Category: Resource Reviews

Source: Global Frontier Missions

Step In is a free, five-week, small-group study designed to provide Christ-centered education and missional exposure to believers of all ages.

• Step One: Discover Your Purpose (God’s heart for his glory)
• Step Two: Develop Your Perspective (the mission of God)
• Step Three: Assess Your Place (the task remaining)
• Step Four: Shift Your Paradigm (the gospel and culture)
• Step Five: Modify Your Position (everyone is a disciple maker)

Each lesson is pithy, practical, and can be taught via Zoom.

Registration required to access materials. Looks like they’re also trying to build up and equip a network of regional facilitators, so you can indicate your interest in that there, too.

» Learn more. You might also want to look at a new video series from GFM making a case for pre-field ministry training.

Like to learn by listening? Here are two interesting episodes from podcasts we’ve highlighted before, plus two podcasts that are relatively new.

Leaving Your Host Country During a Pandemic

Source: Taking Route Podcast

Alicia Boyce describes her family’s decision to leave Indonesia and evacuate to US, how they came to that decision, and the lessons she’s learning through it. Alicia’s story will help those who stayed abroad to better understand the realities of friends who left and will encourage fellow evacuees facing the ups and downs of repatriating during a pandemic.

» Listen to the episode and others.

How COVID-19 Is Impacting Global Missions

Source: Global Missions Podcast

Ted Esler of Missio Nexus shares a high-level view of how COVID-19 is affecting evangelism, discipleship, and church-planting—and how those areas might be affected in the future. Episode also includes discussion of the death of George Floyd and diversity in missions.

» Listen to the episode and others.

Fundraising in a COVID-19 Era

Source: The Mission Matters Podcast, Missio Nexus and Sixteen:Fifteen

This new podcast was launched May 1 to engage church and agency mission leaders. The podcast is also available in video format (YouTube). The first episode includes three guests from the worlds of finance and foundations looking at giving patterns in this season.

» Listen to the episode or episode two, in which All Nations’ Pam Arlund shares about martyrdom and risk. Very thought provoking.

What to Do When the World Is Unraveling

Source: Brand New Day Podcast, One Way Ministries

Are you overwhelmed by all that’s happening in the world right now? Are you depressed, immobilized, or fatigued? God promises us we can stay rooted even when the world feels like it’s unraveling. Host Michael Thompson of OneWay Ministries—the creators of PrayerCast—gives us a simple answer in this episode of the (brand new) Brand New Day podcast.

» Listen to the episode (and others).

Source: SEND International

SEND asked all their missionaries to summarize the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the responses reflected distress: Exhausting, overwhelming, frustrating, stressful, lonely. Can you relate? If so, perhaps it’s time to open your heart before the Lord in lament. Unrecognized grief can come out in many ways, and we don’t realize all our losses until we start to list them out.

» Read Biblical Lament: An Appropriate and Necessary Practice in a Season of Turmoil and Loss.

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

July 1, Mobilizing the Next Generation: Helping Young People Bend Their Trajectories Towards Missions (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus and Sixteen:Fifteen, with Jeff Lewis.

July 6-25, Beautiful Feet Boot Camp (Choctaw, OK, USA). Missionary training institute (held annually). Note change in dates/length this year.

July 6-17, Summer Institute for Islamic Studies (online). Evangel University. Previously scheduled for Springfield, MO, now a virtual event. A new institute for Buddhist studies has been pushed back a year.

July 6 to November 6, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online). New classes start regularly.

July 8, Thought Leader Briefing: Self Care for CEOs (online). Event from Missio Nexus (previously scheduled for June), with Roy King.

July 9-11, The National African-American Mission Conference (online). An annual event; previously scheduled for Virginia in June. Free this year.

July 12-17, ABIDE re-entry debriefing for global workers (Joplin, MO, USA). Held several times a year.

July 13-17, Gather (online). A virtual event for women ministering overseas, provided by Thrive.

July 15, Mobilizing People of Color (online). Webinar from Sixteen:Fifteen.

July 18-24, New Wilmington Mission Conference (online). Annual multi-generational mission conference; a tradition for more than 100 years. Meeting virtually in 2020.

July 20 to August 15, COMPASS (Palmer Lake, CO, USA). Language and culture acquisition provided by Mission Training International. Courses held throughout the year.

July 23, Hostile Interrogation Management Workshop (Auburn, AL, USA). Provided by Crisis Consulting International.

July 26 to August 7, Second Language Acquisition (Union Mills, NC, USA). Provided by the Center for Intercultural Training.

» View complete calendar. Submissions and corrections welcome. We will continue to make updates about canceled and postponed events.

In this edition:

1. FREE EBOOK: Global Transmission Global Mission
2. RESOURCES: Related to Mission Trips
3. TRAINING: Ignite Church Planting Movements
4. DEBRIEFING: 2020 Mini-Debriefing Guide
5. EVENTS: Happening (Mostly Online) in June

Source: Operation World

Global Transmission Global Mission: The Impact and Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic, by Jason Mandryk. Operation World, 2020. 53 pages.

Earlier this year Operation World began sharing updates about the COVID-19 crisis in different countries around the world, eventually launching a new website with that focus. As a result, editor Jason Mandryk was asked to write a short opinion/editorial article about how the worldwide Church—and world mission in particular—was being affected by the unfolding global pandemic.

“Like many of us, I have been reading voraciously of late, and my understanding of zoonotic diseases, epidemiology, public health policy, quantitative easing, supply chain management, etc. has graduated from generally oblivious to dangerously sophomoric,” he admits. “However, OW has the privilege of being connected to Christian leaders and international networks in the spheres of mission, research, prayer, and beyond, involving people in and from virtually every country on Earth.”

Mandryk was unable to provide an article under the word limit and before the deadline—there was just too much to say. Hence this publication: a 53-page book with 80 points related to the global church, mission mobilization, missionary sending, mission field realities, media opportunities, and more. It’s a bit rough in spots, and of course the situation continues to develop. Still, very thoughtful and well-informed and includes supporting links.

» Download and read the whole thing. No registration required.

» See also OW’s new COVID-19 prayer site, which follows the Operation World prayer calendar but adds urgent, COVID-related prayer points from each country. You can find them on social media, too.

Sources: Various

What’s going on in the short-term mission movement now that most trips are canceled? Missio Nexus did a survey of short-term mission sending agencies and published a report. Today (May 27) Missio Nexus will host an online discussion about this research and about COVID-19 and short-term missions in general. Sorry for the last-minute mention, but you can probably find the recording later.

Yesterday (May 26) The Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission did a webinar encouraging us all to ask why we do mission trips and if we can accomplish these purposes without people traveling. You can watch it on their Facebook page or on Vimeo, or find the recording on their website later. It’s called “You Don’t Have to Go to Give.” (No, the bottom line wasn’t “just send us your money.”)

The Upstream Collective is giving away a seven-page PDF download exploring how and why you might want to take your people on a virtual short-term trip. No cost, but you’ll have to give them your contact info.

See also this roundup of articles (including one of ours) about coronavirus and canceled travel from Rachel Pieh Jones.

Source: All Nations

Do you know the mission agency All Nations in Kansas City? They focus on making disciples and training leaders to ignite church-planting movements among neglected peoples. And their excellent training is open to the whole body of Christ.

Early last year, All Nations started to offer free Ignite Online Trainings about once a month. These 90-minute sessions cover topics ranging from storytelling and loving Buddhists to sending and abiding in Christ. They also have a whole series on the DNA of movements.

They also one-day, three-day, and three-week training sessions that go deeper on these topics. Maybe you know someone who could use their three-day Church Multiplication Training. In the past these have all happened in Kansas City, but now some are also online. Popular sessions include a Storytelling Workshop and People of Peace: How to Reach Your Muslim Neighbors.

» Learn about upcoming Ignite training sessions or browse the archives of recorded sessions. Other offerings are under the tab “Train and Go.”

» Other mission agencies that have generously opened up training opportunities along these lines include Beyond (we’ve mentioned their “Nugget Trainings” before) and Team Expansion (now expanding their online learning offerings). If you are aware of others, let us know!

Source: Returning Well

I know, 2020 isn’t done with us yet. But maybe you or someone you love—like a missionary making an unwanted, extended visit to their home country—could use some help processing all that’s come our way. The folks from Returning Well have put out a mini-debriefing guide.

» Learn more or download the guide. You might also want to look at the book Returning Well: Your Guide to Returning “Home” After Serving Cross-Culturally.

Source: Missions Catalyst Missions Events Calendar

Event organizers canceled or postponed most face-to-face events on our June events calendar, but online events go on and have multiplied. I likely missed some.

Classes and Longer Training Events

June 1 to August 3, Kairos Course Online.
June 1 to August 9, Perspectives Intensive Course Online.
June 1 to October 4, Perspectives Online Course.
June 2 to August 25, Perspectives Virtual Course (out of Fulton, MD).
June 16-18, Sahara Challenge (Crescent Project; ministry to Muslims).
June 16-19, Support Raising Virtual Bootcamp (Support Raising Solutions).
June 16-24, Standards Introductory Workshop (Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission; making mission trips better).

Online Debriefing

June 22-26, ABIDE. Re-entry for global workers (TRAIN International).

Webinars and Short Online Events

June 3, Church Missions Leaders Peer2Peer Virtual Gathering. Topic: missionary care in light of COVID-19 (Missio Nexus, with Jeff Jackson).
June 9, Leveraging Youth Mission Trips for Long-Term Spiritual Growth (Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission).
June 10, CEO Thought Leader Briefing. Topic: Self-care for CEOs (Missio Nexus, with Roy King).

Conferences Now Online

June 4, Mobilization Ideation Atlanta (online). An annual regional event.
June 24-26, The National African-American Mission Conference. Annual event moved online and free this year.

Face-to-Face Events

We believe the following events are not canceled or moved online.

June 7-13, Perspectives Intensive (Schooleys Mountain, NJ, USA).
June 28 to July 24, Equipping for Cross-Cultural Life and Ministry (Union Mills, NC, USA). Provided by the Center for Intercultural Training. This class is full, but there are openings for classes like this in the fall. Also check out prefield training options from MTI and TRAIN.

Other Events

June 6-7, World Weekend of Prayer for Children at Risk.
June 20, World Refugee Day.

» View complete calendar. Submissions and corrections welcome. We will continue to make updates about canceled and postponed events.