Like what you read? Share this email with others using the links below. To reach us, use this email address rather than hitting reply. Thanks!
Source: InterVarsity Press
Mapping Church Missions: A Compass for Ministry Strategy, by Sharon R. Hoover. IVP Praxis, 2018. 193 pages.
Should we prioritize evangelism or works of service? Local ministries or global missions? What’s more important: giving our money or giving our time? Crisis response or building sustainable, long-term ministries? And what do we make of short-term missions? Will we focus more on discipling those we serve or developing those doing the serving? What’s our attitude toward risk—will we embrace it or avoid it?
God has given our people a wide variety of gifts and passions, but how will we steward them? No church can do it all. In a book that just came out this week, church mission leader Sharon Hoover takes on seven thorny questions that often divide Christians and churches and have probably led to gridlock at some point in your church. She provides tools and examples to help you find your place on each spectrum and understand the values and perspectives of those who might be on the other side. The author’s succinct summations of the shifting and competing trends that have led to some of these tensions are particularly helpful.
» Learn more or pick up the paperback from Amazon (or elsewhere) for US$13.00, and slightly less for the Kindle edition. See also the publisher’s website.
Source: Brigada Today item, September 16, 2018
You’ve no doubt been following the crackdown on religion in China. In the face of all this persecution, Chinese Christians are becoming all the more bold in their willingness to speak out about Christ, while at the same time clarifying that they have no desire to overthrow the government. In fact, they are testifying that Christians pray for their leaders and try to be good citizens. Either way, in times like these, some find it easier to bring up issues of faith with their Asian friends. But how do we begin with an Asian friend who has atheistic world view? Our good friends at 10/40 Connections [Chad and Leslie Segraves] have made it easier for all of us by putting together this free e-book, about 50 pages long.
» Download Saving Face and All the Rest: Share the Gospel with Asian Atheists (PDF).
Source: 10/10 Prayer and Fasting
A partnership of Christians desiring to see God draw Muslims to himself has an audacious goal: mobilize believers who will join together to pray 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for ten years, asking God for at least ten percent of the Muslim world to be saved by 2028.
What do you think? You in?
Earlier this year they released a mobile prayer app—10/10 Prayer and Fasting—which, if you turn on notifications, will send you a short prayer request each day and remind you to pray. Registration required.
» Learn more or get the app (Google Play). Thanks to Encountering the World of Islam for reminding us of this one.
Source: World Christian
The second annual Hindu World Prayer Focus, coinciding with the Hindu Festival of Lights (Diwali), is scheduled to take place October 28 to November 11. Copies of a 32-page booklet are being distributed globally and available in the US from WorldChristian.com for US$3 (with discounts for multiple copies). This is a great chance to help your church or group learn about and pray for the world’s more than one billion Hindus.
» To learn more, visit the international website.
» Also see Modeling Prayer for Hindu Background Believers (IMB).
Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar
October 1 to February 10, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online).
October 2 to December 20, Serving Others Through Listening Well (online). Part of Sharpening Your Interpersonal Skills. Provided by International Training Partners.
October 3-5, The Patronage Symposium (Beirut, Lebanon). Exploring the gospel in patron-client contexts.
October 4, Welcoming the Stranger (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
October 5, Quarterly Update (online). A survey of trends affecting the unreached. From Justin Long.
October 12-14, EMS National Conference (Dallas, TX, USA). From the Evangelical Missiological Society.
October 17-18, Mission Agency Consultation (Albuquerque, NM, USA). Provided by Sixteen:Fifteen.
October 18, Stewarding the Purpose Inside Your People (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
October 11-12, Support Raising Bootcamp (Rogers, AR, USA). Provided by Support Raising Solutions.
October 18-20, B4T Expo (Kansas City, MO, USA). Business for transformation. Sponsored by OPEN USA (formerly NexusB4T).
October 19-20, Missions Fest Seattle (Bellevue, WA, USA). Free annual community missions event.
October 19-20, MissionFest Toronto (Milton, ON, Canada). Free annual community missions event.
October 19-20, Check-IT-Out Fall Conference (Charlotte, NC, USA). For IT and software professionals and students on technology in missions/translation.
October 21-26, ABIDE (Joplin, MO, USA). Debriefing and reentry help for returning missionaries.
October 22 to November 17, COMPASS Prefield Training (Palmer Lake, CO, USA). Provided by Missionary Training International multiple times a year.
October 27, Heart for Muslims conference (New York, NY, USA).
October 28 to November 11, 15 Days of Prayer for the Hindu World (global).
October 30 to November 27, Using Mobile Phones in Missions (online). Mentored course to leverage ministry outreach using phones. Provided by Mission Media U.
» View the complete calendar. Please let us know about mistakes or omissions. For more details, contact the event organizers.
Source: Mission Network News, September 12, 2018
Nazanin Baghestani, the program response supervisor for Mohabat TV, a ministry of Heart4Iran, shares how one night their team received a notable call. The man on the other end of the line wanted more information about Jesus. He told them he used to execute people as a member of the Taliban. He was restless and couldn’t sleep. He would wake with nightmares and couldn’t breathe.
“It took awhile for him to actually realize that Jesus could help him,” Baghestani explains. “This was hard for him to understand. So while we’d talked with him [and] counseled him [he needed more time]. And eventually one night, after we’d prayed and talked with him and read the Word, he slept. And that night he said ‘that was the first night I could sleep in peace.’ And so he found himself actually trying to forgive himself.”
The former Taliban member was excited and continued talking with the counselors and team members at Mohabat TV. Now Baghestani says he is a changed person. Thanks to Jesus’ redemptive work, this man is experiencing freedom in Christ and peace from his sins.
The story is incredible, but it is not the only one.
» Read more.
» See also a report from another broadcast ministry, SAT-7, telling the story of a transformed man, now a pastor, whom God has used to create their first discipleship series for Tajik viewers. (I like the part about the Korean Tae Kwando instructor!)
Source: Frontiers USA, September 10, 2018
In August 2016, Xinjiang’s newly-appointed Communist party secretary began instituting hardline policies and passing regulations to strip Uyghurs of even the most basic religious rights and cultural freedoms. Long beards and face veils are now prohibited. Even the act of praying raises suspicion.
In recent crackdowns, as many as one million Uyghurs have been detained. They’re sent to mass internment camps—heavily guarded centers with fortified doors and barbed wire. Inside the internment camps, detainees must withstand unhealthy living conditions, poor nutrition, violence, and torture.
The Communist regime denies the existence of internment camps. Officials insist they’re political education centers, established to fight against religious extremism and terrorism.
Critics, however, say the camps reflect a state policy of cultural genocide and an attempt to erase the cultural identity of 12-15 million Uyghurs.
We praise God for the hundreds of Uyghurs who—in the midst of a living hell—have found eternal hope in Jesus Christ and have placed their faith in him. These faithful believers are suffering.
Please join us in praying for the Uyghurs.
» Read full story. Readers might also appreciate Bob Blincoe’s short but stirring article about what our Spanish-speaking friends call los pueblos abandonados, the abandoned (or unreached) peoples.
» Justin Long’s recent weekly roundups include many links to informative stories about events in China. Take a look.
Source: Morning Star News, September 17, 2018
Under the influence of Hindu extremists, police and media campaigns against Christians in Uttar Pradesh state, India has mushroomed since one such attack sent a pastor into hiding last month, sources said.
After false media reports of large-scale, fraudulent conversions of Hindus by pastor Durga Prasad Yadav in Jaunpur District went viral in July, followed by false police charges, there have been multiple area reports of disrupted worship meetings, pastors, and evangelists arrested, and Christian leaders fleeing their homes to avoid arrest.
At least 12 pastors have gone into hiding since [September 13]. Pastor Yadav also remains in hiding, but attendance at his church’s worship services has nearly doubled since Hindu extremists began targeting him and others using state and media machinery.