generosity. Similar events will be held in Brazil, November 13-15, and Uganda, December 3-5, and a virtual bootcamp in Spanish will be offered for Latin American audiences November 28-30.
November 11-22, School of Mobilization Leadership (Chiang Mai, Thailand). Training for ministry leaders from Global Mission Mobilization Initiative.
November 14, Youth Missions — Is It Worth It? (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
November 14, Engaging Second-Generation Immigrants for the Great Commission (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
November 14-16, B4T Expo (Raleigh, NC, USA). Transforming nations through business.
November 14-16, The International Conference on Missions (Lexington, KY, USA). An annual event rooted in the Christian/Disciples of Christ tradition.
November 18-22, Storytelling Training (online). Get hands-on experience with oral Bible storytelling with five three-hour sessions provided by Story Runners.
November 19, Contend: Monthly Day of Prayer for Mission Mobilization (global). Coordinated by GMMI for the third Tuesday of each month.
November 19, 2024, State of Giving and Financial Outlook (online). Webinar from ECFA.November 21, 4 Tips for Trusting God in the Unknown (online). Webinar from Wycliffe Bible Translators.
November 21, Missionary Formation for Effective and Sustainable Ministry (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
View the complete calendar. Submissions welcome.
L4 Highlights, 10 Ways to Pray for Schools, and a New One-Day Mission Conference
Editor’s Note: What’s Happening at Lausanne?
Dear friends,
It’s like the Olympics for missiologists, and I was sulking about missing it. But the Fourth Lausanne Congress is still going on in South Korea until Saturday, with 5,000 in person and thousands more participating through virtual cohorts. And, though they kept it quiet until the event began, there’s also a livestream for some sessions. Take a look.
Even better, a system offering the videos on demand—so you can watch them with your team or group—will launch in October. Sign up to be notified when it’s available.
A core document from the first Lausanne Congress was the 1974 Lausanne Covenant. It was followed by the Manila Manifesto (1989), and the Cape Town Commitment (2010). Now they’ve published the Seoul Statement calling for a renewed focus on the centrality of the gospel and a faithful reading of scripture as we focus on today’s challenges (learn more).
One thing that seems to be missing in the statement, as Ted Esler, Ed Stetzer, and others point out, is a focus on evangelism. But the event as a whole has a strong focus on recognizing and addressing gaps, and taking the gospel to those with least access to it is a big topic.
We highlighted the State of the Great Commission Report Lausanne released in April. That’s now available as a free, PDF download—more than 500 pages of research data and analysis from 150 contributors. Looks well worth digging into. It will soon be available in six languages.
What will the outcomes from this global congress? Time will tell. But I’m praying for lasting fruit through gospel unity, innovation, and collaboration.
blessings,
Marti