Source: Catalyst Services

Maybe your church finds itself at a ministry crossroads, and you don’t know where do start. Where Do We Start is a thoughtful, practical article with suggestions for churches asking these questions:

• Where do we start to begin missions in our church?
• Where do we start as new mission leaders?
• Where do we start to ignite excitement if interest has waned?
• Where do we start to develop clear missions strategy?
• Where do we start to move from good to great?

» Download the PDF and share it with your church. Readers might also appreciate Catalyst Services’ list of more than 150 Short-term Ministry Ideas. This may help you brainstorm about the kinds of projects you want to pursue or support.

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

March 1-6, ABIDE (Joplin, MO, USA). Re-entry and debriefing for singles, couples, and families provided by TRAIN International.

March 4-8, TENTmaking Course (Fort Myers, FL, USA). Provided by Global Opportunities.

March 5, E-Care: Using Email as an Effective Tool for Member Care (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

March 6-7, People Raising Conference (Chicago, IL, USA). Be equipped for raising personal support.

March 6-7, Muslim ConneXion (Portland, OR, USA). Learn how to engage your Muslim neighbor; an annual event.

March 7, Bridges Seminar (Indianapolis, IN, USA). Building bridges to reach Muslims. Provided by Crescent Project; regularly offered in various locations.

March 8-13, Launch Training (Richmond, VA, USA). Be equipped to work abroad and make disciples; sponsored by IMB and Skybridge, open to all.

March 11-12, Support Raising Bootcamp (Tucson, AZ, USA). From Support Raising Solutions, regularly held in various locations.

March 12, The Mapping Center (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

March 18, Thinking and Acting Globally in Christian Mission (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

March 20-21, Kingdom Business Conference (Charleston, SC, USA). Provided by Charleston Southern University.

March 21, Disciple Making Movements Training (Plano, TX, USA). Provided by Act Beyond.

March 23 to June 13, Encountering the World of Islam (online). Twelve-week class will help you discover God’s heart for Muslims, offered online several times a year.

March 25, Moving from a Reactive to a Proactive Mission Vision (online). Webinar from Sixteen:Fifteen; free.

March 27-29, The Journey Deepens (Farmington, MI, USA). A weekend retreat for prospective missionaries; regularly held in various locations.

March 27-29, Jesus to the Nations (Halifax, NS, Canada). Free, annual, community-based mission festival for all ages.

March 30 to April 25, COMPASS (Palmer Lake, CO, USA). Language and culture acquisition course from Missionary Training International; held multiple times throughout the year.

» View the complete calendar and/or submit an item.

In This Issue: Stories of the Gospel lived out

•  VIDEOS: Stories of the Gospel Lived Out
• BOOK: Contagious Disciple Making
• BOOK: Where There Is Now a Church
• TRAINING: Seminars on Strategy and Sending
• EVENTS: February Calendar

We Are the Salt is a two-minute clip about reaching the unengaged people of Mali, West Africa. See also the longer film, Light on the Way.

Source: Moving Works

Looking for free, well-made, films that lift up Jesus and tell personal stories? Moving Works, a non-profit ministry in Austin, Texas, has quite a few you may be able to use. Films include two-minute shorts, some simply scripture with music and images, like Run the Race. Others capture short testimonies of God’s work in people’s lives, like Spirit of Prayer, which shares how God is stirring Egyptians to pray.

Blessed, eight minutes long, tells the moving story of a young missionary couple anticipating the birth of their first child and how it changed their lives and ministry. Disciples is a 15-minute film about two Brazilians transformed by God’s grace (in Brazilian Portuguese with English subtitles). Some of the videos are also available in other languages.

On January 29, Moving Works will release a 44-minute film called The Foremost, their most ambitious film to date. It tells the story of a Cambodian pastor who escaped the clutches of the Khmer Rouge regime only to return with a message of forgiveness.

By the way, they’re always looking for great stories of what God has done around the world and for partners to help with translation, so feel free to contact them.

» Visit Moving Works to learn more and view or download videos.

Source: Thomas Nelson

Contagious Disciple Making: Leading Others on a Journey of Discovery, by David Watson and Paul Watson. Thomas Nelson: 2014. 256 pages.

Perhaps you read Miraculous Movements: How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims Are Falling in Love with Jesus, or The Father Glorified: True Stories of God’s Power through Ordinary People (which goes beyond the Muslim world). We reviewed both when they were released. The recently released companion volume, Contagious Disciple Making, covers the nuts and bolts of how people in any context can make disciples who make disciples by investing heavily in prayer, engaging with lost people, finding people of peace, starting discovery Bible studies, and more.

This highly practical book also deals head-on with how the methods the authors advocate differ from many standard practices used in evangelism, discipleship, and church planting. Depending on whether you accept these practices and the reasoning behind them, you may see that as either the book’s strength or its weakness. Either way, it’s clear that the kind of results the authors encourage readers to seek could not come about by doing things the same way we always have. Read and be challenged.

» Preview the table of contents, read some helpful reviews, or purchase the book from Amazon (or elsewhere) for US$7.59 (Kindle) or US$10.43 (paperback).

Source: GMI Books

Where There Is Now a Church: Dispatches from Christian Workers in the Muslim World, edited by James Nelson. GMI Books, 2015. 210 pages.

Just released from GMI, Where There Is Now a Church provides seven case studies showing how God has established churches and church-planting movements among some of the world’s Muslim peoples. Each case study is accompanied by thoughtful discussion questions and a list of the church planting practices it illustrates. An appendix, more than 50 pages long, explains, categorizes, and describes a more complete list of 68 “fruitful” practices for evangelism and church planting in Muslim settings.

This readable and encouraging book would be a great resource for church planters to read and discuss with teammates. It may also be of interest to supporters, students, future church planters, missiologists, and instructors. The language is non-technical, the stories are written in an engaging way, and many of the practices could also be applied in non-Muslim contexts.

Though it can stand alone, this book is the sequel to a helpful 2010 publication, Where There Was No Church. You may want to read them both as well as From Seed to Fruit: Global Trends, Fruitful Practices, and Emerging Issues among Muslims (2nd edition). All three are based on the work of a multi-agency team that conducts primary research, analyzes data, and trains field workers in fruitful practice principles.

» Learn more or purchase Where There Is Now a Church for US$4.99 (ebook editions) or US$12.50 (paperback). GMI is also distributing the two-book set for US$9.25 (ebook editions).

Source: TRAIN International

TRAIN International in Joplin, Missouri has long been on our list of places to send cross-cultural workers for training in language and culture acquisition and help with debriefing and re-entry. But they also offer seminars for churches.

ACCESS (“Assisting and Coaching Churches to Effectively Send and Sustain”) is a weekend workshop designed to help local churches move to the next level with their current missions strategy and learn how to better care for their missionaries so they may more effectively partner with them on the field. Your local church can discover ways to raise the bar of your missions program or discover a place to start if you don’t have one.

» Learn more about TRAIN’s programs.

 

Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar

February 4-7, International Conference on Computing and Mission (De Betteld, Netherlands). An annual event.

February 5, Missionary Effectiveness and Intercultural Competence (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

February 6-8, Missionfest Manitoba (Winnipeg, MB, Canada). Free, annual, community-based mission festival for all ages.

February 7, Beyond the Veil (Bloomington, MN, USA). Seminar on ministering to Muslim women, from Crescent Project.

February 12-15, TENTmaking Course (Korntal, Germany). Provided by Tent Norway and Global Opportunities.

February 13-16, World Christian Conference (Boulder Creek, CA, USA). An annual West-coast event sponsored by The World Christian Fellowship – mobilizing Asian-American Christians (and those who identify with them) to disciple all nations.

February 15-18, 19-22, Thrive Retreats (Phuket, Thailand). For North American women serving cross-culturally.

February 16-17, Support Raising Boot Camp (Atlanta, GA, USA). From Support Raising Solutions.

February 18 to March 29, Seek God for the City (global). Annual 40-day prayer campaign. Materials available from WayMakers.

February 19, Churches Shaping the Missions Journey (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

February 20-21, Midwest Conference on Missionary Care (Roseville, MN, USA).

February 20-22, Missions Fest Alberta (Edmonton, AB, Canada). Free, annual, community-based mission festival for all ages.

February 26, Frontier Mobilization: The Powerful Potential of the Unsent (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.

February 27, Cross Conference (online). Free, live simulcast featuring powerful worship and speakers; geared for young adults.

February 28, Bridges Seminar (Dayton, OH, USA). Building bridges to reach Muslims. Provided by Crescent Project.

» View the complete calendar and/or submit an item.

Happy New Year!

As a service to readers, Missions Catalyst compiles and maintains an online calendar of mission-related events across the US and around the world. It includes a list of 2015 conferences, seminars, classes, retreats, and more.

Maybe you would like to attend some of these events or tell a friend about them. Or perhaps you are planning an event of your own and wonder what else might be going on those days. If you know about an event that would interest our readers and should be added to the calendar, let us know. We will post and send out updates as the year goes on.

» View the 2015 Calendar of Events.

blessings,

In This Issue: Advent prayer chains, mission team training, and more

• DOWNLOADABLE: Advent Prayer Chain
• NEWSLETTER: Catalyst Postings
• TRAINING: Short-Term Missions 101
• WEBSITE: Great Christian Media in 12 Languages
• EVENTS: December Calendar