A warm welcome to new subscribers from a couple of Perspectives classes in Alabama! Like what you read? Please share it.
Source: Pathways to Global Understanding
Looking for a mission curriculum to use with a class or small group? Want something that covers the biblical foundations but also historic, strategic, and cultural dimensions, and includes media and case studies? Check out Pathways to Global Understanding.
This curriculum, edited by Meg Crossman, been around for quite a while and you may have seen it. Now, though, there’s a set of 12, half-hour teaching videos and leader’s guides that make it easy to run your own group. Pathways has also put together a great resource list you can use to augment the sessions. (It’s worth creating an account just for that.)
All this is free, but to get the most out of it, each participant should get a copy of the (468-page) book and read the articles on each topic.
» Learn more and register to access the videos and other materials. Get the book from YWAM Publishing for US$33.99 or a condensed version, PathLight to Global Awareness.
» Wondering how Pathways compares with the Perspectives on the World Christian Movement course? I’d say it very covers similar ground but with less depth in some areas. You may find it easier to digest and implement. See also XPlore, Momentum, and Storyline.
Source: Brigada Today, February 17, 2019
Our friends at Beyond have boiled down a five-step strategy for reaching an unreached people group. They see it as prayer, prayerwalking, first contact, miracles and healing, then discipleship. They’ve created a quick intro video for each of those five prongs. See them at:
Step 1: Prayer
Step 2: Prayer Walking
Step 3: First Contact
Step 4: Miracles and Healing
Step 5: Discipleship
» Visit the video landing page, and while you’re there, check out their Nugget Trainings (to attend online) on topics like how to lead a discovery Bible study or how to become a strategic missionary.
» More videos! Missio Nexus recently put on a virtual conference featuring short presentations from a wide variety of mission leaders and subject-area specialists. The OnMission videos are still available to watch at your own pace, with transcripts, discussion questions, and other resources. Check them out not only for what you can learn but to find stories, data, and illustrations to use in helping others.
Source: WIGTake Resources
More Disciples: A Guide to Becoming and Multiplying Followers of Jesus, by Doug Lucas. WIGTake Resources, 2019, 248 pages.
As a follower of Jesus, what’s the one thing you can take with you from this life to the next? The answer: more disciples.
More Disciples is a practical, how-to guidebook that lays out a clear path for learning and implementing church-planting movement and disciple-making movement strategies and life principles. In particular, it describes the key concepts used in the web-based Zume Project course.
Quite a few other CPM and DMM books have been written at this point. Each has a somewhat different emphasis or audience. This one is definitely for practitioners; you will probably feel uncomfortable if your intention is just to read about making disciples and not do it! The author is passionate and practical but not dogmatic, calling instead for unity around the more timeless and universal of disciple-making principles.
Read all the other DMM books? I think you’ll want to pick this one up, too. You will find something fresh and new. But it is also thorough enough to make a good starting place if you are just getting started.
Lucas, a mission agency leader, is both well versed and well connected. The book includes a foreword by David Garrison and an introduction and epilogue from Curtis Sergeant along with endorsements from other leaders and references to other resources.
» Purchase from Amazon (or elsewhere). The Kindle edition is US$9.99 and a paperback can be yours for a few dollars more. See also the companion website, MoreDisciples.com. The creators are in the process of updating it.
Source: Asia Harvest
Guizhou: The Precious Province, by Paul Hattaway. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 2019. 320 pages.
Most of us have heard about the phenomenal growth of the Church in China over the last century, and we may know that this growth came in the furnace of intense persecution. But how did it all happen?
The China Chronicles series is an ambitious project to document the advance of Christianity in each province of China, decade by decade, from the time the gospel was introduced there to the present day.
Author and friend of the Chinese church Paul Hattaway has spent hundreds of hours interviewing Chinese believers so their stories can be shared and remembered.
Volume one took us to Shandong Province, home to almost 100 million people. It includes narratives about foreign missionaries (e.g., Lottie Moon) and Chinese movements (the Evangelistic Bands, the Jesus Family), as well as never-before-published testimonies from Chinese church leaders.
Volume two details ministry, challenges, and church growth in Guizhou, today home to 35 million people, including some 2.7 million who identify as Christians. Particularly helpful are the author’s explanations of the province’s minority groups, including the Miao and Nosu, and how success on some fronts helped or hindered the spread of the gospel among others. I found it both instructive and inspiring.
» Learn more or purchase from Amazon (or elsewhere). The Kindle edition is US$7.99 and you can get the paperback for US$15.
Source: The Wall of Answered Prayer
Imagine a wall with a million bricks, each one representing an answered prayer, and an online database of testimonies sharing the same answered prayers with people all over the world. A group in the UK is putting this together and invite us to be part of it.
» To learn more or share your inspiring Jesus stories, visit the website or take a minute to watch this quick video about it. I’m particularly intrigued by their strategy for attaching the testimonies to the bricks. (Where else could we try that?)
» Speaking of prayer, 30 Days of Prayer for the Muslim World is coming up soon (May 6 to June 4). Are you ready? Some of the same people are organizing 15 days of Prayer for the Hindu World (October 20 to November 3) as well as 15 Days of Prayer for the Buddhist World (anytime!)
Source: Missions Catalyst Events Calendar
April 1 to August 4, Perspectives on the World Christian Movement (online).
April 5-6, People Raising Conference (Oak Brook, IL, USA). Be equipped for raising personal support.
April 9, Nugget Training: Discovery Bible Study (online). How to help others hear from God. Provided by Beyond.
April 12-13, The Journey Deepens (Portland, OR, USA). A weekend retreat for prospective missionaries.
April 14-26, Second Language Acquisition Course (Union Mills, NC, USA). Provided by the Center for Intercultural Training.
April 15 to May 22, COMPASS (Palmer Lake, CO, USA). Language and culture acquisition provided by Mission Training International.
April 16-17, Support Raising Bootcamp (Fayetteville, AR, USA). Provided by Support Raising Solutions.
April 18, Jesus in the Secular World #1: Understanding Global Secularization (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
April 22 to May 5, ORIENT pre-field training for global workers (Eminence, MO, USA).
April 23, Nugget Training: Here I Am… Send Me (online). 13 steps to becoming a strategic missionary. Provided by Beyond.
April 18, Jesus in the Secular World #2: Responding to Global Secularization (online). Webinar from Missio Nexus.
April 25-27, B4T Expo (Houston, TX, USA). Business for Transformation Exposition from OPEN USA.
April 26-28, Everywhere to Everywhere (Sioux Falls, SD, USA). Missional training and outreach event.
April 29-30, Standards Introductory Workshop (Lenexa, KS, USA). Training in the Standards of Excellence in Short-Term Mission.
April 29 to May 2, Thrive Retreat (Elmina, Ghana). For North American women serving cross-culturally.
April 30 to May 2, International Wholistic Missions Conference (Lenexa, KS, USA). An annual event.
April 30 to June 5, Using Mobile Phones in Mission (online). Mentored course for field workers on leveraging outreach opportunities.
» View the complete calendar. Contact us to suggest additions. Want to know more about a specific event? Contact the event organizers.
